Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse review: A middle-of-the-road mouse for anime fans

If you’re a fan of Hatsune Miku or anime in general, I think I’ve found the perfect mouse for you. The Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse is Miku-themed and sports lovely colors. Its performance when playing games casually is good, too, thanks to 1,000Hz polling and 12,000 DPI. It’s comfortable for long periods of time, and you get 134 hours of battery life to keep playing all day long.

But it’s far from perfect. Its design, for starters, is divisive, and it doesn’t come in any standard run-of-the-mill colors. The scroll wheel feels stiff, too, and competitive players won’t be happy with the lack of features. Oh, and it’s expensive, especially compared to its closest rivals who offer more features for less.

Is it still the best gaming mouse for you? Read my full Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse review to find out.

Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A wireless gaming mouse with 1,000Hz polling and 12,000 DPI
• Who is it for? Casual gamers… and Hatsune Miku fans
• How much does it cost? $109 / £92
• What do we like? The comfortable design, (casual) gaming performance, and long battery life
• What don’t we like? The divisive design, stiff scroll wheel, and premium price tag

Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse review: Specs

Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse review: The ups

From its comfortable design to its 1,000Hz polling rate and 12,000 DPI, the Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse is a decent little rodent for casual gaming.

Very comfortable and sturdy

The Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse is one of the most comfortable mice I’ve had the pleasure of using. First of all, it’s perfect for anyone with small- or medium-sized hands, as it measures 4.53 x 2.5 x 1.48 inches. I’ve found it very comfy for both palm and claw grips. Though the overall size is small, the Mini’s left- and right-click buttons are big enough for your fingers to sit comfortably.

Unlike many of today’s mice that fight it out to be crowned the most lightweight rodent around, the Mini weighs a little more than your average gaming mouse. At 2.29 ounces or 65g, the Mini is heavier than the likes of the Corsair Sabre V2 Pro ($99, 1.26 ounces), the Fnatic x Lamzu Maya 8K ($119, 1.58 ounces) and the Keychron M2 8K ($69, 1.94 ounces). It isn’t so heavy, though, that it feels difficult or fatiguing to move around. Its four skates glide across most surfaces.

I personally like that the Mini is on the heavier side of things. It feels substantial in the hand, and it makes it feel premium — though its design takes away from that, and I’ll discuss that shortly.

Good for casual gaming

If you’re a casual gamer, the Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse should more than suffice. The mouse has a 1,000Hz polling rate over 2.4GHz and wired connections, and this naturally drops to 125Hz over Bluetooth. You get a maximum DPI of 12,000 which is good for fast-paced games. There’s also a dedicated DPI button located behind the left- and right-click buttons, and you can use it to swap between four DPI stages on the fly.

To test the Mini, I played “Counter-Strike 2” and “Cyberpunk 2077.” I didn’t notice any latency issues or input lag in either game, and I thoroughly appreciated having a dedicated DPI button. When using a sniper rifle to aim at enemies in the distance in “Cyberpunk 2077,” I dropped the DPI to 400 which slowed down my movements. This then helped me to lock onto a specific target, especially when the NPC was standing in a group.

When I was in close-quarters combat, surrounded by gang members in “Cyberpunk 2077,” I opted for a high DPI of around 5,000. This made my cursor movements snappy, allowing for rapid reactions to sudden threats. I was able to quickly attack NPCs one after the other with my katana, which gave me a competitive advantage.

Through Asus Armoury Crate, you can also enable angle snapping, which smooths out mouse movements to ensure a straight line, thereby eliminating any jitters caused by hand shake. This essentially means that you can keep your cursor at level-head at all times in games like “Counter-Strike 2” by eliminating any jitters caused by hand shake.

Overall, the Mini’s gaming performance doesn’t give you much to complain about. I’ve found its left- and right-click buttons to be highly responsive, too, and they give satisfying feedback when pressed.

