It's often easy to sound like a broken record. But I can't help but write once again how overcrowded the hardware market really is. Mice, keyboards, headsets... every time a new model appears here at home, I think how can that be possible? How can you sell something when there are already five hundred and twenty-one of them? Why should I spend £100+ on a wireless mouse from Asus? There is probably no single or even simple answer. But every time I start testing a new gadget, I often find something new to be impressed by. It can be a simple thing, like in this case the weight. The ROG Keris II Origin weighs 65 grams. For my Rog Ally X, I use an Aerox 3, which weighs just a few ounces more. Yet the Keris II manages to feel even more featherweight than that. That's the best description I can give; it's like moving a spring around. It is also very comfortable to use and glide around with. The grip you get is almost perfect (important) and the plastic is solid and comfortable and it just feels nice to grip. It's not the lightest in the class as there are mice that tick down below the 60-gram mark - but Asus has really managed to combine weight and material here so that it feels incredibly pleasant to use.
Two clickable buttons as well as some rgb are on the side.
With the usual right and left mouse buttons, two buttons on the side by the thumb and a clickable scroll wheel, it is, for a gaming mouse, relatively stripped down in terms of buttons. For some reason, the DPI button has also been placed on the underside, which I find an extremely strange choice. The mouse's polling rate is 1000Hz, but it can reach an impressive 8000Hz if you buy the developer's 'Polling Rate Booster'. It feels pretty cheap not to include it in my opinion. Especially when the price is quite high anyway.
The design is quite anonymous, but with nice light on the wheel, logo and page. It comes with some stickers if you want to change the look a bit. The mouse is available in black or white and I actually put a sticker on the side where I rest my thumb and it gave a little different texture. All the lights and functions can be set in the Armoury Crate software which I have some mixed feelings about. For the mouse in particular, it works perfectly fine, so I won't delve too deeply into this review - but the software as a whole has some flaws in it, and some of these flaws regarding other hardware I will get more specific about in another review. For the mouse, however, everything has worked as it should. However, you should be prepared that there are a lot of updates both before you use Asus gadgets and during the time you do.
Convenient charging via USC on the front and it can also be used in wired mode while charging.
The mouse can be connected via the supplied 2.4Ghz stick or via Bluetooth. It is good that the included USB stick allows to have two devices linked so I can have both an Asus keyboard and this mouse linked to it. Battery life is absolutely great; 192 hours in Bluetooth/127 hours in 2.4Ghz mode - though this is with the lights off. If you want your nice mouse to shine a little, the battery life is reduced to 91 hours and 82 hours with the receiver. Of course, you can also run it wired and charge it at the same time, if you wish. Asus sends a braided USB-C cable that I think works better than the plastic often rigid cables that are sometimes included.
Finally - regarding that factor called the price, I think it's a little over the top. I've tried a bunch of other wireless mice that are at cheaper that I think are at least as good. But still, the Keris II Origin has ended up at my one computer setup as something I will keep. Its extremely comfortable grip and the fact that it is so light and smooth to move around with is something I really appreciate.