Steelseries 310 Rival and Sensei Review
Introduction
If you are determined to reach the peak of your potential performance the importance of an accurate sensor cannot be overstated. There is little use in you developing insane muscle memory if your sensor is neither consistent in its response nor tracking your movements accurately. When the difference between failure and success can be measured in individual pixels, this accuracy is key to dominating the competition.
Steelseries have been a company at the forefront of the ESports revolution as they were conceived to help the pros win, rather than they are the peripheral arm of a company that happens to also do ESports. In an endless quest for an advantage they have teamed up with PixArt, makers of premium optical sensors, to produce a sensor capable of 1-to-1 tracking at resolutions below 3500 CPI and utilising a new jitter reduction algorithm above these resolutions.
1-to-1 tracking ensures absolute accuracy as there is no guesswork or latency involved. No smoothing. No software trickery. To paraphrase the old computer maxim, what you do is what you get. With a new TrueMove3 sensor in hand Steelseries have applied it to two of their most popular mouse designs, the Sensei and the Rival. The Sensei is an ambidextrous mouse and the Rival has a slight ergonomic curve for right-handed users. Both are built around this sensor though, which is the main event.
How does it perform though?
Sensor Specifications
Mouse Specifications
A large part of the reason we’re breaking from tradition and reviewing these together is because they are extremely similar in all but a couple of ways. The Sensei 310, because it’s an ambidextrous mouse, has a symmetrical profile and side buttons on both, erm, sides. Whereas the Rival 310 is a right handed mouse with just the side buttons on the left and a mild curve. Otherwise they both have the same lighting, sensor, large low-friction pads and use the same construction materials.
Rival 310
Sensei 310