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

I normally use the Razer Naga but lately it just feels like Razer is upping their price points and going down on quality for some reason. Ive noticed a lot in the Razers that the mouse ends up hanging a lot which can be quite frustrating in the middle of games so when my mouse finally broke I opted not to pay 90+ bucks for the same mouse again that I would always fear would just end up having the same problem. So I scoured the internet for similar mice as Ive grown pretty fond of and cant live without, the side keypad, there were quite a few mice out there but I was looking to try something new for relatively cheap since I was switching to a mouse I had never tried before, there were a few and all had positive and negative reviews, the typical anxiety hit because I had no clue how to choose between them all, but I, on a whim, decided to go with this one. I overall love this mouse and have very few complaints. Its about the same size as a naga, maybe slightly bigger, or if not bigger the design makes it a little wider. I have small hands so its not ideal but its also not so big that its a problem and I can easily get used to it while Im getting used to the new structure of the mouse as I knew I would have to do anyway. The buttons are a little stiffer but I have to preface this with a right now, they might loosen up as I use them and I really dont think its a big deal and I think thats kind of where their price point difference starts to come in to play. The texture of the mouse is nice, it isnt smooth like the naga but it is matte, its a little rough but I kind of dig that texture XD and they include these little grips with the mouse that are smooth and a little gel-like which is really cool of them to provide. They also included a little card with a usb which included the software, which was pretty cool since I had read in several places where they had to go on to their website to download the software. The software did pop up for my anti-virus but I took a chance and downloaded it anyway as Ive seen nothing really harmful come from it from other users and after downloading it everything seemed fine, I ran several checks and nothing malicious seemed to be there. The software itself is awesome, its really easy to use and is extremely customizable from color to dpi to cursor sensitivity and scroll speed as well as several other things. The only thing I wish I could do is change the dpi light because it stands out like a sore thumb if you change the color of your mouse, also not a deal breaker for me though as its just an aesthetic and while I like being able to customize things I bought this mouse for functional purposes. I havent used it very long so I cant say if the mouse will have long term problems but right now it works incredibly, its everything I was looking for and my last complaint is I think one that many people have posted on here and its that the little button off to the left side doesnt work, it counts as a left mouse button click. Ive read that you can fix this yourself if you are handy with wires or know someone who is and at some point I might try to do so but I do think maybe its worth bumping the mouse up a couple of bucks to fix guys :P though still not a huge deal breaker for me, its just one keybind to adjust until I can fix it. However, again for the price point I was expecting the mouse to be a big flop, so its pretty great!

Honestly, the battery lasts forever, it can be used wirelessly or via USB. The software.... Works. And its got decent comfort and weight. Really, my only complaint is that the programmable buttons cant be programmed to use the mouse 3 and 4 buttons. (You know the traditional 2 side buttons). Instead, you need to program it to any other keyboard button. It just means you have to edit your games keyboard commands to reflect that. Otherwise, solid design, weighty, smooth, good button design and placement, versatile, gripy, and long lasting. I recommend.

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 is definitely not made with FPS in mind. I really like the availability of customizable buttons at thumbs length. The program is simple, options a plenty, and 5 profiles to cover all game types after you set them up. Basic but plenty of options for polling rate, DPI, double click speed. I really like the weighted pegs you can add or remove to your liking (I use half of total). The conventional mouse buttons are wide and have satisfying feedback when pressed, DPI buttons customizable for any DPI level or new functions all together. The side buttons give a soft feedback when pressed but are reliable, easily accessible with the thumb, although I assign important binds to the buttons in the corners of the panel because its easy to lose your place with the middle buttons without a little extra attention of a direct press with thumb tip. RGB is nice enough, could use more light designs than just breathing. Scroll wheel is smooth and functions as it should. Now here is my main issue, which is entirely based on my own situation. The sides of the body have a wing for the thumb and a third groove to rest either the ring or pinky finger. However in order to rest ring finger you have no place for the pinky, and if use it for the pinky then your forced to ADS with the ring finger, resting the middle on a tiny spot between mouse buttons and beyond the scroll. This grip feels horrible in that case most definitely not whats intended. So back to having a floating pinky you are forced to squeeze against the mouse body to avoid dragging it on your pad. Back to the thumb wing, its the perfect length to feel impractical, as if you have to balance or squeeze to keep it on the mouse. I have a moderate hand size (I feel) and in order to control my movements accurately under the entire design, I have to use a claw grip leaving the cup of my hand above the curve designed to support it. And in order to maintain the grip Im stuck using my pinky and thumb to keep it against the base of my palm, this frequently fatigues the muscles of my thumb in my palm. If I was to rest my entire hand against the mouse body then Id have to use the last knuckles/pads of my fingers (farthest from nails) which isnt as practical as striking with fingertips. This is an mmo mouse and not comfortable for what I need. However thats my issue between buying it for the wrong games and my hand size. That all said its dependable, sturdy, and functions amazing for $30. Thats the takeaway, its amazing for its price. I still perform very well using it in COD:MW but thats probably because Im so used to it. Definitely worth $30 if you know what you want it for.

