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

its a great mouse with really good software. I used the wired version for years until the middle mouse button gave out, so i was quite happy to see they had an updated wireless version. It was a breeze to set up my macros and hotkeys, I really like this new software. Old wired version got super buggy for me, but so far so good with this version. The best feature about the wireless version for me is the battery life. I got this mouse a month ago and the first and only time I charged it was the day I got it. Ill admit Im not using the lights on it, but still its absolutely amazing.

So I have been looking for a mmo mouse a mouse with 12 or more buttons for mmo games and other things fi years bough this mouse a year ago works fine has full band RGB for those interested thought that it would work as a wired mouse while charging and find not the case, but not a real issue to be honest. only wireless mmo mouse with reasonable dongle unlike the razors charging stand dongle making in m=not portable in the least only real annoying thing in my experience is when turning off the rgb when you turn it back on its a 50/50you rgb setting s wil be reset and you will have to reset your color and th display preference for the color.

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.

I bought the wired version of this mouse in late 2016. I ran into a minor issue about three years in where I could not click the scroll wheel properly, but that problem seemed to fix itself after a short while. Today it has begun to stop working every few seconds, so I suspect its lifetime may be coming to an end for real this time. It has been a reliable and easy-to-use mouse for both MMO and FPS gaming (though it is a relatively bulky mouse for the latter, even with all the weights removed). My criticisms, having used this mouse for the better part of a decade: - The top surface of the mouse (where the hand rests) has many cracks and crevices where dead skin and oil/dirt can build up. These spots are somewhat tricky to clean and it gets kind of gross after a while. - The textured body is also difficult to clean without damaging the mouse. Rubbing alcohol seems to wipe away the black paint on the outside. - I have rather large hands. The 12 side buttons were generally easy to reach, but the bottom-most row can be awkward, particularly the 10 key in the bottom-left corner. - The 5 key feels mushier than the rest of the keys, despite me not having used it that much. It does not have much travel, and you may drop inputs if pressing it repeatedly. In contrast, the 1 key, which Ive pressed enough times to wear the paint off of, still feels responsive to press, as does every other key (very distinct clicks). - I use this mouse with 2 different computers. I was only ever able to program the mouse buttons on the first computer I plugged it into -- on the second computer, the software didnt seem able to update settings and was also sluggish. You may encounter the same issue. Overall, a very serviceable mouse I got a lot more use out of than I was expecting. Great cheaper alternative to some of the more high-end MMO mice on the market.

I recently built a new box and was grudgingly forced to switch to Windows 10. When I did so, I found that the new G-Hub program with which Logitech has replaced the old Logitech Gaming Software is unspeakably horrible. It does not support my beloved G700 mouse -- or even the G602 -- and also dropped support for the G13 keypad, for which Logitech offers no replacement in their current line-up of products. I swear Logitechs current leadership is deliberately sabotaging the company... Anyway, after 20 years of steadfast loyalty to Logitech, I was forced to abandon them and look elsewhere for my peripheral needs. I came across this little gem of a mouse quite by accident. While several manufacturers have offered mice with numeric thumb keypads in the past, theyve always been wired. This one is dual mode (wired/wireless), which is a requirement for me. At a price of fifty bucks, I snapped it up without hesitation. I am pleasantly surprised at how good it turned out to be, since I wasnt expecting much of it. Let me say this up front, however: No, the programming software is not as good as Logitech (or LGS, at least; anything is better than G-Hub). But it is quite adequate for what I do with it. You can easily program any mouse key to emulate any keyboard key and a small variety of multimedia commands. The only thing it cant do (that I can see; someone correct me if Im wrong), is remove bindings and allow games to see the mouse keys as digital buttons, i.e. - mousebutton4, mousebutton5, etc. This is a little disappointing, but nothing I cant work around. The ergonomics are quite nice, but understand that Im coming from years of using the Logitech 600/700 series, which are high hump palm mice similar to this one. I prefer that feel and find that flat mice, which encourage a claw hold, tend to be very uncomfortable for me. The numeric thumb buttons are set up so that there are two vertical channels -- 123,456 and 789,0-=. This design is so that you can easily feel which channel your thumb is in and quickly press the button you want without looking at it. This is a real boon in MMOs. Mind you, it will take a while to train your muscle memory, but once youve got it down it is surprisingly intuitive. The buttons have a slight resistance to them, so that you can move your thumb around without accidentally triggering one. They arent hard to press by any means, but you cant activate them by simply dragging your thumb across them; you must consciously press a button. It lights up in pretty colors. I dont give two shakes of a wet cat about such things, but yes it lights up in pretty colors and yes you can change them. Whatever. Enough about that silliness. The cord is a nice cloth braid and is easy to plug/unplug, (the G700 was notoriously fickle in this area). The programming software is obtained via a Dropbox link which is supplied on a little cardboard USB drive. Unconventional perhaps, but it got the job done. The wireless dongle is... well, a wireless dongle. You plug it in and it does wireless dongle things for you. Id definitely recommend this mouse to gamers. Its an absolute steal at fifty bucks. If I were still doing CAD work Id buy one for the office, as all those thumb buttons would make wonderful shortcuts for design software -- similar to the old 18-button digitizer puck I used back when dinosaurs roamed the engineering offices. Or perhaps if youre a digital artist you could use it in your painting software. Whatever your use might be, if you like lots of buttons on your mice, you should definitely pick one up.

