Tesoro Ascalon Spectrum Optical Gaming Mouse Review

Peter Donnell / 8 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

The Tesoro Ascalon will be available at most major retailers soon enough, with an MSRP of $69.99. At the time of writing, stock wasn’t available at our preferred retailers, but there’s some “where to buy” information available here on the Tesoro website.

Overview

Tesoro has done it again, the Ascalon may not have seemed like it was going to be one of the best performing mice we’ve ever tested, but I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised after using it for a few days. The gaming mouse market is incredibly competitive and manufacturers have to find that special “X factor” to really make their products stand out from the crowd. For the Ascalon, that “X factor” is by far its sensor performance.

The build quality feels nice and robust on this mouse, which is a little contradictory to the somewhat cheaper feel of the plastics used; at least in terms of the fairly hard and glossy nature of them. Of course, this mouse has been designed to be lightweight and durable and it certainly delivers in that respect. The lightweight design reduces strain, improves manoeuvrability and glide, and it’s great for fine precision work, especially so in twitchy shooters like CS:GO that demand rapid and accurate changes in direction.

There’s just enough features here to tick all the major boxes too. There’s a good selection of buttons, seven of which are fully programmable with macros, profile switches, DPI toggles, program launchers and more, giving you all the tools you need, right at your fingertips. This means the mouse can be easily setup to give you all the right commands for your favourite MMO, but equally so, setup to give you the options you need in Photoshop; it’s certainly a solid all round performer.

The price is pretty reasonable, especially given that mice with this sensor performance and price often have fewer features, or the same features but cost more money. This Ascalon is certainly good value for money for gamers at home, eSports, or just a nice mouse for the office. If Tesoro can tweak the finish on this mouse, and get it in more retailers, I’ll happily bump it up to Editors Choice Award, as it certainly has that level of performance, but for now, it walks away proudly with our Gamers Choice Award.

Pros

Lightweight design
RGB lighting
Programmable buttons
Easy to use software
Exceptional sensor performance

Cons

Some of the plastics feel a little cheap to the touch (even though they’re not)
Retail availability is still limited

“The Ascalon is a fantastic gaming mouse with all the agility, smooth sensor performance and features you could ask for. Tesoro have made one of the best price vs performance mice on the market today.”