Razer DeathAdder 3500 dpi Edition

[+Nexus18 MVC]

Last review by me for today! :p

Features:

• 3500dpi Razer Precision 3.5G Infrared Sensor
  
• Ergonomic Design Right Handed Design
  
• 1000Hz Ultrapolling/1ms Response
  
• Five Independently Programmable Hyperesponse
  
• On-The-Fly Sensitivity Adjustment
  
• Always On Mode
  
• Ultra Large Non-slip Buttons
  
• 16-bit Ultra Wide Data Path
  
• 60-120 inches per second and 15g of Acceleration
  
• Zero-Acoustic Ultraslick Teflon Feet
  
• Gold Plated USB Connector
  
• Seven-Foot, Lightweight, Braided Fiber Cable
  
• Approx. Size in mm: 128(L)x70(W)x42.5(H)
  

Packaging:

The box, which this mouse comes in is very fancy looking and is most certainly the best compared to the other boxes of mice that I have used (ranging from wireless Microsoft mice and the Logitech MX518), it screams quality as soon as you look at it and especially when you open it, you are presented with the mouse itself and a quick summary of it with a picture on the left side.

On the left side of the box, you have a quick summary of the mouse, a message/quote from the ?razerguy? again stating a quick summary of the mouse and below that the main features.

On the right side, you have a technical comparison chart between a standard mouse VS the DeathAdder.

Finally on the back you have all the features listed and the typical, system and hardware requirements.

When un-packaging the mouse you will come across a small cardboard envelope which contains the following:

• Certificate of Authenticity
  
• A Product Catalog (this shows Razers other products [headsets, mouse pads, keyboards and mice] with the main features outlined, an image of the product, comparison charts)
  
• Even Razer logo Stickers!
  
• A single piece of cardboard with some info on the product you bought
  
• A quick start guide (pretty much for newbies showing how to connect the mouse to the PC, labelling the buttons/features of the mouse and it is very clear and simple with images and keeping it brief)
  
• A master Guide (a more detailed version of the quick start guide but this includes info on the drivers now as well)
  

So, essentially if a person who is new to PC in general and PC gaming, well the guides supplied with the product explain how to install and use the drivers etc. very clearly.

First Thoughts:

Now onto the mouse itself, the mouse looks very nice, although maybe a bit bland when compared to some of the other gaming mice out there, but it still looks better than most of the others, however once the blue lights come on, it looks excellent and very gamer like, the pulsing blue Razer logo is an excellent touch to make it stand out even more compared to other mice and gives the impression to me that the thing is alive with a heartbeat! :p

The one thing, which is very clear, is the shape of the DeathAdder. It is a lot more curvy than the other Razer mice, which is a very good thing in my books, as the DeathAdder feels superb to use, it is one of the most comfortable mice out there as the hand just sits on top, moulds to the shape and feels part of you, thus making you even more deadly in game.

When you first look at it, it does seem to be very big looking, but it really isn?t a problem once you hold it as my hand seems like a perfect fit for it (normal/average sized hands).

Ergonomically, there are some curves on the "left" and "right" click buttons where your fingers rest and again is a good thing. The curves with the wider front end of the mouse prevent your ?baby" finger and ?ring" finger from sliding of the mouse, this is a problem for me on the other mice that I used especially for the MX518, as those fingers just dragged along the mouse surface when moving the mouse about.

The mouse also has quite a high arch when compared to my other mice, however, again I find it pretty much perfect for me.

Overall the DeathAdder may be a bit big for people with pretty small hands.

Build Quality:

Now onto the feel/materials, the top of the DeathAdder is finished with a hard rubber type of material similar to a matt finish, which feels great and offers good grip, expensive, good quality and for gamers that have sweaty palms (however after a bit of use, you can see a sweat patch, but it quickly evaporates), this is ideal, it doesn?t get grubby at all, and if it does you can simply use a damp cloth to wipe it clean again with ease. In contrast, the material used on the sides are the usual cheap, glossy/shiny, light-weight plastic that you find on most other mice. Whilst the overall finish of the DeathAdder is great, one caveat that I would add is that Razer should have used the same hard rubber type of material for the sides and so far this is really the only con of the mouse. After a few days of use, the side plastic accrues some grub residue, which requires you to clean the mouse, whereas if the same hard rubber material had been used, this would not have been a problem and would improve the grip and feel even more.

The build quality of the DeathAdder is very good and one of the better Razer mice for this area and gives you more of ?perceived quality?, largely due to the hard rubber type of material that is used on the top surface. Overall the mouse has a very sturdy feel to it.

On the left side, you have two very big thumb buttons that are also made out of the same plastic that is used on the sides and are in the right position for me in order to use both comfortably. There is no spacing that separates the 2 buttons except a small divider line. There is however, no danger of you accidentally mistakenly clicking the wrong button.

