Steelseries sent over its brand new Aerox 3 Wireless mouse for review purposes and we were quite excited to give this a try. The new Aerox 3 Wireless is a refreshed, improved version of the Aerox 3 mouse that was released in 2020.

We previously looked at what was branded the “BEST ESPORTS MOUSE” 2021 last year, the Steelseries Prime Mini Wireless, so the Aerox 3 already has some tough competition from its own kin.

The Aerox 3 Wireless (2022) excels in its lightweight, rigid and ambidextrous design combined with an exceptionally good sensor. The full mouse specifications are as follows.

Technical Specifications

• Sensor: SteelSeries TrueMove Air.
• Sensor Type: Optical.
• CPI: 200– 8,500 in 100 CPI Increments.
• IPS: 400, on SteelSeries QcK surfaces.
• Acceleration: 40G.
• Polling Rate: 1000Hz / 1 ms.
• Hardware Acceleration: None (Zero Hardware Acceleration).
• Back Cover Material: Black Matte Finish (Onyx) | White Matte Finish (Snow).
• Core Construction: ABS Plastic.
• Shape: Ergonomic, Right-Handed.
• Grip Style: Claw, Fingertip, or Palm.
• Number of Buttons: Six.
• Switch Type: SteelSeries mechanical switches, rated for 80 million clicks.
• Illumination: 3 RGB Zones.
• Weight: 68g.
• Length: 120.55mm / 4.75 inches.
• Width: 57.91mm / 2.28 inches (front), 67.03mm / 2.64 inches (back).
• Height: 21.53mm / 0.85 inches (front), 37.98mm / 1.50 inches (back).
• Super Mesh Cable Length: 1.8m / six feet.
• OS: Windows, Mac, Xbox, and Linux. USB port required.
• Software: SteelSeries Engine, for Windows (7 or newer) and Mac OSX (10.13 or newer).
• Package Contents: Product Information Guide Download Aerox 3 (2022) Product Information Guide, Aerox 3 (2022) Gaming Mouse, USB Type-C to USB Type-A Super Mesh Data/Charging Cable.

Ultra Lightweight Design

Diving straight into the mouse’s overall design, Steelseries have opted for a symmetrical look. The mouse is described as being ambidextrous but the lack of side buttons on the right hand side do affect its overall symmetry and make it more suited to right-handed users.

Sorry Left-handed users, you might be disappointed by this.

The top surface of the mouse features a white matte ABS plastic finish with diamond shaped holes in it. These are, of course, cut into the surface of the mouse to decrease its weight and make it an “Ultra Lightweight” peripheral. Coming in at 68 grams, this is an incredibly lightweight mouse that can easily compete with some well-known brands that have similar products.

Unfortunately for Steelseries though, this isn’t the lightest gaming mouse out there since a competing brand does have a product that’s a whole 19 grams lighter. This shouldn’t really be a problem for the average gamer or even pro-gamer though because the exceptionally good performance of the Aerox 3 is its standout feature.

Even at 68 grams, it feels great to use and your hand automatically adjusts itself into a comfortable position when gripping the mouse. Whether you use a palm, claw or finger grip, the matte finish on the Aerox 3 feels great and even users with larger hands shouldn’t have any issues with it.

The mouse wheel has a patterned tread to it and has increments which can be felt when using it to scroll. Some users prefer mice that have wheels that can freely spin wildly whereas others prefer the indented feel.

We’re firmly in the latter camp and love how the wheel feels on the Aerox 3 with just the right level of force necessary to get it to move.

Clicking the left and right mouse buttons feels ridiculously good with the Steelseries Golden Micro IP54 mechanical switches actuating without much sound. Compared to the Steelseries Prime Mini Wireless, the Aerox 3 is definitely quieter with the added benefit of being dust and water resistant.

The additional buttons on the mouse on the left hand side deliver a very satisfying click. A bit more of a separation between them would have been appreciated though so as to prevent misclicking the wrong button.

There isn’t any additional button to enable an alternative function either so if you’re looking to set up numerous macros, this isn’t the mouse for you. When clicking the counts per inch (CPI) toggle button, the mouse will illuminate in a different colour which is associated with the default presets for the CPI in its settings.

Moving the Steelseries Aerox 3 Wireless around on a surface is an effortless endeavour with the mouse’s ultra light weight coming into play. The 100 percent Virgin Grade PTFE feet located at the bottom of the mouse glide along any surface with minimum effort applied but there is a slight caveat to them in that they make a bit of a scratchy sound.

This leads us to believe that they will be worn down a bit over an extended period of time depending on the surface you’re using the mouse on. We tested the mouse on both wood and cloth surfaces and it responded fine on either.

The bottom side of the mouse also features a slidable button which is used to power the mouse on/off and swap it between Bluetooth and 2.4ghz Wireless modes. If you do use the mouse in Bluetooth mode, you should be warned that you will effectively be using it in an extremely watered down mode with the polling rate being capped at 125Hz instead of the default 1 000Hz.

When it comes to the mouse’s overall performance with regards to movement, the TrueMove Air Sensor co-developed with PixArt is an exceptionally good one to one tracking sensor. It provides 8 500 CPI, 400 inches per second (IPS) and up to 40G acceleration support.

Steelseries’ GG software enables up to 18 000 CPI and it’s highly recommended that users install the software to make full use of the mouse’s features. There are three RGB lighting zones available and changing the lighting is super easy to do in the software suite.

We did, however, encounter an issue during our initial setup with the mouse not responding to lighting changes made in the software suite. This was resolved by simply switching it on and off again and it never happened again during our testing.

Being a wireless mouse, the Aerox 3 has an advertised battery life of 80 hours. However, as with the Prime Mini Wireless, this is misleading since it depends on a variety of factors such as keeping the RGB lighting set to default and enabling “High-Efficiency” mode in the Steelseries GG software suite.

Enabling “High-Efficiency” mode however kneecaps the mouse by lowering the polling rate down to 125Hz. This is fine for daily office usage but definitely not for gaming.

Steelseries software suite also does not let you change the CPI in smaller increments than 100 and competing brands are ahead of them in this regard. You also cannot see exactly what percentage of battery life is remaining with only a battery icon being available in the software suite.

In fact, we said the exact same thing in our Prime Mini Wireless review and these two problems are definitely an issue that Steelseries needs to address with future products and their software.

The Aerox 3 Wireless ships with a lengthy 1.8 metre long lightweight, yet tough, USB Type-C to USB Type-A “Super Mesh” data/charging cable. There’s also an extension dongle for plugging the Type-C cable into and the wireless receiver itself which is also Type-C.

Throughout our usage of the mouse, the signal never dropped at all in both Wireless and Bluetooth modes and you can thankfully use the mouse while charging it via the USB cable. It also supports fast charging and won’t need to be plugged in for long periods of time to return to full power.

Final Verdict

Overall, in our time with the Steelseries Aerox 3, we found it incredibly responsive to use and never encountered any real problems with it.

If you’re a competitive gamer or even a casual one, the Steelseries Aerox 3 Wireless is a great mouse but one that comes with a hefty price tag.

You’re paying for a quality device here with barely any flaws other than those which come down to personal preference (Mouse wheel, side buttons) and convenience (Battery life percentage, lower CPI increments).

At roughly around R1 700, this is a pricey mouse, but one that won’t let you down when you need it. If you don’t need it to be wireless, its wired counterpart is significantly cheaper too and should not be overlooked.