Razer Mamba Wireless Gaming Laser Mouse 5600 DPI
- Gaming-Grade Wireless Technology
- Dual Mode Wired/Wireless Functionality
- Razer Synapse¿ Onboard Memory
- Charging Dock
Product Description
The Razer Mamba features gaming grade wireless technology with a hybrid system that enables instant wired/wireless functionality. Coupled with an industry leading 1ms polling rate, it is the fastest performing mouse both on and off the cord. Delivering true wireless freedom, lag-free speed and ergonomic comfort, the Razer Mamba is in a league of its own…. More >>
I have been a MMO PC gamer for the last 5+ years solid. I am not as hardcore as some of the professional tournament gamers but I certainly take my performance in game seriously. Before trying out the Razer Mamba, I was using Logitech Revolution MX. I loved the mouse and had zero complaints. So why switch? Well I recently bought a new desktop and wanted everything to be brand new (including my mouse), and so after reading several reviews and talking to some friends, it came down to two possible new mice: Logitechs new Performance MX or the Razer Mamba. Despite warnings from friends that have extensive gaming experience I opted for the Razer Mamba simply because of looks, and it was something different from what I had been using all these years. I felt like the change would be nice.
Everything you hear about the beautiful aesthetics is true. The mouse is a jewel of sorts, from the packaging, right down to the curvaceous stance on the mouse pad but this is where anything positive ends. The quality of materials is…ok. I like a little bit of heft to my mice. Somehow weight in the right places denotes quality to me, and while that might be a very subjective statement one should never feel like they are holding something cheap in their hands after dropping the kind of cash it takes to wield a Razer Mamba.
Long periods of play time left me with indentations and slight bruising on the side of right hand ring finger, and good luck to you if you should ever find yourself in the middle of your gaming session when the battery decides to crap out on you because inserting and removing the usb cable into the mouse is daunting and very clumsy feeling task.
Went and bought a Logitech performance MX shortly after and haven’t looked back since. I’ll never stray from Logitech again.
Razer’s moto for their products is “Made for gamers by Gamers”… Well so far as I can tell, the gamers that designed this mouse must be gamers of the board variety and surely not the kind of gamers that seek comfort, convenience, and performance in one package.
Rating: 2 / 5
There’s really nothing worse than an otherwise wonderful product with one fatal flaw that brings its whole score down. The Razer Mamba is a wonderful wireless gaming mouse, with an absolutely devastating power problem.
For the Mamba, Razer tweaked the kick-ass shape of the now-classic DeathAdder design–perfect for palm-grip mousers–to sneak in a pair of sensitivity adjustment buttons. The changes paid off: The Mamba is eminently comfortable for long-term gaming sessions, and the sensitivity buttons fix our only complaint with the DeathAdder, which offered imprecise on-the-fly sensitivity adjustments using the mouse wheel.
The Mamba would make one helluva wired mouse, but battery-life problems make us wary of its $130 price tag.
The Mamba’s 1,000MHz laser sensor is wonderful as well. After side-by-side testing, we couldn’t differentiate between the Mamba’s 5,600dpi sensor and the 5,000dpi sensor on the Logitech G9x, but that’s a good thing. With five different sensitivity levels, which are tweakable using the mouse’s software, there’s absolutely nothing about this mouse’s sensor that will prevent you from fragging with wild abandon.
What will prevent you from reaching your maximum gaming potential is the Mamba’s quick-death battery. Because the battery only lasted through about 12 hours of gaming before behaving sporadically, it’s a damn good thing that the Mamba also offers the option of plugging directly into the provided USB cable so you can continue playing after your battery inevitably dies. The bad news is that the USB cable is pretty chunky, and making the mouse/cord connection is fiddly at best. Worse, it’s hard to unplug. It required two hands and took us several minutes of fighting to remove every time we wanted to return to untethered fragging. On top of those problems, we absolutely detest that the only sure-fire way to get a full charge on the mouse is to turn off the physical power switch on its underbelly every single time you charge it. That’s just lame.
At the end of the day, we simply stopped using the Mamba as a wireless mouse, instead preferring to leave the cord permanently plugged in. We’d much rather have an awesome wired mouse (at a wired mouse price) than have the battery conk out during a heated TF2 match, when there’s nary a moment to connect the cord. As it is, the Mamba is a great wired mouse at a price that’s high, even for a wireless mouse.
+ Amazing sensor, great shape, wired option.
- Fiddly USB connector, anemic battery, super-chunky USB cable.
Verdict: 7 out of 10
Rating: 4 / 5
**EDIT** After less than a month of use the wheel started making an annoying squeaky sound. I heard that Razer has durability issues but this is ridiculous. **EDIT**
The battery life is what made me give it such a low rating. I am actually using it corded now because i got annoyed at having to dock it every couple of hours of use.
Rating: 2 / 5
Finally a wireless mouse that you can game with and not worry about latency issues! Looks great, feels great. The price is a bit steep for what it is.
The only gripe I have is that sometimes when using the mouse it seems to stop for 10 seconds, most likely a bug that can be updated with new firmware. I’m sure once the bugs are smoothed over this product will be flawless.
Rating: 3 / 5
Firmware update was such a hard process that I would not recommend unless you have to computers otherwise you may brick your mouse.
The mouse battery life is good after the update. It works rather well if you put the charger in when you are done using the mouse. The packaging is lovely and the control of the mouse work great.
Rating: 4 / 5