Is Asus ROG Gladius III The Gaming Mouse For You? Find Out Here

ROG Gladius III the gaming mouse

ASUS, founded in 1989, is Taiwanese computer hardware and electronics manufacturer. The ROG Gladius was ASUS’s first gaming mouse released under the ROG brand in 2014. With the ROG Gladius III, ASUS iterates and innovates on a classic design.

Over the last year, the ASUS mouse has evolved dramatically. The ROG Gladius III is an excellent piece of hardware that fits in well with this trend. The Gladius III is a large ergonomic right-handed mouse that complements the smaller ROG Keris and Keris Wireless.

Despite its size, the Gladius III weighs only 76 g, and no externally visible holes were needed to achieve this weight. The build quality is also really good, but I was able to unlock the side buttons by using too much force. The Gladius III, like previous ASUS models, has hot-swappable main-button switches, allowing the mouse’s lifespan to be extended.

In addition to being compatible with 3-pin mechanical switches, the second-generation push-fit sockets are also compatible with 5-pin Omron optical switches (Omron D2FP-FN), a selection of which is included in the box. As much as I appreciate ASUS’s continued innovation in this field, I believe this addition’s usefulness is somewhat limited.

The reason is simple click latency with the default mechanical switches is already extremely low, and the fact that optical switches can never initiate double-clicking is less important on a mouse that allows for switch changes in the first place.

As a result, the primary benefit of optical switches is the exclusive click feel, which is nice but could be accomplished just as well by incorporating a different standard mechanical switch.

ROG Gladius III comes with the mechanical switch

Speaking of buttons, the Gladius III excels in this field. The ROG switches come with a system that provides a firm and snappy button response, and the side buttons have an impressively low pre and post-travel.

The scroll wheel has excellent tactility but didn’t have an unusual case of input registration despite not moving the wheel a notch.

The Gladius III has the same pure PTFE feet as the Keris and Keris Wireless, and they still glide beautifully. Keris comes with an additional pair of replacement feet. Fortunately, damaging the feet to get to the push-fit sockets isn’t needed.

Finally, the ROG Keris cable reappears, and its versatility remains nothing short of outstanding. PixArt’s PAW3370 is flawless in terms of sensor performance. A new firmware has reversed the CPI variation that was previously present.

As a result, the only thing to criticize is the price, which the Gladius III doesn’t fare much better on. The second-generation push-fit switch sockets provide no major real-world advantage, and the sensor is better on paper but not in operation.

To be honest, I’m not sure where the $20 premium comes from, and when compared to the competition, the Gladius III falls short.

Nonetheless, if we look beyond the price, the Gladius III is an outstanding mouse, and some changes to the aforementioned software issues are already in the works. Overall, we recommend the ROG Gladius III and give it the Innovation award for its second-generation push-fit switch socket.

Sayed

Sayed is one of the authors who has been a part of Doms2Cents from the very beginning. He has expertise in comic books and is a huge Marvel fan. He has been working as a freelancer since 2019 and has now become an expert in the field and is a senior author at Doms2Cents.

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