Usage
With regards to comfort and feel, the Altier is very comfortable. As a user with a palm-style grip, the basic curvature of the body and slightly contoured sides make for a nice fit for my hand. The smooth plastic upper surface took a bit of time to get used to, coming off using a slightly textured mouse, but became very natural, very quickly. The honeycomb rubber grips on the sides of the mouse are comfortable as well, and don’t have an exaggerated texture that can be uncomfortable in long gaming sessions. While the mouse wheel’s ridged surface was a bit more than we cared for, it performed just fine for our general use and gaming needs.
Speaking of gaming, the Altier was set to 1,600 DPI and a polling rate of 1,000Hz. For the majority of our gaming testing, we hopped into our current favorite, Fortnite Battle Royale. We currently use the forward and backward thumb buttons for building ramps and walls, and the placement of these two buttons was good, but there is a slight “ridge” on the bottom of these buttons that we wish was smoothed out a bit for a better thumb transition. This really isn’t that big of a deal, and more of a nit-pick. In our testing in Fortnite, at no point did we feel like the Altier was holding us back, or giving us any real distinct advantage, which to us is a good thing. We were able to swap right over to the Altier from our standard gaming mouse with little adjustment and have the same level of performance that we see from a mouse we have used for years.
Final Thoughts
The Pwnage Altier currently retails for around $29 on Amazon, which we think is a pretty good deal. Without a long history of reliability and trust, a brand must do what it takes to get product into the hands of gamers, and we think the Altier is priced just right.
With a solid PixArt optical sensor and a software package that adds additional functionality and customization, the Altier has a lot going for it. A basic shape and comfortable surfaces ensure long-lasting comfort, which should appeal to gamers looking to improve their OEM mouse status without breaking the bank. We give the Pwnage Altier an 8 out of 10.
Pros:
- Comfortable shape and surfaces
- RGB LED lighting
- Pwnage Altier Software
- Affordable
Cons:
- Sometimes tough to overcome the stigma of an unknown brand
- No individual LED control