If you like your gaming mice jam-packed with features, the HyperX Pulsefire Surge RGB doesn't disappoint.
First up, gamers and graphic designers will appreciate the inclusion of a dedicated DPI button just below the scroll wheel. This allows for on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment, perfect for lining up precise sniper shots or making other small adjustments without the need for exaggerated mouse movements.
Handily, the DPI button also acts as a modifier button for on-the-fly customisation of the Surge's RGB lighting. Pressing the DPI button in conjunction with the mouse wheel lets you swap between the three onboard lighting profiles, while pressing it at the same time as the forward or back thumb buttons will increase or decrease the brightness of the Surge's LED lights.
The custom lighting options are just as impressive. Despite being just the second device to make use of HyperX's new NGenuity software – the first being the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB – the Surge supports a hefty number of tweakable settings. Along with having the standard 16.8-million colours of the RGB spectrum to choose from, you can apply one of five different lighting effects: a basic solid colour, a breathing pattern, a wave pattern, a trigger pattern that lights up whenever you press a button or a pattern that cycles through multiple colours.
That's hardly it for the customisation, either. All but the solid colour option can be set to cycle through multiple colours or use the entire RGB spectrum. The speed and direction of lighting patterns can be adjusted, too, allowing for even more versatility. If that's not enough, lighting enthusiasts can go hog wild on the Surge by picking out different colours for each of the mouse's LEDs – HyperX logo included.
If you're more of a function-over-form person, the Surge has you covered here, too. To complement the on-the-fly DPI switching, you can define your own preferred DPI profiles, up to a maximum of five at any one time. You can assign each profile a colour, too, and the Surge will light up accordingly to help you distinguish settings when switching in the heat of battle. Supported DPI values range from a minimum of 100 all the way up to 16,000.
Like the HyperX Alloy Elite RGB, the Surge makes it simple to build your own macros and rebind buttons to suit your work or play style. Not only can you re-assign any of the Surge's six buttons to mimic any other mouse or keyboard button, you can set them to run programs, adjust DPI or perform practically any function you can think of by recording your own macro through the NGenuity software. And if you find yourself gripping the mouse a little too hard during tense moments and accidentally pressing the thumb or mouse wheel buttons, you can simply disable those buttons outright. For clumsy oafs like myself, this is a big plus.
There's also a simple toggle for left-handed and right-handed mode, which is useful not just for different players but for different desk configurations.