The feedback that you get from the ?right? and ?left? click is pretty good, the feedback from ?clicking? comes across as quite a springy feel to it and gives a nice ?click? sound, the same goes for the side thumb buttons, but less of a ?springy? feel. However due to the feel/feedback of the ?clicks? for the ?right? and ?left? click, I assume that the two primary mouse buttons will go/wear down after a good bit of usage compared to some other mice that come across as more durable when clicking the main mouse buttons. The DeathAdder doesn?t come across as very durable. The side buttons also don?t feel the most robust. The side thumb buttons gives me the impression that they are more liable to break than the primary buttons.

It should also be noted that ?clicking? the primary two mouse buttons is very easy and requires the lightest of touch I find compared to other mice like the MX518, which is a great asset for games like Counter Strike Source and COD, which require sensitive reactions.

The scroll wheel is slightly larger than average and feels generally smooth, maybe a wee bit bumpy for my liking especially when scrolling upwards, but it is still a lot better than most of the other scroll wheels that are used on other mice and the ?click? from it also provides good feedback.

There is a small button on the bottom of the mouse beside the sensor, which lets you cycle through your custom profiles. I don't think that is a very good place for the button especially when you're in the middle of gaming, I never use it due to the placement and it doesn't provide the same level of feedback when "clicked" like the "right" and "left" click along with the side thumb buttons, therefore you aren't sure if it actually worked until trying it out. Lastly you can only go in a loop from 1-5, which is a bit of a pain if you only use 2 profiles as you have to go through the others as well.

For reference I am using the DeathAdder on my Boogie Bug Mouse Mat and due to the three high quality Teflon feet placed on the bottom of the DeathAdder, it just glides along the surface with virtually no effort needed.

The mouse itself is very light.

The cable used for this mouse is excellent; it is a braided fiber cable which means that it is a lot more flexible than your standard mice cables and is less prone to tangles. The USB connector is gold plated, which essentially means, better connectivity and longevity (as for other USB connectors, they are usually nickel plated and after a certain amount of connecting and disconnecting from the USB port, it starts to wear off thereby affecting the connectivity between the PC and peripheral thus possibly causing problems. And let?s face it in the middle of a heated battle in BF 3, whether it be owning the sky with your jet, owning anyone on the ground with your M249, IR scope or heavy tanks etc. or whether it be on COD with a great kill streak, this is the last thing that you want to happen :p).

The cable is very long, measuring in at 7 foot, so it should be perfect for any size of desks, even the very large ones!

One other thing is the ?lift off?, it seems to be pretty good, however, my old MX518 was better (in the sense, that the "lift off" isn't as much as the DeathAdder). Essentially this means that as you take the mouse of the surface by a few mm the cursor will still move even though the mouse is hovering above the surface and therefore give inaccuracy when you want to quickly turn, saying that though, this has never been an issue for me in any game on any of my mice. In theory the DeathAdder should be better for this due to it using an infrared sensor instead of an optical sensor, however from my experience with both mice, this isn't the case.

Drivers/Control Panel:

This is a very important area now, as if you have poor drivers/support then unfortunately all the great things about this mouse are redundant, however this is not the case here!

The installation for the control panel/drivers is very easy, simply go on the official razer website, download the latest drivers for the mouse or put the CD that was provided into your drive, run the installation set-up and you are done in a few minutes and ready to customize your mouse to your liking.

Firstly the UI is very techy, gamer and futuristic looking and nicely organised/laid out. There are plenty of options that allow you to adjust the sensitivity, program what the buttons do.

Main Screen:

Here you can customise the buttons, whether it be a normal ?click?, ?menu? etc.

You can also enable/disable the blue LED lighting on the mouse, both the scroll and pulsating logo, it is very easy to do so as seen above, I personally keep them both on as the mouse looks a hundred times better especially when gaming at night!

At the bottom you have the more important features for the response/accuracy of the mouse, obviously everyone should set the ?polling rate? to 1000Hz and the Dpi is up to the user, whatever he/she finds best with his/her sensitivity setting.

If you want, you can have different ?profiles? each with different settings, so ?profile 1? could be for gaming use, ?profile 2? could be for photoshop work, ?profile 3? for general windows use etc. and you can cycle through the profiles without having to open and use the control panel all the time by using the dedicated button on the bottom of the mouse.

At the top there is an ?update? button that takes you directly to Razers website via your browser in order to get the latest version, which will fix any problems existing for users, improve it even more.

On the left you have another two tabs, which gives you even more settings to adjust in order to be even more deadly in game!

Let?s take a look at the ?Sensitivity? tab first:

Here you can adjust the sensitivity of the mouse, scroll speed, double click speed, on the fly sensitivity and you even have a small test area for the double clicking speed (the image shatters like glass when you double click).

If you don?t think that?s enough settings for a pro gamer, how about this, the "advanced sensitivity" tab:

Here you have even more advanced sensitivity options, which you can customise, ?separate X-axis and Y-axis control?, personally I don?t really use this and many casual gamers probably wouldn?t either, essentially what it does is it makes the mouse feel less balanced.

Gaming Use:

I have used a range of mice from wireless Microsoft mice, Logitech standard wired mice and the very popular gamer mouse known as the MX518 and I can easily say that purely for gaming the DeathAdder is the better one especially in FPS, you really feel more accurate in aiming and just in general more responsive to firing, turning etc. and this is certainly a big advantage in these type of games and even more so in quicker paced games like COD.

