Pulsar continues to expand their lineup of mice designed in collaboration with professional players, and opted to work with Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, who is one of the most successful currently active Counter-Strike pro players. ZywOo is known for having used the VAXEE Outset AX (Wireless) for extended periods of time, which is why it comes as no surprise that the shape of his own mouse is basically the same. The front is shaped a bit differently, and the scroll wheel is much larger, but other than that, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse is basically an AX Wireless. Much like the latter, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse has a completely solid shell, yet weighs significantly less at 60 g. For those preferring a weight closer to the 72 g AX Wireless, a 5.8 g weight is included, which can be installed inside the mouse. In terms of build quality, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse does mostly well: there is no creaking or flexing of the shell when applying lateral pressure, and the side buttons cannot be actuated by pressing below them, but when shaking, a rattle emerges from the scroll wheel.

Historically, VAXEE mice have always been exclusively outfitted with Huano switches, and it seems that ZywOo wanted the same for his mouse, which comes with nothing but Huano switches. For the main buttons, Huano switches of the blue transparent shell, pink plunger variety see use, which are known for delivering a firm and snappy button response. On the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse, this isn't quite the case, as the moderate pre and high post-travel render the buttons a bit softer than usual. However, as a user, one has some control over this, as the mouse can easily be opened owing to the screws being exposed, allowing one to tighten or loosen the screws securing the main button switch PCBs, giving a sharper or softer response as a result. For the side buttons, a set of 2-pin, low-profile switches from Huano see use, though I wasn't able to determine which type exactly, as this part isn't meant to be disassembled. In any case, button response is pleasing, owing to very low pre- and post-travel as well as even actuation, though feedback is a bit dull. The scroll wheel encoder has Pulsar branding, but actually comes from F-Switch. Compared to the 9 mm sizes used on previous Pulsar releases, this 14 mm size ranks a notch below, as noise levels are high when scrolling up in particular, and tactility is merely decent, as the separation between the steps isn't all that pronounced. The feet are made of white-dyed PTFE and glide very well, though unlike on previous Pulsar releases, a set of replacement feet isn't included with the mouse.

When Pulsar asked him about performance, ZywOo likely replied "give me the lowest possible latency, I don't care about anything else," and Pulsar happily obliged to this request. While the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse comes with the same XS-1 sensor, which is a customized PixArt PAW3950, and 52 series MCU from Nordic as other Pulsar releases, it does several things differently on the firmware level. On PixArt sensors, the run mode determines basic parameters such as maximum tracking speed, maximum acceleration, framerate, framerate ramp-up, and power draw. Typically, run mode will be set to either LP (low power) or HP (high performance), with the so-called corded mode being reserved for polling rates above 1000 Hz. The ZywOo The Chosen Mouse, on other hand, is set to corded mode no matter what. In addition, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse is a USB high-speed device in both wired and wireless operation, and therefore allows for polling rates of up to 8000 Hz regardless of connectivity. Accordingly, motion delay will always be the same irrespective of polling rate: without MotionSync, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse will be ahead of the G403 (control subject) by 1.2 ms in wired operation and by 0.8 ms in wireless operation. Enabling MotionSync will add motion delay of various degrees depending on polling rate, as the smaller the interval, the smaller the added delay will be. The same principle applies to click latency: in wired operation, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse averages 0.2 ms, whereas in wireless operation, 0.4 ms are averaged at 1000 Hz, and 0.3 ms at 2000, 4000, and 8000 Hz. Unlike previous Pulsar mice, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse does not feature debounce time adjustment, and since a flawlessly implemented slam-click prevention algorithm is present, there is no slam-clicking, which describes inadvertent button actuation when resetting the mouse.

In terms of polling stability, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse also does rather well. At 4000 and in particular 8000 Hz in wireless operation, there will be instances of polls being missed by several intervals, but the target interval is typically averaged across the board, with a single exception: at 8000 Hz wireless, only 0.126 ms will be averaged if MotionSync is disabled, whereas a flawless 0.125 ms are achieved if MotionSync is enabled. Accordingly, this is one of the few cases where enabling MotionSync is unequivocally recommended. While bouts of noise and elevated variance can be observed across almost all polling rates, these do not amount to missed polls and therefore can be considered negligible. Lastly, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse has no CPI deviation whatsoever, and general tracking shows no issues.

As mentioned, sensor run mode also determines power draw, and this is where the downside of using corded mode across the board becomes apparent. Pulsar doesn't cite any numbers, but the battery life indicator featured in the software is accurate enough to allow gauging expected battery life. After a bit more than 5 hours of mixed usage at 1000 and 8000 Hz, the indicator stood at 85%. Since there isn't much difference in battery life between 1000 and 8000 Hz, we can therefore calculate an expected battery life of around 35 hours. This isn't all that great, and much like on the Endgame Gear OP1/XM2w 4K at release, the issue lies with the fact that there is no way for the user to extend this in any way, either. Granted, the software has a "Low Power Mode" setting, but even though the naming suggests that this setting does the same as Razer's, which sets sensor run mode to LP when below a designated battery charge level, Pulsar's version merely sets polling rate to 250 Hz, which doesn't do much and could be done just as well by the user at any time. Hence, one simply needs to bite the bullet and charge the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse a bit more often. Charging isn't all that fast at around 0.2 A, either, but the charging cable is decently flexible at least, allowing for playing while charging without feeling overly restricted and pleasant wired usage in general.

Speaking of the software, this one is actually a web driver. Much like other web drivers, it connects through WebHID and therefore will, at least as of now, only work on Chromium-based browsers such as Chrome, Edge, and Opera (desktop). While the layout is comparable to the CompX web driver Pulsar uses for several of their other releases such as the Crazylight series, the web driver for the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse has a couple of extra features such as sensor angle adjustment and scroll acceleration. In addition, one can also configure the two LEDs on the dongle to show battery life status, the set polling rate, and many other things. I found no noteworthy bugs, and all the essential settings are present. That said, having a packaged desktop version would be handy nonetheless, as in the event that the driver is no longer hosted, having a backup would be nice.

At $129.95, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse is priced the same as the TenZ Signature Edition or X2 Crazylight, yet it provides somewhat better value due to the fact that it utilizes a better performing and less generic firmware solution, and that it supports 8000 Hz polling not only in wireless but in wired operation, too. Still, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse certainly isn't in bargain territory, but the same could be said about the VAXEE Outset AX Wireless, which is the closest match to the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse, and retailed for $129.99 roughly a year ago. Given the choice between the two, I would indeed opt for the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse, as it clearly wins in the weight department and is easily on par otherwise. As such, the ZywOo The Chosen Mouse earns our Recommended award.