SteelSeries Releases Baffling Prime Mini Mice

The Prime family is already growing

SteelSeries hopes you wanted this mouse to be just a little bit smaller. Photo taken by the author.

Just this past May, SteelSeries launched their new “Prime” family of gaming peripherals. These are meant to be their elite eSports-style products, for gamers that demand nothing but the best performance in the most demanding PC titles.

I’ve reviewed both the Prime headset and the Prime+ mouse. The headset was great(see my review), and I thought it lived up to the exact standard that SteelSeries designed this lineup to hit. It offers the same performance as their more expensive Pro series of audio gear, but in a more affordable and stealthy design.

The Prime+ mouse, on the other hand, was a curiosity (click here for my review). While it has excellent buttons that are among the best I’ve ever used, its combination of pricing and features don’t fit correctly into todays market. The over-sculpted large shape, cable design, and side buttons all feel old instead of cutting edge, and the wireless upgrade is priced at a monstrous $129 premium level without the set of features that gamers have come to expect from flagship wireless mice.

I was shocked when SteelSeries rolled out new Prime Mini and Prime Mini Wireless mice this week, and even more so when I saw that they were making a lot of the same mistakes. While the Prime Mini retains the…