When it comes to deciding which gaming mouse you want to opt for, many usually fit into the FPS category. Light, wireless, and seemingly lightning-fast, there are a lot of options for those playing Valorant, CoD, or any other other FPS games that might require a competitive edge. The ASUS ROG Spatha X isn’t for those people.
This wireless mouse offers plenty of versatility for MMOs, or if you’re willing to drag a heavy mouse around, plenty of buttons for quick in-game abilities. However, it also has one of the best charging docks, and plenty of reasons to buy it no matter what games you like to play. So long as your wrist doesn’t get tired often, of course.
Straight away, it’s clear that ASUS is not messing around with the ROG Spatha X. This gaming mouse is one of the heaviest I’ve ever used, requiring quite a bit of force to help it glide around your mouse or desk pad. Aside from your standard two-clicker buttons, it also has a staggering nine buttons surrounding the Spatha X for macro heaven.
Alongside the Spatha X, you get a travel case and the essential charging dock. There is a USB-C port on the mouse, which you can use if you prefer your mouse to be wired, but the charging dock is so well-built and easy to use that it’s one of the only mice I’ve used consistently as a wireless peripheral, thanks to how easy the dock helps to keep the mouse charged.
My hands aren’t the largest by any means, but the Spatha X’s design feels very easy to grasp and use for long periods of time. The right-handed design, personally, makes it easy to rest my pinky and thumb (thanks to the included rest points on the peripheral), but for those of you who are left-handed, you may find it a bit uncomfortable. Using the six buttons with your thumb is easy, but it’s a learning curve for anyone who hasn’t had plenty of side buttons before.
While the Spatha X doesn’t have the highest polling rate on the market, the 1000Hz rate is fine enough, and it certainly feels responsive. There’s also the easy-to-access DPI button right under the scroll wheel, allowing you to not only change DPI stages on the fly without having to lift up the mouse entirely and select a new stage, but also helping you finetune DPI by holding the button and scrolling the wheel. It’s a neat little feature that, while not essential, makes it feel more accessible to use.
Speaking of the scroll wheel, it’s easily one of the best I’ve ever used. It feels premium - easy to use, but not too sensitive that you’ll find yourself flying down web pages by accident, and it’s also large enough that your finger doesn’t accidentally slip off at a moment's notice. On the side of the left-click is two additional buttons, which I didn’t find myself using, but diehard MMO fans will likely love two quick skills being available with a quick button press.
Unlike most side buttons on mice, where they’re usually set to just Mouse-4 or Mouse-5, each of the side buttons can be set to different keys on your keyboard. Each button can be bound to a certain key, such as letting you bind G to one side button for quick grenades.
This is similar to many MMO gaming mice, but the thing is, you can also add skills and abilities from other games, such as Valorant or Apex Legends. In fact, despite the weight, I used it fairly well in Valorant, thanks to the fact that accuracy is key, and it let me bind my Agent’s skills to each side button. You can also bind features like turning the volume up and down to the buttons too.
Unfortunately, to get use out of the side buttons, you’ll have to download the ASUS Armory Crate app which is okay at best. It’s fine, overall, but it can be quite fiddly, limited in scope, and doesn’t offer the best UI, but you can easily set the keys and forget about it.
The ROG Spatha X sits within this interesting balance that makes it difficult to recommend to either purely MMO players or purely FPS players. Mice like the Razer Naga Pro offer many more buttons than the Spatha X, making it a better investment for those who play solely MMOs in their free time, while its weight makes it difficult to recommend to those who play FPS games, since they want more speed over extra buttons.
However, if you’re like me and find yourself playing multiple genres on your PC, the ASUS ROG Spatha X does an excellent job of giving you a premium gaming mouse with an excellent amount of customization. The charging dock makes it really easy to keep your Spatha X fully charged at all times, and the feeling of pressing each of the buttons feels nice. It’s an impressive peripheral, but only for those who don’t mind sitting right in the middle ground.
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