Alienware Pro Wireless Review

There’s a lot to be said for the uncomplicated things in life. Bread and butter. A frigid beer on a radiant afternoon. My brain on a Wednesday. Alienware seems to agree, because its latest mouse isn’t what you’d call feature-packed. In fact, out of the box, it seems almost simplistic to the point of being overly uncomplicated.

The Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse is, at first glance, just that — a wireless gaming mouse. Available in black or white, it has a left button, a right button, a scroll wheel (with a click, of course), two side buttons, and a hidden power switch underneath opposite. All of this, for a low, low price. 150 dollars/127 pounds.

Wait, that’s not a budget-friendly price for a gaming mouse, is it? You can get the Razer Deathadder V3 Pro for about the same amount of money, and while it currently sits at the top of our list of the best gaming mice, we’ve pointed out that it’s still a lot of money for a mouse with a confined number of buttons.

As you might expect, like with Razer, you’re not paying for customization or flashy aesthetics. Instead, Alienware is making claims of improved, super-fast performance, with polling rates of up to 4kHz over wireless and 8kHz over wired, giving it response times of 0.25ms and 0.125ms, respectively. With an optical sensor with 26,000 DPI movement resolution and a couple of magnetic key plates for quick, sticky-button clicks, everything about this mouse’s specs screams speed.

The first thing you’ll notice, though, is the glide. On the bottom are two huge PTFE feet that keep the Pro Wireless up, and when paired with a decent mouse pad, they’re as sleek as silk. So much so that just sliding this mouse around is quite a pleasant experience due to the tangibility of the effect.

The sleek movement is aided by the weight, or lack thereof in this case. I usually prefer heavier mice, but the Alienware Pro weighs just 59 grams, making it so delicate that — combined with those gliding feet — the slightest movement of a finger smoothly moves it in the right direction. Alienware may have created the first hedgehog mouse, or at least one that mimics it well.

Customization and settings are handled by the Alienware Command Center, which sounds like it’s preparing the little mouse for its first space travel, but unfortunately it’s not. Instead, a uncomplicated settings interface lets you rebind confined buttons, set macros, and tweak DPI profiles and polling rates, as well as sleep mode settings, launch distance adjustments, and battery saver settings.

It’s actually an incredibly spotless layout, with a grayscale aesthetic that’s thankfully clear to read and simple to employ. Again, simplicity. Simplicity can be good.

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Battery life is rated at 32 hours at 4 kHz or 120 hours at 1 kHz polling. It’s simple to switch between the two in the app, so I keep the lower setting for everyday employ and switch to the faster polling for gaming.

Oh well. Super-fast polling rates and ultra-fast sensors. I’ve previously complained about my dislike for esports-oriented gaming peripherals like this, arguing that if you don’t have the response time of a gnat, you’re paying for performance you don’t really need. Has the little Alienware changed my mind?

No. Not really. That said, the sleek glide combined with the precise feel of this mouse is undoubtedly a pleasure to employ in fast-paced shooters. There are a lot of things about this little squeaky-clean mouse that I don’t particularly like on paper, but in employ they come together to create a package that actually feels quite nice — and incredibly responsive — under your fingertips.

Mouse Tester’s graphs show a reasonable score, with the proximity of the dots indicating the consistency of the sensor’s movement reporting (though I admit the smoothness of my movements could be better). In practice, the Alienware Pro seemed correct enough in the games I tested it with, even if the meaty thing behind it wasn’t the most talented.

It’s delicate, rapid, has a pleasant feel in most cases (the left and right mouse buttons have a specific click-bounce combination that’s very satisfying once you get used to it), and behaves well. It’s never once jammed or lost connection, and the ability to charge quickly, combined with uncomplicated DPI switching, means it’s simple to keep the battery life on top.

What I don’t like, however, comes in two parts. The first concerns the two side buttons. For a mouse that feels so sophisticated in so many ways, the two side buttons have a spongy quality that feels a little gross, as well as a hollow-touch surface that betrays a lot of effort to reduce weight behind the mechanism.

I understand it’s supposed to be lightweight, but I’d happily add another 5 grams for two (for my personal employ, quite critical) buttons that don’t feel so cushioned when I press them. There aren’t many buttons here, so two of them feeling a bit budget-friendly and ugly are a no-no for me.

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The second is the price. Yes, it’s time for me to hit that esports mark again: $150 for a mouse that relies on super-fast response times over useful extra features still feels like paying for speed you don’t need. Yes, the Razer Deathadder V3 Pro is just as steep, but it looks and feels more premium, with its micro-textured coating, stylish, extended buttons, and side buttons with a more positive feel.

It also has a higher-rated sensor, 30,000 DPI, if you really want maximum speed and accuracy. Horses to rails and all that. Or the Razer Viper V3 Pro, just $8 more but with a 35,000 DPI sensor. The Viper can also handle 8 kHz wirelessly, thanks to Razer’s Hyperpolling system.

Still, the Alienware is so sophisticated in many ways that it almost seems polite. Aside from the shiny silver alien head on top, there’s nothing here that tells you this is a high-performance gaming mouse. That’s a boon for some, and perhaps a bit of a letdown for others.

However, once you start moving it around, you get a sense of where some of that money went. If only a little more had been invested in the side buttons and perhaps the coating (it’s okay, but nothing special), it would really feel like a more premium item. But putting that aside for a moment, the Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse is uncomplicated, polite, and for the most part well thought out.

The thing I struggle with the most is the price. The market for super-light, rapid mice is fiercely competitive, and Razer isn’t the only one making tempting models. The Logitech Pro X Superlight 2 weighs just a gram more, costs about the same, and yet, like the Deathadder V3 Pro and Viper V3 Pro, it also has side buttons that feel solid. These are three similarly priced mice without that significant drawback.

I’d still go with either Razer if I wanted something steep but ultra-fast. At least there the whole package is as high-quality as the MSRP suggests.