RAWM ES21 Pro
*Disclaimer – This pad was sent to me by RAWM. Everything in this review is my own personal opinion, and RAWM had no involvement or influence in it, nor did they see this review before it was published*
RAWM is a relatively new company coming from China, specializing in mice in the $70 range, a market which is currently dominated by the likes of ATK, Mchose, Attack Shark, and many more. Thankfully I did buy the ATK X1 Ultra to compare, and throughout this review I will be constantly comparing to the ATK X1 Ultra. Quite frankly as someone who never held himself from splurging on mice, my standards were high, and I was disappointed with the ATK X1 Ultra. The RAWM ES21 costs the same if not cheaper in some regions than the ATK X1 Ultra, and my expectations for the RAWM weren’t high, was expecting something like the ATK. Oh how wrong was I, not only did the ES21 just out-perform the ATK X1 Ultra in every way for me, but was on par with some of the mice I own costing twice its price.
Lets start off with the facts:
Testing Period: A bit over a week
Games tested in: AimLabs, Rainbow 6 Siege, Valorant, Overwatch 2
Mousepads tested with: Owepowe Summer Camp Bear, Quaoar Oceanus
Price – $69.99
Weight – 45g
Size – 122*65*39mm
Shape – Unique – mid hump, slightly back
Sensor – PAW 3950 8k Polling
Hardness – Soft
Packaging/In the box
In the box you get the following:
- RAWM ES21 Pro mouse
- Braided USB-A to USB-C cable
- 8k polling dongle
- Grip Tape
- Manual
Opening the stylish box the first thing you see is the mouse in a plastic cover, with the 8k dongle resting right above it. Right out of the box the stock skates were already applied and the entire base was covered with a protective film. Underneath the mouse rest the manual and Grip tape, and at the very bottom in compartment is the braided cable. Overall the unboxing experience is nice with accessories such as grip tape included, although I would prefer if the mouse came without skates applied, and an extra set of skates for the user to choose what to apply, but for this price can’t really complain as you don’t see this happening with mice at this price point.
Grip Tape:
The ES21 Pro comes with a full set of black grip tape covered in small perforated dots. During majority of my testing I spent my time using my mouse with the grip tape. It feels very dry which is excellent for my easily sweating hands, and the perforated dots gave it a very mild texture providing me with just a bit more grip. Overall these are far from the best grip tape, but its a pleasant bonus that enhanced my experience with the mouse. Like I mentioned my hands sweat very easily, and on most mice grip tape is mandatory for me so I’m glad RAWM included it.
Dongle:
The Dongle is simple yet functional, at the top it has a led at the top indicating battery status, glowing green when charged, and red when low battery. There’s also a rubber base at the bottom which has a plastic cover so make sure you peel it off to use the grip of the rubber. Overall I haven’t had any issues with the dongle, its simple and works great.
Build Quality & Structural integrity
The build quality on this mouse is fantastic, after giving it a very intense stress test I wasn’t able to make it creak anywhere, the mouse is incredfibly solid, theres nearly no scroll wheel wobble, and barely any main click wobble. The only place on this mouse with any flex is at the bsae, where after applying unusual amounts of pressure i can feel a small amount of flex but this should not concern anyone. I’ve had no QC issues, and overall the build of this mouse really impressive especially for its price.
Scroll Wheel
The ES21 Pro has a plastic scroll whell with a rubber ring for extra grip, the scroll wheel has a heavy tactile click and a closesly spaced light steps, there isn’t any side wobble and overall its a very decent scroll wheel.
Skates
The ES21 Pro comes with full sized skates already applied straight out of the box, im glad RAWM did not cheap out because these skates are really good, especially for cloth I feel like there is no need to buy other skates, I really enjoyed using these.
