When you see the Hyperx Pulsefire Surge you will think that it is just a regular mouse because it looks like what you would use for regular jobs in the office. However, this is a gaming mouse by all rights.
Once you start using it, you will see that it is an excellent gaming mouse. Your choice of the best computer gaming mouse is informed by many things, not just how it looks. One of them is the features, you know, things like polling rate, DPI settings and adjustments, color, size, price and many more.
It is hard to find a good ambidextrous gaming mouse in the market. However, the Pulsefire Surge has been designed to meet the needs of both left and right-handed people. It is not a complicated mouse to use or even to set up.
With an excellent optical sensor, nice looking colors and many more, this mouse is much better than the first Hyperx gaming mouse. Because of the fast action time in gaming, you need a mouse that is not only fast, but one that is very smooth.
This mouse meets all those needs and many more. Even the price is very considerate as the Pulsefire Surge costs less than most gaming mice in its feature range.
For more details and price, click here.
Contents
Hyperx Pulsefire Surge Review: Summary of the features
- It is a cabled mouse – comes with a braided cord that is 6 feet long
- Looks just like a traditional mouse and is as easy to use, but with all the features of a nice gaming mouse
- The casing of this mouse is made with thin plastic. This makes the mouse quite light in weight at only 104 g without the cable
- The mouse has been designed with a light ring that goes all round providing you with a stylish 360-degree lighting effect
- The HyperX NGENUITY software is so easy to figure out even for a first timer. Installation and execution will be simple
- The mouse has onboard memory where you can store your game profiles. This enables you to play with the mouse on any computer without having to install the software afresh on every computer.
- Six programmable buttons make the Hyperx Pulsefire easy to customize and use. It does this without bringing the bulkiness that many other mice come with, some with even close to 20 buttons.
- Has a Pixart 3389 optical sensor and DIP setting range is up to 16000. Pixart is one of the best sensors in the market today.
- Advanced tracking is very responsive. Combined with the high polling rate that you can set this mouse to (range of 125 to 1000 Hz), this mouse is fast, and very responsive. Click a button and the command is displayed in real-time.
- This gaming mouse has been made with an Omron switches, which are rated for 50 million clicks – that is years and years of use, quite a gamers’ mouse.
- Generally, the build and construction of the Surge is quite solid. This mouse looks like it can take a drop and still come out intact without breaking anything
- This is a plug-and-play mouse. You will not be required to start looking for specific drivers to make it compatible with your PC. Just install the software and start gaming
An in-depth look at the Hyperx Pulsefire Surge Features
Design and build quality
The size of the Pulsefire Surge is 4.73 inches by 2.47 inches by 1.6 inches.
This mouse does not have the fancy super car build that some gaming mice such as the Roccat Kone Aimo come with.
Rather, it looks like the traditional mice that we use in the office. It is wider at the back (where the cable comes in) and slopes upwards towards the top.
As a mid-sized mouse, you can hold it claw or finger style if you have big palms. If you have small to medium-sized palms, you can hold the mouse palm-style.
Thin plastic casing makes it light in weight, perhaps too light for some people, but coupled with the smooth gliding and the anti-snag flexible cable, you know this is a nice mouse to have.
The lighting is a bit subdued, but it is still very noticeable. The mouse a has a ring of luminous lighting going all round. The Hyperx logo also lights up beautifully. While this mouse is not boisterous in any way at all, it still shows its presence. However, the black color is going to merge well with any desk in the office.
Truth be told, there is not much to say about the looks of the mouse, including the underside. However, when you plug it in, everything comes to life in a wonderful way.
Maybe the final thing that we can say about the design is that this mouse has nice black matte finish. It feels good on your hands. Mice that have glossy finish may cause more sweating on your palms, more than the matte finish ones.
Cable quality
The Pulsefire Surge has a braided flexible cable. One advantage of such cables is that they never snag on things. Well, some people will swear by the rubber cables, but nothing really beats a braided cable when it comes to a one on one between the two of them. The good build of the braided cable ensures that with good care, it lasts as long as the mouse itself. At the same time, being 6 feet long, that is enough for use on any desk, even when the computer is some distance away. The cable ends with USB connector.
Performance
This mouse performs like a bliss, you know, just like a gaming mouse should. It has been designed to give you the best performance, and a lot of versatility so that you can use it to play different games. It seems as if the mouse compensates for its lacks of looks with excellent performance.
With the ability to hog  a maximum of 16000 counts per inch, you can tell that the optical sensor – Pixart 3389 is the real deal. However, you will hardly need to go to the maximum with any of the games that we play. It gives one a good feeling know that you can reach the maximum sensitivity that you can ever want.
