I’ve been on mouse overload for the last few weeks. Playtech lent me a couple of their Razer mice to play with (a Mamba and an Abyssus), then our Battlefield team received a boxful of Razer Diamondbacks because we’re awesome and stuff, and then I found myself tinkering with the Razer Deathadder on the stage PCs at xLAN. Make that a Razer overload as well.
Anyhoo, now that I’ve familiarised myself with them all, I will introduce you to them one by one, and give you my personal opinion on them all...
Diamondback 3G.
The cheapest of the bunch with an NZ RRP of $65, the Diamondback 3G is an updated version of the hugely popular original Diamondback mouse released a few years ago. Sadly, I don’t think it has been enjoying the same success as its predecessor, most likely because the gaming mouse market has since been saturated.
On paper it is almost identical to the ubiquitous Logitech MX518, with its 1800DPI infrared sensor, programmable side buttons, 5.8 megapixel tracking, maximum acceleration of 15g and 125Hz USB polling rate all exactly the same. The only real point of difference in the specs is that the Diamondback is ambidextrous whilst the MX518 is soley right-handed. Oh, and the Razer mouse has a sexy blue glow around it.
I really really wanted to like this mouse as I had heard people rave about it for a long time, however it just wasn’t a good match for me. Perhaps I have oddly shaped or sized hands, but it was too small to control with my palm, and too big to claw-grip. Having a long and narrow footprint also caused it to capsize slightly during fast movement.
Lastly, being ambidextrous, there are two extra buttons on each side of the mouse in exactly the same place. This is a good thing for the thumb buttons (to throw grenades and suchlike in-game), but my pinky finger kept accidentally hitting the buttons on the other side. I ended up disabling those buttons so no huge drama, but it was still annoying.
Performance-wise it was fine: the buttons are nice and snappy with good tactile response, it has good glide, and the rubberised grips don’t get slippery or sticky after long gaming sessions. It’s a very light mouse which I actually prefer, but it also has a cheap plasticky feel to it.
Overall, I wouldn’t choose it over the likes of the Logitech MX518, but some of that decision is based on personal preference so don’t let me discourage you from at least checking it out if you’re looking for a gaming mouse in this price range.
Abyssus.
Next on the list, weighing in at $85 (which is odd, considering that it’s listed at a cheaper price than the Diamondback on Razer’s Australian website) you’ve got the Abyssus.
This mouse has ups and downs when compared to the Diamondback. On the plus side it has got an upgraded 3.5G infrared sensor with almost twice the precision at 3500DPI, 1000Hz USB ‘Ultrapolling’, and a sweet illuminated blue Razer logo where your palm sits (the rest of the technical specs are the same as the Diamondback).
The downside, however, is that it doesn’t have any side buttons, the “On-The-Fly” sensitivity adjustment is on the
bottom of the mouse, and it is tiny by comparison. To be fair though, the size might not be an issue for some gamers – in fact it was fine for me because I prefer a claw-grip, but there is no way that the average sized hand would be able to comfortably palm-control the Abyssus.
So I gave this mouse a fair crack at some Bad Company 2 online, and the positives it does offer where definitely appreciated – namely the higher precision and the ability to claw-grip it. Also, of course, the basic Razer awesomeness is still there like the Hyperesponse buttons and rubberised grip. I’m sure the 1000Hz USB polling helped with the response of the mouse as well, although that’s a hard thing to quantify.
I just couldn’t get past the shortcomings though, specifically the lack of side buttons and the bottom-mounted sensitivity adjustment switches. I can’t remember the last FPS game I played where I
didn’t have ‘throw grenade’ assigned to the side button on my mouse so it was almost like missing a finger.
Also, switching sensitivity “on the fly” is supposed to be seamless, i.e. something that can be done in the heat of battle, but with bottom-mounted switches you need to stop what you’re doing, turn the mouse upside down, change the setting (hard set to 450, 1800 and 3500 DPI) then resume gaming.
All up, I have trouble recognising the Abyssus as a true gaming mouse. I’m confused as to why Razer would put an upgraded sensor in it but then remove other, more crucial elements. Moving on…
DeathAdder.
Ah, yes, now to the good stuff. Basically, if you have $115 to spend on a mouse, just shut your face and go buy one of these. Now.
I suppose I should at least qualify that statement I suppose. Firstly, the form factor is, I feel, a serious improvement over the two mice above. It is asymmetrical (available in both right and left-hand editions) with a lean perfectly tailored to the natural resting angle of your hand.
It’s also a decently big mouse with good weight behind it, and I found I could both claw-grip and palm-control it quite comfortably. Inside the mouse is basically the Abyssus – 3500DPI, 1000Hz Ultrapolling and all the rest. It also has a braided fibre cable, which tangles a lot less and looks a lot cooler than the cheap plastic covering of the other two mice.
One minor gripe I would have to make however would be the sensitivity adjustment. There is no dedicated button for changing the DPI settings – you have to assign one of the 5 main buttons to this, the best choice being one of the side buttons. In games like Modern Warfare, I like to use one side button for ‘change grenade type’ and the other for ‘throw grenade’, so you would have to sacrifice one of these to get the on-the-fly functionality, but it is not a problem in other games like Bad Company 2 with only one type of grenade available.
So to me, the DeathAdder just ‘felt’ right. When a mouse is so well-designed that you don’t have to consciously focus on operating it in-game, you know that is worth some serious brownie points. I’d
steal one of these from the xLAN stage PCs buy one of these without hesitation if that was the price range I was looking at.
If I had slightly more dosh, however, I would go for the…
Mamba.
This mouse is like the DeathAdder, except wireless. And on steroids.
Gone is the 3500DPI infrared sensor, and in comes the 5600DPI Laser sensor. At this point I should probably mention that having a DPI this high is absolutely stupid. You would perform about a dozen 360 degree spins in game after moving the mouse just a few inches unless you’ve cranked the in-game sensitivity right down to compensate, but even then you will start to experience the dreaded negative-acceleration curse.
Having to resort to 1800-3500DPI doesn’t detract from the Mamba experience though – with the main attraction of course being the fact that it is wireless. I don’t know about you, but I hate the cord on my mouse, it always gets in the friggin’ way. People have been put off wireless gaming mice in past due to wireless lag, which is totally understandable given that most wireless mice are crap. I spent almost a full hour switching back and forth between the wired DeathAdder, the Mamba in wired mode, and the Mamba in wireless mode, just to see whether I could perceive any lag.
The result? Well, I *think* there is a slight perceivable difference, but that could be a placebo effect from my brain telling me to expect some wireless lag. Still, the fact that I can’t conclusively tell a difference should say something about its wireless performance. And yes, you can operate it in wired mode – just yank the USB cable from out of the back of the receiver and plug it straight into the mouse, simple as that. Razer claim up to 14 hours of continuous gaming out of one charge, and in my experience that is fairly accurate.
One thing which may be hit and miss about the Mamba is its weight, which is added to by the battery and the inner wireless technical bits. I personally didn’t find it too heavy, but neither would I have complained had it been any lighter. There also seems to be many reports about bugs and glitches with older versions of firmware. The first thing I did when I got the mouse was install the latest drivers and firmware, so I can’t give you my experiences with any of these sadly, but I can report that I didn’t experience any in the first place.
At the end of the day, does it justify the $229 price tag? Every cent. Especially considering that it launched not too long ago for $349.
Well there you have it: four Razer mice, four verdicts. Thanks for reading, and my thanks to PlayTech for giving me more toys to play with. 