I bought this mouse in 2019 it served admirably in most uses and I enjoyed it. The software included is a bit janky but it does the job. The buttons on the mouse all worked until the end which Ill get into. It lasted exactly 1 1/2 years. This mouse took everything I could throw at it really and Im not a hard user but the laser randomly gave up one day it just was literally burned out. Just DEAD, no reason. If I had dropped it or banged it around at all I would accept that its not the mouses fault but me, but where I game there is no where for the mouse to ever fall except into pile carpet from a 2-3 foot drop. My guess is this laser is the cheapest part of the build. Everything else about it seems to be well put together and I even dismantled it to see if anything just came lose on the inside that I could fix, but alas that was not the problem. Many mice turn their lasers periodically if you dont move the mouse around for a long period of time to avoid burning out the laser but this one does not so if you plug it into a 24/7 machine like I do you may expect similar lifespans. Just a warning, and this is not a problem that you will have if you just get the Logitech MMO mouse that literally costs the same. Ive used a lot of mice and Ill rank them like this: #1 Logitech. Ive only had one logitech mouse fail, most of them just wear out through my use. If they have a problem its with the braided outside cords that always fall apart. Great ergo/build. Smallish though for grown men narrow spacing between the top part and the mmo button area. Ok software, not too much on features but does all you want. The gaming products including their MMO mice are not very comfortable for larger hands. #2 Utech Venus - Its basically good. Unplug it when you arent using it or it burns the laser out. Large Deck might be more comfortable if you have bigger than women hands. Women and children might find this mouse harder to use. Software is the worst part of it. #3 Razer Anything - These are garbage. Ive had so many of them break its not worth mentioning the models. They look good on the outside, but one minor drop and the the insides look like smashed plates. Buttons sometimes stop working due to their button designs usually entirely depending on the top of the mouse being in order to mechanically actuate. Any external damage or drop will usually directly damage a button. (As opposed to the others mentioned here where the buttons are not part of external housing, so they are physically isolated.) The button package internal to the mouse pcb usually separates from the board due due to crap solder jobs. On Razer mice the right and left clicks are extremely vulnerable to impact because they are part of the body of the mouse. There is just a small piece of plastic (or a nub) going from the top of the mouse to the board switch. The nub breaks, your button doesnt work anymore. There is very low Q/A on Razer devices and while they will be the best you can buy while they work they wont work after the first few impacts. Ive owned the Naga, Boomslang, and DeathAdder and they have all failed for similar reasons. Their software is the best, Ill give them that. (At least when they feel like updating it to the latest Windows version.)

I originally bought this as a replacement for a near-identical Redragon mouse. The software is near identical as well, basically the same but with switched logos. I dont know if these are shell companies with a common owner, or what. However, in both cases, these were great mice that lasted me multiple years. Im here writing this review nearly 3 years after the fact, because I was checking if this product still existed. My mouse wheels button clicks, but isnt registering M3 inputs. Not the end of the world, since I have M3 on one of the side buttons, but annoying nonetheless. I think I may buy a replacement soon and send this one off to the secondary PC. Ive used this mouse for MMOs, Shooters, RTS games, web browsing, and everything else. When you really learn how to make good keybinding setups, its hard to go back to a normal mouse.