Good Mouse. Sturdy quality, built well. Ive had for awhile and no problems.

Works as advertised, not my favorite mouse but still good.

This mouse is quite pleasantly sized. I use a kind of a broad claw grip and prefer it when the butt of the mouse rests in the palm of my hand, which this does comfortably while still leaving my fingers well positioned on the buttons. Its also remarkably comfortable, almost as if it was designed with my hand specifically in mind. Obviously your mileage may vary on this one but the at rest position for the third (ring) finger on my hand is well placed, with just the right bit of additional contour to aid in gripping the mouse when lifting it. In addition the descending curve of the side allows my pinky finger to rest against the mouse, partially touching, instead of awkwardly dangling in space as with so many mice, while at the same time allowing me to feel a bit of the pad below so I can judge distance precisely. I cannot over-emphasize how pleasant this is to hold an d use. The action on the scroll wheel is not too stiff nor so soft that I fear accidentally scrolling. The wheel is a straight two axis forward/backward with a distinct rest at each stop (no free spinning here) which is just as I like it. Since theres no tilt wheel theres no risk of accidental presses from the first and second fingers at rest or while scrolling, but the wide position of the buttons is such that this frame could accommodate a four axis scroll wheel without trouble. The action on button1 and button2 is unremarkable and adequate, quite average and nothing worth mentioning. There is an additional button to the left of button1 which is well positioned and is not at risk of accidental pressing, is easily found by touch, and easy to click at will. The DPI control buttons in the top center are raised and sufficiently stiff that there is essentially zero chance of accidental adjustment even during furious use. There are four DPI settings and LEDs clearly indicate which is chosen at any given moment. On the thumb side is a 12 button num bearing the digits 0-9 which act as num keys as well as minus on 11 and plus on 12. I had thought that having so many buttons on the side where the thumb rests would either make accidentally depressing them hard or deliberately pressing them hard, and in any case detract from the ability to grip, move, and lift the mouse but this turns out not to be the case. My thumb can rest such that I can with grip the forward edge of the button enclosure--and do so as firmly as I like--without any accidental clicks. Rocking the thumb back and working by feel makes it fairly easy to click most--but not all--of the keys. I find 1-3 and 7-9 to be easy, 10-12 to be awkward, and 4-6 to be somewhat difficult without accidentally also depressing buttons on adjacent rows. This is far better than I anticipated and leaves me with a gratifyingly large number of buttons available at a twitch. I am a bit disappointed not to find a more usual thumb button on the side forward from the num pad buttons. It seems that there is sufficient space for one and such a button would fit nicely with my grip style, where the num pad position does not. Its not an insurmountable problem to move my thumb back for clicks but forward would be far more compatible with my grip. I suspect the designers anticipate a grip where the thumb rests naturally in the middle of the num pad with the pad of the thumb on the 5 key; indeed, in this position clicking all of the buttons does become easier. Still, I am not about to adapt my style to fit a mouse! There are adjustable weights but honestly the difference between empty and filled is not very much. I prefer it with all weights added (because I like my mice heavy) but I fear that if you prefer a feather-weight mouse even with all removed you will not be satisfied. A toggle button on the bottom cycles through five different LED colors. I understand that each color also corresponds to a (configurable) macro set, and certainly each remembers it DPI setting independently. Unfortunately the control software for this mouse is not compatible with Linux and I have not found a working way to alter the mouse behavior on Linux. This is, for me, a deal breaker, because I cant control which key codes are emitted when I use the thumb buttons--and since they correspond by default to keyboard keys I in effect have only three extra buttons on this mouse despite the 16 it has by appearance. The right click button is button2, and the mouse wheel button3, both as usual, but the left click button and the extra button next it are both button1. Since all of the thumb buttons emit by default not button events but regular key events I am obliged to either redo my RPG keybinding layout to accommodate that or suffer redundancy. I could remap the thumb buttons in to hard-to-each keyboard keys that I dont use for anything now, but this is tedious and irritating. Still, this is not an issue on a platform supported by the manufacturer so Im only knocking off one star from the review rather than the 3 that this problem really deserves. For most people this will not at all be an issue. Because of the above problem I did not review the macro capability of them mouse, which is purportedly one of its main selling points. Even without that feature there is a lot to like here: inexpensive, nice and large, comfortable grip, nice action, good weight and feel. For non-gaming and light gaming use I have no problem using this mouse, but for serious gaming where more buttons means more power I cant personally consider it. If I figure out a convenient way to control macros from Linux, or if I find a good way even to remap the key events in to button events, I will report back here and raise the rating.

