Razer Mamba

Comfort and Use

The shape of the a more or less identical but slightly refined version of their very comfortable and considerably less expensive Death Adder. This being the case the Mamba is - not surprisingly - very comfortable, with curves that feel like shaking hands with a fat man. However because it has a battery inside it is a lot heavier weighing in at 130g to the Death Adder's 104g.

The forward and back buttons are perfectly positioned under your thumb while the sensitivity stage adjusting buttons are neatly tucked away at the end of the left click button where you're unlikely to hit them accidentally but can reach them easily when need be. As you flick through the sensitivity stages a neat set of three LEDs on the front edge of the mouse show which stage you're at when making adjustments and show the battery like life all other times. The scroll wheel provides good grip and feedback when clicking through the rotations and also makes the mouse resemble the awesome awesome bikes from the Extreme-G racing games on the Nintendo N64. In addition the having all its bits in the right place, the build quality of the Mamba feels exceptional.


Razer claim that the Mamba's battery has enough power for 14 hours of continuous use or up to 30 hours of 'normal gaming' use meaning that MMO gamers (myself included) will have to dock the mouse after each session if they want to use the Mamba in Wireless mode on a daily basis. The battery takes four hours to charge, either while the Mamba is looking sexy on its throne-like dock, or five hours when connected to the USB cable. Given the cost of the mouse it seems ludicrous that Razer hasn't include two batteries or some kind of boost charge mode in case you get caught short on battery and didn't want to use the cable - the Mamba is sold as a wireless mouse, after all.

We weren't too keen on the Mamba's super-smooth Teflon feet. On most mouse mats we tried it on it was just a little too slippery which ultimately makes for shaky cursor. If you were up on all night on caffeine drinks you'd have a hard time hitting head shots. Still, this is a mouse that's targeted at gamers who want the smoothest, most precise controls, and perhaps pro gamers do want a mouse that's this smooth.

Conclusion

It would be fair to say that most people that are into to technology are also attracted by the elusive shiny factor. Ultra slim high resolution displays, watercooled PCs with acrylic windows to show off beautifully modded interiors and iPhones all stir the blood in this way. To this extent the Mamba is awesome. It's one hell of a sexy bit and most of the hacks down in the labs who used it were converted from being £120 price-tag naysayers to tumbling around on the floor scrapping furiously for a chance to use the shiny mouse.


However, for the purposes of this review we need to be objective and to answer the question; is £120 a ludicrous sum of money for this mouse or should you run to the nearest store to get your own Razer Mamba? Well, that will largely depend on the amount of dispensable income you have. The Mamba is a beautifully made product that features some never-before-achieved technologies, namely the super-fast polling rate over a wireless connection and huge dpi count.

The software allows very intimate control over the hardware and is well laid out, well designed and generally easy to use. Given the amount of complete nonsense tech companies send out in press releases and interviews, it's a shame that Razer weren't more forthcoming with their answers about the technology used in the Mamba as it makes all the hype smell like it's protruded from certain parts of anatomy known for producing bad smells. New technologies aside, it is a comfortable, well made, premium product with more features than you can shake a 1m-long braided USB cable with gold connectors at. That said, it's very hard to imagine who could justify buying it, especially when there are some great mice such as the Sidewinder X8 and Logitech's G9 available for a lot less cash.

• Features
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• x
• x
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• -
• 9/10

• Ease of Use
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
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• x
• -
• 9/10

• Build Quality
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• x
• 10/10

• Value
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• x
• x
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• -
• 4/10

• Overall
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• -
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• 7/10

Score Guide