PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse Review - Comfortable, Smooth, and Reliable

TweakTown Rating: 90%

Our Verdict

PowerColor might be known for its GPUs, but the new ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse shows us that it also has what it takes to create a compelling peripheral. The company's first mouse features a comfortable, ergonomic, and solid build paired with a powerful sensor.

Pros

• Ergonomic and comfortable shape
• Powerful PixArt PAW3395 optical sensor
• Wired, Wireless, and Bluetooth support
• Solid customization options
• Smooth, accurate, and responsive movement and buttons

Cons

• Omron switches are not as snappy as other mice
• PowerColor's app is not 100% stable
• No textured grips

Should you buy it?

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Introduction & Specification Details and Close-up

Recently, we reviewed the new PowerColor ALPHYN AH10 Wireless Gaming Headset, which represents the company's first piece of gaming hardware that isn't a Radeon graphics card. PowerColor has made a name for itself as one of the leading brands for Radeon gaming, with its Red Devil and Hellhound models proving to be very popular amongst PC gamers. Seeing a brand branch out like this is not unusual, and success isn't guaranteed, even with a solid track record. The company's first gaming headset impressed us with its comfort, sound, and price point, so today, we're looking at the second PowerColor ALPHYN peripheral - a wireless gaming mouse.

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In 2025, a new gaming mouse typically falls into one of two categories - an ultralight symmetrical mouse designed for competitive gaming or a more ergonomic design built for comfort and performance. With its right-handed palm or claw grip, the new PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse falls into the second category, with a larger physical footprint and nice-to-have ergonomic features like a thumbrest that offers easy access to the side buttons.

Although it's competitively priced for the hardware that it packs and the build quality, the PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse does face stiff competition from brands that have been releasing a steady stream of mice for years or even decades. Thanks to its powerful sensor, responsive switches, and smooth glide, the PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse is a commendable first attempt and something to consider, especially if your system is rocking one of PowerColor's new Radeon RX 9070 XT GPUs.

Specifications & Close Up

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Kosta's Test System Specifications

Design, Sensor, & Software

Design

The ergonomic shape of the PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 will be familiar to those who have used a gaming mouse with a thumb rest in the past. It's also immediately comfortable for those who prefer a palm grip. Weighing in at 96 grams, it's not an ultralight gaming mouse, but it is light enough that it feels great to use even when breaking a sweat playing DOOM: The Dark Ages or another fast-paced shooter. The left and right click buttons, which feature Omron Optical Switches rated at 70 million clicks, are responsive, but not quite as snappy as some other mice on the market. This is also reflected in their sound, which is a little muted and not as clicky.

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With wired, wireless, and Bluetooth functionality (the switch is located on the mouse's underside), the PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse is versatile. For those serious about their FPS gaming, the wired option offers a polling rate of up to 8000 Hz. Wired is a viable way to use the PowerColor ALPHYN AM10, as the included USB cable is lightweight and flexible. PowerColor has done its research here, as the overall shape is quite comfortable, with the downward slope of the right side of the mouse matching the way your palm rests.

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The matte finish has a high-quality and sturdy feel. However, the mouse's left and right sides lack any rubberized or textured grip for added comfort. The scroll wheel, however, does, which gives the tactile movement a welcome soft touch. The PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse features RGB lighting on the scroll wheel, the front, and a small strip on the top, adding a little flair to the overall minimal design. It's also available in both black and white and looks fantastic in either form, though if we had to pick, the all-white version would look slick and complement the RGB touches. You'd probably want to dim or disable the lighting to maximize the 50 hours of battery life.

Sensor

Like several other wireless gaming mice, the PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 is powered by PixArt's PAW3395 optical sensor. This sensor features a sensitivity/resolution of 26,000 DPI, a tracking speed of 650 IPS, and a 50G acceleration. This is a powerful sensor capable of accurately tracking fast-paced FPS flick movements or those that tend to set their DPI sensitivity on the lower end of the scale. The PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 includes a dedicated DPI switch underneath the scroll wheel, so you can quickly change between settings.

