ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Mini Review – Small Hands Will Love This

Unboxing

Meet the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Mini, the miniaturized version of the ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition we previously reviewed, now designed for smaller hands or for those who simply prefers a smaller esports-grade mouse. The box unpacks by tearing off the seal, and you’re first greeted with a card that includes a quick message from ASUS.

Here are all the items laid out on the table, and they include:
– USB-A to USB-C paracord cable
– Wireless dongle extender
– Spare PTFE skates
– Grip tapes
– Quick start guide
– Sticker pack
– Thank You card
– Warranty card
– ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Mini main unit (ROG Omni receiver located within mouse body)

Walkaround

Like most esports-grade mice, the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Mini maintains the ambidextrous form factor with side buttons facing left; its proportions are largely identical to that of the ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition, except generally smaller in size. Other commonalities include 100% PTFE feet on four corners along with the ring surrounding the ROG AimPoint Pro sensor. Both sides feature ridges in the middle to improve grip, on top of the anti-slip coating that ASUS says has been applied to the mouse body.

Aside from the buttons you’d use in normal usage, there are two additional buttons along with a mode switch given its wireless nature. The first is the DPI switch that, when pressed once, switches between 4 preset DPI modes (400, 800, 1600, 3200); this can be fine-tuned by holding the button for 3 seconds to enter DPI adjustment mode, where the scroll wheel provides +/-50DPI increments and you can test it right away to see what fits. Once set, press the button once again to save the setting.

Below the DPI button is the Pair button for Bluetooth usage only, and on the other side of the sensor is the connectivity mode switch, which includes RF 2.4GHz, wired, and Bluetooth. There are more features directly accessible though, by using a combination of buttons: DPI + scroll click lets you switch between 5 profiles, Pair + forward lets you set polling rate, while Pair + backward lets you switch between two lift-off distance (LOD) options. All of these settings are, of course, configurable via Armoury Crate, along with the new Armoury Crate Gear, which we’ll discuss later.

The scroll wheel is the only spot you’ll see RGB lighting, and it is customizable through both Armoury Crate with its AURA SYNC feature, as well as Windows 11’s new Dynamic Lighting feature if you don’t fancy installing ASUS’s own customization app. It also act as indicator lights for various onboard controls aforementioned, although we suggest you familiarize yourself with the included user manual since there will be a lot of colors you’ll need to remember.

The cables and related accessories for the ROG Harpe Ace Mini in Moonlight White colors are all painted in light gray, which includes the paracord cable, ROG Omni receiver (which connects multiple ROG devices in one dongle if you have them), and the wireless dongle extender. Essentially, the ROG Omni receiver plugs into the extender, while the other end connects to the paracord cable – this way, the receiver stays physically close to the mouse instead of far away behind a PC, reducing the likelihood of signal dropouts.

Specifications

ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Mini (P716)

Full specifications available on product page.

Mouse Body Type	Ambidextrous
Body Material	Nylon plastic with anti-slip matte coating
Skate Material	100% PTFE
Switch Type	ROG 100M Optical Micro Switch 100-million-click lifespan
Sensor	ROG AimPoint Pro optical sensor Resolution: 100 – 42,000 DPI (<1% deviation) Top speed: 750 IPS Acceleration: 50G Glass surface tracking supported
DPI Modes	4-stage DPI, 50 DPI increments
Polling Rate	1000Hz default, 8000Hz via polling rate booster (sold separately)
Onboard Memory	5 profiles
Onboard Lighting	RGB on scroll wheel
Connectivity	USB 2.0, Bluetooth 5.1, RF 2.4GHz
Cable	2-meter USB-A to USB-C paracord cable
Dimensions	117 x 63 x 37mm
Weight	49g
Colors	Black, Moonlight White (as tested)

User Experience

Sensor Tracking

The ROG Harpe Ace Mini’s AimPoint Pro sensor is tested with mouse acceleration off, and here’s the result. The sensor has no issues tracking at 3200 DPI and below, while at 6400 DPI there is minor rattling in the drawings (we use the classic MSPaint so no smoothing shenanigans here). Going far beyond that is pretty much unrealistic scenarios, and we started seeing severe jittering at 25600 DPI and higher, which makes the drawing test borderline impossible within the bounds of this canvas.

