I recently decided it was time to upgrade to a mouse with somewhat more exciting specs, and as I still play the occasional FPS I thought it would be interesting to check out what Razer had to offer.The Lachesis seemed to be the obvious choice; 4000 dpi lazer for movement speeds of “8 times that of a standard 800 dpi optical sensor”, 9 (programmable) buttons for when you just need to bind more stuff, and 32kb of onboard memory for storing profiles. Importantly, it also looks awesome (well, to me at least). Perfect I thought. Actually no. This mouse is a great example of some fantastic technology combined together and becoming much less than the sum of its parts. I later discovered that many people were having trouble getting this mouse to work properly as the cursor is prone to skipping around. In the 3 days I forced myself to use the mouse I never saw this problem, but I discovered something else. Using this mouse for more than a few minutes led to rapid fatigue and shortly thereafter hand and wrist cramps and pain, lots of it. This is easily the most uncomfortable mouse I have ever encountered. I think this was mainly due to the absurd bump on the back of the mouse which pushed up into my palm, a curious design decision for sure.
Eventually I caved and returned the Lachesis figuring I’d give Razer another chance and try their somewhat lower spec’d Deathadder mouse. With a mere 1800 dpi sensor, and only 5 buttons (2 regular, 1 clickable scrollwheel and 2 thumb buttons) this was bound to be a disappointment. Not at all. This mouse is fantastic. It’s just as twitchy as the Lachesis if you bump up the sensitivity in the software, it glides sweetly around the mousepad with very little effort, and my thumb can actually reach the sidebuttons. On the downside, it’s right handed only; sorry lefties. Now I see why people love their Razer mice. This is the smoothest, most accurate, and dare I say, most comfortable mouse I’ve ever used.
Lachesis - Pros: looks deadly. Cons: Is deadly
Deathadder – Pros: Almost everything I want in a mouse. Cons: only available righthanded, a couple more buttons would be nice.
how much were the mice? I have a decided normal Logitech something or other mouse, and while it's not bad for general surfing, I am coming back to pc gaming because of Dawn of War II and other Steam-based stuff. Only thing is, I am still pretty cost sensitive so while it seems to be a much better I wonder if it's enough value.
ReplyDeleteThe Lachesis frequently retails north of $90 which is way too much...I wouldn't use it if you paid me the $90.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand the Deathadder can be had for as little (I know it's all relative, especially for something like a mouse) as $49.95
see here for example www.pcvonline.com/productDetails.aspx?prodID=7556
Personally I think it is a worthwhile upgrade at that price.
hmmmm the Deathadder may very well be bought at that price. I was thinking the Deathadder was gonna be 70-80'ish so 49.95 is not as bad as I thought.
ReplyDelete