Review of the ASUS ROG HARPE ACE Aim Lab Edition: Light, fast, precise and with eSports genes – pure marketing or game changer?

It’s ASUS time again. I know that I write a lot about ASUS products. But that’s not because I like ASUS so much, but because ASUS gets in touch with me and allows me to test their products. I’ll come back to this topic at the very end. Now let’s take a look at the ASUS ROG Harpe ACE Aim Lab Edition that I’ve already announced. Which I tested together with the recently introduced ASUS ROG Falchion RX Low Profile. By pure coincidence, I also had the BenQ Zowie U2 with me for testing at the same time. So today’s comparison with the Zowie U2 will be particularly interesting. Long story short, let’s get started.

Packaging and scope of delivery

The packaging is typical for ROG – everything you need comes out of the box. The mouse, a USB-C to USB-A cable and an adapter for the dongle. It’s good that ASUS uses materials for the packaging that can be thrown directly into the blue garbage can.

 

If you are looking for the dongle, you will find it below. It has its place there if you want to take it with you, so it is difficult to lose.

Specifications

As always, you can find a short summary here and if you want to take a look at the ASUS homepage: Click here!

From my point of view, there are a few essential specifications that make a good mouse on paper. The polling rate of 1000 Hz (nobody needs more), high IPS and adjustable DPI. For NVIDIA hardcore enthusiasts, there is of course also the option of using the mouse with an NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer monitor. The Harpe ACE Aim Lab is officially NVIDIA-verified for this purpose.

I consider the durability of the buttons, the weight etc. as optional or individual preferences. I like lightweight mice, so the Harpe Aim Lab also fulfills this optional requirement. The Harpe can be used with or without a cable, and with Bluetooth on a laptop if you prefer. This makes the mouse very flexible. No one will probably ever use the 36,000 DPI. When it comes to latency, you should use 1200 to 1600 DPI. That’s my recommendation, anything below that increases latency and anything above that doesn’t add any value. Don’t you think so? Click here!

ASUS AimPoint Sensor

The ASUS AimPoint sensor was developed and manufactured by ASUS. The sensor is part of the ROG series and was developed internally by ASUS to meet the needs of competitive gamers. It is therefore not an external OEM supplier, but a proprietary product from ASUS. The ASUS AimPoint sensor is a high-precision optical sensor used in ROG (Republic of Gamers) series gaming mice. Here are the technical details of the sensor with a maximum resolution of 36,000 DPI (dots per inch).

Technical details of the ASUS AimPoint sensor:

The sensor supports a resolution of up to 36,000 DPI, allowing for extreme sensitivity and precision in motion detection. This is particularly advantageous for gamers who require fast reactions and precise movements. The sensor operates at a very high sampling rate of 650 IPS (inches per second). This means that the sensor can accurately capture movements of up to 650 inches per second without sacrificing precision. The sensor supports a maximum acceleration of 50 G, which makes it extremely resistant to fast, jerky movements. This is particularly important in fast-paced action games.

In combination with the gaming mice that use this sensor, the polling rate can be up to 1000 Hz, which enables a polling time of 1 millisecond. This means that movements and inputs are transmitted to the computer with virtually no delay. The ASUS AimPoint sensor is optimized for energy-efficient performance, which is especially beneficial for wireless mice to ensure longer battery life without compromising performance. The DPI settings can be adjusted in multiple levels, allowing users to quickly switch between different sensitivity levels depending on the requirement or game.

The sensor is optimized to accurately detect movement even at low speeds while providing “low-noise” processing to avoid unwanted motion artifacts. The ASUS AimPoint sensor can be configured via the Asus Armoury Crate software, which offers additional customization options such as fine-tuning DPI levels, calibration on different surfaces and customization of button mappings.

The extremely high DPI setting and sampling rate make the sensor particularly suitable for competitive gamers and eSports players. Ergo, the AimPoint offers high precision and accuracy as well as reliability at high speeds. The combination of high sampling rate and acceleration ensures that movements are always reproduced precisely, even during intense gaming scenes.

That was a lot of text about ASUS’ in-house AimPoint sensor. The fact is, the sensor is really very good. After more than three months of use, I couldn’t identify a single weakness – neither in the home office nor when gaming!