SteelSeries Aerox 5 Wireless Mouse review: Swift tactility

SteelSeries’ offerings cover the full range of necessary gaming gear, including a line of mice for both the most competitive and casual gamers out there. The Aerox 5 Wireless is the latest superlight mouse from the company, and I got to take it for a spin ahead of its release. The SteelSeries Aerox 5 Wireless Mouse is an excellent option for those looking to make the jump to wireless.

Smooth and tactile

The first thing that stood out to me about the Aerox 5 Wireless is its design, both visually and physically. The mouse maintains the hollow diamondback design of previous mice, allowing you to see some of the inner parts of the device. While I was initially worried that this would feel weird, the texture actually feels quite nice under my palm.

Although the mouse is hollow, the Aerox 5 Wireless has an Aquabarrier that protects the circuitry inside from beverages, dust, and oil. I decided not to directly pour water into my mouse in order to test the integrity of this, but there didn’t seem to be any issues during the week I spent with the mouse.

More on the physical feel of the mouse, the Aerox 5 Wireless feels comfortable to rest my hands on. A lot of light computer mice sacrifice comfortability for weight, but the Aerox 5 manages to feature a design that’s bulky-feeling while still being incredibly light. The left and right mouse buttons in particular are grooved, making them a comfortable resting place for my fingers. The buttons also feel tactile and satisfying to press. They take just the slightest bit more pressure to actually press in comparison to my previous mouse, but I think I prefer it that way. Playing tactical shooters like Valorant, it was nice to not accidentally fire my weapon as I anxiously stared down a corner.

Quick and convenient

The Aerox 5 Wireless Mouse sports a total of nine buttons, with 5 of them being on the side of the device. They’re placed in such a way that makes them easy to access without having to move your thumb around too much. I particularly like the paddle that could be used for two different inputs when flipped either down or up. It opened up additional options for keybindings when gaming.

One button on the mouse that feels underwhelming is the mouse wheel, specifically when scrolling it. Something about actually scrolling the wheel just doesn’t feel as sharp and tactile as everything else on the mouse. This can probably be attributed to the odd shallow grooves on the wheel. I often found myself running my finger over the wheel without it actually moving initially. Deeper grooves and a better pattern probably would have improved the grip and eliminated this issue.

In a flash

As a wireless mouse, the Aerox 5 Wireless comes with a cable that you plug into your PCs USB port and then connect to a dongle, placing it as close to your mouse as possible. This helped to maintain a solid connection despite not having the mouse all that close to the PC itself. I always found it to be very quick and responsive.

The mouse features RGB, which can be customized using SteelSeries Engine. It’s not too flashy, providing just enough light to be a visually pleasing addition to my setup. It also does a neat thing where the mouse will flash a color to indicate its battery life when waking it up or turning it on. I can appreciate any PC accessory that makes a functional use out of RGB.

I also found the battery life on the Aerox 5 Wireless to be pretty solid. On a full charge, it was more than enough to get me through a full day of working and playing video games. Though I typically put my mouse on the charger every evening before bed, it was nice that it wasn’t completely out of juice the next morning if I forgot to do so.

Light luxury

The SteelSeries Aerox 5 Wireless Mouse is an impressive device that’s comfortable to use, responsive, and light. It’s served me well across a variety of different games, and outside of an uncharacteristically mediocre scroll wheel, all of its buttons and pads feel tactile. The Aerox 5 Wireless Mouse is available at SteelSeries for $79.99 USD.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_