Razer has a wireless breakthrough
AT A TRADE SHOW, most companies will talk your ear off over a USB dongle that does nothing in particular and that 17 other companies have done better already anyhow. You quickly zone out and don't care, contemplating biting your tongue off to end the pain if you can't make it to the door. At CES, we chatted with the Razer people for about an hour, and it was very interesting. That is when you know they have a good product.
The Razer Mamba mouse is the first wireless rodent that is done right. It may look like an ordinary mouse with a docking cradle, but it isn't, Razer thought this thing through from the ground up, and came up with several unique features that really add to the mouse. At first glance it looks just like several other Razer mice, but there are subtle differences.
A sleeping Mamba
First up is that it is slightly asymmetrical, made for right handed players, but just barely. The top is the same high quality rubberised material that you expect from Razer, and there are a few more rubber covered surfaces under the buttons. It feels good in your hand, but as is normal with this type of thing, your tastes may vary. The top rubber is one piece, so there are no seams to dig in after a few hours of play.
In terms of the hardware, the Mamba is 'next gen', with a 3.5 generation laser sensor capable of 5600DPI and 1000Hz polling. As you would expect, you can set the resolution in the drivers from 800-5600DPI in 125DPI steps. There are five preset levels you can switch between, and each axis is individually settable, but all mice have that now. So far, so solid, but nothing groundbreaking.
The magic comes with the cord, or lack thereof. One of the problems with wireless devices is when the battery starts to die, things get flaky. Worse yet, you have to leave it on the cradle while it charges and plug in your wired backup. Pain in the butt unless you have a backup battery, or actually charge it regularly. In the real world that rarely happens.
A Razer Mamba or two
With the Mamba, that is a thing of the past. The USB cord that goes into the cradle/transmitter will pull out and plug into the mouse. Not only does it become a wired mouse instantly, but it will recharge the battery in a few hours while you play. Simple but genius.
If you look closely, you can see a hole above the scroll wheel on the wireless ones, and it is filled on the wired version. That is the USB cable, and you can just pull it out of the cradle and plug it into the mouse. It solves nearly everything, and when the battery eventually dies, you end up with a good wired mouse.
The other thing they did right was make the Mamba as light and responsive as a normal wired gaming mouse. It has a 1ms response time, and should act the same as their wired brethren. It is also very light, only 129g. You can fling it around easily, and better yet, pull the battery to save weight, 108g without it. How Razer did this while including the charger is beyond me.
Moving back to the realm of the ordinary, we have a few other nice touches. The first one is that the mouse and base station are hard keyed to each other, and hop over 21 channels. The idea is that you don't get interference in a lan party environment, even if you are on the same channel, you won't step on the other guy's toes.
Razer is famous for putting macros in their mice, and the Mamba has 'next generation' macro capabilities. The internal memory has been upped from 32K to 64K, and the 11 character limit has been upped to 500. If you need more, well, you should try to venture outside the house, there is a real world out there. Honest.
After being told about the Mamba for about an hour, I didn't wish for death's sweet release, I actually still cared. They did things right for the right reasons, and I found it hard to disagree with any points they made. The only problem I found was that it won't be out until April, and will cost $129. Then again, you do get what you pay for, and in this case, I think the Mamba is very likely worth it. µ
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Wireless mice may be the future if the wireless charging systems we saw at CES can be improved to charge them fast enough.
"Never needs charging!" would be a pretty impressive claim to see on a box, especially if its legit. could even go one step further "Has no batteries!"
you know those charging pads you hear about(put your batteries on them to charge up) but they not retail yet....
razer could make a nice pad out of that tech and power the mouse and never need wire evar!
"The top is the same high quality rubberised material that you expect from Razer, and there are a few more rubber covered surfaces under the buttons."
So am I supposed to ignore the fact that this high quality rubberised material always starts to crumble after 6 months of normal usage?
Is it easy to disassemble and strip the mice down to clean away the dirt and grime? I don't think so.
Razer never did design a single mice that is easy to maintain and clean.
