ASUS ROG Chakram X gaming mouse review: Absolutely overkill

ASUS’s ROG Chakram X gaming mouse has it all, programmable buttons, interchangeable switches, and a ludicrous 8000Hz polling rate, but is it worth the steep price?

When picking a gaming mouse, it’s important to note that it’s a device that you’ll be interacting with all the time when you use your PC, whether it’s in use for gaming or office use. The ROG Chakram X promises a hefty number of features and tech under the hood that would make even the most die-hard mouse enthusiasts blush.

Key specs

• Weight: 127g
• Connectivity: USB 2.0, 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth 5.2
• Grip Type: Right-handed, Claw, Palm
• Buttons: 11
• Sensor: ROG AimPoint
• Maximum DPI: 36,000
• Polling rate: 8,000Hz (wired), 1000Hz (wireless)
• Battery life: up to 150 hours
• Features: Wireless charging, hot-swappable microswitches, Aura Sync RGB, joystick
• Price: $159.99 / £149.99
• Where to buy: Amazon US, Amazon UK

Included in the box: ROG Chakram X mouse, spare switches, wireless receiver, USB-A to USB-C cable, USB RF extender (USB-A to USB-C), carry pouch, two additional joysticks, switch remover, ROG badge.

Design

Dexerto

Right off the bat, the ROG Chakram X is an absolute unit. It feels, distinctly high-quality, with premium materials used to really give it that luxury feel. The mouse had an interesting vertical design on the right-hand since, with an illuminated ROG logo for the badge. However, there’s another interesting addition, a joystick that is able to function as your WASD functions or a mouse itself in the software.

While it’s nice, it’s a real niche use case, and looks slightly odd on the mouse, too. But, that’s not all of the tricks that this mouse has to offer. You can disassemble the unit itself, which is all held together with magnetic plates. If you didn’t know it was there, you’d never look for it, and it all comes apart beautifully, and it does serve a purpose.

You are able to customize almost every facet of this mouse, from taking off the joysticks with one of several options, to replacing the microswitches yourself, and it even has a removable plate for the RGB, which you can replace with a blank, or roll with the ROG logo.

This is something that you hardly see in mice, and when it all comes together, it feels really solid, meaning that the customization options do not compromise the experience one bit. In particular, the hot-swappable switches mean that you could get much more longevity out of this mouse than other rivals.

Features

Dexerto

As we previously mentioned, you can entirely disassemble the ROG Chakram X, which is a really cool and unique feature, but under the hood lies more to be impressed with. The 8,000 Hz Polling rate while wired feels immediately snappy, and if you have previously been using a lesser mouse, the difference is night and day. This makes the ROG Chakram X ideal for esports gaming, though it is on the heavier side of things.

In addition to that, you can seamlessly flick between three devices while in use, so you don’t have to wait around to flick between using the mouse for work before using it on your gaming system or mobile devices, it’s on the bottom of the mouse, so does take some getting used to, but otherwise works flawlessly.

The Armory Crate software also allows you to tune the DPI using the scroll wheel, and switch up some of the keybinds on the mouse itself, which is welcome. The software experience could be a lot better, however, we did encounter some issues with Armory Crate, which hitched and had buggy boot sequences, much like its app-based counterpart when we tested the Cetra True Wireless.

We should also note that the battery life is absolutely astonishing, with the mouse barely running out of charge during our week of testing. It’s remarkable, and something that we want to see more mouse manufacturers work towards.

Gaming performance

Gaming with the ROG Chakram X is an absolute treat, with that blazing-fast 8,000Hz polling rate really coming in handy in the heat of battle during games of Warzone. However, despite the number of programmable buttons, it’s no replacement for an MMO mouse, as we found out in Final Fantasy XIV.

It is of middling weight, which means that for most esports, you might want to pick up a lighter mouse. It’s a bit of a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none, despite its high-end specs and premium design. The additional joystick also never really came in handy in the majority of titles that we used, which makes the entire feature feel moot. It’ll just go unused.

Though there is an accessibility argument to be made here, for some gamers, this might be the best option to get controls for their right hand.

When it works, it’s great, and the design of the mouse makes it feel incredibly comfortable. But, the majority of the features end up feeling like premium trimmings that make the ROG Chakram X feel more confused in an extremely competitive segment, there’s very little focus.

Should you buy it?

Honestly speaking, there are better mice out there suited for specific scenarios, just check out our page of best gaming mice for that. So, we were left feeling really dissatisfied with the experience of using the ROG Chakram X unfortunately. Though many aspects of its design are indeed incredibly dazzling, and its specs are eye-watering.

7/10

It’s far from being a bad mouse, it just isn’t particularly good at anything aside from having killer battery life and oodles of customization. The incredibly steep asking price firmly places it in the higher echelons of gaming mice, and if you already know what kind of games you prefer playing, then you’re probably going to have a better time with a mouse that is more focused.

You can purchase the ASUS ROG Chakram X from Amazon US and UK now.

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