NZXT Lift Elite Wireless review

If there’s one big trend in the world of PC peripherals that most folks can behind, it has to be the ultralight gaming mouse. For what’s been the last five or six years, we’ve seen options emerge from the likes of Logitech and Glorious as some of the best gaming mice out there. In addition, a lot of brands have given it a go themselves, one of the latest being NZXT with its Lift Elite Wireless.

As with the other peripherals released in this new Elite range, the Lift Elite Wireless is targeting an aggressive price point at $89. With the spec sheet on offer—a 26,000 DPI sensor, 57 g weight and support for up to 4K wireless and 8K wired polling rate—that makes this quite the compelling option against the Logitech Pro X Superlight 2 Dex and especially the Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed, our top contender.

Unlike the more ergonomic and contoured lines of the DeathAdder, the Lift Elite Wireless features a more symmetrical shape to its lightweight chassis that’s reasonably comfortable to hold. It fits my medium-sized hand well enough, although folks with larger hands may want to seek a bigger option.

The plastics used here feel rather solid, and come with a pleasant texturing to them to aid comfort. What’s more, both sides of the Lift Elite Wireless features some light grey side portions with added hatching for grip.

The 57 g weight makes this one of the lighter mice I’ve tested and even with that weight, the Lift Elite Wireless doesn’t feel cheap, as some ultralight options can. Button placement is sensible for the most part, with the main options and a scroll wheel on top and two navigation buttons on the left side. The button to change DPI is left on the underside, and owing to the open underside, there isn’t anywhere to store the USB-A receiver needed for connectivity. Nor is there any additional flair with RGB lighting, as that just adds weight.

That light weight makes the Lift Elite Wireless quite the zippy mouse to use in competitive titles such as Counter-Strike 2 and Apex Legends. Its chassis works well for my usual palm grip, although the fact it’s symmetrical means claw and fingertip grippers should also feel at home.

This NZXT option also benefits from a 26,000 DPI sensor for especially fast movements. While the competition can go even higher, it doesn’t make much of a difference to mere mortals like you and I. In fact, once you get above 12,000 DPI, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a difference.

That high DPI nonetheless made sweeping movements in Counter-Strike 2 an absolute breeze for when I needed to swing around to fire at enemies in a flash, although is too jittery for productivity workloads. By default, it’s set to a much more reasonable 3200 DPI as the maximum, so you will need to bump it up to 26,000 DPI in software which is easy enough.

The big kicker alongside that high DPI is that the Lift Elite Wireless supports up to an 8000 Hz polling rate. This makes it part of an exclusive club of gaming mice that go above the more standard 1000 Hz. The reason why this is important is because of responsiveness and potentially lower latency. A higher polling rate means a device reports its position and inputs more frequently (hence Hz as the measurement), and the Lift Elite Wireless benefits from up to 8000 Hz over a wired connection, and 4000 Hz over its bundled 2.4 GHz receiver.

The 4K rate isn’t shabby at all, and I had no issues with how responsive this mouse felt in hours of Counter-Strike 2 rounds.

The connectivity here is pretty simple, with the Lift Elite Wireless working via the bundled 2.4 GHz receiver, or over its included USB cable. There isn’t support for multipoint Bluetooth for added versatility, which is a shame if you want to use the mouse on multiple devices at once.

The 70 hours of rated endurance is reasonable too, although sits well behind the DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed’s 100 hours. It’s worth noting that the figure NZXT provides is with a 1000 Hz polling rate selected, so if you select anything higher when using the mouse wirelessly, expect the battery life to drop a fair amount. In my experience, I probably ended up getting around 20-30 hours of playtime at the maximum 4K wireless polling rate, although your mileage may vary.

Against some of the competition, the Lift Elite Wireless’ software customisation feels a little basic. It’s all present in one tab, which is convenient, although you only get options for configuring the five DPI levels, polling rate, lift-off distance and button remapping.

You also get the option to save up to five profiles, although that’s about it. There aren’t any advanced surface calibration or game-specific profiles, as is found in Logitech’s G Hub for instance. Of course, with no RGB, there’s no customisation for lighting effects, either.

The problem here is that the Lift Elite Wireless doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from the competition.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a good mouse all things considered, but it doesn’t stand out as Razer’s choice does in terms of specs and performance, or as the Logitech Pro X Superlight 2 Dex does with its clever software. We’ve got so many options in this aggressively priced section of the market, and not even the stylish white colourway is enough for NZXT’s choice to give me the wow factor. It doesn’t do anything wrong, but it’s just lacking that je ne sais quoi.