I'm not usually a fan of lightweight Esports mice, but the latest one from Asus ROG upped my kill-count in my favorite game so I'm now questioning my bizarre taste in clickers

When it comes to gaming mice, I'm what most brands would call a tricky customer. I have pretty bizarre tastes that don't align with the competitive FPS games I tend to use mice for on PC, and ones that certainly don't align with the Esports design a lot of companies lean into these days. My daily driver is an MMO mouse with numbered buttons along its left side, adjustable weights, and a dedicated groove for your ring finger and pinky, so it pretty much couldn't be further from the ultra-lightweight mice most FPS players are using to glide around their massive deskpads.

• Pre-order | $259.99 at Best Buy

So, trying out the Asus ROG Harpe II Extreme Edition 20, which has just been revealed at Computex, was quite the transition. Compared to the other lightweight mice I've tried, this feels very different. Lightweight rodents for me usually translate to a lacklustre-feeling accessory that, while speedy, don't exactly give me the feedback and comfort I like. This is a different story. This gaming mouse combines a celebratory anniversary look along with really robust-feeling side buttons and a scroll wheel that you just know will last a lifetime. Or at least, I'd hope it would, because it will set you back $259.99.

As much as I missed my 12 extra function keys and dedicated finger grooves on my MMO mouse while testing this, there's no disputing that the customization, glide, and all-around competitive brilliance of this mouse improved my FPS gameplay.

Design

The ROG Harpe II Extreme 20 is a semi-ambidextrous, 82g Esports mouse that builds upon the company's previous Harpe Ace II, Harpe Extreme, and Harpe Mini outings. Being a celebratory release for two decades of the ROG brand, this takes the design language up a few notches, with a 24K gold-plated metal frame that resides under a blackened crystal clear shell. The gold scrolling wheel and side buttons lure your eyes to see the gold hues within the chassis, and the transparent shell gives it a touch of class and an understated feel.

RGB is used within to show a specialized ROG 20 logo, and subtle bits of branding are peppered around the mouse, making it undeniably a ROG product.

Turning it over, things stay just as luxurious. The mouse feet, or skates, as they're often referred to, are made of Corning Gorilla Glass, which provides a stupidly easy glide around pretty much any mouse surface. I tested it with all the speeds of the SteelSeries QcK+ Performance mouse pads, as well as a pretty slick one that came with my Couchmaster CYCON2, and the mouse slid around so easily that they all felt like glass pads.

The Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 utilizes a ROG AimPoint Pro 65K sensor with 65,000-dpi <1% deviation, and for those with those harder surface mouse pads, it features track-on-glass technology.

The shape will be familiar to anyone who has used a Harpe mouse previously. It's 39.7mm high, 126.1mm long, and 63.9mm wide, with a beautifully crafted curve to rest your hand on. It's been designed with finger tip and claw grips in particular, though, so palm-grip players like me aren't necessarily as catered to - I'll say more on that in a little bit.

The black and gold design philosophy is so strong, but you can tell Asus has meant this to be a proper showpiece, or collector's edition peripheral thanks to its packaging. The box it arrived in folds out to reveal it like some sort of exotic flower, and a sturdy, transparent case means you can take it with you without fear of the surfaces being scratched.

Features

Perhaps the only thing more impressive than the packaging is the Harpe II Extreme's expansive list of features and settings options. There's tri-mode connectivity here through wireless USB, wired USB, and Bluetooth pairing. The ROG Optical Micro switches are quoted for a 100 million click lifespan, and with a max polling rate of 8,000Hz, you know there's plenty of futureproofing for such an expensive peripheral.

Using the wireless dongle, you get access to ROG SpeedNova connectivity so that 8K polling rate isn't limited to a wired connection only. There's an impressive (quoted) 195 hours of battery life here too, which I haven't managed to actually find an end to yet in my hands-on time with it. Depending on what polling rate you set it to, your mileage will vary, but the Harpe II Extreme has a clever trick up its sleeve where it will determine interference in the surrounding wireless environment and boost its signal to maintain a steady connection.

If you're not one for spending loads of time in settings menus for your gaming peripherals, Asus has included a Zone mode on this mouse, which simplifies things for competitive players. Alongside 5 stored profiles you can configure, Zone mode will optimize things specifically for competitive play. With it on, you'll see a polling rate boost, increased sensor responsiveness, as well as sensor frame rate and wireless transmission power optimizations.

Performance

I've built more than one gaming PC with an ASUS motherboard, and I've tested its Raikiri controllers in the past, so this isn't my first run-in with a peripheral from the now 20-year-old ROG brand. One thing I have to admit is that dealing with the Armory Crate app is always my least favorite part of the ROG experience. This app always feels clunky; it usually involves subsidiary downloads to actually customize the product you have, and I worried an Asus mouse would involve me needing to download it. To my delight, that wasn't the case.

Upon connecting it to my PC via the wireless USB dongle, I was immediately met with a pop-up notification that invited me to a browser tab where I could fully customize the Herpe II. Everything from its button mappings to its polling rate, to its DPI and wider suite of settings and features was covered without the need for an additional download, and I loved how speedy the process of getting set up with it was.