Long battery life

If you want a mouse that lasts a long time, the Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse should be right up your alley. Asus claims that the Mini can last a whopping 134 hours over Bluetooth. Your mileage will naturally depend on the polling rate, use of RGB lighting, and so on. Asus doesn’t specify what that looks like, though.

The Mini upstages most of its competition with its mahoosive battery life. For instance, the Corsair Sabre V2 Pro is rated for 70 hours, while the Fnatic x Lamzu Maya 8K offers up to 80 hours. The Keychron M2 8K lasts a little longer at 140 hours, but there’s not much in it.

Customization through Armoury Crate

I wasn’t sure whether to put this down as a pro or a con. I jest… or do I? The Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse is customizable via Armoury Crate. Now, if you’ve read any of my peripheral reviews, you’ll know that I’m not a big fan of Asus’ software — and I don’t hide it. Armoury Crate is… fine to use. I don’t like that you get inundated with pop-ups that ask you to sign up for emails or download other apps, but it gets the job done.

Through Armoury Crate, you can assign different values to the Mini’s dedicated DPI button, adjust polling rate, remap buttons, customize the RGB lighting, and enable angle snapping. There isn’t really much else to say on the matter. The mouse can be customized. That’s it. If you don’t have a Windows laptop, you’re out of luck as Armoury Crate isn’t available on macOS.

Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse review: The downs

The Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse isn’t without its flaws. The design isn’t the most appealing; the scroll wheel feels stiff; and it costs a pretty penny.

Divisive design

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I can best describe the Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse’s design as divisive. Similar to the Asus TUF Gaming H1 Gen II headset and the Asus TUF Gaming K3 Gen II keyboard, the mouse is Hatsune Miku-themed. You know, the Vocaloid software voicebank represented by a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails.

I’m personally not a big fan of the Mini’s design. I don’t really care for Hatsune Miku’s see-through silhouette printed onto the mouse, RGB lighting shining through it and all that. Or “01 MIKU” gracing the right-click button. I don’t consume her content, and while I like the pastel greens and pinks, I wish Asus gave you the option to buy the mouse sans Hatsune Miku.

Stiff scroll wheel

If I had a nickel for every time I tested a mouse with an annoyingly stiff scroll wheel, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. First the Keychron M2 8K, and now the Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse. Similar to the M2 8K, the Mini’s scroll wheel has a high resistance and feels tight. Clicking it requires a fair amount of force, too. All of this is good for avoiding accidental misclicks, but it can become fatiguing and can impact reaction times in video games.

Expensive

When I first unboxed the Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse, I wasn’t expecting it to cost this much. It has a retail price of $109 / £92 at Amazon, making it one of the most expensive rodents in its weight class. Given that the mouse’s polling is limited to 1,000Hz and its DPI to 12,000, I can’t really justify the price tag.

This is a very competitive market, too, and the Mini faces fierce competition from the likes of Cherry XTRFY M50 Wireless ($69), the Keychron M6 8K ($69) and the Keychron M3 Mini V2 8K ($69). All three mice offer either the same features or better for a lot less money. If you really want to spend nearly $110, the Corsair Sabre V2 Pro ($99) is slightly cheaper and packs 8,000Hz polling and a whopping 33,000 DPI (both great for competitive players). The only reason you’d get the Mini is if you’re a Hatsune Miku fan — I really can’t see why else.

Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse review: Verdict

The Asus TUF Gaming Mini Wireless Mouse isn’t the worst gaming mouse I’ve tested — but it isn’t the best either. The mouse packs 1,000Hz polling and 12,000 DPI which, for most casual gamers, should suffice. You also get up to 134 hours of battery life packed into a very comfortable (and sturdy) design.

But while we’re on that subject, I’m not a huge fan (neither are my coworkers, to be honest) of the Hatsune Miku design, and wish Asus offered the mouse in more traditional colors. Its scroll wheel also feels really stiff. At $109, the Mini feels more like a “collector’s item” than a proper mouse, and you’d be better off with a rodent from Keychron or Corsair if you don’t care about the Mini’s visual aesthetics.