My Experience with the Aerox 3 Wireless
You don’t see many people talking about A3W, now you could argue there’s good reason for that and I agree with them, but I personally think it should be talked about more. Despite some pretty big flaws, I’ve enjoyed using the mouse and have felt confident in my aim with it, now the flaws may be a deal breaker for some but for me they’re outweighed by some aspects which I’ll get into down below.
Let’s get started!
Dimensions
120.5mm x 57mm x 37.5mm
I have 19cm x 10cm hands and the A3W shape felt great for claw, good for fingertip, wasn't a fan of palm.
Weight
67 grams ± 2 grams.
Technical Details & Battery
The A3W utilises the ‘TrueMove Air’ sensor, which is supposedly designed for wireless performance. Personally, I haven’t had any issues with input delay or latency, tracking felt accurate and I haven’t had any spinouts.
It can use either Bluetooth or a 2.4Ghz connection via a USB dongle, I currently have 1 other wireless mouse on my desk which is the MOW, and I haven’t had any interference issues. The sensor comes with a polling rate of 1000Hz by default, so this’ll make battery drain the fastest, but I’ve kept it at that and battery life has been good enough for me. SteelSeries claims that the Bluetooth battery life is 200hours+, but this is due to the mouse automatically going into 125Hz when Bluetooth mode is on, the battery life for 2.4Ghz connection is rated at 80 hours but I can’t confirm this exactly, it has lasted a long time and it seems to last around a week with use, I still I’d recommend taking a look at other people’s to get more info on battery.
I dislike how the sensor isn’t centred but I haven’t had too much trouble getting used to it, did feel a little odd at the beginning though, keep this in mind if you don’t like un-centred sensors.
Packaging
Comes in standard packaging with graphics outlining what you get in the box and more info about the mouse. The accessories you get in the box: the usb dongle + receiver and the cable. No replacement feet or grips, this was a shame, I think at the very least replacement feet should be included, even if the feet aren’t good. It’s more of the ‘value for money’ aspect, asides from that, the unboxing experience is fine.
Feet & Glide
It uses 4 black dyed PTFE circular mouse feet. To put it simply, they’re awful, atleast to me, the feet are too thin and I could hear the base of the mouse scratching my mousepads. A really unpleasant experience. I don’t know what they were thinking here. This was one of my main issues with the mouse, fortunately it’s easily fixable with some aftermarket skates, and most companies are now using white PTFE feet so SteelSeries need to get their head in the game. After doing all my tests, I slapped on some zowie glides from Addice, they were a massive improvement when it came to smoothness and speed, so I recommend them. Unfortunately, they have made the LOD very low due to how thick they are, so I have some tiger ice feet coming from Lethal Gaming Gear which are made specifically for the Aerox 3.
Buttons & Build Quality
Main buttons utilise Golden Micro 80ms, for me they felt like light-medium clicks with minimal pre-travel but a fair amount of post travel, on my copy the post travel wasn’t too bad and I found it usable but I’ve seen it a lot worse on other copies. They’re tensioned well, provide some tactile feedback and are crispy, I find them very usable. But, they don’t come without flaws, there is some pretty big wobble on the M2 when force is applied specifically to make it wobble. In regard to their physical feel, the buttons have slight comfort grooves which felt good, unfortunately though there are some cut-outs at the top, I didn’t find myself putting my finger on it but I feel like it’d be very easy to do depending on your grip. In terms of consistency, they’re fairly good, the switch actuation area is evenly spread out and sound difference is minimal. I do think It’s worth mentioning that you can’t change the debounce via software unfortunately, so would like to see that feature implemented. Overall, I do like the main buttons, they just have some room for improvement.
Side buttons are alright. Nothing spectacular. I would’ve liked them to be a bit bigger and also lighter, at the moment they’re a bit awkward and not the most enjoyable to use. They’re on the mushier sides of things too, though they do provide some tactile feedback and are usable. I would much rather them be more similar to the XM1r side buttons or the Burst Pro’s. In regard to pre-travel, both side buttons have minimal pre-travel, but post-travel on M5 is noticeable and more than I’d like. They’re still usable in game and I’ve been more than fine, I just think they can 100% be improved which will make the mouse feel better. Overall, they’re alright, usable but would’ve liked to see them be bigger.
