Our Verdict
The SteelSeries Rival 600 is a very good mouse for office use. It has an excellent build quality and a great degree of customization. Unfortunately, it isn't wireless, but this might not be that important in office environments. The ergonomics of this mouse are excellent, but it's primarily designed for use with the right hand. Finally, if you have small hands, this mouse isn't a good choice.
- Great for gaming.
- Excellent performance.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Excellent customization.
- Not great for traveling due to wired-only use.
- Not recommended for smaller hands.
- Rigid cable.
This is a great mouse for use with FPS video games. Although the mouse has excellent overall performance and is highly customizable with a large number of buttons, its on the heavier side. Nevertheless, it has a very low latency and has exceptional ergonomics, so you can customize it to your liking, and has excellent build quality. Unfortunately, this mouse isn't suitable if you have small hands.
- Great for gaming.
- Excellent performance.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Excellent customization.
- Not great for traveling due to wired-only use.
- Not recommended for smaller hands.
- Rigid cable.
The SteelSeries Rival 600 is an amazing mouse for playing MMO video games. It has a few programmable buttons and an excellent build quality. The accompanying software is very versatile, and the ergonomics allow you to customize it to your liking. Unfortunately, if you have small hands, this mouse isn't ideal as you won't be able to reach some buttons.
- Great for gaming.
- Excellent performance.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Excellent customization.
- Not great for traveling due to wired-only use.
- Not recommended for smaller hands.
- Rigid cable.
This mouse is decent for ultra-light gaming. You can reduce its heavy weight by getting rid of all the weights, but it's still heavier than most ultra-light gaming mice.
- Great for gaming.
- Excellent performance.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Excellent customization.
- Not great for traveling due to wired-only use.
- Not recommended for smaller hands.
- Rigid cable.
The SteelSeries Rival 600 is a poor mouse for those who travel a lot. It's an always-wired mouse that's not comfortable to carry around.
- Great for gaming.
- Excellent performance.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Excellent customization.
- Not great for traveling due to wired-only use.
- Not recommended for smaller hands.
- Rigid cable.
Changelog
- Updated Oct 28, 2020: We incorrectly indicated that there's a thumb wheel. It has been corrected.
- Updated Oct 06, 2020: Converted to Test Bench 1.0.
- Updated Sep 30, 2020: We've retested the Rival 600 and changed the hand size recommendations for claw and fingertip grips.
- Updated Dec 20, 2019: Converted to Test Bench 0.8.1.
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Popular Mouse Comparisons
The SteelSeries Rival 600 is a rather heavy gaming mouse and it sets itself apart by its satisfying click. It has superb performance with a great ergonomic design, but people with small hands might feel it's too big for them. You can also reduce the weight of the mouse tremendously, although this might affect the comfort of your grip. Also see our recommendations for the best gaming mouse, the best FPS mouse, and the best wired mouse.
The SteelSeries Rival 600 is a precursor to the SteelSeries Rival 5. The Rival 5 is significantly lighter, has an upgraded cable, better mouse feet, and a toggle switch with up/down inputs in the side button cluster. It also has a somewhat lower click latency and a new sensor with a higher maximum CPI. On the other hand, the Rival 600 includes a set of eight 4-gram weights if you prefer a heavier mouse or want to change the center of gravity. Both mice are ideal for all grip types but only for larger hands.
The SteelSeries Rival 600 and the Logitech G502 HERO are great wired gaming mice. Both mice should be comfortable with any grip type for everyone except those with small hands, though medium-sized hands may have a hard time with fingertip grip on the Logitech. The Logitech has a slightly better cable, more programmable buttons, and a much better scroll wheel. On the other hand, the SteelSeries is lighter and has better ergonomics.
The SteelSeries Rival 500 is a better wired MMO mouse than the SteelSeries Rival 600. The 500 can be used by all hand sizes with a palm grip, and only small hands will have a difficult time reaching all the buttons with a claw grip, while the 600 is too long for people with small hands with any grip type. While both mice are designed for MMO games, the Rival 500 has more than double the amount of programmable buttons. On the other hand, the Rival 600 is quite a bit lighter, so it may be a better choice if you're a fan of FPS games.
