Razer Mamba Wireless (and wired) mouse

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

Bugs, not bigs!

So yeah,

I received the Mamba today and had the chance to briefly have a play with it all morning before deciding whether to keep it or not.

I have had the Logitech MX1000, MX Revolution and most recently MX1100 so am quite used to noticing differences in laser tracking and performance.

What I wanted the Mamba for was very fine detail movements in Photoshop (and of course games) and in this dept the Mamba did not disappoint one singe bit. Even the smallest of movements of the mouse were registered onscreen at 900DPI (MX 1100 also modded to 900DPI)and stock 500Hz polling rate which was great for Photoshop when tracing around with the selection tools etc. In games it meant better accuracy in shooters too.

The cursor track speed and "delay" felt no different to the MX1100 I had it side by side with so all in all the 1ms delay Razer state for the Mamba "feels" no different to the current offering by Logitech. Of course the MX1100 doesn't offer macros or Polling rate changing, only DPI mode changes between 800 and 1600.

Cutting a long story short I'll just list what I expected and didn't expect from the Mamba below.

What I expected

- Lightweight. The mouse felt lighter than the MX Revolution.

- Ergonomic. Mamba is low profile and sits nicely in the palm, the wheel is large and easy to roll and click.

- Packaging was way OTT but pleasing, almost makes you wonder how much of that ?120 is on the packing stuff alone!

- Performance. It really is the best performing mouse out there even at the lowest DPI setting it picks up details in small movements. probably not a mouse for power saving nuts because it is easily capable of waking your PC from standby or screensaver mode is someone heavyfoots into the room!

- Style and design. It looks mean and slick, the dock is also nice with soft blue lighting. The braided cable doubles up as the dock's cable or the mouses when you want to use it wired (or when firmware updating),

[bWhat I didn't expect>[/b]>

- The mouse wheel has no left or right rocker clicks like pretty much all modern mice do these days. This feature is VERY useful for mapping functions in games and applications. Logitech do this very well and the Mamba not having it isbizarre> since it costsmore than double >what Logitech's top wireless gaming mouse costs.

- Vista64 users will need to boot into the boot options screen before Windows loads to disable driver signing as the 64bit drivers are unsigned. you need to do this in order to update the firmware on the docking station else it just hangs.

- The Mamba config manager is slow at uploading the config to the mouse in both wireless and wired mode although wired is a bit faster. Still, at least 10secs is needed.

- The config manager will freeze occasionally and when rerun will take AGES to load and read the data from the mouse. you might think it's crashed and try to load another instance but no it's not crashed, just loading slowly so you end up with multiple instances until you realise what's going on and have to taskmgr.exe them away to load a single instance only and let it load in its own time.

- Putting the mouse on the docking station is a 2 hand job because the holster where the mouse sits onto the dock can be fiddly and you end up pushing the dock backwards!

- When changing config settings and uploading them to the mouse if it's in wireless mode then the settings do not get sent to the mouse completely on vista64 even though it says it has sent all OK. I realised this when I turned off the mouse and on again only to find it had reverted to the stock DPI and not my selected DPI of 800-900. To solve this you need to upload the settings when the mouse is in wired mode then unplug the wire and back into wireless mode.

The bugs with the driver software and the lack of standard feature buttons means it's not really fit for the price. It is the best performing mouse out there no contest but it is not worth ?120 IMO not with these bugs and missing features.

A lot of reviews raised it and only slated it on price. they never mentioned the driver bugs or lack of mouse wheel sidescrolling etc which I think is a bit of a shame as I expected the side scrolling buttons on the wheel given the price.

And finally, pics:

(red lights indicate DPI speed, OSD also available onscreen. red lights become green after a few secs to show battery meter)

(on the dock)

(the recess where the dock sits onto)

(braided cable)

(how it arrives)

This Mamba is being refunded next week and I'll stick with the MX1100 until Logitech's next offering.

[jonhapimp]

the bugs was said to get fixed with the latest update, i guess it wasn't true

[Jamushroom Veteran]

Since I'm using the Logitech MX Revolution, I know what you mean about missing the sidescroll feature. At school I use a mouse which doesn't have the feature as well. I constantly find myself clicking sideways with the scrollwheel in Photoshop, without anything happening at all.

The software cons are also a bit sloppy of them if you ask me. You'd think they'd been around long enough to get that right before selling it. Setpoint loads up slow with Uberoptions installed as well, but it doesn't freeze like that or anything.

Also, why does the mouse need the settings to be uploaded? I'm just curious about this.

The mouse sure looks stylish though. Even the dock looks nice, way nicer then the dock for the MX Revolution. Oh well, at least I don't need to hands to put it in the dock :p

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

I find uBer Options loads speedily for me with setpoint!

As for the uploading, it uploads the settings to the mouse so you don't need to have Mamba config manager installed on another PC if you use it on more than 1 PC I suppose and reinstalling the software doesn't mean you have to reconfig your macros and dpi settings/profiles.

Of course this is all fine if it didn't crash and stuff :p

[Ayepecks]

I like my Razer mice, but I really don't like the grip coating or whatever it's called -- always ends up pealing or getting gunky.

[Vice]

When I first saw this mouse I thought 'Yay my next mouse!' then I saw the price tag of ?120 and even I, who has some disposable cash cannot convince myself that ?120 for a mouse is justified. I bought the Razer Lachesis for about ?38 and I doubt my head would ever allow me to purchase a Mouse anywhere near the Mamba.

It looks like to me that Razer are just trying to charge whatever the maximum they think they can get away with is. Gamers spend a lot of money on stuff they don't really need just because its better and Razer seem to understand this better then most companies, Although Logitech are getting right up there with ?90 Keyboards.