Shape
The shape of this mouse is pretty unique, and is a shape I really enjoy. After I took it out of the box my hand immediately clicked with its shape, its symmetrical with the hump being ever so slightly back, but id still consider it a mid-hump mouse. The hump is relatively high for the length of this mouse which makes it comfortably palmable for people with hands up to 18cm long, as someone with 19.5x10cm hands, I find it most comfortable to claw grip it. It’s not big enough for me to palm comfortably. I can fingertip it, but its big enough to the point where I don’t have as much freedom of movement as I’d like in a fingertip mouse. Also, while fingertipping the mouse fills enough space under my palms to the point where its nearly a claw grip, so I find it just more comfortable to claw.
What I really do like about this shape is the side curvature, I find it extremely comfortable for me, it curvers inward and provides a perfect curve for my thumb on one side, and on the other side my pinky comfortably rests in the deepest point of the curve while my ring finger rest at the top of the mouse.
I really do love this shape, although my main grip style is claw-palm so personally I would prefer it to be bigger, but I can easily imagine this shape fitting people perfectly whether with slightly smaller than my 19.5x10cm hands for claw-palm, people with my size or larger for claw.
As shown above in the EloShapes comparison to the ATK X1 ultra which is a clone of a viper v3 pro, the X1 Ultra is larger and has flatter sides. for claw grip I do prefer the larger size of the X1 ultra, but I prefer the sides, the inward curvature, of the RAWM ES21 Pro. I also prefer the sensor position of the RAWM ES21 Pro.
Grip/Coating
The coating on this mouse is smooth, and feels nice, it’s pretty similar to the coating of my ATK X1 ultra, although I do prefer the coating of the RAWM ES21 Pro, it feels nicer and the coating on the RAWM handles sweaty hands better. Overall the coating is nice but no grippy enough for me to use it without grips, as I already mentioned my hands sweat a lot and there aren’t many mice I can use without grip tape, this isn’t one of them. Its not the best coating but it certainly isn’t bad. Can’t really complain especially at this price, although I do think in the future RAWM can improve the coating.
Main Clicks
In my opinion the main clicks are the aspect of this mouse that has the most room for improvement. The ES21 Pro use Raesha switches. I did not have any double clicking or performance issues with the main clicks, but my main issue with them is that they feel somewhat dull. There’s a very little amount of post or pre-travel, nothing to complain about. Overall the clicks are alright but the dull feeling is my main issue with them. The main click feel is in my opinion the only aspect where the ATK X1 Ultra beats the ES21 Pro.
Side Buttons
There’s very minimal pre-travel, and I only have a bit of noticeable post-travel right at the edges of the side buttons, which requires you to press hard at an angle you would never during gaming or regular use. While the side buttons aren’t perfect, they feel good and perform great.
Performance & Sensor implementation
The performance of this mouse is fantastic, I was able to perform amazingly, whether in game, or in Aim Labs, where I was able to hit new records with this mouse, meaning my performance on it was no worse than other mice I own even those twice the price of the ES21 Pro. This was a big issue on my ATK X1 ultra, where its performance was a big let down for me, and I was not able to perform remotely close my other mice which I thought was due to the price, but thankfully that is not the case of the RAWM ES21 Pro. My overall performance with this mouse set a new standard for me for performance in this price range.
Software
RAWM thankfully has both Web software and downloadable software. Although the UI isn’t the most refined, it gets the job done, and has everything I’d want in the software of a mouse. Didn’t have any issues with the software, only thing I can think of improving is UI to be just a bit cleaner.
Conclusion
Overall RAWM did a fantastic job with this mouse, and has set a new standard for mice in this price range for me. RAWM still has a little to improve with this mouse, for me the change I’m most looking for is better main clicks(I’ve talked to RAWM and they plan on improving switches which is amazing news, will make this mouse even more so best in its price range), besides that I can highly recommend this mouse for anyone with a $70 budget and looking for a medium sized mouse.
Pros:
+ Price
+ Weight
+ Shape
+ Build Quality and Structural Integrity
+ Performance (Sensor implementation, 8K polling)
+ Grips and 8k Dongle included
Cons:
– Main clicks are decent but can be better (I’ve talked to RAWM recently and they are planning to improve the switches)
My rating: 8.75/10
