Sophisticated Gamer

HyperX Pulsefire Haste gaming mouse levels up the work from home grind

Now this is a mouse.

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I never thought a mouse could feel so light and effortless as it slid across my desk, but then I encountered HyperX's Pulsefire Haste. The ultra-light honeycomb hex shell and several other clever design choices make for a tight little package that comes in at a paltry 59 grams. That's only 2 ounces or about the same weight as 1/4 cup of water. You can swallow that much water in a single gulp. (I know this because I tried!)

To put it another way, you can literally move it just by blowing on it.

Even more astonishing is how sturdy the Pulsefire Haste feels despite the weight. I wouldn't advise it, but you can exert a lot of pressure on any surface of the mouse. It won't give in the slightest.

For anyone who wants to spend a little to level-up their home office setup, I cannot recommend this mouse enough. PC gamers who want a responsive, lightweight mouse with customizable buttons and software will find even more to love about it. And for $49.99, who can beat it?

The LED light cycles through different colors, and seeing it through the honeycomb shell is half the fun.

HyperX

What's great about HyperX's Pulsefire Haste

  • Ridiculously lightweight
  • Glides smoothly across just about any surface
  • Hyperflex cable is the pinnacle of mouse wires

Particularly for anybody who's opted for an alien-looking, ergonomic computer mouse in the past, the Pulsefire Haste feels like an obvious step in the opposite direction: What if instead a mouse weighed almost nothing at all? The Pulsefire Haste feels ridiculously light to pick up and slides across even the cheapest of mousepads with ease. Every single design choice aims for smooth, reflexive movements that'll really make a different in reactive games.

A hugely important factor are the low-friction, pure virgin-grade PTFE skates, a synthetic polymer with incredibly low coefficient of friction, which means that it slides smoothly across almost any surface. But there's also the HyperFlex USB cable, a 6-foot shoelace connecting your mouse to your computer.

The Pulsefire Haste also just looks cool.

Most of the shell has small honeycomb hexes that allow you to peer inside the casing. So even if your palm gets sweaty, it remains breathable — especially when those four little PTFE skates on the bottom allow air to pass through the bottom. For the mouse wheel LEDs to cycle through various neon colors is just the right amount of stylistic flair.

The package comes with extra PTFE skates and grip tape.

HyperX

What's not-so-great about HyperX's Pulsefire Haste

  • The right-click button feels just a touch oversensitive
  • Tracking speed inexplicably shifts and reverts
  • What if ... there wasn't a wire at all?

Maybe it's the overall shape of my hand and the odd combination of huge palms and short, fat fingers, but especially in my early hours with the Pulsefire Haste, I found that my middle finger's weight would somehow be enough to trigger the right-click on the mouse. This seemed to fade with time, but it struck me as a minor nuisance early on.

I keep my tracking speed rather high at all times, but occasionally the tracking speed would inexplicably dip. I couldn't really discern why. And because the issue would disappear, it hardly matters.

However glorious the Pulsefire Haste seems, it does make me wonder if HyperX could pull off the same model but wirelessly. It would be well worth it not to bother with a wire at all, but for now, it hardly feels like settling to continue using the wired version.

The HyperX Pulsefire Haste is a must-buy whether you're a casual PC gamer looking for an ultra-lightweight mouse or just someone looking for a high-quality mouse to work from home with that won't break the bank.

The HyperX Pulsefire Haste is currently available for $49.99.

Sophisticated Gamer is a series all about elevated gaming accessories you won't be embarrassed to show to your Tinder date. We only recommend products we love and that we think you will, too.

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