UtechSmart Venus Gaming Mouse RGB Wired, 16400 DPI High Precision Laser Programmable MMO Computer Gaming Mice [IGNs Recommendation]

Edit: 8 months later, I still love this mouse! The UtechSmart VENUS Pro wins my award for the Best Ergonomic Wireless Productivity Mouse of 2020. I am a mouse enthusiast, and this is my 9th and favorite mouse. PROs: 1. With 16 buttons, I have been able to program keyboard shortcuts to operate from my mouse, and I love it. My coworkers are jealous of my ability to mute and unmute our conference calls with a dedicated mouse button. 2. The ability to switch between wireless and corded is really cool. 3. The lights are cool. 4. Ergonomics are great. The ergonomics of this mouse are so good I almost forgot to mention it, because it feels so good I quit thinking about it. I have rejected other ergonomic mice because they werent big enough, but this mouse fills up my hand allowing me to hold a nice round shape and reach the buttons comfortably. Most ergonomic mice are too small or flat such that I have to distort or shrink my hand to grip them. Of the 12 side buttons, there are two buttons that I cant reach easily. I suppose I can reach them, but I have to adjust my grip enough that I usually dont bother. If you dont use those 2 buttons, you will still have a 14 button wireless ergonomic mouse, which is better than Ive been able to find anywhere else on the Internet. CONs: 1. The software to program this mouse is only available for Windows. No Mac Software. If you are rich enough to own a Mac, then you probably have an old windows laptop under your bed or in your closet. You can program your mouse on the windows computer and then use your newly programmed mouse, including shortcuts, on your mac. NOTE: The free mac software called Karabiner can act as a substitute for the missing mac software. After youve set it up with Karabiner, you can also use the mouse with the productivity software Better Touch Tool and Alfred. Karabiner and Better Touch Tool can make any mouse programmable. 2. This mouse does not work well on my dark, grey desk. Often it will not track motion smoothly on dark surfaces, as though the laser or light underneath is not strong enough to reflect off of a dark surface. The problem doesnt happen every day, but it happens often enough that I cant use it normally on my black desk. Since its not all the time, Ive tried to figure out what the trigger is for this problem kicking in. Ive decided its either when the battery is low, or else there is some kind of calibration where the mouse thinks its in a dark room and loses focus on my desk. If I use a colored mouse pad, or even a piece of paper under the mouse, it tracks motion great. I contacted the seller, and they were very quick to reply. They offered to send me a free mouse pad. I dont think that mousepad ever arrived, but it wasnt a big deal because I made my own mousepad. 3. The rechargeable battery life feels a little short to me. My other wireless mouse uses AA batteries, and they last at least a month. This mouse lasts about a week if I leave the lights off, or two days if I leave the lights on. Recharging this mouse is easy using the included USB cable, and I can keep using the mouse while its plugged in. Since this mouse can be used as a wired USB mouse, having the fancy lights on makes more sense when its plugged in. Less Important: I dont actually use this mouse for gaming, I use it to program productivity shortcuts (forward and backward in the browser, move between browser tabs, close windows, copy, paste, Ctrl, Command, Shift, Fn, zoom in and out). The scroll wheel on this mouse is the same as most gaming mice I have used: it scrolls with a bump or jump between lines. I actually would prefer a smooth scroll so that my page doesnt jump as I read. The only gaming mouse Ive used that does this is the wired Logitech G502, which could switch between bumpy and smooth scrolling. CONCLUSION: The battery life and lack of windows software have not been a major problem, but I am disappointed that it doesnt track well on a dark grey surface. I have fixed this by using a mousepad, but its the only thing keeping this from being my perfect productivity mouse. Ive spent years testing programmable mice for increased productivity. This is the only one Ive found that meets my 3 most important criteria: 1. Truly ergonomic 2. Wireless 3. More than 11 buttons. If you are ok with fewer buttons, or you arent as picky about ergonomics, then there a lot of other wireless mouse out there that will track on a black desk. You might enjoy the Logitech G602. But for me, the UtechSmart VENUS Pro wins my award for the Best Ergonomic Wireless Productivity Mouse of 2020.

