HyperX Pulsefire Dart Review

Wireless charging is one of the best features among gaming mice right now. Most companies that offer supported mice, especially Corsair and Logitech, lock you into their charging systems. HyperX brings things back to earth. The company’s first wireless charging mouse, the Pulsefire Dart, is not only more affordable than rivals for $99.99 but uses Qi-standard wireless charging, so you can start charging wirelessly using a third-party wireless charging platform. However, once you’re past that cool feature, the Pulsefire Dart is a capable but not particularly impressive mouse – the very definition of a basic wireless gaming mouse. This is our HyperX Pulsefire Dart Review.

HyperX Pulsefire Dart Review Design

Ignore the aspect of wireless charging, and the Pulsefire Dart looks like an ordinary six-button right-handed mouse. Its large, rounded shell looks almost retro compared to many of the gaming mice I’ve tasted this year. At 1.7 by 2.9 by 4.9 inches, he’s a bit on the high side, with a shapeless pronounced than many right-handed mice. It has a slight ergonomic hump – enough to give your hand a place to settle – but I wouldn’t call it particularly comfortable.

The buttons come as standard with six buttons: the two main buttons, a scroll wheel, a middle button that goes through up to five presets for tracking resolution, and two buttons on the side. Both sides of the mouse have well-filled handles covered in synthetic leather. The extra padding is surprisingly handy: As someone who holds my mouse tighter intense gaming moments, it relieves the pressure on my hand when things get complicated.

The best features of the device are all under the hood. It features a PixArt PMW3389 sensor, which can accurately detect movements of up to 16,000 dots per inch (dpi). I occasionally encountered some stuttering when activating the mouse from sleep mode. However, it was unclear whether that was a sensor problem or whether it was related to the wireless connection. I never had a problem that affected work or a game session, so I still consider the mouse to be very reliable.

The Dart connects wirelessly to your PC via a 2.4GHz USB dongle. The trend among mice is that they are for such radio frequency (RF) dongles (they tend to provide more reliable connections and process precise movements without adding delay), but most premium wireless mice offer both RF and Bluetooth support. The fact that the Dart only offers the USB RF dongle as an option was never a problem for me, but it can be a problem for players who don’t have ports to spare.

Of course, you can always connect the Dart directly to your PC via the USB Type-C port on the front of the mouse, using a bundled cable for charging and use when the battery is low. Although the Dart can charge wirelessly, you should at least use the wired USB connection to download firmware updates.

HyperX Pulsefire Dart Review Performance

When it comes to the latter, you won’t be disappointed. Omron’s switches result in a solid click that is great in action. Right-clicking to guide my character around the map on DOTA 2 was strangely pleasing, while the left button added a reassuring weight to the sword-swinging as we wore out our enemy’s guard in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Even the buttons on the side passed with flying colors; they are tactile and satisfying. Combined with available wireless Qi charging and a fast 2.4 GHz connection that delivers that all-important 1ms response speed, it’s clear the HyperX Pulsefire Dart doesn’t skimp on features.

Indeed, the battery life of 50 hours is average, and we would have preferred a higher DPI rate to bring it in line with the competition. But realistically, 16,000 is more than enough. In Apex Legends, for example, we’ve hardly had to put a bead on enemies, so with little more than a twist of the wrist, we can aim for enemies.

Or at least we could in the end. Strangely, the device is set to 800, 1,600, or 3200 DPI steps out of the box. That’s a fraction of what it can do, and far below what most gamers would want. Of course, you can change all this through the HyperX Ngenuity software, but having to start up and mess around behind the scenes – no matter how easy that is – is something of a faffle. Don’t hide one of your points of sale behind a settings screen, please.

The scroll wheel also leaves something to be desired. Unlike the main buttons, it feels a bit hollow and light. The click is still fantastic, but turning it can be disturbingly noisy unless you move it in small steps. It’s the only aspect of the HyperX Pulsefire Dart we weren’t happy with. We couldn’t help but focus on it when we zoomed in on units during the Total War: Warhammer, for example.

Battery Life and Charging

As mentioned before, the Pulsefire Dart uses standard Qi wireless charging, which means you can use the most newer wireless charging bases to charge it. Not all Qi pads transfer energy at the same rate, but most work relatively slowly. Luckily, the Dart has a long battery life of 50 hours with the RGB lights on, and a HyperX rated 90 hours with the lights off, giving you plenty of room to wiggle. If you hold a wireless charging pad near your mouse pad and place the Dart on it when you walk away from your desk, you’ll never run out of juice.

Even after sitting at my PC all day, my battery never dropped below 80 percent unless I wanted to. Unfortunately, although wireless charging is the most noticeable feature of the Dart, it’s not available straight out of the box. The mouse does not come with a wireless charging pad, only that USB-C cable for wired charging. HyperX sells a two-pads wireless charger, the ChargePlay Base, for $59.99, although you can find other Qi charging pads for much less.

Price and Availability

HyperX has a track record with beautiful pieces of kit that also perform admirably. Thus, the HyperX Pulsefire Dart’s more affordable cousin – the HyperX Pulsefire Surge – succeeds despite the lower costs to give an air of luxury. Although the HyperX Pulsefire Dart is $99 in the US (about AU$150 for Australia), it’s £110 in the UK. This is an exaggerated upward revaluation if the current conversion rates suggest that it should float closer to £80.

HyperX Pulsefire Dart Review Conclusion

During our HyperX Pulsefire Dart Review, we found it a bit of a paradox. It’s on the low side of the price range for wireless gaming mice I’ve watched this year; the Corsair Ironclaw RGB Wireless is the only one that costs less. But while wireless charging is an elite feature, the Pulsefire Dart looks like an ordinary aggressive mouse in most other ways, and for $100, I’m not sure that’s enough for me. (To put that price into perspective, the best non-playing mouse you can buy, Logitech’s MX Master 3, costs the same $99.99).

But by using standardized Qi charging technology at this price, the Pulsefire Dart opens up this feature to more users. I’d like to see more companies competing in the same price range for wireless mice and make the Qi feature a familiar element that doesn’t oblige you to commit to a single company’s specifications. However, this is more of a philosophical consideration than a practical one. In the end, I wouldn’t blame anyone for using the Pulsefire Dart – but you can do it better for the money.

For more options, do check our list of Best Gaming Mouse that you can buy right now.