Good review m8, great pictures shame the Mouse doesn't live up to its price tag.

[Jamushroom Veteran]

I find uBer Options loads speedily for me with setpoint!

As for the uploading, it uploads the settings to the mouse so you don't need to have Mamba config manager installed on another PC if you use it on more than 1 PC I suppose and reinstalling the software doesn't mean you have to reconfig your macros and dpi settings/profiles.

Of course this is all fine if it didn't crash and stuff :p

Weird. With my MX 1000 I installed the default installer settings from uBer Options. I didn't know if that made it any slower or not. So then I got the MX Revolution, removed all the Setpoint related apps, and I just decided to install only the Revolution options. Didn't make any difference though. It's still loading rather slow for me.

Ah, that makes sence. I just wanted to know because Logitech Wireless mices don't need settings to be uploaded to the mouse, at least the ones that I've used. Makes sence for the macros and such for the Razer Mamba though.

[DanManIt]

Its possible that some of the software issues are because of the 64-bit OS. I know a lot of 64 drivers aren't as polished as their 32-bit counterparts.

What are your thoughts on the MX1100 vs. the Revolution? I have the revo now and I'm curious as to why you chose the MX1100 over it

[Guest]

?120 is a joke for any mouse. I don't care what it can do but I will not pay that much for a freaking mouse!

Does look pretty nice though.

[AltecXP]

Is this bluetooth or other?

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

It's 2.4GHz RF with autoswitching to resolve frequency conflicts.

I chose the MX1100 over the MX Rev due to the use of AA batteries that last 10~ months on one pair as opposed to the MX Revolution needing a dock (and as such, a spare plug, extra desk space and another wire of my already jumble of wires).

[Tech Star]

I got a question for your MX1100, as I can never afford this Razer. :( I have a Logitech G7, and I love that mouse, and recently the left click died on me and Logitech offered me a replacement. They don't have the G7 in stock for another month, but they can give me a G9 or a MX1100. I have the MX Revolution and I hate that mouse. It's not as good in my opinion for gaming as my G7 and its not as great as they said it was to be. So I am asking you, is the MX1100 better than the G7 and the MX Revolution or should I stick with the G7 and wait it out?

Thank you, and I don't mean to go off topic. :p The Razer does look sexy though. I just love that stand. :D

Edited April 13, 2009 by Tech Star

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

I've never used the G9 but looking at the specs it does look good.

I play a lot of games and have no problems with the MX1100 but as with all new mice it does take getting used to as the sensor is located at a different position over the mx revolution.

[Guest]

I've never used the G9 but looking at the specs it does look good.

I play a lot of games and have no problems with the MX1100 but as with all new mice it does take getting used to as the sensor is located at a different position over the mx revolution.

That really wouldn't change anything. It's called relativity :p

[The_Observer]

is that a xbox 360 controler? whats the name of the stand?

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

Yup,

The stand is made by D-Link for my DIR-655 router LMAO!

[Guest]

Btw, I'm not sure why you expected a side srolling feature from Razer so adamantly. They never do that and I'm pretty sure that Logitech are the only company that do do this (Or are allowed to). I'm not entirely sure but it's certainly not a feature that Razer has ever bothered with.

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

This is the only razer mouse I have owned plus all other brands do it.

It's a very useful function and simple enoug that a ?10 mouse even has it.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Great review. The mouse looks eerily similar to the Microsoft Habu:

[Guest]

This is the only razer mouse I have owned plus all other brands do it.

It's a very useful function and simple enoug that a ?10 mouse even has it.

Hmm.. it obviously means a re-design of the scroll wheel and how it is manufactured. Perhaps Razer aren't happy with how it gets done?

I don't really think it's entirely needed for gaming. I found that 5 buttons is fine for gaming (CS: S mainly) with a Copperhead.

Hell, I didn't even have middle click bound to anything proper (occasionally toggle mat_wireframe on and off or other silly cheats:pp).

Can't even remember what I had the left most button on the side bound to... I used it as back forwards in Windows but in game I don't think it was anything.

I suppose it'd be nice to have in Windows but it's a gaming mouse.. so there's no point if it's not for gaming.

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

It's greatest asset is for gaming though!

mapping sidescrolling to say for excample in fps games to scroll grenades/items etc.

It's much more ocnvenient.

Likewise in FRAPS.

[Guest]

It's greatest asset is for gaming though!

mapping sidescrolling to say for excample in fps games to scroll grenades/items etc.

It's much more ocnvenient.

Likewise in FRAPS.

Hmm, I suppose. I only ever seriously played CS: S though, so It'd probably be handy in other games. I just hit the numbers on my keyboard for the weapons and occasionally used the mouse wheel.

1 - Rifle

2 - Pistol

3 - Knife

4 - Grenades (HE, flashbang & Smoke)

5 - The bomb

Also I usually use quick swich to change from my rifle to a flash (which is bound to q) so I don't have to go through the menu (for a flash it'd mean hitting 4 twice, if I had a HE then left clicking then throwing it and so on).

[DiEMOS]

good review, looks like a great mouse.

[+Chsoriano Subscriber²]

It's a good mouse, as the reviewer states. I've had it for about a month now. The problems are have been lessened with the 1.03 firmware update, but they're not solved. The configurator software still takes a long time to save settings and seems to hang for about 5-10 seconds.

I've been running it on Windows 7 x64 and I'm pretty sure whatever is wrong with it should be (and hopefully will be) solved with future firmware updates.

[Timan Veteran]

How active are they are they with updating the firmware? I'm reading alot of people having issues with this mouse. Really need a replacement mouse (mine keeps double clicking) so not sure if I should just hold out, or take the risk. Mouse sure isn't cheap lol