Mine eventually broke after like 3-4 years of very heavy use, but at the price it absolutely cannot be beaten for the quality you get. The driver software is also terrible, but thats common across most gaming mice and youll have to play with different versions of it in order to get a configuration that works for you.

This mouse is absolutely amazing. I dont even know where to begin. The headline speaks for itself. I have not used it for gaming, but I have used it for work. My job requires me to do repetitive tasks. This mouse is not only saving me time, but its making me money. I am able to program a single key to work a lead. The colors are bright and vivid. This is super customizable. Honestly just buy it and see for yourself. The only two cons I have is that the battery life isnt the best Ive used and it is heavy and feels weird to pick up the mouse without pushing buttons or dropping it. Other than that is amazing and would suggest everyone to own this product.

Im a very picky guy when i comes to my set up. Im always looking for the best of the best to get a better experience for comfort in playing competitive games, editing photos, editing videos, music production, ect. (Gaming mouse 1) My first gaming mouse that i bought was a Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB, lasted me for a 1 year but the thing i didnt like was the difficulty in software, the dull looking colors, and most important to me the wire on the mouse that i didnt like & not able to take it off and on. It broke and the threading was coming off and the mouse rubber became this weird sticky feel and note that im a clean freak but thats the long term effect of those mouses. Lost -$80.00 (Gaming mouse 2) My next gaming mouse i got was a Razor Naga mouse. I felt it was to bulky, unnatural feeling, and it was a HUGE pain. The sensor broke where it would randomly stop responding to movement even when wired or wireless and i scraped that one. Spent at the time about $65-$100 for it. Now -$65-$100 gone. (Mouse 3) So i was using a simple 2 button wireless mouse for years to come after bad experience with the others, than i when back into the search for that vision mouse in my head. I love the Corsair Side buttons & changing color concept, I somewhat liked the razor battery, I loved my 2 button wireless feel/shape & freedom to wireless to my hand. (Search Story) I could not find nothing and the things that i somewhat liked where all wired to the mouse after looking at many youtube videos, searching google, ect. Until i found out about UtechSmart Venus Pro RGB Wireless MMO & there it said 49.99 on amazon. I was like there is no way this exists, instantly love what specs they have, the RGB, the side buttons to how its made was very unique, Wireless ECT so i ended up buying it. It came, and in a instance i open the box. My first reaction was 10/10. It came with a protection pouch, usb, to instantly download latest software which i completely did not expect, along with a ton of features i didnt expect. (UtechSmart Venus Pro RGB Wireless MMO thoughts/reaction) One thing I instantly loved was the grippy feel to it, I absolutely love this mouse and lowkey for the 2 weeks kept going in my backpack just to feel it because it was weirdly satisfying lol. One thing i notice is they had the best accurate/bright customizable RGB light which is both great for lit room & dark room set ups for that nice aesthetic look. Pressing the buttons feels amazing, I notice for the side buttons design is different with a dip wavy style which at first I thought was weird because I never seen/experienced anything like it BUT it completely gave me way more control when gaming i notice Im not making any miss click mistakes including in World of Warcraft & with the corsair/naga i notice i always made to many miss click mistakes because the buttons just felt all the same to me also on those mouse i only used the half of middle/top because of that big issue. Under the mouse side button there is a Thumb support & man i cant tell you enough how important that is when gaming, that actually stopped giving me thumb pain & setting my thumb position to more accurate response times. Yo they even have a Step DPI dial button switch with led indicators on steps (for how sensitive you like your mouse movement) located under the scrolling wheel on the middle mouse so you dont have to go back into the software and adjust when playing, also you will not accidently press it throwing off your game playing. Most important thing is that the mouse shape/grove of how the mouse feels is perfect when placing your hand on top of it. Its very natural feeling and very comfortable, your hand never gets tired and the ring finger & pinky finger will not cramp/get tired. Now for battery life i dont even remember how often i charge it because i swear im only charging this thing once a month with led always on (Im on my computer 8+ hours a day and lets not forget my travel laptop). This is hands down the best mouse & with best price. I tired all the expensive stuff, it all failed me, saying this with respect. This is forever my favorite company and I will stick with this company till the day I die man. Whoever designed & planned this mouse is a an absolute genius and has a ridiculous level of attention to detail.