Scroll wheel is solid, barely any side play and no rattle. The wheel is light-medium and the steps are defined, it feels pleasant to scroll and I think SteelSeries have done a good job with it, the wheel isn’t my favourite but am a fan. When it comes to texture, there’s an indented rubber wheel which feels fairly good, hasn’t gotten shiny or picked up oils during my use. Overall, is a good scroll wheel and is a pleasant experience, not much to improve here.
On my A3W, the build quality is good, yes there’s bottom flex which can actuate DPI switch but I’ve never put enough force on the mouse to do that accidentally. Side flex is minimal and doesn’t actuate side buttons, creaking is kept to a minimum again where it’s just the top and bottom, sides here feel good on my unit. I don’t know whether I’ve lucked out, or SteelSeries have done some silent improvements, I have seen some people complain about their unit so I’d just bear that in mind. Overall, build quality on my copy feels solid. Overall, build quality is solid asides from bottom flex & creak, which is a non-issue to me.
Wobble, Travel & Sound test vs XM1r
Cable
Stock cable that comes with the mouse is meh, obviously you’re probably not going to be using it unless you’re charging the mouse, but It could be more flexible. As, if the mouse does for some reason run out of charge during use, I found using the stock cable to be a bad experience without a bungee. Though, it’s nice to see a paracord-like cable offered here instead of a rubber cord.
Coating & Shape
The stock shape is safe and good for claw and possibly fingertip if you have medium to large hands, if you have small hands this mouse should be ok for palm, but I’d recommend GPW/GPX over this mouse if you palm. The main buttons are fairly low which I like, the hump is towards the back-centre of the mouse making claw feel great but doesn’t fill the palm that much, the sides do have a sharp flare but then go pretty flat so I actually found it quite comfortable for claw and fingertip personally, I am a fan of the Aerox shape. For me, I’ve found it even competing with the shape of the XM1r, which is one of my go to mice, this actually surprised me a lot and I wasn’t really expecting anything to compete.
The coating is average, not bad but not great either, I found it to be grippy enough to the point my hands didn’t slip but I wasn’t blown away when feeling it. I still prefer the XM1 coating over this any day. It has a sort of similar feeling the RVM and Pulsefire Haste, both more than usable coatings, just nothing that special about them. It didn’t pick up any noticeable fingerprints so that’s a good thing.
Aesthetics & Software
With the A3W, they’ve implemented 3 RGB zones, it looks alright to me. I think if you look at it from the bottom the RGB looks great but from the top it looks average. I do like the underglow though.
In regard to the software, you can install it, personalise your mouse and then delete it. The A3W has on-board memory which is nice to see. In the software you can customise: keybinds, Macros, CPI from 100-18000 in steps of 100, battery saver settings (sleep timer & illumination dim timer), a ‘High-efficiency mode’, the setting to turn RGB off when mouse is moving, acceleration, polling rate, angle snapping and RGB. So, you get a lot of customisation in the software, but there are some things missing like the LOD customisation and debounce and no battery percentage. These features are quite important and I think SteelSeries should add them in. Other than that, am happy with the software, it’s easy to use.
Positives
Great battery life
Great shape for claw and good for fingertip with my 19cm x 10cm hands
Solid build quality on my unit
Minimal Pre-travel on main buttons
Good sensor performance
Crispy main switches
Negatives
Side buttons are too small and post travel on M5 is bad.
Awful stock feet
No debounce or LOD customisation
Wobble on main buttons
Conclusion
Overall, I do like this mouse despite the flaws it has, I performed well and have felt confident in my aim. SteelSeries definitely has some areas to improve to make this mouse get to that ‘top tier’ standard, the feet for example really need changing. It’s a little hard to recommend it due to the issues mentioned, but if you don’t mind modding it and you get a solid copy, I think overall it has the capability to be a good wireless mouse.
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