asus rog balteus review ASUS ROG Balteus Qi Mousepad Review

ASUS ROG Balteus Qi Mousepad Review

Mousepads, despite their abundance in the market, never really received any big innovations as of late. But today, we’re giving you our ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad review which focuses on one of ASUS’ notable products. 

If you look around, the market is packed with either speed or control-oriented mousepads in different sizes. Sometimes, these come in numerous RGB variants and are either cloth or hard-surfaced. Generally, the only real innovation we’ve seen are a couple of brands sporting wireless charging implementations for their wireless mice. 

That means, these brands’ wireless charging mousepads are only limited to their respective mouse lines. This is where ASUS comes in with their Balteus Qi mousepad. 

And as the name suggests, this mousepad has wireless capabilities under the Qi technology of Qualcomm. If you’re interested, our ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad review will provide everything you’ll need to know about the product. 

ASUS ROG Balteus Qi Mousepad Packaging

When our mousepad arrived, it came in your standard-looking ASUS ROG package. And honestly, it’s the biggest box we’ve seen for a mousepad. 

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The front displays a shot of the Balteus Qi with its RGBs lit. On the left section of the package, you’ll find ROG, Aura Sync, and the Qi logo present. 

For our ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad review, we also checked out the box’s rear for information. Here, you’ll find an image of the mousepad in a different angle. Plus, its different features are highlighted on the right. 

Inside, you’ll find the mousepad, ROG logo sticker, user documentation, a 2m USB 2.0 cable, and a micro-USB cable. 

ASUS ROG Balteus Qi Mousepad Review – Design and Functionality

In this ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad review, we’ll look into the design and functions of the mousepad. There’s only one size available for this product, and it measures 370 x 320 x 7.9mm.  

It’s quite a thick pad that’s almost 8mm, and it sticks off your desk a bit. Thankfully, it comes with slanted sides so you won’t see any harsh edges that could irritate your wrists/arms. Its surface is made of hard plastic with a coarse grain-like texture to help with tracking.

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The Balteus Qi is considered a portrait-oriented mousepad which isn’t common. That’s because of the market it supports – the FPS market. However, being a portrait-oriented mousepad has its advantages like more length. 

Keep in mind that this all depends on your preference as a user. Plus, you’ll also need to consider your desk setup and DPI. 

Design-wise, we’ll have to give it to ASUS for putting effort into designing the rear portion of their products. That means, you won’t see any signs of compromise when it comes to build quality and aesthetics. 

The mousepad has a big ROG logo on its top-right section, while some text-based texturing is found on the lower-left. Both have a shiny surface while the other portions underneath are made of matte rubber. 

If you enjoy lighting effects, you’ll like that the Balteus Qi mousepad sports 15 customisable lighting zones. Furthermore, it supports AURA Sync which means it can synchronise lighting effects with other AURA-compatible devices. These include headsets, keyboards, motherboards, and more. 

This product sports a button for changing its lighting options depending on your software configuration. Plus, it has a micro-USB port and USB pass-through for the Qi charger. That means, you’ll need to put another cable for the Qi charger to work. 

Key Features of the ASUS ROG Balteus Qi Mousepad

What makes the Balteus Qi better than other mousepads around? We’ll find out in this part of our ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad review.

Qi Wireless Charging

Place any of your Qi-compatible devices on the mousepad and enjoy wireless charging. Its integrated LED status indicator pulsates to let you know that it’s charging.

15-Zone Aura Sync Lighting

The 15 Aura Sync lighting zones of the ROG Balteus Qi are individually customisable. Also, its RGB can synchronise with your existing Aura Sync setup.

Gaming-optimized Portrait Surface

With its 320 x 370mm portrait surface, the ROG Balteus Qi offers a lot of room for comfortable mouse manoeuvring. Its micro-textured hard surface allows for ultra-fast tracking and accuracy regardless of your mouse’s settings and sensor.

With the connectivity placed at the mousepad’s top left, cables are out of the way.

USB Passthrough

The built-in USB 2.0 passthrough port of the ROG Balteus Qi allows for convenient connection of your gaming mouse. You can also connect other devices into the port.