This mouse is well worth the price. The buttons are just the right size to click with your thumb and the pressure needed to press them make them easy enough to press in tense moments while also making mistakes fairly rare. I use the back of my thumb to press the last column and this even works pretty well. The rapid fire button feels quite nice to press as well. The scroll wheel is segmented but also smooth. Minor complaints include the fact that I am not a huge fan of the sandpaper feel on the left/right buttons and on the edge. In particular, I found that my ring/pinky fingers started to feel chafed by it when first using it, though I believe use of the device quickly wore it in and I no longer get this feeling. I do also wish the thumb rest was extended a bit further out from the mouse. I do not use it that often, but it is not really wide enough to fit the entire thumb without it hanging off the edge. I love that the mouse is wireless, as I could never get used to the cord snag that occurs with wired models, though it can also be used with a wire if that is your preference. The battery life is superb. I can forget to charge it for days at a time and it will still have juice. The sleep mode activates pretty quickly after not using the mouse for a period of time and will automatically awaken after any movement/button presses and will register said input. The two DPI buttons are placed in a nice spot and there are four red lights, or the absence of light, which indicate five different profiles. These are set to 1000/2000/4000/8000/16000 by default, but you can set them to whatever your preference is. As I find any lights on my mouse/keyboard distracting, I set my preferred DPI on the lowest profile. That said, the RGB lights on the mouse are great. The thumb buttons look particularly cool when it is shining through them. If you want to show off a cool new mouse, this is the one for you. The program for this mouse is also pretty great and easy to understand. The default profile for the thumb buttons sets them to 1-0 on the number row and -/+ on the number pad. Im not sure why they decided to use the numpad rather than the number row for the last two, as I have played games which contain item slots on the latter number row keys, though they are easily remappable in the program or in-game. The program allows for importing/exporting profiles, which is necessary if using more than two. The profile switch button on the bottom can cycle between the default, which is itself remappable, and an imported profile. The program also allows the user to design macros which is very convenient for the sake of productivity. For gaming, the number row mapping already makes perfect sense for many games. Even though I do not really play MMO games, I found that being able to swap weapons in GTA and items/shouts in Skyrim with the touch of a button was quite an improvement over using the number row, which takes fingers that could be pressing other keys and has an inconveniently placed second half for the left hand to reach. Of course, you can feel free to map it to whichever buttons you want. I also personally use this for video editing and general productivity shortcuts on my PC and I can report that it is excellent for both. My left hand has to move around far less than what it used to, and overall things feel more balanced. Overall extremely pleased with my decision to purchase this mouse and recommend it to anyone who wants a versatile instrument for any of a multitude of computing needs. EDIT: I have dropped this review to four stars because of an issue with the scroll wheel. After having the mouse on for some time the scroll wheel takes two notches to start scrolling in the opposite direction (for instance, if I am scrolling down and I try to scroll up the first notch on the wheel that is scrolled up will do nothing). If I turn the mouse off and then on again it will return to normal, but will, in time, begin to act up again. It is rather minor, but is quite annoying. And I can see this being a detriment in games. I have reached out to Utechs support and have not gotten a response. I am trying again. If my issue is resolved I will return the review to five stars. EDIT: I managed to get in contact with them through the email for the gift inside the box. They were very nice and sent me a new one. While the second one was on the way, my original somehow started working again. I can only surmise that it has something to do with being kept on for a long enough period of time, rather than being turned off and on again after acting up. Anyhow, I am pleased that it has started working again and that I now have a backup in case it messes up once more, and am now raising it back to five stars!

