SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless Ghost Edition Review

This 2021 update has real improvements

Photo taken by the author.

I loved the original version of the SteelSeries Aerox 3 wireless in spite of itself. Its sleek, hole-filled frame makes for a light and pristine gaming experience. However, it has many small design aspects that fell out of the forgotten past, forcing the mouse into a lower tier of quality than today’s top wireless flagships.

A few weeks ago, SteelSeries launched a new Ghost Edition of the Aerox 3 Wireless in a special new translucent white colorway. At first, I ignored this model as just another fun limited run gadget. However, it’s actually a tweaked version of the original mouse that fixes a couple of its problems.

Note: I bought this mouse myself at retail price. I don’t receive a kick back or any other incentives if you decide to get one. I don’t use affiliate links in any of my stories. My full reviews policy is right here.

Photo taken by the author.

The SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless Ghost Edition sells for the same $99 price as the original (official site here). The packaging has a brand new design that shows off the eye-catching look of the mouse, and its ghost-themed branding is here just in time for Halloween. On some web sites and SteelSeries materials, I’ve seen this referred to as the “2021 Edition” of the mouse, which has me hopeful that the original black colorway will get these upgrades as well. In the box, you get the mouse itself, a USB-C cable, a wireless dongle, and some documentation. Like other flagship wireless models, this supports wired, wireless, and Bluetooth connections, and its modern battery means you can get up to 80 hours of use with the dongle if you turn off the lights.

But you should leave those on, because they’re cool.

What’s new then? The biggest change is on the underside. The sad little circles that served as mouse skates on the original model are gone, replaced with pure “virgin grade” PTFE skates that are much larger. I didn’t have huge glide problems with the original versions, but they weren’t the most stable and mine have already started to show signs of wear after…