My Logitech G600 bit the dust after five long, hard years of usage, so I sought for a replacement. At the time, the G600 faced supply issues and was nowhere to be found, except on eBay for exorbitant prices. So i went with this; the price was similar to that of the G600 and it had all the side buttons I need. Mind you, I dont really use the side buttons when playing games, but instead I use them for power multi-tasking features, such as file operations, volume and media playback control, opening applications, scripts, and macros- whatever I need to do quickly with my thumb, I need at least 12 buttons. Its a huge boost to my productivity. The mouse is similar in shape and feel to the G600. While its quite a bit lighter, the grip and feel (which any MMO mouse will forever change the way you grip any mouse) didnt take me long at all to adjust, close to instant. Theres the same grip corner for you to press your pinky finger against, your thumb sits between the first two sets of thumb buttons (1 thru 6), pointer and middle finger are resting on the left and right mouse buttons respective and its comfortable to easily switch between clicking and scrolling, and theres also an indentation for your ring finger to rest on. Its really comfortable. The response of the mouse is great, really sensitive and precise. Have been able to play all of the games I was accustomed to playing on my G600 easily with this mouse. The software that it requires is actually quite decent, more than decent. You can control the LED lighting (various lighting effects, changing colors, turning the effects off or just turning the lighting off completely) adjust the DPI (the arrow buttons beneath the scroll wheel allow you to set five different levels of DPI adjustment), adjust double-click speed and various other things, but whats the most-impressive is the remappable button assignments, even blowing Logitechs software out of the water. You can assign volume control (up/down/mute), media playback control (next/previous track, stop, play/pause) file management (cut, copy, paste) to even more advanced things like opening, closing and switching windows, changing web browser pages, running macros (!) and swapping profiles. The macro editor is very simple to use and supports delaying keystrokes. Something Ive noticed is that the button assignments are stored in the mouse itself, not the software. The software may be Windows-only, but I switch over to Linux on my computer and the mouses button assignments stick, and function on Linux as intended! Huge props for that. If I were to name a few setbacks, the scroll wheel is the first component of the mouse that wears out. Despite regular maintenance and cleaning, it starts to feel really tacky as if its sliding against something, producing friction and it becomes clunky to scroll at times. It also lacks a tilting scroll wheel, like the G600, where you can physically move the scroll wheel left or right as two more additional buttons; I used that feature all the time for navigating pages back and forth; was a huge finger saver. For the price, it is a great buy, and should the current mouse I am using wear out, become defective or just needs replacement, I wouldnt hesitate to buy this again.

Far better for gaming than your regular, generic, 2 clicker and wheel. The number buttons on the side are convenient, but also not. It takes time to get used to using this mouse, while not pressing those buttons on the side. Could be fixed by making them more ridged, or by removing 1 row, making room for your thumb to grip the edge of the mouse. That is my only real issue for now.

