Poor Razer. I’ll understand if they never want to talk to us again. Over five months ago they sent us their (at the time) new DeathAdder mouse and I’ve sat on this review the whole time. I couldn’t really think of what to say without making this a one line review.
The one line review? This is my favorite mouse in the world.
Okay, so you can’t call yourself a tech journalist with tripe like that, so I’ll elaborate a little.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the Copperhead, mostly because of the size and shape. Performance was stellar, but it was made for someone with bigger hands, I think. The Krait was more my style, but it felt a bit light on features (such as side buttons). So, when Razer sent us the new DeathAdder, I was hoping for something that brought the best of both worlds to the table.
I got it! The second I put my hand on the DeathAdder, I knew they were on to something. It is the perfect shape, totally different from the unwieldy Copperhead and bigger and more ergonomic than the Krait.
The thing that sets the DeathAdder apart from their other mice is an new infrared sensor. It is an 1800dpi optical sensor that uses infrared light instead of a standard red LED in a normal optical mouse. It also polls at 1000Hz, as opposed to 125Hz in normal mice. They list the response time as 1ms, which is probably faster than you can react.
One major downside – this is a right-handed mouse. Lefties must look elsewhere, unfortunately.
The finish is the familiar Razer soft rubber on top and shiny black plastic on the sides and bottom. It is very comfortable for long stretches because sweat doesn’t seem to affect the type of rubber they use. The mouse also looks very sleek. The mouse wheel glows blue and there is a pulsating blue DeathAdder logo in the center.
When you first fire up the installer software, you are presented with two language choices – English and Korean. The Korean reputation for being hardcore gamers was not lost on the Razer driver team, apparently.
The software is highly configurable, which is standard with all Razer mice. You can set varying levels of sensitivity by axis (for instance, low level of X-axis sensitivity but high level of Y-axis sensitivity). I’m thinking of using this feature at the next Icrontic LAN because I studied how my arch-nemesis Sharkydart played Unreal Tournament 2K4 and I’m pretty sure that cranking down Y and upping X might be one way to counter his blistering attack… But I don’t want to go into that here. This is a very personal struggle with me and it keeps me up and night. At any rate, the software can hold four custom profiles which you can switch between when you want to change your game style.
Ah, but I don’t game as often as I Photoshop (a word that Adobe insists the press stop using as a verb). Photoshop sensitivity is a very important factor to me when I am reviewing mice. I’m happy to say that the DeathAdder performs admirably in this regard as well. It has become a replacement for my beloved Logitech G5 as my everyday mouse.
Since I’ve been using this mouse for so long, I can say one more bad thing about it – the mouse wheel has recently started squeaking, as if it needs oil or something. That’s a minor gripe, but it can be annoying at times.
There you have it – I heartily recommend this mouse. The perfect mixture of style, comfort, and performance, it has become my primary mouse for both gaming and general desktop use. Razer has done it again.
Now, if I can only convince them to start talking to me again…
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