As someone who sweats profusely during the summer, the latest collaboration between Noctua and Pulsar piqued my attention. The Pulsar x Feinman Noctua Edition mouse features a lightweight magnesium body with a Noctua cooler inside it, and looks like the ultimate gaming mouse for summer gaming.

That Fan is Not a Gimmick

If you’re looking at this mouse and thinking “this is a gimmick and nothing else,” I have to say that I respectfully disagree. As someone who owned the legendary Logitech Chillstream gaming controller, I can vouch that the Noctua fan inside the mouse is anything but a gimmick.

I got the Logitech Chillstream back in 2007. Almost 20 years later, the Chillstream is still my favorite gaming controller ever, thanks to its unique design that includes a cooling fan at the bottom along with a bunch of vents dotting the shell and letting the cold air blow all around your hands.

And the thing worked. It was very effective during summer days, especially because I didn’t get air conditioning in my house until a couple of years later. All those sticky summer gaming sessions playing Race Driver: GRID, Colin McRae: DiRT, NFS: Carbon, NFS: ProStreet, and a bunch of Pro Evolution Soccer and FIFA were much more pleasant thanks to the tiny fan making my hands as dry as a desert.

The Pulsar x Feinman Noctua Edition should be even better at keeping your palm cool and dry while gaming. It features a proper Noctua (NF-A4x10 PWM) fan with excellent airflow, and the mouse’s shell is chock-full of holes for air to move around, meaning your right hand will be as cool as ice.

Now, this is just a prototype, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Noctua made some changes to the fan before the release—shedding some weight off it and making it thinner, for instance. But still, the fan should blow tons of air right at your hand, keeping it nice and cool during sweaty moments in your favorite multiplayer shooters.

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The Feinman F01 Is Already Great, Noctua Can Only Make It Better

The Feinman F01 mouse is a high-end ultralight gaming mouse with a shell made of a magnesium alloy, which allows it to weigh only 46 grams. Its design is based on the Pulsar Xlite V3 mouse, which I actually own.

Pulsar Xlite V3 Gaming Mouse

The Xlite V3 gaming mouse redefines ergonomics with a focus on right-hand palm grips, providing unparalleled comfort for marathon gaming sessions. Connected via 2.4Ghz Wireless, the mouse has a 1ms Report rate thanks to Pixart’s flagship low-power sensor that manages over 100 hours battery life.

I can say that the Xlite V3 is super comfy and the best gaming mouse I’ve ever used. It’s so good I often use it during work hours instead of my Logitech MX Master 3S. The Feinman F01 provides the same comfort level as the Xlite V3, along with excellent optical switches and side buttons.

The Pulsar x Feinman Noctua Edition should be even better thanks to the Noctua cooling fan found inside it, preventing your right hand from sweating and losing grip when it’s hot outside—and inside. The only major disadvantage of the Pulsar x Feinman Noctua Edition over the regular Pulsar Feinman F01 is its increased weight.

I couldn’t find how much an individual NF-A4x10 fan weighs, but according to Noctua, a box of 36 units weighs 160 grams, including packaging. So we’re looking at about 4 grams of extra weight added to the mouse, which comes down to about 50 grams in total (the Feinman F01 weighs 46 grams), which is great even for an ultralight gaming mouse.

As for the level of noise the fan emits, I have good news. According to tests, the tiny NF-A4x10 fan doesn’t go above 21dBA at its max RPM (rotations per minute), which is inaudible for all intents and purposes. In other words, you shouldn’t hear it working even at its max speed of ~4500RPM.

I’d snag this mouse in a jiffy, but I’m doubtful that it will be very affordable.

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Aside From Battery Life Price, I Can’t Find Any Other Downsides

Thanks to its 240mAh battery, the regular Feinman F01 offers about 60 hours of battery life at the 1000Hz polling rate. This is an excellent result for an ultralight mouse, but the addition of a fan, even one as tiny as the Noctua NF-A4x10, which uses only ~0.3W, will negatively affect the battery life.

My Pulsar Xlite V3 is rated at 300mA at 5V, which equals a maximum wattage of 1.5W. In other words, adding the Noctua NF-A4x10 fan should lead to about 20% shorter battery life, or about 48 hours of battery life at 1,000Hz polling, which isn’t too shabby.

On the other hand, if you decide to turn the polling rate up to 8,000Hz, the max polling rate supported by the Pulsar x Feinman Noctua Edition, the battery life will be atrocious even without the fan, so you’ll have to charge it every night either way.

The second issue here is the price. The Feinman F01 is already one of the priciest gaming mice on the market, selling for $180. Add a high-end Noctua fan and account for R&D that went into creating the Pulsar x Feinman Noctua Edition, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the thing ends up costing north of $200. Super expensive, but if you want your hands to be dry when gaming during summer, no price is too high, right? Right?

Another subjective downside is the design. As expected, the mouse boasts the classic Noctua color scheme, which I find a bit off-putting. On the other hand, if it can keep my right hand dry when gaming during the summer months, I don’t care about its color.

The Pulsar x Feinman Noctua Edition should release in November 2025.

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While it may cost as much as a budget gaming GPU, I always like seeing something that breaks the mold. The recent push to make gaming mice as lightweight as possible is cool and all, but adding a cooling fan to a mouse is, in my opinion, a step in the right direction.

I hope other mouse brands follow suit, and we get to pick between a few different gaming mice equipped with active cooling that don’t cost an arm and a leg sooner or later.