Mice are important in the life of any computer users – trackpads are fairly accurate but usually not as pleasant and accurate yet quick enough as a dedicated mouse – but the sensors, design, comfort and usability are all the factors are going to impact the price and performance of a mouse. That is where the specialized field of gaming mice came by – and the ASUS RoG Gladius is one heck of a gaming mouse.
The mouse comes in a black and red box with white fonts, typical design cues as there are some highlights of the mouse’s feature showed at the front.
There aren’t much to see, up front, but opening the flap and then there’s the RoG Gladius itself wrapped in hard plastic. The hard plastic is slightly larger than the real size of the RoG Gladius, but it’s a fairly identical ergonomic feel.
Digging up further, there are some manuals, a pouch, two micro USB cables, and a cloth mesh pouch.
These also are not some simple micro USB cables – it is made to work with the cable lock found below the mouse, and its purpose is to prevent cables from getting yanked and disconnecting the micro USB cable from the mouse.
Looking deeper into the accessories, there is another set of mouse feet and two Omron switches and they bring some more value to the mouse – we’ll dive deeper into this later.
[nextpage title=”Look and feel”]The mouse has a gunmetal grey colour with a matte finish, rubber pads at both the left and right side. The shape of the mouse however is deeply familiar with some of the other critically acclaimed gaming mouse.
At the back of the mouse where the palm sits is the ASUS RoG logo in dark red. When powered on, of course, there’s an LED beneath it. The scroll wheel also has two strips of light at each side, and another light strip right below the button below the scroll wheel. Each of them are independent of each other and can be disabled according to however you see fit.
The front of the mouse brings a little different feel – it has an extremely high buffer, making the mouse taller at the clicking point. There’s also a micro USB port, as this is a wired mouse with detachable cable.
At the bottom, there’s an optical sensor, a level to unlock the latch holding the micro USB cable, 4 pieces of mouse feet. Underneath those mouse feet however, are something beyond any other mice can do – but that’ll be explained later.
The left side of the mouse has a front and back button, but ASUS claims it’s a pair of ‘slide-to-press’ button. Yes, they are programmable too.
On the right side… it’s empty, other than the textured rubber grip.
[nextpage title=”Comfort and performance”]The comfort of a mouse is certainly something that everyone can judge – it’s a personal preference and not something that everyone will have to conform to only one mouse design. That’s why we have multiple choices of gaming mice to choose from.
But I digress – the ASUS RoG Gladius has the familiar shape as its competitor, the Razer Mamba. I’m not complaining – ASUS did their part in innovating this design even further.
The shape itself is made to slightly curve to the left side when held with any type of grip. However, the Gladius’s shape is made particularly for palm and maybe some fingertip grip users, but a humongous hand is needed to use the claw grip comfortably – at least for me.
The mouse is really fun to use – I switched from my cheapo Microsoft keyboard and mouse wireless combo to the RoG Gladius and fired up Counter Strike: Global Offensive. It took me a little while to adapt, but I got it pretty quickly and was really amazed by how it felt and how grippy the sides are whole the fingertips start to sweat. The carvings on the rubber pads at both left and right side would probably have gunk in it sometime in the future, but the troughs in those carvings are not deep and wide enough to be cleaned easily, yet able to channel sweat droplets away during intense gaming moments.
The Gladius has a separate left and right click buttons – totally spread out and independent even from the body itself. The clicks have a satisfying feedback in sound and feel, has a low actuation force, and springs back up very quickly. I personally prefer something that has low actuation force clicks, large right-handed-only mouse design to go alongside with nice audio feedback while clicking. The Gladius is able to do this very nicely.
Also, the two side buttons are easily reachable by my thumb – a slight upward force and the back button is clicked, move the thumb tip a little and the front button is clicked. These two buttons also have lightweight clicks with satisfying audio feedback. Nice.
This is only one part of the equation – as mentioned before, the Gladius comes with another two more Omron switches included in ASUS RoG Gladius packaging too. This is where the value of the Gladius is further enhanced – strip off the mouse feet and there is a screw underneath. Take them all out and the Gladius’s upper body can be taken off. Then, simply pull out the left or right click switch and swap with the included Omron switch. You can differentiate them quite easily as the original switch has a white notch, whereas the substitute Omron switches has a grey notch.
Check this video out.
The two switches has two different actuation forces, which I think is nice for who users who prefer clicks that require more force. Since there are two substitute Omron switches included, you can swap all to the grey notch switches, or mix and match – grey notch for higher force clicks on the left click and the original whiten notch switch for right clicks.
I love this feature a lot. It gives the users a real choice to fine-tune their gaming mouse as there is no need to have expert soldering skills to swap the switch. However, it does require the destruction of a perfectly good set of mouse feet to access the switch to begin with. Also, the Gladius doesn’t have a weight adjustment feature. Bummer.
[nextpage title=”Software”]The ASUS RoG Armoury Driver as they call it, is actually a very complete software, has a small learning curve on how to change profiles on the mouse, but other than that it is very close to perfection.
There are a slew of features right here and all of the buttons on the button are programmable – even the scroll wheel’s directions and the button below the wheel are programmable. Keep in mind though, that the RoG Gladius only has a total of 6 switches.
In the Armoury, there are simple tweaks and there are jargon tweaks too, ranging from simple sensitivity tweaks to adjusting polling rates. Some additional features like angle snapping and lightings are available too.
I do like that ASUS thought of the multitude of mousepad materials and have a set of pre-calibrated mousepad surfaces as a quick start for customers who just got the mouse. Then, tune the lift off distance according to your own liking too.
Oh right – before I forgot, the ASUS RoG Armoury is capable of recording macros from the keyboard strokes and mouse clicks, and then set its repetition and so on and so forth – the basic drill of macro keys in gaming peripherals.
And let’s not forget about the lighting effects.
The only problem I encountered with the software is that the multiple profiles created need to be dragged from the PC to the mouse itself. With that said, this is because the RoG Gladius can only save one single profile in the mouse’s built-in memory – meaning there is no function for profile switching on the fly.
[nextpage title=”Conclusion”]Now, what I can really say about this mouse?
The best summary is that personally, I love it a lot. The ergonomic choices made on the Gladius is something to behold. Its curves are amazingly comfortable, the rubber grip is smooth yet with grooves that maintain the grip during intense and prolonged gaming sessions. The ASUS RoG Armoury software is amazingly simple too.
Best of all, there are two sets of switches to choose and mix – however you have to destroy a perfectly good set of mouse feet though. Also back to the the point where two USB cables are included – ASUS even thought of users who will want to leave the USB cable plugged in, but take the RoG Gladius elsewhere. That means, ASUS wants you to use the Gladius at home on your desktop, and on your desktop when you’re on the go, hence the two USB cables and mesh cloth pouch. Very considerate of ASUS!
The RoG Gladius is available in the market for RM299 and is available in the market now. I have to say, if you are someone who uses palm grip more than any other grips and love a mouse with a big body, this is definitely the mouse to look out for.
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