Kingston HyperX Pulsefire gaming mouse review

The next stop on my gaming gear journey has us looking at a gaming mouse. Now, Kingston is not a brand I usually associate with gaming peripherals, rather, I think of internal components instead. When the Kingston HyperX Pulsefire FPS gaming mouse was offered up for review, I thought I would give it a chance. Would their name live up to my expectations? Time to find out.

Inside of the box you’ll find the HyperX Pulsefire gaming mouse and a quick start guide.

This mouse is meant to be plug and play. There is no special software to customize the buttons, and there are four DPI settings that cannot be changed. Each preset DPI setting is indicated by the button color, ranging from 400 DPI to 3200 DPI. I ended up using the third highest setting for day to day and gaming use, but could switch easily to whichever I wanted with a push of a button. I really liked the color indicator feature so that I would know which DPI setting that I was on.

The mouse is lightweight and would glide smoothly across my mouse pad. It is a hair larger than my previous mouse, but weight wise, it was around the same. There are tactile, textured grips on each side of the mouse to theoretically keep your hands from slipping around. I’ve never had a problem with slipping, but it felt nice under my fingers either way. The Pixart 3310 optical sensor had no problem working on the wood of my desk or on my mouse pad. I never felt any hesitation due to the sensor; it always worked perfectly regardless of whatever game I played.

It took about a week to get used to the slight differences between my old mouse and the Kingston one, but once I did, it was very comfortable and felt normal to use. There are six buttons on this mouse; the left and right standard buttons, the scroll wheel, DPI button, and two thumb buttons. The layout of the thumb buttons were perfectly placed and easy to press, and it was easy to customize them using in game settings for what I used them for.

After getting my key bindings set up, (my previous mouse has software that sets the key bindings for each game) figuring out which DPI setting worked best for me, and getting used to the feel of the mouse, I have had no desire to switch back to my old mouse. The ease of gliding across my mouse pad is the main reason, as my old mouse would catch on the bottom from time to time due to a bottom pad wearing down.

I also liked the look of the mouse. The black and red color scheme is simple, yet you get that splash of color. The durable, braided cord is also black and red, and made it easy to figure out which cord was which in the back of my computer.

Overall, I really liked the Kingston HyperX Pulsefire gaming mouse and it definitely lived up to the expectations I had for it. The quality and comfort level is great, and it is simple and easy to use. The biggest downside I see is that you lack any customization outside of pre-sets, and that can be a deterrent if you can’t find a DPI level on the mouse that suits you. For a casual gamer though, this mouse is worth looking into.

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Kingston HyperX. Please visit their site for more info and Amazon to order.