Additionally, we tested the lift-off distance (LOD) of the mouse, which comes in two settings: High and Low. The LOD in High setting captures movements up until the height equivalent to the thickness of two credit cards (each credit card is 0.76mm thick, so two of them roughly equates to 1.5mm). Meanwhile, Low setting reduces LOD down to a single credit card’s thickness.

Software

For software, usually you are required to download the full Armoury Crate suite, and that’s not always welcomed by users especially running on non-ASUS systems, since it meant installing more than one companion software that may fight for additional system resources. Above is what you’ll see in the mouse’s settings page via the default Armoury Crate app, which most ASUS users should be familiar with. If you prefer a lightweight option, the company has just the answer for you this time around.

Users in vanilla Armoury Crate will see this special tab that guides you to download a separate, model-specific version of the app called Armoury Crate Gear. Oddly, clicking the “ASUS Support Site” button just takes you to the support homepage – if you want to download the new software, just go to the product page instead and select ‘Support’ from there.

Once installed, you’ll see two desktop shortcuts – one for the mouse itself, and the other for the ROG Omni receiver. All of the settings available in the original Armoury Crate app are brought to here in the exact same interface, minus all the other parts that may not be necessary for your system.

While most of the performance-related settings are accessible via onboard controls, there are more advanced settings only accessible via the app (be it standard or AC Gear app). Notably, the app offers configurations for angle offsets and surface calibration, along with battery level alerts and RGB lighting options; the ROG Omni receiver also gets its own setting, useful if you have more than one compatible ROG peripherals.

The Good

Let’s start off by saying that the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Mini is a very well-built mouse. It’s extremely light at just 49 grams, and its already great to use right out of the box – easy to hold, satisfying clicks (even the side buttons, which isn’t always a given), and a scroll wheel that provide, in my opinion, just the right amount of resistance. The included accessories like grip tape further enhances the mouse, along with extra PTFE skates and durable optical switches (which lasts up to 100 million clicks) to maximize the mouse’s lifespan.

There’s no complaints on battery life too, given that it can comfortably last several days on a single charge, perhaps more than a week if you’re not a heavy user; if you are the type with battery anxiety, the wired paracord should provide minimal interference as the cable is highly flexible. Power users will like its onboard controls and memory profiles ready on-the-go, and if that’s not enough, more can be done in the now-simplified standalone Armoury Crate Gear app.

The Bad

There’s very little to pick on when it comes to this mouse, but I do have two small things to say: one, given that this is an esports-grade mouse, having the polling rate booster included in the price would’ve been great for those who play wireless (plenty of esports pro does, just so you know); and two, while it offers a great degree of configurability onboard, the controls are a tad clunky than I’d like.

Let me elaborate. The profile switching is done by holding the Pair button down bottom and clicking the mouse wheel – I’d imagine such a function is better off with a dedicated button and just replace the Pair button altogether. Maybe the Bluetooth pairing function can be instead mapped to holding the Profile button for 5 seconds instead, since it’s not a function you’d use very often beyond pairing it to a new device.

Verdict

Currently, the ASUS ROG Harpe Ace Mini gaming mouse can be had for RM549 apiece – not cheap by any means, but as far as esports-grade gear is concerned, it’s not too bad of a price to get ahold on one of the top-tier offerings optimized for smaller hand sizes. If you’re aiming to go full pro-grade, you’ll probably want to spend extra for the Polling Rate Booster to cut down on latency, but other than that, it’s all decked out and ready to click heads.

Special thanks to ASUS Malaysia for providing the ROG Harpe Ace Mini gaming mouse for this review.