To me, Razer mice are good only for the first month of use. After that, everything starts to go down from there. Even Logitech and Microsoft mice are easier to strip for cleaning.
Razer Mice - Good for gaming (but not built to last). Zero durability is what comes to my mind when I think of Razer mice. I am never buying another mice from them ever again.
I thought you were referring to a breakthrough in wireless technology. besides, charging while using the mouse isn't a new thing, i've already seen something like that from Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/docs/Microsoft%20Mobile%20Memory%20Mouse%208000/index.html click on "USB rechargable (magnetic)" that mouse even has 1GB memory in the USB transceiver which acts as a thumb drive.
..who's glad someones taking a crack at building a semi decent wireless gaming mouse again?
Logi sort of packed up their kit and went back to building wireless office mice after the G7. Admittedly the G7 still came pretty short of a wired mouse nirvana, but i'd still say it was by far the best of the bunch.
Sadly my aging G7's main MB went dodgy last year (batteries still excellent & I got 3 fantastic years out of that mouse!), so I did what any gamer with a lack of wireless gaming mice options to choose from would do and bought a G9.
What a mistake. Wired mice really don't work with my home desk, not to mention the bloody bulk of the thing (particularly at the crease where your palm would rest) gives me cramps after short periods of use.
For me, April can't come soon enough.
Fuck Them!
129$ inte U.S. and 129€ in Europe instead 99.
Another lovely mouse, again designed for right handed user.
What about a left handed version, as alway left handers seem to be for gotten.
I for one find it uncomfortable using a mouse designed for a right hander.
MICROSOFT NEW WIRELESS GAMING WIRELESS IS COMING ALSO SOON !!
It has almost the same method of recharging like Razer Mambo along with some other stuff...
Microsoft Sidewinter X8 with Bluetrack technology !!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/10/microsoft-sidewinder-x8-gaming-mouse-gets-official-examined
I've been using Razer's ambi Diamondback 3G mouse for the last year and I'm happy with it. It isn't wireless, but I don't really want a wireless gaming mouse until they work the bugs out. I understand why companies won't build left-handed mice (market's too small to spend money on the infrastructure). The ambi mice have always worked great for me.
Re: Left Out
Also got so excited when I saw they have a new mouse... till I read it was for right hands 8/ I also play left, tried right, but doesn't work... Also have the Diamondback 3G - by far the best Ambi mouse I've played with (for longer than a year now, not just the first month) Wish Razer could bring out a few limited edition Lefties of this mouse...
Re: Left Out
While it might not cut it as a "Gaming Mouse" I game a lot with Logitech's MX 610 Left Handed Model. You won't see it in stores, but it's reversed model of their 610 for lefties. It can ordered online from Logitech for sure, probably other places.
...but IoGear's wireless mice (on their wireless desktop combos) also offer a 'fallback to corded' feature.
For whatever reason, they opted to use a wall-wart rather than USB power for charging, but the mouse does feature a convenient coaxial jack in the front, allowing you to move the wall-wart connection from the charger directly to the mouse and continue using it while it tops up.
"pull the battery to save weight, 108g without it. How Razer did this while including the charger is beyond me."
Probably the same way that just about every cellphone and GPS receiver manufacturer has been doing it for years. It's a trickle charger, USB power just goes straight into the battery, it adds almost zero to the wight.
If the top is crumbling why don't you try moving the mouse with your fingers instead of pressing your likely fat hand on top of the mouse. I'v had my Microsoft Habu (Razer) for 2 years now and it still works perfectly after going through soldering 5 times for broken buttons.
I will definately be buying this when it comes out, no questions asked.
of course Razer is HQ. "...still works perfectly after going through soldering *5* times for broken buttons..."
Well, if I had new rubber buttons to replace it FIVE times, of course it would still work well.
With constant spare parts replacement and fixing, who needs a durable mouse?
It does seem very good and a lot of people on my website at www.eteknix.com want to see us review it, i am trying to get in touch with Razer to get first hand experience on this, as i will not pay the pricy tag just for what i see as a fancy mouse.