Steelseries Aerox 9 Wireless review: MMO mouse misses the mark

Steelseries’s Aerox lineup of gaming mice looks to serve almost everyone, and the Aerox 9, equipped with a 12-button side panel, looks to shake up the MMO mouse market.

The MMO gaming mouse market has stagnated somewhat over the last few years, not many manufacturers are choosing to make mice with a traditional 12-button panel on the side, and Logitech’s own G600 has not been updated for years. But, Steelseries is looking to shake all of this up with the Aerox 9 Wireless, which offers 19 buttons, 2.4Ghz wireless, and manages to come in at just 89g. But, does it manage to dethrone the G600, and the Razer Naga Pro?

Key specs

• Weight: 89g
• Connectivity: USB-C, 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth
• Buttons: 18
• Sensor: TrueMove Air optical
• Maximum DPI: 18,000
• Polling rate: 1000Hz
• Battery life: up to 180 hours
• Features: IP54 water resistant, PTFE Skates
• Price: $149.99
• Where to buy: Amazon US

Included in the box: Steelsereis Aerox 9 Wireless, USB-C dongle, USB-C to A cable, USB-C to USB-C extension.

Design

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The Steelseries Aerox 9 Wireless sports a look more fit for a mouse for an FPS, rather than an MMO. it closely resembles the Aerox 3, just with a couple of more buttons on it. The Honeycombed design extends all the way over to the buttons, which is how the mouse manages to achieve that extremely lightweight, despite carrying so many functions.

The scroll wheel houses two more functions by bumping it either left or right, and our unit came with a matte-black finish, with a silver panel for the 12-button matrix on the right-hand side. It is a fair amount longer than other MMO mice, and is more suited to those with larger hands, no matter what grip type you might prefer.

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There’s a small RGB strip towards the back of the unit, while you can find a recessed USB-C port on the front. It feels nice enough in the hand and is clearly using quality materials. However, it’s not all perfect.

Due to the longer design, and smoother grip style, there’s not much for your hands to hold onto when using the buttons on the side, which are conformed to the shape of your thumb. None of the buttons are easily identifiable, and it lacks the ridges and bumps that we see on other MMO mice.

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It feels like Steelseries has taken an existing shell, and whacked a load of buttons onto it, without much consideration for its usability. Having a USB-C dongle is a nice touch, however. But, many lower-end systems might need to make use of a converter, which is included in the box.

Gaming performance

Steelseries has keenly made a note of the mouse’s weight while developing the Aerox 9. However, they did;t realize that many MMOs do not require precise movement. So, you might get excellent performance out of this mouse in games like Warzone, where it works extremely effectively, especially since you can bind the additional functions.

However, when you are using the side panel in MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV, the button layout and lack of ring-finger grips are disappointing, making the mouse tough to hold onto, especially since it’s a significantly different shape to other MMO mice on the market.

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Compounded with the fact that the Aerox 9’s button panel itself doesn’t feel near as intuitive as our Razer Naga Pro, or the Corsair Scimitar, this is incredibly disappointing, and we wouldn’t use it long-term for our MMO antics, or in high-intensity raiding scenarios. In addition to being reasonably difficult to differentiate, the buttons are also incredibly firm, making them more difficult to actuate. We used this mouse for close to a month in MMOs in an effort to get used to it, however, we never really managed to gel with it, due to its poor ergonomics.

The PTFE skates and weight allowed the mouse to feel great, with a long battery life that we only had to charge twice during our testing. But it just doesn’t have it where it really counts, when it comes to actually using it for an MMO.

Steelseries GG allowed us to customize all of our inputs to our heart’s content, and we found that it worked well. Though, the battery blinking issues from the Aerox 3 also persist here, too. You can customize the RGB all you like, but in an effort to preserve battery life while in use, we switched it off.

Should you buy it?

Despite Steelseries’ best efforts, we do not recommend the Aerox 9 Wireless compared to other MMO mice that you can purchase. Yes, it’s very lightweight, but the ergonomic sacrifices you have to make to use it pale in comparison to other options available on the market right now.

We wished that Steelseries took some notes from other MMO mice, but for now, there are certainly better options out there. Check out how to find the best mouse for you.

6/10

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