HP 930 Creator Wireless Mouse review

A decent mouse for creatives

HP 930 Creator Wireless Mouse
(Image: © Future)

TechRadar Verdict

The HP 930 Creator Wireless Mouse is HP's latest peripheral marketed towards the creative prosumer market and while it isn't a perfect device, it definitely hits more than it misses.

Pros

  • +

    Connects to multiple devices

  • +

    Lots of buttons

  • +

    Up to 3,000 DPI

  • +

    Very long battery life

Cons

  • -

    Heavy for a mouse

  • -

    Not good for lefties

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Two minute review

The HP 930 Creator Wireless Mouse is HP's newest creative prosumer peripheral and while there are some issues that we had with it, it's a solid enough device with some really great features at a reasonable price, but it lags behind some of its more compelling competition.

On the plus side of the column, the HP 930 Creator Wireless Mouse has a lot of programmable buttons for making productivity macros and assigning shortcuts for the best graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop.

Then there's the mouse wheel. Not only does it allow for sideways scrolling, the wheel is also free-spinning and obscenely fast. Without question, this is the fastest mouse wheel we've seen in as long as we can remember and there's a certain innocent glee in flicking the wheel to spin it up with a subtle but satisfying whir for a few seconds.

This also meant that it's possibly one of the most sensitive mouse wheels we've ever used. This is great if you need - and have the dexterity to use - a mouse wheel with a very high level of precision. If you're a big dumb oaf with twitchy gaming fingers who can't help but brush up against the mouse wheel inadvertently, you might be surprised to see web pages scroll up or down without your meaning to do so on a semi-regular basis. 

Ergonomically, the HP 930 Creator wireless mouse is designed for right-handed use and is somewhat larger than we expected. Even if you're like some of us and have medium to large-sized hands, the Creator feels bigger than it probably should, measuring in at 4.75 x 3.11 x 1.84 inches / 120.7 x 79 x 46.7 millimeters (L x W x H).

It doesn't help that the mouse is also a bit on the heavy side, weighing in at 4.64 ounces / 130 grams, though it does glide pretty well and the weight is probably more to help creators maintain some finer mouse control. It is still an adjustment though, and when compared to the rival Razer Pro Click, the HP 930 Creator wireless mouse comes up a bit short.

It is $10 cheaper however, starting at $89 / £99 / about AU$125 and does have the benefit of a USB Type-C port rather than the dreadful, custom-fitted micro USB connector on the Pro Click. Even better, HP promises that the HP 930 Creator wireless mouse can get up to 12 weeks of battery life off a single charge, and while we haven't used it for a full 12 weeks to verify that claim, we've been using it for about a week, starting with a full charge, and it's sitting around 90%.

The HP 930 Creator Wireless Mouse features 800 - 3,000 DPI, which isn't the best nowadays where even budget productivity or gaming mice get above 10,000 DPI, but it's still not the worst DPI out there. If this mouse was even $1 more expensive, though, we'd have started taking real points off.

In the end, the HP 930 Creator wireless mouse is bumping up against the boundary of what we'd recommend in terms of specs, performance, and design. Fortunately for the Creator, it's on the right side of that boundary, but for just $10 or $20 more, you can get one that doesn't have these issues.

Buy it if...

You want lots of buttons
While not a hardcore gaming mouse, having seven programmable buttons and a blazing fast mouse wheel puts the Creator a notch above your standard work mouse. 

You want lots of battery life
We haven't gone a full 12 weeks with the HP 930 Creator wireless mouse, so we can't verify or debunk HP's claim of 12 weeks of use, but we can tell that its battery life is very good, even if it doesn't quite get to the 12-week mark.

You want a reasonably priced mouse for creative work
While not the absolute best mouse you can get for creative work, it is one of the cheapest of the premium work mice we've been seeing come out lately.

Don't buy if...

You're left-handed
This mouse only comes in a right-handed form factor, so lefties are out of luck, again.

You do a lot of PC gaming
While the HP 930 Creator is not pitched as a gaming mouse and shouldn't be considered one, the low DPI and polling rate make this barely better than a generic mouse in terms of gaming performance.

John Loeffler
Components Editor

John (He/Him) is the Components Editor here at TechRadar and he is also a programmer, gamer, activist, and Brooklyn College alum currently living in Brooklyn, NY. 


Named by the CTA as a CES 2020 Media Trailblazer for his science and technology reporting, John specializes in all areas of computer science, including industry news, hardware reviews, PC gaming, as well as general science writing and the social impact of the tech industry.


You can find him online on Threads @johnloeffler.


Currently playing: Baldur's Gate 3 (just like everyone else).