With the $49.99 Pulsefire Haste, HyperX has created an outstanding esports mouse. Like previous HyperX mice, the Pulsefire Haste isn’t flashy. It’s a basic esports mouse whose signature feature, a honeycomb chassis with holes in it to minimize weight, is a well-established trend. The Pulsefire Haste doesn’t need one incredible feature, because it has great balance: It’s incredibly light, offers serviceable hand support, and houses a good sensor. Overall, the Pulsefire Haste is far and away HyperX’s best gaming mouse to date, and an Editors’ Choice pick for esports mice.
Making Haste
After more than a year of companies focusing on simple, low-weight esports mice, the Pulsefire Haste feels familiar. It’s a slightly small, six-button, wired, right-hand mouse clad in matte black plastic with a single RGB lighting accent. Its buttons are in all the usual spots: two clicks, an RGB-laden scroll wheel, and a DPI-preset select button on top. On the left side, your thumb has access to long, thin back and forward buttons.
Measuring 1.44 by 2.59 by 4.94 by 1.44 (HWD), the Pulsefire Haste is a little narrow and short relative to non-esports mice. The base, the underside, and part of the click panels, are all covered in holes that reduce the plastic’s mass without impacting durability. Even though the design trend is old-hat at this point, it’s a still good look for a gaming mouse.
The small size and holes in the shells are in service of getting the Haste’s mass down to a very low 2.05 ounces, or just over 58 grams. It’s among the lightest mice that PCMag’s tested, and the lightest one I’ve used that wasn’t an ambidextrous “mini” mouse made specifically for claw-style grips. This mouse flies across a mousepad with minimal effort, which is great if you like to play shooters with the DPI turned way down for precision.
The low weight is impressive on its own, but it isn’t what makes the Pulsefire Haste’s performance sing. The real coup de grace is the chassis, which doesn’t give up on ergonomic support to achieve “ultralight” status. The shell has enough of a hump under the base of your thumb to guide your hand into a comfortable position when you hold it, which makes it easy to use as an everyday mouse, in addition to a high-performance gameday tool. It isn’t the most supportive mouse I’ve used—its short, narrow frame encourages you to squeeze the mouse a little, which isn’t great.
Still, it’s the best of both worlds. Most esports mice that cut the weight down to under three ounces usually sacrifice comfort and ergonomic considerations. There are also many light esports mice that are more supportive, but don’t quite reach the threshold where a lower weight makes a tangible benefit. The Pulsefire Haste does both and that’s very impressive.
Under the hood, the Pulsefire Haste sports a Pixart 3335 sensor that can track at up to 16,000 DPI and remain accurate at 450 inches per second. These specs have rapidly become standard numbers for mid- and high-grade gaming mice, but they’re still better-than-average numbers for a mouse that you could categorize as a budget selection.
Speed and NGenuity
The Pulsefire Haste employs HyperX’ config software, NGenuity, to facilitate customization. Using the app, you can change the RGB in the scroll wheel, tune your DPI presets, and remap four of the six mouse buttons—you can swap left- and right-click, but cannot change them to another function. You can also adjust the RGB wheel’s brightness and polling rate.
That said, there isn’t much customization with this type of mouse. You’ll want to set your five DPI presets and change the lighting, but that’s about it. The Pulsefire Haste only stores your default profile in onboard memory, but you can make alternate profiles, which are saved locally in NGenuity. Given the mouse’s feature set, I imagine most players will be fine setting and sticking a single “everyday carry” profile.
Haste, Not Waste
The HyperX Pulsefire Haste is an excellent esports mouse that carries few compromises. Other than the Glorious Model D, the Pulsefire Haste is the only esports mouse that we easily recommend without any caveats or reservations. That includes pricing: At $49.99, the Pulsefire Haste undercuts most of the best esports mice made by major manufacturers, including the $79.99 Razer Viper and $69.99 SteelSeries Sensei Ten. If you’re looking for a fast, lightweight mouse for heated gaming sessions, the HyperX Pulsefire Haste should be your tool of choice.
