Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsCould have been a great G502 Replacement, but broke just over 2 years from purchase
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2020
Edit 3/17/2022 - Dropped to one star. The mouse scroll wheel up just stopped working after acting funny yesterday (was sort of working but I needed to scroll 4x more to go up the same distance as down). This is not acceptable for a mouse to become e-waste after 2 years. Come on, really Kingston. I had to resort back to the G502 I mention below lol. However, I did order the latest version since my previous G502 is in the 9 year old range. But, I will continue to keep it as a backup and I am really glad. I will say I personally prefer the ergonomics of the Pulsefire raid for my hand size and the slightly lower weight, but I will get used to the G502 again.
Overall, the Pulsefire Raid is a good replacement for the G502. I have been using the G502 for 6 or 7 years mainly due to the number buttons. I need more buttons than a traditional mouse. I never really liked the ergonomics of the G502 though. I always felt it was too narrow, especially at the top.
The Raid feels pretty good. I will need to get used to it a little, but I had no problems using it from the start. I prefer the button placement and all but one are easy to hit without resorting to finger yoga. I noticed the slightly lower weight, which I prefer, but it is not night and day.
I took one star off, but considered taking two stars off for the software. It is not using it that is a problem for me. It is getting it. The software worked fine for what I needed such as rebinding buttons to keystrokes. One of the easier processes I have seen. Better than Logitech in my opinion. However, with any other brand, you go to the website and download it and install it. Easy as pie. With HyperX, you do the same process, but you ultimately get it from the Microsoft store. Before you buy this mouse and I suspect all the Pulsefires, make SURE you can access the Microsoft store. Of course I had a problem so it took me hours to fix it. Ultimately, for me, I needed to set Googles DNS servers as my default.
I am not sure why Kingston went that route, but they would have saved me a lot of time if they would have the software available for download from their site.
Overall, it is a good mouse for the money.
Edit : March 13, 2020
Downgrade from 4 to a 2
Firing up World of Tanks(WoT) showed a pretty big weakness in the mouse and its software compared to the G502 at least for me. World of tanks' aim down site is not the right mouse button that you would expect. It is a keyboard key and the RMB is the free look. I always had to remap my mouse to make a the RMB the aim down site by assigning it to a key for that game via a profile and assigning the free look. Never had a problem with the G502. However, the Ngenuity software when you choose to remap the RMB for a "Game Link"profile with WoT, it only allows you to remap it to the left mouse button :-( . You cannot assign it to a keyboard key. That is very unfortunate.
I totally downgraded my rating for that because in 2020, that is not acceptable considering that well over 10 years ago I could remap the RMB of the G502. For that, 2 stars is fair because aim down site to me will always be the RMB and mice that allow me to accomplish that are all the better. I now have to retrain myself to use another mouse button. Get on it Kingston, that is not really good.
However and in all fairness, the mouse performs very well and is very smooth in all the games I have played. It does feel good and if one off situations do not matter to you like it does to me, this mouse is still about a 4.5 in my opinion for performance and a 4 if you consider the hoops to get the software noted above (ie; just let a customer download it from you).