I bought this mouse March 2021 so its not 2 yrs old yet and the last few months I have noticed a loud clunk when I right click. It still works just fine, but the noise makes me think it will be dying soon. I dont ever use the lights and am not a gamer so there is no rage banging or throwing. I use this mouse for CAD. I dont use any of the other buttons other than R & L click. I just like the shape of the mouse. It is really comfortable, although sometimes my pinky is hanging off to the side and gets stiff. The battery lasts a long time. I shut it off when Im not using it to preserve battery as well as not use the lights as I stated above. I purchased the protection plan so I guess I will put that to use and get a new mouse. Would expect this mouse to last longer and not make funny noises even at the low price.

I have been very surprised by the performance of this mouse. This replaced a razer naga which had the notorious liftoff issue that i finally got tired of. My only gripe is the center line of the num pad could be a little more pronounced. Otherwise, for 30 bucks it has surpassed my expectations.

Edited, Jan. 8, 2021: I wanted to write this revised review sooner but of course, Amazon has to approve all reviews and then I forgot until now. Anyways, Ive dropped the review down to three stars because this mouse is just average. You cant hold down the button next to the LMB and press another button on the side, i.e. binding top button to Ctrl and pressing a side button to double the amount of button presses. As previously mentioned, you cannot remap the DPI buttons whatsoever. The wired mouses software is much more in-depth and lets you do all of these things, from what Ive researched. After using this mouse for several weeks, the side buttons are no longer consistent in feel and sound. Some buttons are still tactile, while others are almost silent and mushy. The right click feels much softer than the left click, to the point where I almost dont realize Ive pushed it. The only saving grace for this mouse at this point is the fact that its wireless. I wont be returning the mouse as its not worth the hassle, but Im definitely going to just stick with a Logitech G600. For the price of the wire, I can enjoy double the button presses with everything being customizable. And its cheaper a majority of the time. The pouch it includes is nice, and Ill definitely use that. The mouse is not a bad mouse, its just not exactly what I need for my playstyle. Like I said, its just average. I knew getting into this that I couldnt remap the DPI buttons, but when I found out about the lack of multi-button support and the wired mouses counterpart having much more in-depth software...I was very disappointed. I really feel like the issues Ive come across are software related, but I dont foresee a software update coming anytime soon for these mice. *****Original Review Below***** Please UtechSmart, let us remap the two buttons under the scroll wheel! I personally never change my DPI once I set it via software, but having the option to use the buttons for something more functional would be nice! Pleeeeease. I know there are several other reviews mentioning this. Those two perfectly good buttons are unused otherwise. Created macros also do not show up in the macro list when attempting to assign them to a key. Because of these two easily fixable software issues that have STILL not been updated, Ive docked a star. As for the actual mouse, its great! First impressions, I was definitely pleased to see a carrying pouch and a detachable braided USB-C cable. I bought this mouse as a substitute for my G600 while I travel, as there is no wireless version of the G600 yet. The driver software is included via a very snazzy looking business card that flips out into a baby USB drive. It does the win+r command and types in a command to open a Dropbox with the software files. The buttons themselves are alright, theyll definitely do the job. The scroll wheel is good, though I wish it tilted like my G600 too. But as thats a hardware thing, I can accept that tradeoff for wireless connectivity. Clicks are not offensively loud like some mice, which Im definitely grateful for as Ill be using this while traveling. However, the side buttons are a bit audible, much louder than the G600, but still not terrible. (If you have a Nintendo Switch, the side buttons sound similar to pressing the face buttons on the joycons.) The finish on the mouse is...different than Im used to. But its not bad, just a bit textured. Its not smooth like a G600 or a Naga, but more like a soft sandpaper, if you will. The entire mouse feels like that except for the shiny section in the middle where your palm rests, and the side buttons. Theres a spot under the mouse to store the tiny USB dongle, and its magnetic rather than snapping in. A very nice touch as I have short fingernails and trying to pry something like that out would be a nightmare. I also enjoy the resting spot for your ring finger, and although its not a button like my G600, its still second nature for me to have a finger there. The third clicking button I use on my G600 was just moved to the left of the left mouse button, which I am perfectly fine with. Its not a bad placement and I can easily reach it plus all twelve of the side buttons, effectively doubling the button inputs. Getting onto the software, its...usable. When I first installed it, I could not for the life of me get the colors on the mouse to change. And as I was searching for the solution, suddenly about 15 or so minutes later, the lights just started cooperating. Very odd. It works