SteelSeries announces smart mouse, complete with OLED screen

SteelSeries seeks to create a brand new genre of hardware with its Rival 700 smart mouse.

“We’re thrilled to deliver the world’s first smart gaming mouse,” said Ehtisham Rabbani, SteelSeries CEO. “By listening to gamers and eSports athletes, we’ve perfected professional gaming mice for more than a decade. The Rival 700 takes that expertise and meets gamers needs today, and grows to help them win in the future.”

Yes, that in that image above is indeed an OLED screen. Powered by SteelSeries’ GameSense, the Rival 700 sports ‘tactile alerts’ (which I guess means rumble), as well as swappable physical components before. But again, while we’ve seen some that before in gaming mice, there’s never been one that’s had a freaking OLED screen built-in.

Here’s your rundown of features:

OLED Display & Tactile Alerts

The Rival 700 connects players to the game like never before. Powered by SteelSeries GameSense, players can personalize the OLED display to track their stats, change profiles, see their CPI settings as well as set custom logos and animations using SteelSeries Engine. With tactile alerts, the mouse is no longer merely an input device; gamers can now feel in-game events, aiding them in critical decision-making. The Rival 700 generates tactile alerts that notify the gamer of in-game events without affecting precision or accuracy. Gamers can customize every aspect of the alerts for in-game events such as cooldown timers, health status and more through SteelSeries Engine.

Enhanced Precision & Performance

The high-performance optical sensor of the Rival 700 delivers exceptional performance, built for professional gaming. This optical sensor delivers many advantages for gamers, such as:

• Like all SteelSeries Rival mice, the Rival 700 has zero hardware acceleration and an optical sensor that offers gamers true 1:1 tracking accuracy. 
• Gamers can configure resolution settings up to 16,000 counts per inch (CPI) and down to one millisecond of customizable response time, equaling zero lag time.
• The sensor has the ability to accurately track movement speeds of up to 300 inches per second at 50g of acceleration.
• The Rival 700 has a removable sensor module, allowing gamers to swap to a laser sensor or other future options.

On The Outside

The ergonomic shape and 7-button, right-handed layout were designed to work comfortably with all grip styles. The mouse features a soft-touch surface with sculpted side grips that provide a raised texture for maximum comfort along with durable, double-shot injected left and right buttons, so gamers never lose control in the heat of battle.

Maximum Personalization

SteelSeries built the Rival 700 to be the best gaming mouse available today, and with enough customization options to ensure a long future of elite gaming, like:

• GameSense and Prism RGB illumination give gamers the power to choose millions of color options and customizable lighting effects powered by in-game events.
• The mouse cover is swappable to ones with different designs and surfaces.
• The Rival 700 is packaged with a 3ft rubber cable and a 6ft braided cable for gamers who choose to game on their laptop or desktop.
• Swappable sensors provide gamers the option to change to the latest sensors on the market without purchasing a brand new mouse.
• OLED display allows gamers to personalize the Rival 700 with logos and custom in-game settings.

I’m impressed. More than just a set of bells and whistles (which I am, admittedly, a sucker for), the Rival 700 looks to be a mouse that has pretty much every ‘necessary’ feature that gamers look for in a PC game controller, as well as some actual innovative stuff happening, like that OLED screen. I think that’s something that really sets it apart, and probably is a bonus that you’re likely to see duplicated across the category sooner than later.

Coming up in Spring of this year, the Rival 700 will be available on SteelSeries’ web store and will run you $99 USD. Also worth noting, optional sensor and mouse covers will also be making the jump to retail at that same time. No word yet on what those might entail or offer in terms of imagery or functionality, but we’ll keep you posted. For more info on the Rival right now though, you can click here for the official site.