Asus Gladius III Review – Roman around

It’s not enough for a mouse to simply do its function these days. Consumers want more out of their peripherals, and for a good number of years there have been all kinds of fads. Mice shaped in exotic new forms meant to create maximum ergonomic comfort for the hands, mice packing enough RGB LEDs to stun small to medium-sized animals, mice shaving as much weight as possible off the chassis in an effort that transforms them into cheese graters for your hand flesh.

For the Asus Gladius III, the aim has been to create a new gaming mouse focused mostly on reducing as much weight as possible while still retaining all the key benefits of a wireless setup. To that degree, the Gladius III isn’t just superbly light as a feather at 89 grams–there are even lighter mouse variants out there but come on–it’s also one of the most comfortable mice I’ve ever used.

But that comes with a caveat, because I was happy to wrap my appendage around it all day for a few weeks, that comfort came from the fact that the mouse was perfectly shaped for my…modest hands-size. Even if you do have more normal-sized mitts or hands big enough to write down a week’s worth of groceries that you need to pick up, the Gladius III is still a comfortably-shaped input device.

One that favours right-handed people mind you, as us lefties will have to hit the Leftorium if we want something better-suited to our particular needs.

Specifications

• ROG Micro Switches
• 26,000 dpi
• Weight: 89g
• RF 2.4Ghz
• Bluetooth (BLE)
• Wired USB 2.0
• 1000Hz Polling rate

There’s a bunch of other stuff to love as well with this mouse. The build quality feels fantastic, featuring a stable construction throughout and ending with one of the most satisfying mouse scrolls that I’ve dialed through with responsible abandon, featuring just enough tension to flip through options but not too loose as to errantly select a shotgun instead of an assault rifle in an FPS during the heat of online battle. Not too stiff, not too soft, hitting the Goldilocks zone just right.

That crisp feeling travels down to the ROG Micro switches, which  can also be switched out quickly if they ever begin to show signs of wear and tear, although the 70m click rating means that likely won’t happen for a good number of years. Throwing a number of mouse pads and other surfaces under the Gladius III, the device also featured terrific travel thanks to its PTFE pads, and the coating on top of the mouse plastic also hit the right mix of being textured enough to hold your hand in place while having enough leeway to move your palm over its surface.

With a 26,000 DPI optical sensor (tuned up,average is 19,000dpi), there’s more than enough travel in the mouse for all manner of gaming, which is more than enough for any pro esports athlete. While other gaming mice boast even more absurd dpi numbers, for the vast majority of players online they’ll never need that much sensitivity and even the Gladius III’s breaking point will be too much for most. Still, it’s nice to have that option.

One of the other big caveats with a wireless gaming mouse is battery life, especially those looking to keep the weight down to a minimum. There’s only so much juice you can squeeze out of this breed of mouse, but the Gladius III easily lasted me around three days of use before I gave it a quick recharge and switched it back to wired mode using its handy USB-C cable.

The 2.4GHz connection never dropped a beat, and even though esports purists will likely scoff at the idea of using a wireless device for professional gaming, this mouse can easily hang with the big boys. Speaking of battery, one way I did reduce the power bill on the Gladius III was to reduce the RGB brightness of the deviice.

Asus’ brilliant Armoury Crate software has been a lifesaver for several reviews of its products, as I’ve been able to save and store profiles on it, and with the suite I was able to toggle with the RGB settings a bit. I don’t honestly know why a mouse needs RGB LEDs on the side, but it also wouldn’t be a gaming-themed mouse if it didn’t have one, I guess.

The biggest question left to answer here still though, is how the Gladius III functions in terms of weight. As I mentioned above, 89 grams is practically nothing, but you still feel some of that weight due to how its distributed throughout the mouse. Most of its focused on the rear, which I have no problem with but I do foresee some gamers possibly having a slight issue with the Gladius III’s big ol’ middle hump.

Again, to me it wasn’t an issue but tastes may differ and it’s worth getting a good luck at your own mouse before you rush off to grab this, as I did comfortably rest my hand more towards the rear when I used it, similar to how I’ve been using my Logitech G502 since 2015. Holy crap I need a new mouse. Or one with less of my finger filth on it. Again, tastes and grips may vary, but it is worth considering before throwing down some cash.

Last Updated: May 17, 2021