OMEN HP Wired USB Gaming Mouse with SteelSeries Review
The OMEN PC gaming line by HP is the spiritual successor to the Vooodoo PC gaming company that was acquired by HP over a decade ago, the components and computers are heavily influence by past Voodoo designs sporting the trademark tribal mask logo.
This midline/lightweight OMEN gaming mouse(SteelSeries Rival 300) has a matte finish and refined rubber grips on each side that I actually like the more I use this mouse. It's a good looking gaming mouse and even with its bright illumination, it's not too flashy.
It has 6 buttons: two up top, two on the left side by your thumb, and two on the top center of the mouse(including scroll wheel). The primary buttons feel rigid, there's no creaking of the plastic or bending when pressed and there's a solid pronounced "click" when pressed. The secondary side buttons are also crafted well.
There's very little clearance between fully depressed and released allowing for quick, responsive clicks. The scroll wheel is rubber with ribs across and the internal detents keep you from accidentally over-scrolling past the position you want without being too restrictive. I also like the way the mouse tracks, it's smooth and accurate with customizable DPI up to 6500 via the SteelSeries software. The cord is a slightly shorter than my Razer Death Adder Black by a few inches but it's still plenty long at 80inches. As I mentioned before, this mouse is light. So if you want a mouse with some heft... You'll probably want to look elsewhere.
The mouse doesn't come with a disc or software but in the booklet the very short instructions state "Go to hp.com/support, Get Software and Driver and follow instructions". Sort of bland, but I went to the address and typed in OMEN Mouse in the search bar and under HP Accessories & Parts clicked on OMEN by HP Mouse with SteelSeries, I then downloaded the file sp77026.exe and proceeded to install the SteelSeries Engine setup. HP's website has never been the easiest to navigate but in case you're looking for the software, that's how you obtain it. After installation I was prompted for a firmware update for the mouse during which the mouse powered down, then the LED emitted blue and a few seconds later it completed and I was able to use the software.
You can customize the 6 buttons in various ways including binding them to a dedicated keyboard key. You can customize both the OMEN logo and scroll wheel LEDs with up to 16 million colors whichever way you want(I went for Blue logo, Green scroll wheel); keep them default red or mix it up. It's easy to use and a pretty cool feature to play around with. While this mouse doesn't have dedicated increase and decrease DPI buttons, by using the SteelSeries software you can configure two different sensitivity levels and then click the center mouse button below the scroll wheel to alternate between them. I personally tend not to switch between the two all that much but at least it's quick and simple to adjust. There are plenty of other features to play around with such as angle snapping or acceleration and deceleration which modifies the takeoff and landing movements of the cursor based on the settings you apply.