flawlessly now so I have no complaints, just confusion. The software lets you choose what buttons you want to use, but you have to choose the option Key Combination and just press the key without any modifiers in order to do so. Just in case anyone has any confusion like I did at first. The lighting is all one color, no per-key RGB here. Which is fine, my G600 is the same. I do enjoy the amount of lights though! The scroll wheel illumination is very nice, and the logo illumination is bright. However, the lights on the front of the mouse seem to be different colors between the three grills on either side, which isnt a big deal to me personally. Mapping keys (once I figured it out) was quick, changing the DPI setting via software and disabling the other DPI profiles (hence, making those buttons useless) was painless. Im grateful the software allows macros, but I couldnt get them to show up in the macro list when I tried to assign them to a key, which, like the DPI buttons, makes them useless. TL;DR Pros: The mouse comes with a nice pouch and braided USB-C cable. Feels good to use, a decent wireless substitute to the G600. Mapping keys was quick and painless. Lights are bright and seem to be fairly accurate. (Note: You cannot change the four lights next to the DPI buttons, so I turn mine off.) Mouse weighs similar to a G600. Cons: THE SOFTWARE. Seriously. Please, let me remap the DPI buttons just like the side buttons (which the wired version allows) and let me have the ability to use my macros. If I knew coding and could fix it myself, I absolutely would. Literally the only things wrong with this mouse are software related. I dont understand why these issues havent been fixed. If you can have a fancy business card that runs an entire string of code to download software, why cant said software be fixed?

I had to stop using the wired one after a couple years of use, not due to hardware failure but the drivers and software not being updated. Ive retried the g600 since then and the EVGA. EVGA has a trash scroll wheel and I tried a replacement as well. First one also started turning its self off after awhile. I decided to try the wireless version of this since I really liked the wired and the software is newer and seems to be updated. So far Im happy. Easy to program buttons and macros. Being wireless will take some getting used to since Im used to having to fight the wire and pull the wire around to move the mouse. Its great but muscle memory still wants to pull the cable. It came already charged and worked before even finding the software/drivers download link. The driver card failed but when I had the old one it worked so I consider that a fluke. I found the software/drivers through their sites FAQ page. Its a bit lighter than Im used to but its built well. Smooth clicking and the scroll wheel is smooth and no clicking or grinding or jumping around. Ill update again if anything changes but I expect it to last awhile. The g600 main button would always break after just a year, and EVGA scroll is trash, where as the old one of this held up physically. Old review: Ive used a Logitech G600 for many years and when it was finally time to get a replacement I decided to try this on a whim since it was cheap and had the full 12 side buttons. Normally I read lots of reviews and research an item first but I didnt this time. Short answer is its great and Im glad I got it. First one negative difference is the ring finger rest. On the G600 that is a button that I could program. Its not been a too big of a deal. I reset those to the trigger button in their profiles but it took some time for my my muscle memory to catch up. My ring finger would still like to do something sometimes. The G600 had clicks left and right on the scroll wheel that could also be programed. I never used this so dont miss it but its a difference to note. Software: Ive seen complaints about the software. Over all its pretty good. On the G600 I had to enter combo keys to do things like cntrl+W for sprint in a game or close window, and I had to set up a hot key combo for volume up and down with the g600. This allows me to just select the option to walk or close window, and even volume with no extra hot key combos needed to be added. The options are already in the software. I did enter a combo key for closing a tab and it worked fine, once I remembered to hit apply. So to me this seems a lot better as it can more easily do what I want. (this part is not relevant to the wireless pro)A little bug that seems to be a software issue. Sometimes the scroll wheel stops working but if I switch the profile to a different one and back it fixes it. This seems to happen after Ive turned the port off but not every time. I turn the port for the mouse off when I leave the room due to pets. So this might not be an issue for most. (this is the issue that got worse later it was either drivers being too old or maybe the cable wearing out) Another minor negative is the G600 could cycle colors as far as Ive found you can only select one color with this. (I just leave the lights off on he pro for longer time between charging. It lasts all day that way) Over all Im very pleased with my purchase(have had it a few months at this time). The roughened texture feels great, the weights help a lot(I have hand tremors and the weight allows for better control). The cable is even better, less stiff. The wheel feels better and looks better. The whole thing just feels and looks good and preforms well with the occasional minor glitch with the wheel. If I were buying today I would select this over the G600, its cheaper and better.

