ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review – Triple Crown Featherweight

Unboxing the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review – Box

Let’s kick off the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition review with the unboxing. You get your standard ROG box design here clad in their signature black and red colour scheme. You can find more details on the product and its features written around it. Inside, you can expect to find the following items:

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review – Box content

• 1 x ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition gaming mouse
• 1 x USB Dongle
• 1 x USB Dongle Extender
• 1 x ROG Paracord
• 1 x Quick start guide
• 1 x Warranty Booklet
• 1 x ROG x Aim Lab Sticker
• 3 x Mouse feet
• 1 x Thank you card
• 1 x Mouse Grip Tape Set(one-time stick)

Specifications

Performance

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review – Tracking test

From my own experience, the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition has pretty good accuracy for tracking, and its ultra-lightweight build made it even easier to control in higher DPIs. As you can see, things look pretty well up to 5,200 DPI but the moment I touched 18,000 DPI onwards, things start to look messy. Even so, it doesn’t look nearly as bad as our previous mouse reviews, with the notable odd points being the sudden lines due to small movements in real life translating to large movements via the cursor.

Check out our review of the ASUS ROG Gladius III Wireless by clicking right here.

The Good

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review – Ambidextrous design

There are a number of good reasons to consider the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition. For starters, it has an ambidextrous design, making it suitable for left and right-handed gamers. With that being said however, do keep in mind that it’s easier to use the side buttons if you’re using it with a right hand as it’s more natural to press with the thumb. For lefties, you will need to get used to pressing it with the ring or pinky finger, which can be a little awkward to use but the option is there.

This mouse is also one of the lightest wireless gaming mouse around, weighing in a mere 54g. It’s even lighter than another ROG mouse we reviewed and praised previously for being light, the ROG Gladius III Wireless AimPoint, by a whopping 25g. It’s not just a matter of reducing fatigue while using it but the lesser weight makes it much easier to control, evident by our results when using this in DPIs that most people wouldn’t even come close to touching.

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review – PTFE mouse feet

The use of PTFE for the mouse feet is always great as it allows for effortless glide. At this day and age, this is pretty much the norm for most gaming as rivals are also doing the same. What’s great here is that it comes with extra mouse feet in the box so if it ever peels or wears out, you can immediately replace them yourself. In fact, it even comes with the ROG anti-slip grip tape as well if you want a better grip while holding, which is pretty useful for claw grip users.

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review – USB dongle can be found here

A major selling point of the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition, which is shared by a number of recent ROG wireless gaming mice, is the Tri-Mode Connectivity consisting of RF 2.4GHz, Bluetooth, and USB-C. It also has a dedicated area to store the USB dongle on the underside, sandwiched between the two bottom mouse feet. If you ever want a single mouse to be used on multiple devices or to bring one with you when you head out, this is a viable choice.

Lastly, the battery life of the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition is pretty good. It’s said to last about 90 hours on 2.4GHz RF wireless with RGB disabled, 79 hours with RGB enabled and from out testing, we managed to get about 75-76 hours of battery life with RGB lighting enabled, which is close to the official claims. As I’m mostly on my PC one way or another, I can basically go 5 days without charging, and if you rely on Bluetooth, it will last even longer. It’s not the best battery life among all ROG wireless gaming mice but it’s still high up there.

The Bad

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review – No DPI switch here

The ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition has its share of drawbacks. For starters, the DPI Switcher is a single button located on the underbelly of the mouse. This means switching it on-the-fly is going to be annoying. Personally, I would have preferred to have it right below the mouse wheel, ideally with two buttons to go up and down the DPI modes. I’m not sure why they opted for this but it’s not a convenient design choice, that’s for sure.

Then, the lack of an adjustable scroll wheel resistance is a bit of a missed opportunity. Some gamers may prefer a smooth scrolling experience while others might prefer something with more tactility. This would have made it easier to cater a wider variety of gamers. It’s not a dealbreaker at least unless you’re really picky about the resistance.

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review – A rather pronounced bump

While the ambidextrous design allows it to cater a wider audience, I find the design itself a little awkward to use. The way I use with my right hand, it feels like my ring and pinky fingers are hanging awkwardly on the side. Furthermore, the bump in the middle where your palm is resting feels a little too high, making it feel like your index and middle fingers are semi-floating at times. The former is something I believe can’t be helped unless they focus on making it exclusively for left or right hand but the latter is something I hope gets reduced in its successor models for added comfort.

Given that it’s 2024 and the Aim Lab name in the model, I expected them to go full-fledged on appealing to the Esports / competitive gaming crowd. As such, I was surprised they were sticking to 1,000Hz polling rate here still. I’m hoping they would add some form of dongle that would allow it to go up to 4,000Hz but for now, this is what you get. Don’t get me wrong, for most gamers, 1,000Hz is more than enough but for those who want the best possible for their competitive gaming experience, they would want to target higher.

Lastly, and I know I sound like a broken record saying this, but the Armoury Crate software needs some improvements, especially in terms of giving users a more seamless experience. When an update arrives, you need to connect both the dongle and the mouse directly to the PC, which is a bit annoying to do. While I can always skip an update or two, it will come at the cost of not being able to reconfigure the mouse via the software. If it can’t be updated with just the dongle alone, at least don’t limit its functions on the software prior to the update.

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Verdict

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition Review

The ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition is an ultra-lightweight, ambidextrous wireless gaming mouse that is clearly geared towards FPS gamers. If you want a versatile mouse that is as light as possible, this will definitely serve you well. You do get a lot for its retail price of RM599, but it’s worth noting that you can already get this online for almost RM100 off.

At the end of our ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition review, I award this gaming mouse with our Silver Pokdeward.

Big thanks to ASUS Malaysia for sending us this mouse for the purpose of this review.