HyperX Pulsefire Surge Overview
When it comes to the overall physical design of gaming mice, there are two general types of styles; shaped and basic. A shaped mouse is one that often offers many contours in an attempt to “mold” itself into your hand, while a basic design typically has very minimal contouring. The Pulsefire Surge falls into the basic shape category, though there is some contouring on the left and right sides for your thumb and fingers. Think of this layout as an OEM mouse shape with some tweaks.
Looking down on the mouse we see a pretty symmetrical design, aside from the slightly visible thumb buttons on the left side that we will discuss later. The left and right mouse buttons offer wide, slightly convex surfaces that flow into the rest of the mouse body’s palm-grip design. Sitting between these buttons is a textured mouse wheel that offers a slightly ridged scrolling motion. The size of the wheel is a bit smaller than other mice we have looked at, but not so small that it is difficult to use. Just below the mouse wheel is a single DPI adjustment button that by default cycles through multiple DPI options, but can be used in combination with the other mouse buttons to adjust the lighting brightness, switch between on-board profiles, and even perform a factory reset of the mouse.
The plastic surfaces of the mouse have a smooth matte finish that is in contrast to many gaming mice that use a bit of a textured finish. The single plastic top portion of the mouse features a semi-transparent HyperX logo in the palm rest area. This logo is part of the RGB lighting offerings of the Surge, and can be adjusted independently of the light ring. Separating the single plastic top panel from the rest of the body of the mouse is a 360-degree RGB light ring with 32 individually adjustable LEDs. This light ring is designed with semi-white/semi-transparent plastic that really diffuses the light and gives a very smooth glow to the mouse.
Moving to the left side of the mouse, we are presented with a very standard layout. Two buttons above the thumb rest offer forward and backward functionality by default, but again, these buttons can be adjusted with the NGenuity application. The forward button is quite a bit smaller than the backward button, and we would have liked to see it be slightly larger. However, the placement of the two buttons was perfect for us, as we only had to rock/roll our thumb slightly to reach either one. The remainder of the left side of the mouse is a rubberized surface that provides a nice semi-smooth grip that we found to be very comfortable in our use of the Surge.
The right side of the Surge is quite bare, featuring just a rubberized and slightly contoured grip surface.
Up front is a standard mouse layout, with a braided cable exiting from the center. Just above the cord connection and below the left and right mouse buttons we can see the front portion of the 360-degree light ring making its way around the entire mouse.
Flipping the Pulsefire Surge over reveals two large PTFE feet, one at the front and one at the rear. This material is still the de facto standard on most mice, and offers a known performance and endurance factor. Centered in the base of the mouse is a very small opening that leads to the Pixart 3389 optical sensor which offers DPI settings between 100 and 16,000 DPI, which can be adjusted via the DPI button on the top of the mouse. Additional DPI settings can be made via software.
