ASUS ROG Strix Impact II Gaming Mouse Review
Conclusion
Whenever we’re reviewing something we look at it in two or three slightly different ways. As a standalone product, looking at how it all fits together in a vacuum. Compared to the other models available on the market for a similar price. And, as is the case with the Impact II, against what has come before if it’s the sequel to another product.
The original Strix Impact mouse was a 5000 DPI rodent, with a single light zone on the palm section, and a DPI change button behind the scroll wheel. It was pretty much echoing the default layout of every mouse you’ve ever seen. Yes one could make the argument that anything more than two buttons and a scroll wheel is a bonus, but let’s not kid ourselves. The days when side buttons were optional are way behind us, and the days when you didn’t have an onboard profile/DPI change button are similarly dim and distant. Whatever manufacturers may claim about how many customisable buttons there are, we all know that the LMB/RMB are constants, the side buttons largely left standard, and any extra buttons are the genuinely customisable ones. What has that to do with the Impact II?
Well, the thing is, it’s not as user-friendly as the original Strix Impact. For reasons we don’t remotely understand the DPI button has been moved to the underside, which is not remotely useful. If you change your DPI settings a lot during play, then it’s not somewhere you can easily reach. In fact it’s probably more sensible to change the button assignments and move your DPI to the back side button. Which means the Impact actually has fewer buttons than it seems to have. But if you don’t adjust your DPI and prefer to stick with one sensitivity level for muscle memory reasons, it now is a button entirely without a point as you can’t customise it to run a macro or do something else as you’ll constantly have to lift the mouse up to access it. Sure if the original Impact hadn’t got this button you could suggest that it’s an extra feature badly implemented, but here it’s making something that was decent, worse.
What do you gain for that lack of user-focussed design? Firstly the lighting has been beefed up. The OG Impact just had the logo on the palm section but this Impact II now has a light up scroll wheel as well as some ambient ‘headlights’ at the front, giving you three lighting zones. Additionally the sensor has been upped from the 5000 DPI of the original to 6200 DPI. It’s hardly jaw-dropping. Lastly you can unscrew the top and swap the Omron switches out for alternative models in a manner we’ve seen on other ROG mice. If that sounds like your ideal option to refresh your mouse in 20m clicks time, then it’s worth remembering that this isn’t a top of the line mouse that will still be brilliant in five years, it’s already down at the lower end of the feature sets available. Plus the box doesn’t contain any of the tools or extra switches necessary to do it.
Yes this isn’t priced as a top of the range 18000 DPI mouse, but it’s still the best part of £50 and without any extra buttons and only a minor increase to the sensor abilities it is drowned beneath more capable offerings in a seriously crowded marketplace. The £50 price point is awash with models, few of which have so little to offer. We’re aware that this review has been particularly harsh on the Strix Impact II, but the mouse itself is just so disappointing. It’s less user-friendly than the original Impact was, doesn’t remotely live up to either the legendary ROG name nor the supremely successful and daring Strix name, yet has all the high price trappings that those brand names bring. If it wasn’t an ASUS ROG Strix product, but instead came from “Bob’s Discount Mice” then we’d still be disappointed, but at least it would be priced in a manner more in keeping with what it has to offer. At £50 you could get a Corsair M65 or Ironclaw, a Steelseries 310 series, Roccat Kone or Kova Pure, MSI Clutch GM50… you get the point. All of which are better than this.
The ASUS ROG Strix Impact II then, the first obvious mis-step in the history of the Strix range. Overpriced and under-equipped.
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