Kingston’s HyperX brand has been a real hit for the company. A brand focused explicitly on gaming has allowed it to branch off into peripherals and related products in a big way. These products include an extensive breadth and depth of keyboards, mice, headsets, memory and other gaming associated accessories built for both beginners to serious eSports competitors. Today, we will be looking at one of their gaming mice offerings. They HyperX Pulsefire Surge is a gaming mouse that boasts pinpoint accuracy with its state-of-the-art Pixart 3389 sensor. It just happens to have 360° RGB lighting effects as well.
Features and Specifications
The HyperX Pulsefire Surge has a native DPI setting as high as 16,000 DPI thanks to the Pixart 3389 optical sensor, coupled with Omron switches that allow for up to 50,000,000 clicks this mouse will enable you to game your way to the top of the leaderboards. You can customize the button layout, DPI settings as well as the beautiful 32-zone RGB lighting with the HyperX NGenuity software. Store up to 3 profiles directly in the mouse for when you are on the go!
| Shape | Symmetrical |
|---|---|
| Connection Type | USB Wired (Braided) |
| Lighting | RGB 360° |
| Buttons | 6 |
| Switch Lifetime | 50M Clicks |
| Optical Sensor | Pixart 3389 |
| Max Resolution | 16,000 DPI |
| Max Speed | 450 IPS |
| Max Acceleration | 50G |
| Polling Rate | 1000 Hz (1ms) |
| Weight | 100g |
On paper, the HyperX Pulsefire Surge puts up some impressive performance specs. But ultimately, how the user experience and how it works in the field, both with games and with everyday tasks, is the measure of excellence.
What’s in the Box?
These days, most products rely on digital assets to form the entirety of the product experience. This experience includes software, manuals, firmware, and other utilities. HyperX is no different, and the contents of the box are pretty straight-forward. You get the HyperX Pulsefire Surge gaming mouse and a couple of quickstart pamphlets to point out where to begin the setup. Ideally, if HyperX wanted to reduce the carbon footprint; ultimately, a single quick start guide with a URL would more than suffice.
First Impressions
HyperX has kept the Pulsefire Surge’s design reasonably minimalistic. It is a symmetrical mouse with an RGB light show like no other. Now, I am a right-handed mouse user, so I do find it weird to use a mouse with my left hand, but it wouldn’t be impossible to do. I am not sure how a left-handed person would like the placement of the side mouse buttons though. I think one would make use of their ring finger to trigger them as opposed to your thumb like you would when using it right-handed. The mouse felt fine in both a claw hold and a palm hold.
The left and right mouse buttons respond well thanks to the Omron switches and register quickly and accurately. The DPI selection button, which is behind the scroll wheel, is a bit further back than I am I used to with gaming mice, but it would be good to minimize any accidental sensitivity changes while playing your favourite game. The scroll wheel itself moves nicely, not too quickly and yet not too clunky and it is slightly textured to ensure your finger doesn’t slip off when you go to use it.
Moving along to the side profile the two thumb buttons are easily accessible and yet in an excellent place to help eliminate any accidental button presses. There is enough room below the buttons to rest your thumb comfortably. You will notice as I rotate around the mouse in the next few photos, that the RGB light strip follows the contours of the mouse.
The other side of the HyperX Pulsefire Surge has nothing special going on, just the continuation of the RGB light strip.
On the back of the HyperX Pulsefire Surge, the RGB lighting wraps around. The HyperX logo receives a similar RGB treatment as well.
Head on with the HyperX Pulsefire Surge. The braided USB cable aligns of course with the middle of the mouse as one would expect. The symmetrical design clearly shown here would allow for a left-handed or right-handed user.
The bottom of the HyperX Pulsefire Surge is magical. Okay, perhaps not entirely magical but with the large sliding surfaces at the front and back you can rest assure that the mouse will glide along the surface nicely. Though, so far my favourite design for the gliding surface of a mouse has been that of the Patriot Viper V570 with its ceramic feet. Those ceramic feet can glide effortlessly on ANY flat surface. I would hope to see more gaming peripheral companies make use of that technology.