So my first impression looking at the box made me worried. It looked like a typical walmart offbrand design with bold arial font and red lettering like it was supposed to be some cool hi-tech product you could compare to Razer or Logitech. It didnt fool me in the least, and my heart sank because I depend on amount of reviews + star rating, and I know Amazon has some funny tricks when it comes to products being rated highly despite poor quality products. I opened the box, and immediately set the thing on my lap and - despite odd looks from my friend who was there - started clicking the buttons and getting a feel for them. From the get go, I was satisfied with the click feel and its responsiveness, the location of the buttons, and (most importantly) the size of the mouse. I have large hands, so Im not sure where some reviews are coming from by saying large hands arent recommended, but the mouse fit perfectly without me resorting to an uncomfortable grip. I wasnt quite convinced yet, so I plugged the puppy in and popped the CD in to install the driver (and eventually update it online). If youre a gamer, or anyone who has worked on a computer for at least a year, the software was easy to set up and understand. You should know how to unzip files, install basic programs, set your DPI, navigate basic menus, and understand basic terminology. Its not rocket science, and therefore the setup was a breeze. Its a basic program with little to question, and Ive already got it pulsating red like a black gaming setup should (in my opinion, heheh). I was worried the number pressing might be a problem for my big thumb. Its... not perfect, mainly because of my thumb, but with enough practice I have no doubt it should be as easy as any other mouse Ive had, and this is coming from a Logitech fanboy. Yes, yes, Razer is fine too, but for the price and the quality I cant deny that this is a quality mouse. The texture on the left and right click is satisfying as it allows for a good grip despite sweaty hands, and the fire button just to the left of the left click makes it an easy reach in case you want to program it as an ultimate ability in gaming (or an undo button in graphic design, for instance). Programming buttons, by the way, is very easily customizable, and with enough options to choose from Im satisfied that any need I have to satisfy can be done with this mouse. Even the DPI arrow buttons under the scroll wheel can be remapped, which is great when youre like me and like to have as many buttons mapped to your mouse as possible for ease of use. As far as the entire shape goes, its comfortable for my large hands and the thumb rest is a nice touch so youre not rubbing your mouse pad all the time. On the opposite side, theres a protrusion that allows you to rest your ring finger there so it allows you to have a stronger grip on the mouse itself, which should be an important feature in any gaming mouse. Overall, this mouse is one of the better mouses Ive had the pleasure of using. The weights came already installed and, again, as a big handed fellow, I like the heavier weight so it has some give to it. The material its made out of has a nice tactile feel so that it wont slip out of your grip, and while having color pulsating from the buttons isnt a necessary aspect to a gaming mouse, its still pretty cool. I write this review having had my heart drop with worry that this mouse wasnt going to cut it and Id have to return it like some cheap knockoff, but Im pleasantly surprised. The drivers were easy to find, and I have no doubt if I needed customer service to help out they would. I feel like I invested well into a cheap but quality product. Dont take my word for it though, if youre a gamer with a hunger to customize macros and assign functions to your mouse (or even a graphic designer who hates memorizing hotkeys) you should try it out yourself! You wont be disappointed.