The sensor is capable of doing wonders for different types of games. Of course, you will want to test it with a few games when you get it. Some games, and indeed some displays require higher resolutions than others.
Buttons
The buttons are not too obtrusive, in fact, you might even think they are not there. First, the left and right click buttons are rated for 50 million clicks, thanks to the Omron switches. Now, that is quite a high rating! The side buttons on this mouse are also quite responsive.
There is no resistance in the buttons at all. At the same time, they are not superfluous at all such that you can hit them by accident. All of these buttons come with Omron switches, just like the left and right click buttons. These switches are rated for 50 million clicks in their lifetime.
If you love precision and super sensitivity in your buttons, this is the perfect mouse for you. Besides, the buttons do not get in the way at all when you are not using them.
Most of all, you will love using this mouse for MMO, RTS and FPS games.
The scroll wheel
The scroll wheel comes with fixed settings. This means that you cannot adjust the spin speed or anything. This does not mean that the scroll wheel does not meet expectations. It does much more than that. It is very precise, has just the right amount of tension.
When you stop the scroll wheel, the page your were scrolling stops. It is quite accurate. Scrolling up and down a web page is quite blissful. The texture on the surface of the scroll wheel is friendly to your fingers.
The button for adjusting the resolution is located just beneath, or behind the scroll wheel, if you like. This button changes the DPI by 800 counts per inch, but you can change the settings so that the resolution increments are lesser, maybe a hundred or so.
NGENUITY Software
Quite a fancy name for a gaming mouse software! However, it works. It takes some getting used to but once you get the hang of it, you will really start enjoying using the software. It is also quite intuitive.
When you install the software, you will find that the first thing it does is bring you a nice rendering of the mouse on the right hand side. The control panel is displayed on the left hand side. You will see functions such as macros, lighting, default and others. This software looks simple enough to use, but you will have to get used to it.
For lighting, you can set the profiles, or you can use the three default profiles that the mouse comes with. These are Wave, Cycle and Solid. The good thing is that you can create profiles and store them in the onboard memory.
You may pick a different color for the 32 lighting zones that this mouse comes with. The bad thing is that the colors you select for the lighting zones does not correspond with the adjustments that you will make on the DPI setting.
Another thing that you can set inside the software is the orientation. You can choose left hand or right hand depending on your needs. There are not many ambidextrous gaming mice in the market and so in this sector, the Pulsefire Surge wins.
Grip
If you have large palms, the Pulsefire Surge will feel a bit small in your palms. This may lead to cramping on the wrists. However, we do not have people that have too large palms. Most are medium and small sized, and at 4.71 inches of length, this mouse is perfect for them.
The underside of the mouse looks just like that of a traditional mouse, but that is quite helpful. This mouse glides super smooth on surfaces. However, to make sure there are no hitches at all when gaming, just get a gaming pad.
Do not worry about weight. As we have continuously reiterated in other parts of this review, this mouse weighs just above 100 g. Pushing and pulling the mouse should be quite easy for you, or for your children if they play games.
If you are left-handed, refer to our software section to see where you can change the orientation of the mouse.
Hyperx Pulsefire Surge Review
Pros
- One of the few ambidextrous gaming mice in the market – easy to set up orientation in the software
- Easy to use NGENUITY software although it looks a bit boring at first, until you see what it can do
- Light ring breaks the monotony of the black color of the mouse beautifully
- Versatile mouse that can be used for playing different types of games
- You can store your gaming profiles and other settings on the mouse’s onboard memory so that you can access them on the flip when using a different computer
- The high quality Pixart sensor is a favorite for many avid gamers – resolution adjustment is very effective
- Omron switches used on all the buttons are high quality, responsive and are built to last a long time – are rated for 50 million clicks
- The build of this mouse looks quite solid and sturdy, and at the same time it is light in weight
- It is not flashy-boisterous – the lighting is very appealing but subtle
Cons
- The scroll wheel starts squeaking after some months
- The sides of the mouse are a bit rubbery which is not good for sweaty palms
- You cannot program the DPI button to change the colors as you adjust the resolution
Conclusion
The Hyperx Pulsefire Surge is one of a kind gaming mouse, with so many features but not too loud like most of the other gaming mice that we have seen in the market. The weight is good, the accuracy is up there and so are many other features. However, there are a couple of downsides that you have seen in the cons section. That notwithstanding, you can buy this mouse without hesitation and have a good time switching between different MMO games.
