ASUS ROG Keris II Ace Review – Great, But Not For Long Fingers

Unboxing the ASUS ROG Keris II Ace

Let’s kick off the ASUS ROG Keris II Ace 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:

• 1 x ROG Keris II Ace gaming mouse
• 1 x USB Dongle
• 1 x ROG Polling Rate Booster
• 1 x ROG Paracord
• 1 x Quick start guide
• 1 x Warranty Booklet
• 2 x Mouse feet
• 1 x Thank you card
• 1 x Mouse Grip Tape Set (one-time stick)

Specifications

Body material	Matte plastic shell with textured sides
Sensor	ROG AimPoint
DPI	Up to 42,000 DPI in 50 DPI increments, 4 DPI stages
USB report rate	Up to 4,000Hz with ROG Polling Booster (wireless) Up to 8,000Hz with ROG Polling Booster (wired)
Connectivity	2.4GHz Wireless, Bluetooth 5.1, and USB 2.0 (Type-C)
Switch type	ROG 100M Optical Micro Switch
RGB	Yes, ASUS Aura
Cable	Yes, 2 meter ROG Paracord (braided USB-C to USB-A)
Mouse Feet	100% PTFE
Built-in Memory	Yes, for custom DPI and configurations
Weight	54g (without cable)
Dimensions	121 x 67 x 42 mm

Performance

From my own experience, the ASUS ROG Keris II Ace has pretty good accuracy for tracking, and its compact, lightweight build made it easier to control in higher DPIs. As you can see, everything looked great up to 3,200 DPI, but at 6,400 DPI and beyond, it started to look rather abnormal. It’s not just a matter of small movements resulting in faster cursor speed but it starts to jitter and look a bit irregular. If already looks that weird at 12,800 DPI (which no sane person would use anyway), anything close to its maximum value of 42,000 DPI would be practically unusable.

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

The Good

There are a number of good reasons to consider the ASUS ROG Keris II Ace. For starters, it’s designed specifically for right-handed gamers. From the curvature to the side buttons’ position, it’s very comfortable unless you’re a lefty. For lefties or those who prefer something ambidextrous, the ROG Harpe Ace Aim Lab Edition would be the better buy but as someone who has used both and a righty, this is more comfortable to use.

Another trait that it shares with the Harpe Ace is the weight, with the exact same 54g figure. 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.

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.

With the move to the ROG 100M Optical Micro Switch, I actually how this mouse feels when clicking. Compared to the Harpe Ace and most other gaming mice, the clicks sounds rather hollow but it feels more pronounced. There’s a level of satisfaction with each click, which admittedly dies down as you get used to but you’ll instantly remember again when clicking with other mice as it feels far less satisfying. If you’d rather have the silent click type, I recommend avoiding this.

A major selling point of the ASUS ROG Keris II Ace is the superbly high polling rate. With the included ROG Polling Rate Booster, you can get up to 4,000Hz in wireless mode and 8,000 in wired mode. A 1,000Hz polling rate gives you 1ms of input lag while 4,000Hz brings it down to 0.25ms and 8,000Hz at 0.125ms. If I’m being honest, the it’s extremely hard to tell the difference from 1,000Hz to 8,000Hz as it’s difficult to perceive time in milliseconds. A true professional in games that require lightning fast input to win like Valorant or CS2 would benefit but one thing I noticed is that with higher polling rates, it handles micro-adjustments with better smoothness and precision, which is something everyone can benefit from.

One thing I’ll never get sick of with the ROG Keris II Ace, and it’s a trait shared by every recent ROG wireless mouse, 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 Keris II Ace is good. It’s said to last about 107 hours on 2.4GHz RF wireless with RGB disabled, 67 hours with RGB enabled and from out testing, we managed to get about 71-72 hours of battery life with RGB lighting enabled. As I’m mostly on my PC one way or another, I can basically go 4 to 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. Just keep in mind that if you were to use it in high polling rate settings, the battery will drain noticeably faster.

The Bad

The ASUS ROG Keris II Ace 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. I get that there is the DPI On-The-Scroll function where you just press and hold the DPI button and spin the scroll wheel to change sensitivity levels but this is still less convenient than a dedicated DPI switcher close to the scroll wheel.

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.

While I did praise the design for being more comfortable than an ambidextrous one for right-handed gamers, it can feel a bit awkward for those with long fingers. The elevated hump on the top of the mouse feels a bit awkward to rest on so for me to rest my hand on it comfortably, my index finger would have overextended past the left-click. I wish the hump was a little more centered but then again, what would work for me might not work well for those with short fingers so this is not completely a drawback but rather something for you to consider based on the dimensions of your hand.

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 Keris II Ace Verdict

The ASUS ROG Keris II Ace is an ultra-lightweight, performance-oriented wireless gaming mouse that is clearly geared towards pro gamers or those who want to optimize their gaming performance as much as possible. You do get a lot for its retail price of RM720, but it’s rather pricey for sure.

At the end of our ASUS ROG Keris II Ace 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. You can get this from their official stores at Lazada and Shopee.