Having just tested the GameSir G7 Pro 8K, I was curious to see how an 8K polling mouse would compare. Turns out, an 8,000Hz polling rate on any gaming peripheral seems to present itself in the same way. I play with a relatively high DPI of 2,300 compared to a lot of FPS players these days. But bumping the polling rate up to 8K meant that it felt a little more unruly than I was used to. Unbelievably smooth thanks to those Gorilla Glass skates, even with a (somewhat limited by today's standards) 144Hz refresh rate display, but would certainly take a while to get used to, as every twitch, pivot, and slip in any direction is registered.

Thankfully, while the 8K polling rate was a bit too hot to handle for my liking, the settings gave me loads of scope to fine-tune. I could try as low as a 150Hz speed, and ended up settling on a 1,000Hz speed after a few brief tests with 1,400Hz. There's a lot of scope to make this mouse the exact speed and sensitivity for you and your playstyle. If you like putting DPI all the way down and attacking CS2 players with massive swipes across your desk, there's loads of scope for you here.

My main FPS game is the Extraction Shooter GOAT, Hunt: Showdown, and so naturally, the bayou became my testing ground for the Harpe II. When the game's intense sound design has you completely immersed in a 3v1 western shootout, your heart can frequently pound out of your chest, and your palms start getting clammy. The shape and design of the Harpe II Extreme was excellent for keeping my grip, but one thing I will say is that the surface texture doesn't hold up all that well to those sweaty, intense gameplay sessions. There were a few moments where I felt my palm starting to slip in places, and the design of this mouse is so stunning that I worried my sweaty hands were going to stain or mark it and spoil its look. The aesthetics of this mouse are going to be a huge win for any gaming setup, but a little extra thought over actually gripping this peripheral would have been welcome, even if it is an anniversary showpiece.

While I do love the shape and look of the Harpe II Extreme, I do wish it catered to my palm grip a little more. My MMO mouse, and every mouse I've used for the last six years, has had a pinky groove, which I feel is so important in keeping my hand comfortable through long hours of remote work or intense gaming sessions. Yes, this is a niche taste with mice these days, but one I find very hard to go back to not having. One reason I don't gravitate to the ultralightweight mouse market is that I don't feel my whole hand is catered to, and I do wish Asus did a little more. My ring finger and pinky barely manage to hug onto the side of the Harpe II, and while I appreciate it's not exactly designed for a mouse grip like mine, a little more real estate on the right-hand side of it would go a long way.

Additionally, I get that this mouse is never going to compete with my 12 MMO keys, but more than two extra side buttons would have been welcome for the amount of money this rodent costs.

I can't fault the side buttons and scroll wheel that are here, though. They all feel so robust, like they'll last the next 20 years of the ROG brand. In fact, from reviewing the best PC controllers, the closest comparison I can make to the side buttons is that they feel almost as good as the most cushioned microswitch buttons I've come across. Pardon the pun, but this is the gold standard.

For reference, playing solo vs trios in Hunt, I usually average out around three or four kills per round. I may or may not have been having a good day when I did a longer session with the Harpe II Extreme, but I played three matches in a row, scoring four kills, then six, then seven, so I'm entitled to give some of that credit to the high-performance mouse I was using.

Should you buy the Asus ROG Harpe II Extreme 20th Anniversary Edition?

I have a lot of reservations about recommending controllers that cost $200 most of the time, so trying to justify a price of $259 for a mouse gives me a lot of anxiety. For reference, that RedDragon mouse I use cost me under $40, and is frequently on offer down to $25.99, so I'd argue you really don't need to spend this much to get a good clicker. Even for competitive gaming in the ultralightweight market, the SteelSeries Aerox 9 tops out at $189.99, so that should give you an idea of how much most people will likely be budgeting.

On the other hand, compared to those other lightweight mice I've tried, I think the Harpe II Extreme offers a much more premium feel. I don't feel I'm compromising as much on feel or build quality here, and I don't feel like the brand behind it is charging more for less of a product. The exhaustive list of settings and features arms you with so many ways to make this mouse work for you, and with premium parts used to craft it, you can sort of see where the price tag comes from.

Reservations about pricing aside, I think Asus has absolutely knocked it out of the park with the design of this 20th anniversary timepiece. Fans of this brand will not be disappointed by the aesthetic, build quality, lighting, and finer details of this mouse. It's a strong showing of why Asus ROG has been around for 20 years, and might stick around for a few years more.

• Pre-order | $259.99 at Best Buy

How I tested the Asus ROG Harpe II Extreme 20

I put the Harpe II Extreme to work in my gaming setup for a few weeks before writing this review. I tested it on different mouse pad surfaces and in various games, but since it's an Esports peripheral, I mainly used it in FPS games like Hunt Showdown. I drew from my own experience of using other gaming mice to make my feedback, and used the prices of similar mice to assess its value. I used the Gear Link browser app to customize the mouse's settings and get a feel for how its various features can impact its performance.

For more on how we test gaming mice, take a look at our hardware policy.

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