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SteelSeries has a modular gaming mouse with a built-in OLED screen and tactile alerts

By Kevin Parrish May 24, 2016

steelseries rival 700 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Looking for a unique new gaming mouse for your PC? Peripheral maker SteelSeries has launched what it claims is the world’s first modular gaming mouse with an OLED display and real-time tactile alerts, the Rival 700. Thanks to its overall design, users can customize the mouse with a number of different configurations, and it even allows them to swap out the actual mouse sensor for their preferred model or the latest sensor on the market.

That said, the new Rival 700 is built for right-handed gamers and comes packed with a PixArt PMW3360 optical sensor with a sensitivity of 100 to 16,000 CPI (Counts Per Inch), an acceleration of 50g, and a polling rate of 1 millisecond (1,000HZ). The sensor’s sensitivity can be changed directly on the mouse by using the built-in OLED display, which also allows the user to change profiles, view key binds, and change the lift-off distance without having to load up software.

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According to SteelSeries, this OLED panel can also be used to track game stats like headshot counts and gun accuracy, and display custom logos and animations. The company offers a number of GIFs that customers can download to the mouse now for free including a rotating face, a shooting gun, a unicorn, a level-up icon, and several more. These GIFs are provided by the company and the community, so expect more to be uploaded to the SteelSeries website in the near future.

The OLED screen is mounted on the left side, and joins two thumb buttons. There are seven buttons overall, with the main left and right buttons made with a special reinforced plastic that helps evenly distribute the force of each click. They’re backed by SteelSeries switches that promise up to 30 million clicks.

Given that the Rival 700 is modular, SteelSeries provides extra parts customers can buy to customize the mouse. For instance, the top cover can be swapped out and replaced with covers featuring different materials and designs. The nameplates on the front and back can be switched out too, which is ideal if you have a 3D printer. The peripheral also comes with two cables that plug directly into the mouse that provide lengths of 3.28 feet (soft rubber) and 6.5 feet (braided).

See here for more gaming accessories from SteelSeries

The new Rival 700 includes a double-injected rubber grip on each side to prevent the mouse from sliding around under your fingertips, ideal for gamers with palm, claw, and fingertip grip styles. The Tactile Alert component resides within the center of the mouse itself so that the pulses travel up the user’s hand. Overall, the mouse measures 4.92 x 2.70 x 1.65 inches, and weighs 0.3 pounds.

As for the Tactile Alerts, these can be customized and assigned to specific situations in games. For instance, the player could feel a heartbeat-like Alert if his/her health points are low, or a quick buzz if the player takes a nasty shot from a sniper. The Tactile Alerts system includes a number of patterns including Short and Long Buzz, Sad Tombstone, Fast and Slow Heartbeats, and more.

All of these cool features are made possible by the company’s SteelSeries Engine 3 software. Owners can even use this solution to customize the peripheral’s Prism RGB illumination that provides 16.8 million colors in the mouse wheel and the palm rest. Thus, the software controls every programmable feature built into the mouse including the mouse buttons, illumination effects, profile storage, and loads more.

The new SteelSeries Rival 700 gaming mouse can be purchased now directly from the company for $100 here in North America. The mouse comes with the two cables and a quick-start guide.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kevin started taking PCs apart in the 90s when Quake was on the way and his PC lacked the required components. Since then…

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