NGenuity Configuration
HyperX has its utility, NGenuity, for configuring their peripherals. Some people have nothing but issues with it, but I have not had a bad experience, yet. Here you can see the 32-zone RGB layout that you can easily customize to suit your tastes. You can change the DPI settings under the Performance option and change button settings and create macros on the Macro’s section. Also under the macros section is the toggle to change the mouse from a right-handed (default) to a left-handed one. It flips the button assignments for those who are left-handed mouse users. It is rare to find an excellent ambidextrous mouse in the gaming industry, but the HyperX Pulsefire Surge is a great option.
Performance
To test out the HyperX Pulsefire Surge, one, of course, has to put it into play with a few fast-paced games. When I try out new products, I make them my main peripherals and put them through their paces in day-to-day use as well as the current PC games I am playing. Okay, so I might not be using the most current games, but I have been using the Pulsefire Surge with FarCry5, Apex Legends and of course some more simpler things such as Minecraft. Each game I have played, I found that the mouse has been spot-on for aiming and fast enough to wipe around in a scene and register my mouse clicks. Switching DPI on the fly with my palm grip has been a bit trickier as my finger has to move a reasonable distance between the scroll-wheel and DPI button, but I do not change DPI all too much for it to be an issue for me.
Day-to-day computer tasks are why the majority of people use a mouse. These tasks can include checking email, scrolling through favourite websites or highlighting text for copy-and-paste. And they are accomplished best with minimal mouse movements. All of this adds up to not only a great gaming mouse for a reasonable price, but it’s also a great everyday usage mouse with a little style!
Other tidbits to note, the weight is 100g which can be a little on the heavier side, but it is not an awkward weight. It gives the mouse a nice solid feel but not heavy that it tires your hand out. The braided cable could probably be a bit thicker, similar to the braided USB cable on the HyperX Alloy FPS mechanical keyboard. I found that the braided cable on the Pulsefire Surge to still kink and become a bit messy. The trade-off I suppose would be that the thicker braided cable would add weight/drag to the mouse. A mouse bungee would help address that issue, but then that is just another item you need to put on your desk.
RGB – Love it or Hate It
RGB lighting, of course, does not add to the performance of a mouse or any other peripheral, but it does add a bit of style or flair to one’s computing environment. You also either love RGB lighting or hate it. I have always enjoyed being able to select what colours my peripherals are in terms of their lighting capabilities. With the HyperX Pulsefire Surge, you have access to change 32 different RGB lighting locations, yes 32 parts along the side of the mouse where you can specify the colour. I have liked the default wave setting that mouse is shipped with and have kept it. Though, you can easily change the colours or turn them off if that is your desire.
Final Thoughts
I have quite enjoyed the HyperX Pulsefire Surge gaming mouse. I would currently place it on the top of my favourite mice I have used. It moves around nicely, the RGB allows for some creative styling to the environment, the accuracy is top-notch, and I know the switches will last almost a lifetime of usage. The Pulsefire Surge fits nicely in my hand and allows me to work away at the computer without any weird fatigue. The DPI selector button at the top is a bit awkward to make use of a lot, but with the NGenuity software, I can easily change one of the easier accessible thumb buttons to do that instead.
For those who are a left-handed mouse user, the HyperX Pulsefire Surge could be a possible contender for you. Not many gaming mice on the market would be suited for a left-hander, but one could make use of this. As a left-handed gaming mouse, you would lose the two thumb buttons unless you could make use of your left ring finger, but as a basic left-handed gaming mouse with RGB lighting, it is a pretty good option.
If you are looking for a gaming mouse that has some customizability that is not overwhelming, a mouse that you can add some coloured style to match the rest of your peripherals and a mouse that is under $100 USD, then I would recommend checking out the HyperX Pulsefire Surge.