craig5320

Razer Mamba Review
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Hard core gamers do not use wireless mice, if you go to a tournament or LAN you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone using a wireless mouse for serious FPS gaming. This is due to various advantages that wired mice have traditionally held over their wireless counterparts, such as faster response times and obviously no risk of interference from other devices. There are also other considerations to take into account, such as battery life for example.

Today we’re going to look at the Razer Mamba, the first wireless mouse truly designed for the hardcore gamer offering 1ms response and up to 5,600 DPI. Razer have taken years to bring this product to market and promises that it is the real deal.

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comp_ali

Very nice really . It seems razer is going to play a vital role in all gaming accessories.

Ice cold you guys , dozens of great reviews in just days.

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"It is doubtful how DRM could reduce piracy and there no way it can boost games sales either"

clanman

Good job guys!

Awesome to see Razer not caring about the recession, £130 for a mouse !

lepel

I was waiting for this one. Nice! I'm going to read it straight away.

Edit: I'd buy this for the packaging alone, man. Really awesome. Too bad it's a bit on the expensive side , but you get what you pay for I guess. Just a little question: How does this mouse compare to the Steelseries Ikari in terms of weight and comfort?

Great review, DH. Love ya! ^^

Mac Daddy

Nice review Nathan

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"My mom said the only reason men are alive is for lawn care and vehicle maintenance." - Tim Allen

BelligerentBill

I was waiting for the Logitech G9x and this mouse to come out and I bought the Mamba yesterday after minimal deliberation inside my head.

Moving from a Lachesis which had some tracking issues I am EXTREMELY happy with this mouse. Decent wireless mice are not cheap so $129.99 USD for this is a pretty damn good deal considering how much ass this thing kicks. There is absolutely no competition. Razer did their research and properly engineered this fine piece of equipment and most certainly deserve the price they're charging and nobody would be justified to say otherwise once they've tried it out. It really is that good.

They could have saved the consumer some $$$ by opting for standard packaging but from a marketing perspective I suppose the fancy display case was necessary to show just what a work of art this mouse is all around. Well worth emptying my pockets for

If you're in the market for a nice mouse then run, don't walk, to pick this mouse up. Your best bet is a local retail outlet if you want it right away (online is back ordered everywhere). I placed my order on Best Buy's website to reserve mine that was in stock at a store 30 miles away so I could pick it up the next day. I'm as happy as a little schoolgirl now

NathanMarks

Indeed you do get for what you pay for, but the price will still be roadblock for many people.

The Ikari is more comfortable in some ways and is noticeably lighter but that is due to the fact that the Mamba has all the extra wireless baggage with it. One of the main negatives about this weight is when you are repositioning the mouse on the mat, sometimes the butt end with the battery drops quickly if you haven't got a strong enough grip on the mouse.

Despite the comfort level of the Ikari though, the Mamba is just of a fantastic performer in games. I really like the mouse.

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nathanmarks.dh

lepel

Ok, thanks for your answer. I personally like a heavier mouse, so that' not a con to me. The mamba or the ikari are both viable options for my next mouse. Still have to decide wether I really need the 'wirelessness'.

Zardon

as a user of the ikari I can highly recommend it if you can't (or don't want) to pay £120. one of the best mice I have used.

lepel

Yeah it seems nice, but quite big. But I'll see, it won't be for the near future anyway, but thanks for your input.

NathanMarks

I've recieved a response from Razer regarding the battery issue.

At the moment the problem appears isolated to attempting to charge with the mouse still in "on" mode. They said that they are working on a firmware update to correct this issue as we speak so hopefully the issue will be resolved soon, until then charging the mouse in "off" mode works just fine.

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nathanmarks.dh

Stop It

Well, thats a first, a wireless mouse that actually works, I have to hand it to the Razer team, thats impressive.

On the other hand, £120 is far too much to ask for a mouse, awesome wireless performance or no. People wanting wireless mice generally aren't in the same market as hardcore gamers, and frankly, I still cannot fault my G5, this old dogs got a LOT more life in it.

Something tells me this is aimed at a niche of a niche, and thus may not appeal to many people, and to even to those it does, £120 in the current market is a BAD idea.

