Asus ROG Chakram Gaming Mouse Review

With the rising trend of lightweight gaming mice in the market. Only a few brands tried to make innovations and features that would separate them in the current market. Meet the ROG Chakram, a new wireless gaming mouse from ASUS. It says that it has a lot of customization and features than your typical gaming mouse. Let’s find out if this is a worthy recommendation or not in this review!

ROG never fails to give a good unboxing experience. The Chakram is protected by a hard and thick box that almost acts like a case. After opening the box, you can see the mouse itself, and beneath are the accessories and documentation.

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• ROG Chakram
• Manual
• Carrying Pouch
• Type-C Braided Cable
• USB Dongle
• USB Extender
• Accessory Box (Includes the Omron Switches, switch tweezer, a longer joystick and a joystick socket cover)
• Customizable badge

It is an ergonomic shape where the hump is in the middle towards the back. Not much need to be said on the right side of the mouse while the left side is where the side buttons and the joystick are located. The DPI and the connectivity switch are located at the bottom area of the mouse so they won’t get in the way. The lighting here is very subtle and the zones are on the scroll wheel, the ROG logo on the palm area, and the light bars on the front of the mouse.

The materials used here are plastic and metal. The plastic that is used here has a very translucent look and you can see the internals of the mouse while the bottom is mostly made of metal to bring rigidity to the mouse itself.

The Chakram performed well during my time with it. The main buttons are solid and quite tactile. The side buttons are clicky and not mushy like some mice.

The joystick reminds me of the PSP and this might be the big reason why you want to purchase this kind of mouse. It is a decent feature for productivity and gaming.

For productivity work, I use the joystick as my brush setting for Photoshop so I can change my brush size and hardness on the fly and not need to use the keyboard in changing it. For gaming, I find this very useful on certain games like GTA V where you can use this as controls when piloting a plane or helicopter in-game.

On to the glide, It is decent in today’s standards because a lot of mice are moving on to PTFE which is superior vs the Teflon ones.

Wireless is solid and didn’t experience any issues that you can currently see on a wireless mouse. The battery life is here is quite good as well. It lasted me quite a while around 5-6 days with around 6-8 hours of daily usage. Charging can be done via wired mode and Qi Charging. I don’t have any Qi Chargers lying around so I can’t test this feature on this review.

ASUS also carried over their DIY switch replacement feature which is found other ROG mice like the Gladius II. A good feature to those people who wants to replace their switches without voiding the warranty.

We don’t know what ASUS ROG used for the Chakram but it does perform well during my testing and didn’t notice any issues like jitters, spinouts etc.

Connectivity-wise, It has 3 modes. 2.4 GHz, Bluetooth and wired mode. The 2.4 GHz connection is solid and I didn’t notice any latency issues and any problems using it while gaming and doing productivity work. For the Bluetooth mode, It is decent but I didn’t use this much due to the 2.4 GHz connection. Both wireless mode have good connection as long it is close to the mouse. I wouldn’t recommend in putting the receiver on the back of your PC or somewhere that can interrupt the signal.

Ergonomics here are somewhat decent but the problem I have is the mouse itself is too big for my hands. I need to reposition my hand to reach the joystick which kind of a bummer.

The weight is also a big stretch from my normal mouse which is at 70g and the Chakram weighs at 121g which is too heavy and a big adjustment is needed to make me comfortable on this mouse.

Lighting here is subtle and not as strong as other mice out there in the market. It has 3 lighting zones which are the logo, the light bar and the scroll wheel.

The Chakram can be customized through to the Armoury Crate software by Asus. I wouldn’t need to go in-depth but most of the things you need will be on the software. You can find your battery percentage here and most of the customization like RGB, DPI, macros etc.

The Asus ROG Chakram is a very niche type of a gaming mouse but it is one of the most featured packed I’ve seen on a mouse. The joystick is pretty much the selling point of the mouse itself along with its modularity like replaceable switches which found in most ASUS ROG mice. The connectivity modes here are very flexible as well not a lot of brands would offer this kind feature on a gaming mouse. The mouse can be charged in 2 ways as well via wired mode or the Qi Charging feature which most high-end smartphones use.

Overall, It is a good featured pack gaming mouse but considering its price point and the weight. Only a few might see this a worthy product.