I shopped around for quite a while for a new mouse, but had one in mind for a while – the Razer Deathadder Gaming Mouse.  Razer’s DeathAdder has some impressive features:

• 1800dpi Razer Precision™ 3G infrared sensor
• Ergonomic right-handed design
• 1000Hz Ultrapolling™ / 1ms response
• Five independently programmable Hyperesponse™ buttons
• On-The-Fly Sensitivity™ adjustment
• Always-On™ mode

The DeathAdder battled Razer’s Copperhead mouse for a while and Logitech’s G5 got a few looks along the way.  But in the end, I decided on the DeathAdder.

It arrived in the mail today and I slowly unpacked it from Razer’s well-known “For Gamers. By Gamers” packaging.  After a quick read-through of the install process, I plugged it in for the first time (one thing to keep in mind with the DeathAdder is it is USB specific – so whatever USB port you plug into the first time and install the drivers, your system will always recognize it.  If you plug it in to another port, you’ll have to re-install the drivers).  I popped in the drivers cd and everything went very smoothly.  I was expecting an error of sorts as I’m running Vista Ultimate 64-bit (and similar users have had some problems), but I was glad not to have any issues.

Right when you plug the DeathAdder into your system, you know it’s going to be good.  The blue lit scroll wheel and pulsing logo destroy whatever doubts you’ve had up ’til now.  By default, the DeathAdder is set on it’s highest DPI setting of 1800dpi.  But you also have the option of decreasing the dpi to more standard settings or for use in certain applications.  The right-handed fit to this mouse works great with with small – large hands and the side buttons are easy to reach and yet hard to press unless you’re trying to specifically.  With Razer’s driver software, you can customize this mouse for your very own look and feel and is also able to change profiles on the fly.  You can turn on/off the mouse lights which is a cool feature and can easily change all the buttons to what you want to use them for with a couple clicks.  You can adjust pretty much anything on the mouse (see image):  Universal Scroll Speed, Double-Click Speed, the overall Sensitivity, individual X and Y axis Sensitivity, etc., etc..

I tested it out first in Far Cry 2’s online multiplayer and found a big advantage with the speed and ease of aiming/shooting, etc. (well, pretty much anything could beat the Logitech wireless which was falling apart, lol).  Next, I opened e-onsoftware’s Vue 6 Pro Studio and maneuvered around smoothly without any flaws.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the Razer DeathAdder and glad I made the switch from Logitech.  With the design/technology/comfort-level/customizability of the DeathAdder, it really lives up to the Razer name and promises some great performance for the days ahead.  Razer FTW!