The Razer DeathAdder V2 is a slightly better gaming mouse than the SteelSeries Rival 600. It has a much better cable that feels lightweight and doesn't keep as many kinks as the SteelSeries' cable. The Razer is also noticeably lighter than the SteelSeries. On the other hand, the SteelSeries has an extra side button and comes with extra weights if you prefer a heavier mouse. Also, it's fully compatible with macOS, which the Razer isn't, as you can't download Synapse on macOS.
Test Results
The SteelSeries Rival 600 has a typical gamer look with a few aggressive angles. It's made of plastic and is a mix of black and gray. The side panels are removable, enabling weight customization, and the mouse has eight RGB zones, including the large logo on the back. There are three customizable buttons on the left side that make the mouse quite versatile but are only suitable for use with the right hand.
This mouse has poor overall portability. It's slightly bulky due to the lack of provision for bundling the cable.
It's highly customizable, as you can remove the side panels and adjust the eight 4-gram weights any way you like. This means that you can achieve a center of gravity that'll satisfy your needs, but still is on the heavier side.
The SteelSeries Rival 600's overall build quality is remarkable. The entire build feels sturdy, as there's no squeaking or shaking. The sides attach magnetically and feel very solid. Finally, the mouse has a very nice click.
The SteelSeries Rival 600 has outstanding ergonomics. The removable silicone-made side panels have a nice grip. While the panels and the buttons are on, the button placement makes this mouse only suitable for right-handed use. If you remove the side panels for lightweight gaming, this mouse becomes ambidextrous. Unfortunately, this mouse may not suitable for small hands with any of the common grips.
The palm grip is good for most hand sizes, but may not be suitable for small hand sizes as you may not reach some buttons easily.
Update 09/30/2020: We've retested the SteelSeries Rival 600 using a claw grip. The recommendation for medium-size hands has been changed from 'Yes' to 'No', as it can be difficult for some to reach the sniper button.
The claw grip is suitable for most hand sizes, but small hands may not be able to reach some buttons.
Update 09/30/2020: We've retested the SteelSeries Rival 600 using a fingertip grip. For medium-size hands, the sniper button is difficult to reach, and it's also hard to keep a good grip on the mouse when moving quickly or lifting. The recommendation for medium hands has been changed from 'Yes' to 'No'.
The SteelSeries Rival 600 is difficult to use with the fingertip grip if you have a small hand, as reaching some buttons might not be comfortable.
The SteelSeries Rival 600 is a wired-only mouse. If you want the wireless version, check out the SteelSeries Rival 650.
The cable that comes with this mouse is mediocre. Even though it's detachable, you have to always use it as there's no battery or any other connectivity method. It's probably made like this for easy replacement or transport. Unfortunately, the bends from the packaging are hard to straighten out, and since this is a wired-only mouse, this can be annoying.
- Rival 600 Gaming Mouse
- Product Information Guide
- Detachable USB cable
- Weight box with eight 4g weights
The SteelSeries Rival 600 has two sensors: one for tracking, like all mice, and one for depth. This way, the mouse minimizes the unnecessary movement when you pick it up and put it down. If you're interested in a similar gaming mouse with multiple sensors as well as a maximum polling rate of 8000Hz, check out the EVGA X17.
Update 02/28/2020: We've updated the number of programmable inputs to '9' as we had previously not counted the ability to reprogram both the scroll up and down inputs.
The SteelSeries Rival 600 has a great number of buttons, all of which can be customized. The CPI switching button can only switch between two different CPI settings, which might be limiting in some games or applications. If you want a similar mouse that has more programmable buttons, check out the SteelSeries Rival 500
Update 10/28/2020: We incorrectly indicated that there's a thumb wheel. It has been corrected.
The SteelSeries Rival 600 has a mediocre mouse wheel with fairly precise, incremental scrolling. If you're interested in a gaming mouse with a scroll wheel that has left and right tilt buttons, check out the HyperX Pulsefire Raid.
The click latency of the SteelSeries Rival 600 is very low and it will feel very responsive. Most people won't notice any delay.
The SteelSeries Rival 600's accompanying software is excellent. It allows you to customize your mouse, and you can save your changes to the onboard memory so that you can use it on another computer. We noticed, however, that the mouse uses the onboard memory as long as the other computer doesn't have the SteelSeries Engine 3 software installed. In this case, the software settings prevail over the onboard memory.