The ROG Strix Carry is a gaming mouse made for players on the move

Mini mice are meant to be portable productivity tools, tucking neatly into a backpack or pants pocket. But when you’re travelling and have the luxury of some down time after-hours, you want an input device able to hold its own in a first-person shooter. The ROG Strix Carry is a bona fide gaming mouse that fits into the same pint-sized footprint as your other mobile peripherals, but it also boasts the key features of our well-appointed Gladius II Origin gaming mouse.

The best of both worlds

Cloaked in stealthy black, the Strix Carry looks professional enough for any office, though it’s equipped to do double-duty for work and play. It utilizes two wireless technologies to get the job done. Bluetooth LE addresses wireless productivity with lower power demands while 2.4GHz offers optimal gaming performance with a report rate as quick as 1ms. Both options give you plenty of flexibility and keep your desktop cable-free. On Bluetooth alone, the Carry is good for over 300 hours. Even if all you do is game, you’ll get more than 200 hours of play time using 2.4GHz.

At 101 x 64 x 36mm, this mouse is small enough that you’ll really appreciate the premium carrying pouch that comes with it. Life in a laptop bag wouldn’t be easy for any peripheral without some form of protection, and the pouch makes it easier to find your mouse by feel when you reach blindly into your bag.

Mobile mice are often deliberately lightweight, but that’s not always desirable. A small amount of heft feels good, especially when you’re gaming. With both of its batteries installed, the Strix Carry strikes a nice balance at 120g. That’s heavy enough to feel in your hand, yet light enough to go unnoticed in your luggage.

Click, click, boom

Compact dimensions aside, the Strix Carry is a serious gaming mouse. It features a comfortable right-hand design, with a textured thumb rest for a firmer grip. It’s equipped with the same Pixart PMW3330 optical sensor as the ROG Pugio, boasting a maximum resolution of 7,200 DPI for smooth, precise tracking. A button behind the click wheel allows you to toggle between DPI settings so you can adjust for twitchy shooters or less frenetic web browsing.

In addition to the left- and right-click buttons, the DPI switcher, and a clickable wheel, left-side navigation buttons are mounted high up on the chassis. You’re unlikely to press them by accident, but they’re easy enough to reach for jumping forward and back.

Change it up

It’s rare enough to find a full arsenal of gaming features on a portable mouse, let alone hardware customization options. The Omron switches under the primary right- and left-click buttons are rated for 50 million clicks, so they’ll withstand thousands of hours of gaming, but the Strix Carry allows you to easily change out the switches if you’re partial to a specific click-feel.

Our push-fit switch sockets makes changing the switches really easy. Swapping in different switches is as simple as popping off the mouse’s top cover. That panel connects to the bottom part of the chassis with magnets for a firm and secure fit that’s not too hard to pry off when you want to gain access to the switches inside. A second pair of Omron switches is included with the Strix Carry, so you can play with your ideal switch feel right out of the box, and an included case gives you a place to store the unused set.

With ROG Armoury II, you can further customize the Strix Carry by programming the buttons to launch macros and deactivating unused buttons altogether. You can even set multiple DPI levels for the switcher. With the ability to save up to three profiles in onboard memory, it’s possible to recall multiple layouts depending on the applications you use.

Pint-sized but powerful

The Strix Carry is a true gaming mouse that sports a serious optical sensor, multiple buttons, and ROG Armoury II software support wrapped up in a tiny package. It’s equally at home in the office or your gaming lair, and its two AA batteries provide weeks’ worth of wireless connectivity. Swing by the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, NV during CES 2019 from January 8-11 to get an early look. The Strix Carry will be available in April 2019.

ROG announced tons of new tech at CES. Check out this article to see all of our announcements in one place.