Review: Retikal Pro FPS Gaming Mouse

Retikal Gaming Mouse — This mouse really does look right at home next to a gaming PC and gaming keyboard (Image by Skip Owens)

If you are a gamer, then speed, accuracy, and comfort are very important. The Retikal Pro FPS Gaming Mouse by Kaliber Gaming and IOGEAR checks off these qualifications and then some.

The Retikal Pro FPS Gaming Mouse (GME660) was reviewed at the same time as the HVER Pro RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard. For brevity I decided to break them into separate reviews as not everyone is looking for both a gaming keyboard and mouse at the same time. So be sure to check out my review of the HVER Pro RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard as well.

What Is the Retikal Pro FPS Gaming Mouse?

I think the folks over at IOGEAR summed up the mouse pretty well with the following description:

“Kaliber Gaming by IOGEAR’s RETIKAL Pro FPS Gaming Mouse is a pure-bred gaming beast, specifically built to dominate first-person-shooter games. The RETIKAL’s tournament-grade optical gaming sensor provides a huge step up in accuracy, allowing much more precise shots, especially when aiming-down-sight. In addition to its tournament-grade sensor, the RETIKAL also features a dedicated sniper button that changes mouse dpi while pressed, making head shots much quicker and easier. RETIKAL’s built-in memory stores up to five different mouse profiles, and allows you to change every single programmable option from dpi steps to macro functions with a single click. With five programmable steps up to 5000 dpi, RETIKAL is great for low sensitivity FPS gamers and has more than enough resolution for even high sensitivity 4K Ultra HD gaming.”

The lighting of the mouse really screams that this mouse means business (Image by Skip Owens)

The features of the Retikal are as follows:

USB 2.0 eSports professional optical gaming mouse
9 programmable buttons with custom programming software
Non-slip rubber coated click wheel and thumb rest
Up to 5000dpi with shift-on-the-fly adjustment
Sniper button instantly increases aim accuracy
Instantly switch between 5 profiles
Adjustable weight system for precision tuning
Sculptured housing designed for FPS gaming
LED backlighting with “breathing” effect
Pixart PMW 3310 “flawless” optical sensor
128K built-in memory
125/500/1000Hz adjustable report rate
6400 fps frame rate
130 ips speed

How Have I Been Using the Retikal?

Just as with the HVER Pro RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, the first thing I did with the Retikal gaming mouse was to get it into the hands of a “professional”… my teenage son. My son saved up his money for quite a while and bought his own gaming PC and as expected spends quite a bit of his free time gaming.

My son has been using the Retikal for several weeks now so I asked him a few questions about his experience with the mouse:

Dad: What games have you been playing with Retikal?

Son: DOOM, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Kerbal Space Program, and Space Engineers.

Dad: Did you notice any advantages to the Retikal over the mouse you were using (and what was the mouse you were using)?

Son: I used a cheap old HP mouse. The sniper button helped with precise movements. The physically larger mouse helped too, as well as the third button to the right of the right-click maximizes a YouTube video to full-screen.

Dad: Since this is specifically a First Person Shooter (FPS) gaming mouse, what FPS game(s) have you been playing with it and does it really make a difference?

Son: I have mainly been playing DOOM with it, it helps a lot, with all the programmable buttons and the removable weights it is very customizable. While I did not end up using any of the programmable buttons, the weights did get me to a comfortable resistance almost immediately after picking it up. Also the on the fly dpi change allows for flexibility between games, as well as programmable profiles. Again I didn’t use the profiles but they would be nice if multiple people use the mouse.

Dad: What is your favorite feature of the Retikal?

Son: Favorite feature would be a tie between the sniper button and the full-screen programmable button.

Verdict

I also used this mouse in addition to my son, but I strictly used it for general computing tasks. My first reaction to the mouse when seeing it was that is quite large, but upon first using the mouse the first thing that came to mind was “perfect fit.” The mouse just seemed to fit into my hand quite naturally. The accuracy of the mouse movement was also a lot more noticeable than I would have expected. You can set the sensitivity of this mouse quite high and still maintain very precise control (it doesn’t feel like you are chasing the cursor all over the screen). After just using this mouse for a few minutes for basic computing tasks I can see why a gamer would really appreciate the fit, form, and function of this mouse.

Overall this is very capable gaming mouse and has some significant advantages over a standard mouse… all for a very reasonable price of approximately $35. This is even a mouse worth considering if you aren’t a gamer at all and just spend a lot of time using a mouse and need something comfortable in the hand with adjustable weighting.

Pros: