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With Asus' ROG brand turning 20 years old this year, it has announced a whole pile of fancy black and gold gaming gear at Computex. Its new 82 g mouse is just as fancy as you'd expect and comes with some truly outrageous specs.
Called the ROG Harpe II Extreme Edition 20, Asus's new gaming mouse has "Authentic 24K gold-plated detailing", as well as a black translucent shell. The first time I saw it, I thought it looked a bit like it had cardboard internals (because gold under black certainly muted the colour palette a tad), but I don't think it looks bad by any stretch.
With it, you get a max 8,000 Hz polling rate (both wired and wireless), along with Asus's own ROG 100M optical micro switches, and a 65K DPI sensor. Those are truly absurdly high specs. The Razer Viper V4 Pro, our pick for the best gaming mouse, also goes up to 8,000 Hz polling but only 50,000 DPI. However, the max polling and max DPI of both of these gaming mice are arguably too much for 99% of players, and 8k polling often isn't worth the battery drain for a wireless mouse.
82 g is a good bit heftier than the V4 Pro, and I suspect that could have something to do with the gold internals. It is based on the Harpe II Ace (which is only 48 grams), and Asus says its shape was developed with the help of esports pros.
Asus also notes it comes in a "display-ready presentation box", and that box seems to come with stickers, a cable, the connectors, and a keyring of some kind. Asus has also announced the ROG Azoth Extreme Edition 20, which is a black and gold-themed variant of the ROG Azoth gaming keyboard.
We don't yet have a confirmed price point on either bit of PC gear, but the PCMR channel on X reckons the ROG Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 will be available as of June 2 for a whopping $260. That's a lot of cash, even for something with gold plating and high specs. The Viper V4 Pro isn't exactly cheap, but it's still $100 below that price.
I have reached out to Asus to try to confirm the release date/price point, but no such confirmation has been given yet.
As with all of Asus' ROG 20th anniversary items, this gaming mouse seems like a commemorative item, more so than something you'd just buy to simply use. And I'd imagine you'd need to have quite a bit of cash burning a hole in your pocket to consider it. Here's looking at you, Xbox Ally X20 bundle.
1. Best wireless:
Razer Viper V4 Pro
2. Best wired:
Logitech G502 X
3. Best budget wireless:
Mchose G3 V2 Pro
4. Best budget wired:
Glorious Model O Eternal
5. Best competitive:
Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike
6. Best lightweight:
Corsair Sabre V2 Pro
7. Best MMO:
Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless SE
8. Best small:
Razer Cobra HyperSpeed
9. Best ambidextrous:
Logitech G Pro
10. Best ergonomic:
Keychron M5
11. Best customizable:
Orbital Pathfinder
