Asus ROG Gladius II Review

So, the hardware is pretty impressive, but with so many features and a high price tag, we expect a feature-rich software suite to match.


Installing Asus ROG Armoury was as easy as it usually is, and plugging in the Gladius II prompted me to update the firmware. This was fine until it went into a perpetual boot loop of 'Firmware update failed...'. After this, it would try to update again and fail. It took a few computer restarts and a few software re-installs before it did finally update the firmware. This was a very disappointing start, but it was the only issue we ran into; since it was sorted, it has been perfect.


The Armoury software is easy to navigate and works as you expect. You can change settings such as angle snapping, polling rate, and DPI easily. You can reprogram buttons by just clicking on them and selecting a new function.


As with many other mice on the market at the moment, the Asus ROG Gladius II has RGB LEDs which can be controlled via the software. You can select colour and brightness, and there's a selection of simple dynamic LED modes. It would have been nice to be able to change the speed of some of the modes, but this could come in future updates. Asus does generally update its software regularly.

You can also change settings such as lift off distance (LOD), and you can calibrate the sensor to read your gaming surface better. I went through the list of preset surfaces and couldn't see a noticeable difference. The sensor worked flawlessly before any changes and continued to do so after.


As the Asus ROG Gladius II can be used with Aura Sync, you can make all of your Asus RGB products light up together. I have used Aura Sync in the past, and it is pretty impressive when everything is working together, especially when it works on your motherboard, GPU, LEDs, RAM, fans, water blocks, mice, keyboards, and more. It is just nice to get everything matching from a single button click. The last screen we are going to look at is the stats page where you can record what you are doing with your mouse and check the stats. We decided to record a (very bad) game of CS:GO. As you can see, it records left and right clicks as well as the distance the mouse was moved in centrimetres. Luckily it didn't record my score in the game. This isn't really useful for FPS, but for some games you could look at these stats and try to improve them.

Conclusion

When testing mice there are a few main things that we look at: comfort, cost, durability, and performance, and the Asus ROG Gladius II does tick a lot of the boxes. It's very comfortable to use, and most people shouldn't have a problem with gripping it. All of the buttons are in comfortable positions, and you don't get wrist strain or fatigue when using it.

The mouse seems to be made well and feels solid. It is a little lighter than its predecessor but still weighs 110g without the cable, which may be a little bit heavy for some. The ability to be able to change the two main switches is a great idea, as it does extend the lifespan. Switches are generally the first thing to go in a mouse, and being able to swap the switches for lighter or heavier ones is a great idea. The switches that are included are very similar to each other, but the Japanese Omron switches feel faster and lighter than the Chinese counterpart. The Chinese Omron switches have a 50-million click rating, which is far more than the Japanese ones, but we ended up using the Japanese ones as they feel far nicer.

Performance is great too, and we have no complaints at all here. The sensor is one of the best on the market at the moment, and the software was fine once we managed to fix the little installation issue.

This leaves us with the price. At £80, this is an expensive mouse. Unfortunately, the Gladius II seems to have picked up some "ROG tax", and there are similar mice for cheaper and mice which can do more at a similar price. Nevertheless, with it ticking many a box and exhibiting very few flaws, it still qualifies for our Exceptional award. It 's certainly a product aimed at those who don't mind spending a little extra for something a bit special, and it has some great improvements over the already-great original.