SteelSeries PRIME and PRIME+ Review

👤by Tim Harmer Comments 📅10-07-21
Technical Specifications

Model:- SteelSeries PRIME+

Back Cover Material:- Black Matte Finish
Core Construction:- ABS Plastic
Shape:- Ergonomic, Right-Handed
Grip Style:- Claw, Fingertip, or Palm
Number of Buttons:- 6
Input:- USB

Sensor:- SteelSeries TrueMove Pro+
Sensor Type:- Optical
CPI:- 18000 CPI
IPS:- 450 (validated on SteelSeries QcK surfaces)
Polling Rate:- 1000Hz / 1ms
Acceleration:- 50G
Hardware Acceleration:- None (Zero Hardware Acceleration)

Switch Type (Left, Right):- Prestige OM™ mechanical switches
Switch Durability:- 100 million clicks

Illumination:- 1-Zone RGB (mouse wheel)
Weight:- 71g (without cable)
Length:- 125.3 mm
Width:- 59 mm (front), 67.9 mm (back)
Height:- 23 mm (front), 42.4 mm (back)
Super Mesh Cable Length:- 2m (detachable), USB-A to USB-C

Model:- SteelSeries PRIME

As above, excepting

Sensor:- SteelSeries TrueMove Pro
Weight:- 69g


TrueMove Pro Sensor

SteelSeries’ PRIME debuts the latest generation of TrueMove optical sensors, the TrueMove Pro. A development made in collaboration with PixArt, the TrueMove Pro offers 1-to-1 tracking and a tilt tracking algorithm that eliminates unwanted vectors during angled drops, tilt slams, and quick flicks.



So what’s a tilt-slam? When swiftly moving the mouse across the mat in the thick of the action it's not uncommon to start with the mouse at a slight angle from the surface. A tilt slam is when you quickly bring the mouse down level with the surface at the end of your left/right motion, and can cause the sensor to spin out (i.e. interpret the action as you moving up/down quickly), pointing you up or down in-game.

The importance of tilt-slam compensation is often debated in FPS communities but, so long as other sensor dynamics are on point, it’s a boon that most would welcome with open arms.

The Pro+ sensor variant is equipped with one additional feature: a dedicated lift-off sensor. It allows the user to adjust their lift-off distance from 0.5mm up to 2mm, based on their particular preferences. The sensor window is located just above the main sensor in the centre of the mouse base.

Prestige OM™ Switch

Just as with keyboards, mouse switches are a continuing source of evolutionary design. And just as with keyboards, mice manufacturers have begun to look to the potential afforded by optical sensors over purely mechanical types.

The PRIME series introduces Prestige OM™ switches, a hybrid optical-mechanical implementation intended to give greater long-term consistency and durability to the two main buttons well beyond the typical 50 million clicks.



As you can see, Prestige OM switches are considerably more complex than standard mechanical designs, but there is method to the madness. A long-lever spring would last considerably longer than the thin metal of a traditional microswitch, a magnetic resistive point shouldn’t degrade over time, and an optical break to determine actuation effectively eliminates the debouncing effect of electro-mechanical implementations. Prestige OM switches are rated at 100 million clicks, and the feel of each button-press should not change significantly over the mouse’s lifetime.

All three PRIME models are equipped with Prestige OM switches.

PRIME+ OLED Display

SteelSeries are no strangers to integrating OLED displays into their premium mice. This particular implementation harks back to the original Sensei which integrated a small LCD panel into the base for identification and on-board profile cycling, but adds quite a bit of functionality into the mix with a crisp monochrome OLED matrix.



Key configuration settings - CPI, polling rate, lift-off distance - can all be configured through the display without the use of software. Menus can be navigated and settings edited by using the LMB, RMB and scroll wheel in a manner that’s pretty intuitive. This will be important under tournament conditions where proprietary mouse software may not be allowed.

Limited on-board configuration functionality is also available to the base PRIME and PRIME WIRELESS models. Regardless of model, settings are stored in a single on-board profile, while software can store many more.

And as a final little twist, it’s also possible to set up the default display of a particular image or logo as a wallpaper of sorts, personalising your PRIME+ in a few simple clicks.


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