I have never heard of UtechSmart, but I needed a new mouse and wanted an MMO-mouse. The cost of the mouse is what I saw first, so figured even if it was a bad mouse, it would not break the bank and I could try again. Well, I was completely surprised by what I received after I bought the mouse. This thing is quality and feels great. The texture on the mouse is like a soft rubberized super-fine grit sand paper. It feels absolutely wonderful to my fingers and hand, my favorite mouse texture to-date. The mouse comes with several small 2.4 gram weights in a simple and sleek container, and I found my comfortable weight. They are easy to install with a simple twist open/lock opening on the bottom of the mouse. The mouse wheel has a nice soft bump feeling. When I scroll quickly, it is barely noticeable, but when I slow down it is easily felt. I like this kind of mouse wheel action, I find the heavy bump/clicks of other mouse wheels distracting at quick scroll movements. The Wing and shelf on the left and right side respectively are fantastic. I had a Cyborg RAT 7 years ago, and while that mouse had its issues, the thing I absolutely loved about it was the wings on the left and right of the mouse to keep my thump and ring/pinky finger off the mouse pad/desk. The only thing I wish this mouse had was a wing on the right to keep my pinky off the mouse pad/desk instead of that shelf that only fits my ring finger. However, compared to other mice on the market, this is leaps and bounds better for my fingers than anything else I have found. Words cannot describe how annoying it is to have your fingers drag across your mouse pad or desk until you have had a mouse that prevents that completely and then you go back to a mouse that does have it. You notice it, all the time. I love this things thumb wing and finger shelf. The main two buttons on the mouse have a nice click and are responsive. I do not have any issues with miss-clicks, but can easily click when I need. It is a comfortable level of pressure to activate the switch, and I have not had any issues with activating it when I did not mean to. The side buttons are easily reachable with my thumb, and the pattern they are set at, the 1-3 and 4-6 dip inward towards each other so there is a little valley along the bottom of 1-3 and the top of 4-6. This is repeated with the 7-9 and 10-12 keys. The bottom of the 5 and top of the 8 also have a small bump on them, like the F and J key of a keyboard to further help identify where your thumb is. It is easy to feel where you are, and the individual buttons along the valley, making them extremely easy to activate the correct button without ever looking away from your screen or having to shift your grip on the mouse. The last button, the small fire button as they identify it in the product images, is easily reach by your index finger. I use this for my Oh crap button in MMOs or similar. It is positioned in a way that I do not accidentally activate it with my mouse grip, but can be activated by simply rolling my index finger slightly and applying a bit of pressure. The software is easy to use, though the GUI is a bit meh, which is not enough of an issue to take a star off. The interface is easy enough to navigate, set DPI marks for the DPI quick-change button on the mouse. You can change the lighting of the mouse using a color palette or a color wheel or by hex code. Brightness is controlled through an Off/Low/Med/High set of check boxes. Wished for changes: I wish it had a wing, or extended finger shelf on the right like it does on the left to keep my pinky off the mouse pad/desk. I really dig this mouse and have recommend it highly to my gamer friends, I know two of them have actually picked one up and they love it as well. If you are in the market for an MMO mouse, I cannot recommend this one more highly.

I really love this mouse that i bought multiple over the years to have where ever I am. I have own so far both version 1 & 2 wired versions and in my opinion it is the best multi-button mouse right now. This review was originally for version 1 but has been updated for Version 2. The Mouse What this mouse has that all the others dont in my opinion. 1. It has an extra Button by the left and right click buttons. They call it the Fire button for FPS games but i use it for games so i can sprint/run with it. It makes it so much easier and i dont have to waste one of the buttons on the side of the mouse. 2. The price i bought these between $30-$40. Which at the time other multi-button mice was around double that. 3. The feel. Instead of being smooth it has grippy texture. It feels really good. Version 2 feels even better. The Software My opinion on version 1 was pretty disappointing although they fixed some things in Version 2 it is still kind of disappointing. Version 1 & 2. 1. There doesnt seem a way to rearrange or rename any of the macros so you will have to delete them to put them in the order you want. A Workaround for Version 2 is to edit the MacroSet.MSDB in your Documents/UtechSmart Venus Gaming Mouse folder. Which in version 1 the files seemed to be encrypted so i couldnt edit those files before. 2. In version 2 they fixed so the name of macros shows up. Version 1 Both the macro and profile names arent editable. They just show up as Macro/Profile 1,2,3 etc even if you save the profile in a different name and load that file. however the macros when selecting them shows the name you picked but when chosen on the button list it still just says Macro 1,2,3 etc. So you will have to remember which does what. 3. Version 2 - software is slow to load / to apply the settings. 4. Version 2 - When switching profiles with no lights (First Profile) it glows red around 10 seconds before turning off. The second profile glows blue when profile switching then turns to the color you set it. it seems to glow to the default colors they chose beforehand before switching to your color. It seems to do it when clicking a Profile Switch button. It doesnt do this if you click a Profile in the software. 4. Version 2 removed a feature that i liked from Version 1. I cant use the arrow keys to move the DPI sliders anymore in Version 2. Cons Other / Nit Picking. 1. The DPI indicator light doesnt change color so the Red kind of clashes with the Blue color i use. 2. Theres no auto light off option in the software when the mouse isnt in use. 3. Every macro is in just one big list. I wish it was profile wise as each profile had their own macros. 4. The software looks like it is something from the early 2000s. Its 2019 where is the Flat/Material designs!