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PixArt's PAW3395 optical sensor also supports a customizable lift-off distance down to 1 or 2mm, which is another nice feature that allows for better tracking tailored to how you naturally move a mouse in fast sweeping motions. Paired with a wired polling rate of up to 8K and a wireless polling rate of 1,000 Hz, the PAW3395 optical sensor is an excellent choice for PowerColor's first gaming mouse. It's not the most powerful sensor on the market, but it is the sort of sensor that's fine for day-to-day gaming, productivity, and even competitive esports gaming.

Software

All PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse customization is handled via the company's KeyStone Control app, which has recently been expanded to support the ALPHYN series of peripherals. The good news is that it's a lightweight app that doesn't take up many resources when running or sitting quietly in background mode. It's not the most feature-packed app, but it covers pretty much everything you'd look for when customizing a mouse, with a clean and simple-to-follow interface.

Remapping buttons is a simple process of selecting the button, choosing from a drop-down list of mouse and other functions, or assigning a specific keyboard sequence. However, what you can do is pretty limited. It lacks cool app-specific features found in different apps, or changing one of the side buttons to trigger a specific DPI setting for more precise aiming in a shooter. The Performance tab of the app offers the ability to set the number of and configure the various DPI stages, customize the lift-off distance, and offer a shortcut to Windows mouse settings.

Here, you can adjust the polling rates for wired and wireless modes, when to enter sleep mode, and when to enter Eco Mode to conserve battery life. Rounding out the customization, the KeyStone Control app also includes a dedicated tab for lighting controls, where you need to set the brightness to zero to disable the RGB. Messing around with the lighting was the only time the KeyStone Control app crashed on us, forcing a restart - something to keep in mind, as it points to the app not being 100% stable.

Gaming Performance and Productivity

Gaming Performance

With its ergonomic shape that offers a comfortable palm grip, we found the PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse to be both responsive and flawless when playing fast-paced shooters like DOOM: The Dark Ages and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Testing both the wired 8000 Hz mode and the wireless 1000 Hz mode, we didn't notice a significant difference in responsiveness. There is a difference, but it's not something that most gamers would even notice.

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Although ultra-lightweight symmetrical designs are becoming the norm for many PC gamers, the PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse's larger build and ergonomic shape still have a place. And with a light 96-gram weight and ample feet on the underside, movement feels smooth and effortless. The tactile scroll wheel also has a nice, prominent step-based feel, which lends itself to scrolling through items and objects in games.

Productivity

A dedicated thumbrest on a mouse is one of those things that people look for in a productivity mouse, as is a rubberized scroll wheel and an ergonomic shape that supports a palm grip. The PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse ticks the right boxes here, with the only thing missing being the lack of textured grips on the left and right sides of the mouse. Button placement, switches, and the PixArt optical sensor are all excellent, and the inclusion of Bluetooth 5.2 support opens the door to pairing the mouse with a wide range of devices. That said, for portability and travel, the mouse doesn't include a spot to store the small USB receiver, so this is one of those peripherals where you need to keep track of where you put it.

Final Thoughts

PowerColor's first wireless gaming mouse, the ALPHYN AM10, features a comfortable ergonomic grip, responsive buttons with Omron Optical Switches, and a powerful PixArt sensor that's built for even the fastest-paced action games. It also features decent battery life and RGB lighting and comes in two colors - matte black or bright white. Is it enough to stand out from the pack? Probably not, but there's nothing fundamentally jarring or bad about the design or performance. In fact, for the most part, if the PowerColor ALPHYN AM10 Wireless Gaming Mouse has the sort of shape you look for in a gaming mouse, it's worth considering.

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Priced at $99.99, it does face a lot of competition, but the good news is that the build quality and hardware are right up there with more expensive offerings. Ultimately, it's great to see PowerColor branch out like this, as the company has produced high-quality GPUs for several years. With a wireless gaming headset and now a wireless gaming mouse, we assume the next peripheral to join the ALPHYN line-up will probably be a keyboard. And with PowerColor being two for two so far, we're keen to see it or whatever comes next.