Be Quiet! Dark Perk review – a not-so-quiet but light gaming mouse

Be Quiet! stepping into the world of gaming mice and gaming keyboards comes at an intriguing time. Both sectors have reached such saturation points that it’s hard to stand out. Be Quiet! managed to do so with its Dark Mount keyboard by including its clever removable numpad section – and making it very quiet. However, the main features of the new Dark Perk mouse are far less impactful. Still, Be Quiet! has managed to squeeze in plenty of little touches here that elevate this wireless gaming mouse above plenty of others.

With a 32K DPI PixArt sensor, quality optical Omron switches, a great shape, a versatile wireless dongle/USB adapter/USB cable combination, and exceptionally smooth glide pads/feet, the Dark Peek might not be leaping straight to the top of our best gaming mouse guide, but Be Quiet!’s latest is well worth considering.

Specs

Features

As alluded to at the start of this review, the Be Quiet! Dark Perk doesn’t immediately stand out when it comes to features. Unlike the Glorious Model O3, with its swappable battery system or the upcoming Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike, with its haptic button technology, the Dark Perk doesn’t claim any revolutionary extras. However, it’s still a very capable mouse.

Like many lightweight gaming mice, this one has a minimal selection of buttons, so you get just three on the top (left, right, middle), two on the side (back, forward), and one on the underside, with the latter used to switch DPI levels/profiles. Also present here is a sliding power switch.

Indicating that the mouse is on is a single tiny LED strip that sits just above the side back button, where it peaks out from between your thumb and forefinger. This LED will also change color depending on the DPI level. Otherwise, that’s it for lighting on this mouse.

Under the hood, there’s a PixArt PAW3950 optical sensor that offers a maximum DPI of 32,000 and peak tracking acceleration of 50g. It can also claim an 8kHz polling rate over wireless. Two Omron Optical D2FP-FN2 switches sit below the left and right buttons, offering an ultra-fast response and 70m-click lifespan.

Included in the box, you get the mouse, a USB-A wireless dongle, a USB-A to USB-C braided orange cable, and a USB-C to USB-A adapter. The latter means you can plug the dongle into the end of the cable, keeping it close to your mouse to ensure a minimal chance of signal interference. A spare set of PTFE feet is also included.

Be Quiet! claims a battery life from this mouse of 110 hours when running it at a 1kHz polling rate. That’s higher than many, with the Razer Viper V3 Pro, for instance, topping out at 95 hours, but some others do offer more. The identical-weight Razer Deathadder V4 Pro claims 150 hours.

Design and comfort

The Be Quiet! Dark Perk is available in both Ergo(nomic) and Sym(ettrical) versions, with me reviewing the Ergo model. As you’d expect, it has broadly what would be considered an ‘ergonomic’ shape, so rather than being symmetrical, it slopes down towards its right side. It’s not as pronounced a slope as the likes of the Logitech MX Master 4 or Razer Deathadder V4 Pro, but offers that little bit of tilt to better match a more neutral wrist position.

This overall shape matches up well with its relatively compact size to make for a mouse that can be used with a wide variety of hand sizes and grip styles. My 20cm-long (from wrist to tip of middle finger) hand was happy to use it for my usual fingertip grip, but a more relaxed palm grip also worked.

Also helping a great deal with overall grip and suitability to different hands and grip styles is this mouse’s really grippy-feeling soft-touch coating. This was noticeable particularly when using a claw grip, with my hand and fingers not tending to slide off the mouse, like with so many alternatives.

These soft-touch finishes have fallen a little out of favor on gaming mice recently, partly because they add cost, and partly because they tend to degrade over time. After around five to ten years, these coatings tend to go sticky. Realistically, most gaming mice tend to take enough abuse that they don’t last that long without the cable breaking, the dongle getting lost, etc. But it’s worth bearing in mind if you have a good track record of keeping your tech going.

When it comes to weight, at 55g, this mouse is decently light, but it’s not setting any new records for lightness, yet neither is it completely ignoring the current trend for ever-lighter mice and packing in extra features instead. Ultimately, though, it’s light enough to help ensure that, thanks also to its good shape and grippy surface, this mouse is really easy to pick up and move around at speed. It doesn’t feel like it’s weighing you down, and there are no grip angles at which it feels like it wants to slip out of your hand.

Elsewhere, Be Quiet! has added a few little touches that do elevate this mouse compared to some. The scroll wheel has a really grippy surface, defined detents, and a tight-feeling mount that doesn’t wobble or tilt or have any give to it when pressed. This makes the wheel and its middle-click button feel precise and responsive, without also feeling like they’re on a hair trigger.

The same can be said of the main buttons, which again feel responsive, but not like the merest breeze will trigger them. For optical switches, they’re also not too loud. Some such switches can have a particularly hollow, plinky sound to them, but these do indeed “sound smooth,” as Be Quiet! puts it.

Another nice touch is that the joyously orange cable has a slight kink in the USB-C plug. This raises the cable up slightly, reducing the immediate drag of the cable on your mousemat/desk surface. It’s a trick I first encountered on the Endgame Gear OP1, and it works just as well here, too. On that mouse, it was more essential as it’s a wired-only mouse, whereas on the Dark Perk you will mostly be using it in wireless mode. But it’s nice to know the feature’s there when needed.

Another feature which is subtly better than some mice is the feet. They’re a touch thicker than some, have noticeably more curved edges (so as not to snag), and are incredibly glossy, all of which ultimately makes for a very smooth glide.

Performance

As ever, with modern high-quality gaming mice, there’s very little to say in terms of the performance of this mouse. Sensors and wireless tech are so good these days that there’s effectively no human-discernible difference, and that’s certainly the case with the Dark Perk. Its sensor tracks flawlessly, its switches are super-responsive, and its wireless and wired performance feel identical.

The ability to bump up the polling rate to 8kHz is useful for those occasions where you absolutely must have the very fastest response, though I tend to find that I struggle to tell the difference between 4kHz and 8kHz, even at extreme frame rates with ultra-fast gaming monitors.

Running at 8kHz also kills battery life, with you getting under 20 hours of use out of this mouse. Otherwise, running at 1kHz for normal day-to-day use, this mouse lives up to its 110-hour claim, needing a top-up only once a week or so.

Price

The Be Quiet! Dark Perk price is $109.90 / €109.90, making it reasonably competitive for a high-quality wireless gaming mouse. It’s definitely a good step down from the $150+ prices of some flagship models – looking at you, Logitech and Razer – but this mouse does also have slightly lower peak specs than those models, even if a few thousand extra DPI doesn’t really mean much for a modern mouse.

Overall, it feels decent if unexceptional value, with the little extras like the included feet, cable adapter, and soft-touch coating working in its favor.

Verdict

The Be Quiet! Dark Perk isn’t setting any new records as a decent, mid-tier wireless gaming mouse. Its design is simple but effective, its performance is entirely reliable, and its price is competitive, but doesn’t mark this mouse out as an amazing bargain.

This lack of a singular headline-grabbing feature means it’s hard to really pinpoint exactly who will want to make a beeline for this mouse. However, it does do several small things right. Its kinked USB cable plug is useful for when gaming while plugged in, its soft-touch coating is a reminder of just how grip-boosting such finishes are compared to plain plastic mice, and I like the way its lone status-announcing LED is visible through the gap between your thumb and forefinger.

If you’re after a quality, ergonomic, wireless gaming mouse that has all the performance you need and a funky orange cable, this one delivers. However, it can best be described as a ‘perfunctory’ mouse, rather than a ‘perky’ one.