SteelSeries CES 2016 – New Rival 700 Mouse With OLED Display And Tactile Feedback

We’re familiar with SteelSeries. Last year, their Sentry was included in our best of CES piece and we’ve looked at many of their devices over the years. Meeting with the team earlier today, it was happy to show us its new Rival 700 gaming mouse. To some, a mouse is a mouse is a mouse is a…, but the Rival 700 stands out from the pack with a couple of neat features that we’ve not seen on other devices.

The first new feature is an OLED screen built into the side of the mouse, just under the left button. The fully customizable display can be programmed through SteelSeries’ software, even with .GIFs, providing an animated display on the side of the mouse.

The second, and honestly more useful feature, is tactile alerts. Working with game developers to write their software to work with individual games, the Rival 700 can alert gamers to programmable in-game achievements like headshots and low ammo alerting. With internal motors that move vertically, the tactile feedback will not in anyway alter the mouse’s movement, allowing the precision aiming of gamers to continue unaltered.

Other features of the Rival 700 include its 16,000 CPI sensor (counts per inch, the more accurate term to describe a mouse sensor’s sensitivity – interchangeable with DPI), 7 configurable buttons, color controls, and a swappable cable – 6ft braided for the desktop, and 3ft rubber for mobiles and laptops.

One thing that certainly seems like the oddity here, is the Rival 700’s replaceable sensors. Should a new sensor unit come out that you desire, you can replace just the sensor unit instead of the whole mouse, making it that much more modular. There are also custom top-panels as well, to spruce up the usual all-black rubberized coatings these mice usually come with.

Price is set to be around $99.99 / €109.99 for the mouse itself, with no word yet on the cost of the sensor and covers. Availability is set for some time this spring. To be notified of the Rival 700’s release, you can head on over to SteelSeries’ website, and for more technical information, check out the press release.