Measurements (L x W x H)
124.2 mm x 66.8 mm x 38.2 mm
Weight
60g
The Pulsefire Haste was a surprise sleeper hit providing light weight with unique feeling clicks at a great value. The wireless attempts to upgrade the same shape and elevate it’s feature set.
Unboxing and Extras
All the contents are tightly packed into the glossy box. Extras include the charging, wireless dongle, wireless extender, warranty card, quick start guide, set of grip tape, and set of replacement feet in the box.
Design and Build Quality
For anyone who tried the original Pulsefire Haste, the shape will be instantly familiar and in fact feels even lighter this time around. despite both being rated at ~60g. The honeycomb shell comes in a chalky feeling PBT plastic finish. The flattish shape lends itself to fans of the Zowie FK style of mice with the shape feeling best for claw or fingertip grip.
The design of the mouse is quite minimal with just DPI button and RGB hits at the edges of the scroll wheel. The build quality feels good except when applying pressure to the mouse where I could feel some side flex and creaking along side the edges of the shell. Sadly the mouse feels less sturdy than the wired version with my copies having these flaws right out the box I could see them getting more noticeable with time.
There is however no sensor or wheel rattle and the actual coating of the mouse feels ergonomic for both grip and control. The mouse comes with a paracord style cable that’s nothing to write home about as it does not provide much flexibility or comfort when using the mouse plugged in.
Buttons & Scroll Wheel
TTC gold switches are one of my favourite and they are generally slept on by mouse manufacturers. HyperX brings them back for the Pulsefire Haste Wireless and they feel snappy, responsive and have a nice tactile feeling with a fast bounce-back for click spamming. They also have a nice crisp sound with each click which helps a bit with click timing. There’s limited pre or post travel on the main buttons with only a bit of sideplay when the clicks are held down.
The side buttons protrude a bit from the shell making them comfortable to hit in any grip style. They are snappy, responsive and have a good click feeling. There’s almost no pre-travel and limited post travel meaning they feel responsive and reliable in-game.
The scroll wheel is a bit low profile and has RGB on the sides. The rubbery texture on the wheel provides a good amount of grip and the middle click requires just moderate force to de-press. The scroll wheel has a bit of resistance but it’s largely stealthy and quiet in use. Overall all the buttons and the wheel itself feel really responsive in game and offer a unique click feeling to most of the competitors out.
One area of improvement is that the DPI button could be better tucked away as it’s not difficult to toggle it by accident.
Shape, Performance and Software
The Pulsefire Haste has a excellent shape for both claw and fingertip grip. The slightly shorter length and more low profile shape mean that the shape fits into a variety of hand sizes and will especially be good for smaller handed gamers.
The HyperX NGENUITY software allows for all the usual tweaking to DPI, button mapping and the like and it’s a relatively low usage program in my experience. While it’s nothing to write home about the software is perfectly functional and you can save settings to the device itself.
My performance with the shape was quite good and it requires very little adjustment in terms of switching over to the shape. I felt my aim was snappy and I had good control over most movements while using the mouse.
Battery Life, Sensor and Skates
The battery life of the HyperX Pulsefire Haste Wireless is a strong point being rated at 100 hours. From my usage that is a realistic metric and the mouse should not need to be charged more than once a week at most.
The sensor is an area of concern with the mouse as it’s a little bit underspec’ed for the current market. PixArt PAW3335 worked well enough under most conditions but you can feel it lag and glitch out a bit if you make a series of really fast movements. While this didn’t really become an issue in most in-game situations it did hurt my confidence in the product a bit knowing that tracking errors could come up. While you shouldn’t expect anything drastic like spinouts, it’d be easier to recommend this mouse if it had a better sensor. There is also some CPI deviation with it coming faster than rated which was also an issue on the wired predecessor.
The skates are a nicely rounded and shaped on the device and worked pretty flawlessly. They have a good thickness and there’s even an extra set in the box so you shouldn’t feel compelled to invest in aftermarket skates for it.
Conclusions
The Pulsefire Haste Wireless aims to perform above its weight class with it’s budget price but some cut corners mean that it can’t be given a full recommendation.
Overall Rating
7.5/10
Bottom Line
Still good value if found on sale, the Pulsefire Haste Wireless should have made a few more improvements to the core formula to set it above the crowd.
Where to buy the HyperX Pulsefire Haste
North America