One of the big deciding factors for gamers when they look at mice is the type of ?grip? the mice are designed for i.e. palm, claw and fingertip. This mouse is obviously a ?palm? grip type and is one of the best out there for gamers that want that type of grip.

Here is a link to the Razer site that gives some very useful information about the different types of grips, what Razer mouse suits a certain grip style the best etc.

http://www.razerzone...guide/ergonomic

Some people may question (like I did at first a few years ago before I really got into PC gaming) what on earth does this ?30-40 mouse with all these fancy specs do better than the standard ?10-15 mice, well this is what:

• 3500dpi Infrared Sensor compared to an average work office mouse, which is about 400-800dpi (Dots Per Inch), essentially this means that the mouse is more precise, however for gaming at 1080P, anything around 1800dpi is perfectly fine, the higher dpi is extremely handy for graphic designers. This also uses a state of the art infrared sensor compared to other sensors that are used on the majority of mice
  
• A 1000Hz ultrapolling/1ms response time, which essentially means that you have the edge over other players using standard gaming mice that have about 125Hz/8ms response time
  
• 5 independently programmable buttons, so you can use the side thumb buttons for changing the sensitivity whilst in game and is extremely handy for games like the BF series. When you get in a tank, the aiming becomes slower/clunky in the game. You?re one click away from sorting that out and you can now aim a lot quicker and again, when out of the tank, simply click the other thumb button to decrease it for infantry gun play. If you are sniping, you can decrease it even more so that you can get your aiming nice and steady for a superb headshot! Some people use the large thumb button for the melee/knife attack as opposed to the key ?F?. They can even be used for normal windows activity e.g. when you want to go back to the previous page in your browser, simply use the side thumb buttons for ?forward? and ?backward?. Standard mice just have the 2 basic buttons, "right" and "left" click along with the scroll wheel, which can sometimes be clicked as well. Granted there are other gamer mice out there that have a few more buttons than the DeathAdder, but these mice aren?t aimed to FPS mainly like what the DeathAdder is and therefore don?t have the more important features that make more of a difference in FPS
  

So the question is, has it improved my skills in FPS gaming?

Well the simple answer is, yes it has, with this mouse I feel like I always have the quicker response than the enemy down my sights and I have noticed that I do better in the FPS games in regards to my k/d ratio especially for the quick shooter games like Counter Strike Source etc.

Conclusion:

All I can say really is that if you want a great gaming mouse but don?t want to spend a fortune and want to do better in games especially for FPS, then this is the mouse to get!

However the mouse is great even if you aren?t a serious gamer, as in normal window usage, graphic work, it is just so comfortable to hold due to the hard rubber material used and the shape/curves that allow your hand to just nicely rest on. This was one of the biggest selling points for me, comfort, when I play games, I want to play in comfort, not grip a tiny mouse which is just a basic shape and so after an hour or so of use, my hand gets a little sore/cramped.

Everything else about it is just great regarding the build quality, the material used (for the top part where your palm sits), the drivers/control panel and most importantly the technology that is used for it, this is what gives you a great advantage over the other players that will be using basic gaming mice and wireless mice.

The only things, which Razer could do to make this mouse even better is make the scroll wheel super smooth when scrolling up and down (not absolutely necessary), have 2 separate buttons for sensitivity, a better placement for the dedicated "profile change" button, preferably somewhere that is easy to access without hassle i.e. on the top, above/below the scroll wheel or somewhere on the left near the side thumb buttons and of course use the same hard rubber material for the sides.

Pros:

• Price considering what you get
  
• Build quality overall
  
• The material used on the top (probably the best material on a mouse that I have used yet)
  
• Comfortable especially for long gaming periods
  
• Drivers/control panel
  
• Specs/features
  
• Performance
  

Cons:

• The sides material isn?t the same as what is used for the top surface
  
• No dedicated buttons for increasing and decreasing sensitivity, you have to program/use the 2 side thumb buttons for this, which could be used for something else like the melee attack, throwing a grenade etc. or you have to use the button on the bottom to change profiles for a lower/higher sensitivity, which is a hassle
  
• Placement of the "profile change" button
  

Hope you all liked the review and if anyone has any questions or would like something to be explained a bit better, just ask :)

[Vice]

Looks identical to my Mamba just with a cable. That can only be good because I love that shape it fits my hand perfect. Good review great pictures :)

[Farstrider]

Ya, agree with the last poster, very nice review, plenty of effort put into it, well done!

All I can add is that I have just bought one and that it's an excellent little piece of equipment, well worth the money paid!

[+Nexus18 MVC]

Thanks very much! :)

[articuno1au]

It is the Mamba. The Mamba has a slightly different side button configuration and a slight upward curve on the outside of the "finger grooves".

Other then that, the casings are identical :)

Nice review.

[+Nexus18 MVC]

Thanks! :)

[tsupersonic]

i've had it for 2+ years, and it's a great mouse. Like you, I had the MX518 before.