TL;DR: Very useful, comfortable, durable and well built for the price (have dropped it on edge many times and cat tried eating the cord and still not a scratch) and not as obnoxious looking as other LED gaming mice. Thumb rest is a thumb saver too, wish other name brand numpad mice had them, I would consider them then. Updated 2018: After 3 years of use the side 6 button stopped working completely, and then the scroll click broke, doesnt even depress and make a sound, and I finally had to replace the mouse. Scroll click would work intermittently for about a year, sometimes just re-plugging fixed it, sometimes a reboot would not, but it would start working again few days later. Update 2021: 3 more years and no buttons have worn out or died, but the texture has started wearing under my fingers. Now the palm rest feels more textured than the front, the left click has a spot the size of a pin head worn down to the plastic, with the right click probably a year away from doing the same. Planning on having my new job pay for one though, becasue Id rather get something I know than an ergonomic mouse that may not feel right, and those are more expensive and usually wireless (I dont want to deal with batteries or the inevitable why wont my mouse connect?) Update 2022: made it almost 4 years this time, left click has started double clicking. Trying to do a hold click like drag-and-drop, or holding a click in a game it does an initial click, releases, then holds the click. Annoying, but worth $30 for another. The newer versions of this no longer have the smoother rubber-like coating and are now noticeably textured, likely because of complaints about the coating scratching or becoming slippery with use. It never scratched for me and it didnt get slippery even after gaming all day, but maybe mine happened to be a good one. Its only noticeable when you move your fingers across he surface and only feels slightly different during normal use. Update 2021: 3 more years and no buttons have worn out or died, but the texture has started wearing under my fingers. Now the palm rest feels more textured than the front, the left click has a spot the size of a pin head worn down to the plastic, with the right click probably a year away from doing the same. Planning on having my new job pay for one though, becasue Id rather get something I know than an ergonomic mouse that may not feel right, and those are more expensive and usually wireless (I dont want to deal with batteries or the inevitable why wont my mouse connect?) Initial Review: For two years of college I unplugged this, coiled it up, and put it in my backpack to use with my laptop. Every. Day. The plug never felt loose after so much plugging and unplugging, the cord has no kinks or frays, and never had any issues with the mouse disconnecting, so the cord is VERY durable. In fact, I hit the plug while it was in my laptop once and it broke the port: the plug didnt bend at all. The mouse buttons have a short travel, dont require a firm click, are a bit quieter than than the cheap $10 mouse I used to have, and have a more pleasant click tone than a normal mouse. The side buttons are very useful and are mechanical switches that require a bit more pressure than the left/right click but are very responsive: they do not travel until you apply enough pressure and then the response is instant. They have a more muted and lower pitched click sound. . The rows of buttons are angled in opposite directions to make them identifiable, however the back two rows are more awkward to use if you rest your hand to easily reach the front row becasue of how you have to bend your thumb. The 5 and 8 buttons have bumps that are supposed to distinguish them, but theyre hard to notice unless you rub the tip of your thumb back and forth. The double-click button Ive found very useful in several games, though it requires a slight grip alteration to reach it. Its also mechanical, requires barely more pressure to press than the left/right buttons, and makes a bit lower pitched click thats also a bit less pleasant sounding but is not louder. The thumb-rest is great and I would not go back to a mouse without one now, which brings me to a minor complaint of not much of a pinkie rest, as this mouse seems ergonomically designed for your middle finger to rest on the scroll wheel instead of the right mouse button, so my pinkie rests on the side, but does not drag on my desk (though I have below-average sized hands hands) and is still more comfortable than a normal mouse. The driver software is very functional and does everything it needs to well, with no useless gimmicks or half-functional features. The LEDs color and brightness are fully adjustable (three brightness options, but can make it dimmer using the custom color selector). The new driver version released this year (V 1.2) supposedly now allows changing the scroll wheel LED color, but only for the newer mouse version, which I keep forgetting to test. All buttons can be customized and can have macros assigned (my brother set his double-click button to the profile switch. I got him one too). From experience, its best to add probably 5-10ms delay between key inputs in a macro, or weird stuff can happen. In one game as soon as i used a macro of a click and key without delay I was unable to click on anything in the game, even menus, and had to force-close it. The really nice part is the profiles are saved to memory in the mouse, so it will be fully functional - DPI settings, macros, and all - on a computer without the drivers. Just be warned that installing the drivers on a new computer will not load the profiles from the mouse and will override the profiles saved on the mouse, so if you plan on putting the driver on more than one PC export the profile to a file with the driver software to copy over.

So Im coming from a whole host of cheap no-name mouses, i am by no means the authority on mice! Ive never had anything remotely customizable as this. This mouse just oozes quality, even the packaging was beautiful and well thought out. The USB stick hiding inside of a business card is absolute genius. The cable is super strong, fits nicely into the USB outlet, and is instantly recognized by my computer. Okay UTechSmart, you have my attention! I am rather stunned by its performance considering how cheap it was, having no idea how useful it could possibly be to me. The software is very nice and you can really fine-tune your experience with it. I am an audio editor and graphic artist (and gamer, of course), and there seems to be no end to the uses I can put this to. Its completely streamlined my workflow when it comes to Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop. So many keyboard shortcuts are now at the tip of my thumb. I expected to only want this for gaming, but Im finding myself playing around more in my Adobe programs getting my creative juices flowing, all because its become more fun and streamlined by the programmable buttons on this mouse. Note: Be aware that with the software, its going to lag for a couple seconds when you switch from one profile to the next. This screwed me up for a few minutes before I realized that its shifting every single button, even the light settings over to a new profile, so it makes sense that its not instantaneous. I was concerned with the way it might fit me because of my rather large man-hands, but its like slipping on a pair of super comfy well fitting socks that feel like they just become a part of you. The rubbery grip feels amazing in my palm, and the thumb and middle finger rests fit me perfectly. Every last button is extremely easy to reach, even the ones that other reviewers had me thinking would be in an awkward placement. This mouse feels so natural and really has to be the most ergonomic mouse Ive ever held. At the time of purchase, this mouse was right around the same price ($33) as the heavily discounted Logitech G600, which is a famously awesome mouse (that Ive never tried.. and it should be awesome for 80 bucks..) I poured over reviews and comparisons of the two and was leaning toward Logitech just because it has a great reputation behind it. I honestly cant remember what made me choose this UTechSmart mouse, but Im so happy I did. My only regret now was not coughing up the extra 20 bucks and springing for the pro wireless version of this same mouse. If youre on the fence, you wont regret hitting the buy button!