SteelSeries Rival 3 Gen 2 Wireless review

I really wanted to love the SteelSeries Rival 3 Gen 2 Wireless, and in some ways, I do. It's very versatile, sturdy, and has reminded me of the very real benefits of removable batteries in gaming mice. It's also pretty well priced. Because of all this, I reckon it's ideal for some select use cases.

However, I can't recommend it for use as a primary gaming mouse, not when there are cheaper options that do similar, such as the Logitech G305 Lightspeed, or better options for a little more cash, such as the Turtle Beach Burst II Air or even the Logitech G Pro X Superlight.

But let's start off with the good. The SteelSeries Rival 3 Gen 2 Wireless shares many of the benefits of the original Rival 3, and the main allure—apart from its striking 'Aqua' and 'Lavender' colour options that you can choose instead of plain black or white—is that it has dual wireless connectivity and removable batteries. This makes for an incredibly versatile mouse that's a great Jack of all trades.

It has some other upgrades compared to the first edition—better battery life, PTFE feet, and click latency—but the main one is that it now supports rechargeable batteries.

I've been a massive defender of wireless mice over the last few years, but I've always gone for the baked-in type. Now, after using the Rival 3 Gen 2 Wireless for a while, I must say I see the appeal. That's not only because you get some fantastic battery life out of removable batteries (up to 200 hours at 1,000 Hz polling with 2x AAA batteries, here), but also because you never have to plug your mouse in again if they're also rechargeable.

The main benefit of removable, rechargeable batteries in your gaming peripherals is one we discovered with the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro headset: It allows you to keep one set of batteries charging while the other one's in use, then swap them over when the battery gets low. This means you can essentially have infinite battery life, without ever having to plug in your mouse. Of course, you'll have to have your batteries plugged in and charging somewhere, but that's more convenient.

That kind of setup is possible with the SteelSeries Rival 3 Gen 2 Wireless, but only if you sort out your own rechargeable batteries and charging station. The mouse itself only comes with two single-use AAA batteries. Which means, of course, that if you want one of the main benefits of this mouse, you have to spend a bit extra.

In practice, I found battery life to match up to what's claimed on the spec sheet. I used just one battery at a time to keep the mouse weight a little lighter at 95 g, and I found that to last me just over a week of daily use for work and gaming. Then I just popped off the top and swapped in the new AAA battery.

The main downside to this setup is that 95 g weight. Stacked against some current competition, such as the aforementioned Turtle Beach Burst II Air or Razer DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed, it's just far too heavy. It's par for the course for removable battery mice, sure—just ask the G305 Lightspeed—but it's a drawback nonetheless, unless you're one of the few to prefer a heavier rodent.

It's not just the weight itself, either; it's the distribution. Because the batteries sit more towards the back of the mouse, there's a definite drag at the rear end. I found this very noticeable, and while I've become familiar with it over the last couple of weeks of use, I still notice it.

It's not an uncomfortable mouse to use, mind. Far from it. The textured plastic surface feels very nice under my fingertips, and it feels incredibly comfy under my hybrid palm-claw grip. It's pretty shallow, though, so don't expect the pinnacle of hand support for all you palm grippers.

It's sturdy, too, and certainly feels worth its $60 MSRP price tag on the build quality front. That is, in all but one area, this being the scroll wheel.

Unfortunately, this mouse's wheel suffers (although not quite as badly) from what I distinctly remember my very first Razer DeathAdder mouse suffering many, many years ago: It's got a distinctive kind of mushiness to it that makes it feel a little… unsettled on its notches. As if it could slip into that no-go 'between the notches' zone at any moment. It's a difficult sensation to describe, but it suffices to say that it's not the best scroll wheel I've used.

And I'm glad I didn't get around to writing this review until a few weeks in with the mouse, because until now, that was the only complaint I had about the mouse wheel, but as of today, it's started occasionally squeaking, too. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's a particularly grating sound to my ears, and it's not a good sign that this has started after just a couple of weeks of use.

The other thing that bugs me about the Rival 3 Gen 2 Wireless is its bottom switch that allows you to toggle between Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz, and Off. It's pretty difficult to switch between 2.4 and Bluetooth, and God help you if you want to switch it to the middle Off position. To get enough pressure on the tucked-in little bugger to get it to actually move, that's then so much pressure that it overshoots the middle.

It's a good job the sleep functionality works a charm for that reason, because otherwise this thing's battery would drain a whole lot quicker. This can be toggled in the app settings, and I don't have any complaints on this front, really. You get plenty to fiddle with: polling, DPI, wireless stability enhancement (at the cost of battery life), and so on.

When it comes to gaming, I had no issues with the mouse other than occasionally being a little bothered by its rear weighting. I'm used to lightweight mice like the Logitech G Pro X Superlight, though, and not everyone might find that as big of a deal.

If maximising competitive performance is what you're going for, though, you're probably better off looking elsewhere. This mouse is still using the same TrueMove Air 18K sensor that the original used, and while 18,000 DPI and 400 IPS should be plenty for most people, it's often more about what those low numbers say about the sensor quality in general than the actual numbers they reach.

In the case of the SteelSeries Rival 3 Gen 2, my testing showed the sensor to be a little below average compared to some other gaming mice on the market right now. This primarily shows in the MouseTester sensor consistency results—there's a higher amount of tracking deviation than what you might want out of a sensor for, say, high-level gaming in pro shooters.

I didn't run into any problems clicking heads in Counter-Strike 2 or tracking enemy Pharahs with Soldier's rifle in Overwatch 2 (well, no more problems than usual, anyway), but better-performing hands and eyes than mine might be able to notice the difference between this and a top-tier sensor.

So, with all this being said and done, why would one pick up a Rival 3 Gen 2 Wireless? Well, as I said at the start, I think this mouse is great as a Jack of all trades kind of deal—perhaps if you want to use it not primarily for gaming but for work and travel, too.

Its ability to run off rechargeable, removable batteries makes it attractive on the battery life front, and its dual 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth modes make it very versatile. Apart from the slight fiddliness of actually flicking the switch, swapping between the two connections is a breeze, and it allows me to go back and forth between using it with my gaming PC and my laptop at will, instantly.

If all of that is specifically your jam, then have at it. Just remember that you have to spend extra for rechargeable batteries and a battery charger if you want one of this mouse's main benefits.

For me, the weightiness, the mediocre sensor, and most importantly, the squeaky and slightly mushy scroll wheel make it a no-go, considering there are other great options on the market for a similar price. It's a shame, because it'd have been nice to keep on the rechargeable, reusable battery bandwagon more permanently, but the drawbacks aren't worth it here.