Stylish Non-slip Rubber Base

Underneath the ROG Balteus Qi is a non-slip rubber material that keeps the mousepad firmly anchored. There’s no need to worry about this moving on your desk even on the most heated gaming sessions.

Armoury II

Armoury II is a driver-based software utility for configuring peripherals. This intuitive interface offers extensive controls so you can easily tune the ROG Balteus Qi’s illumination. 

With Armoury II, you can create lighting profiles and customise colours or effects. You can also set the on-pad button to toggle between lighting profiles or cycle through brightness levels.

Specifications

This ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad review will also look into the mousepad’s different specifications. This is to let you know if your system meets the mousepad’s requirements and if it will work properly.

The ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad connects via USB 2.0 and uses Qi wireless charging technology.

Its built-in USB 2.0 pass-through port allows you to easily connect other devices such as a mouse. Also, there is a micro USB port that allows Qi charging to work. For the button, it’s used for switching lighting modes and adjusting the brightness of its RGB lights.

The Balteus Qi is compatible with Windows 10 and you can customise its RGB settings Armoury Crate software. Also, it works with Aura Sync for lighting synchronisation.

The mousepad’s dimensions are 370 x 320 x 7.9mm.

Hands-on with the ASUS ROG Balteus Qi Mousepad

Now, we’re discussing our experience with the Balteus Qi in this ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad review. Did it work well during our time using it? Was it just as good as what ASUS claims? 

Let’s find out but first, we’ll talk about the mousepad’s software.

The ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad supports the Armoury II software. This utility interface allows for maximising the mousepad’s full potential with its lighting options, profiles, and more. Since it’s simple and user-friendly, we didn’t have a difficult time configuring the mousepad’s settings.

On the left panel, there were three available profiles to choose from. Also, we were able to configure each profile.

For the Accessory main tab, this contains two pages. The Buttons page is where we set the function of the head panel button. It can either adjust the RGB brightness level or switch between the lighting effects.

The Lighting page offer most of the settings for the mousepad’s lighting. Here, we were able to select from various effects and customise the ROG Balteus Qi’s 15 different zones.

Since the Micro and Stats tabs are for keyboards and mice only, we didn’t check this out anymore. Lastly, the Sync tab was where we enabled ROG Aura Sync for lighting synchronisation across compatible products.

Of course, we aren’t skipping on the mousepad’s RGBs in this ASUS ROG Balteus Qi mousepad review. And to put it simply, its RGB lighting was bright, attractive, and good – as expected from an ROG peripheral. It added a faint glow around the product which gave off a pleasing vibe as well. 

If you’re using an ROG mouse, the Armoury Crate lets you calibrate the mousepad and customise lighting profiles simultaneously. 

When it comes to its 15 illumination zones, these blend seamlessly and beautifully. And what we loved about it was we could customise the brightness and effects according to our preferences. 

To test the ROG Balteus Qi, we used it with one of our gaming mice and we were pleased with the results. While gaming, we were able to glide our mouse effortlessly and the whole experience was smooth. This allowed us to execute quicker in-game movements which was a huge advantage.

The wireless Qi charging also worked excellently even when gaming. It charged our mice and smartphone simultaneously without issues and we were happy with its performance

Overall, the ROG Balteus Qi delivered great performance in terms of charging and lighting. Its RGB illumination was also great, making it a big bonus for the product.

ASUS ROG Balteus Qi Mousepad Review Summary

The ASUS ROG Balteus Qi is an excellent wireless charging mousepad. It has a great design and is packed with impressive features that can improve anyone’s overall gaming experience.

We like the mousepad’s surface since it helps in easier mouse gliding. Plus, it also has spectacular RGB effects which makes it even better. It was able to deliver excellent wireless charging performance regardless of the gaming mouse we used.

Overall, we were satisfied with the ROG Balteus Qi and we highly recommend it. If you’re already invested in ROG’s ecosystem, this mousepad will be a perfect accessory to add to your system. It’s a convenient way to improve your overall gaming experience since it can simultaneously charge your mouse and other devices.

To get your hands on the ROG Balteus Qi, you can find authorised sellers near you via ASUS’ store locator