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lepel

Another little question, what's the range of the mouse, as in how far can you sit from the receiver?

NathanMarks

I'll give it a whirl this morning and let you know.

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nathanmarks.dh

NathanMarks

Hey mate,

The mouse can reach quite far, I'm able to use it 4-5m away from the receiver without a problem and can use it in the adjacent room.

Just out of curiosity, do you intend on using the mouse from quite far away?

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nathanmarks.dh

lepel

Well its just nice to know for starters. Also, I have a ws TV which I can hook up to the my PC, but I have a wired mouse and keyboard, so I don't use the combination very often. I'm quite interested in the mamba, but as for now it's just too expensive for me.

Another nice idea for razer would be a wireless keyboard, but they're probably already developing one.

Oh, and thanks for answering my questions. It's very nice to have a reviewer elaborating on the reviewed product.

BelligerentBill

Out of curiosity what mousepad did/do you use this mouse on?

With my Lachesis I only had success with a white cutting board purchased from Wal-Mart and it served me well for about 9 months correcting the tracking and jittering issues that mouse is known for. When I first got the Mamba I tried it on my old but hardly used Razer eXactmat and the mouse didn't seem to track well (the Lachesis never tracked properly on it either). I figured since I had a new mouse it was now high time to ditch this annoying 1/4" thick cutting board so I ordered a Razer Destructor pad. Upon receiving it I found the Mamba to track perfectly, however the pad is pliable and gives a little under the pressure of clicking causing the cursor to move a bit each time thus making it impossible to navigate let alone play a game. I wasn't too happy about a $40 USD mousepad being useless. Anyways, getting sick of that pad rather quickly, I came to the conclusion that with these highly sensitive Razer mice, a solid pad is without a doubt a must have, but since the laser sensor has proven to not track well on black surfaces your options are pretty limited. I decided to order a white Razer Pro|Pad which is identical to the eXactmat aside from the color. I received the pad in one day (as always, newegg rocks). This pad is absolutely flawless combined with the Mamba. This white surface is obviously what you want to pair these highly sensitive laser mice with. I decided to go ahead and see how my Lachesis would work on the pad and sure enough, the mouse was perfect. I wish I'd have bought this pad a year ago because it would have saved me loads of frusteration. I suppose I didn't even need the Mamba in the end (as I bought it to replace my Lachesis due to it's problems) but now that I have the Mamba I'd never give it up

If anyone wants a guaranteed pad for this mouse, you can find it on newegg here: Newegg.com - RAZER Pro|Pad Mouse Pad - Mouse Pads & Accessories

Happy Gaming

Fluffier

That's really wierd. I'm using a destructor myself and altough i haven't tested it with a mamba yet (haven't recieved it) i'm using it with my copperhead. I'v never used a better mousemat in my life. I'v never had any tracking problems on it.

Also i have heard about people having similar problems with their mamba moving a bit when using the buttons, it's probably due to the sensor being too sensitive?

I thought this could be fixed by adjusting sens / dpi on the mamba.

NathanMarks

Hey guys,


You're absolutely correct about the tracking with the Mamba, when I was using cloth pads (Roccat mat and SteelSeries QcK+) I was unable to get completely satisfactory performance from the mouse due to the cursor seemingly twitching.

You really do need to use a hard surface with the mouse, when switching to a hard pad I effectively got rid of all the twitching issues.

As far as fixing the problem goes with the Mamba by adjusting DPI settings, it reduces it to some degree but not by a whole lot. I play with windows setting at 6/11 (to prevent cursor skipping and negative acceleration) and turn my in-game setting down so at some point I had the Mamba at pretty low DPI settings and still experienced the issue.

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nathanmarks.dh

MortenN

I got my Mamba yesterday and I updated the firmware to 1.03(came with 1.02). First of all I really think this mouse is awesome. It's very precise and fast.
I have one question though. How long time should a fully charged mouse last? Last night I was just surfing the internet and using windowsfor standard use no gaming at all. After 1½ hour the battery indicator dropped from 3 to 2 leds. That was quick I thought especially since the mouse was fully charged. Is this really normal? My old Logitech MX1000 lasted almost 14 days on one charge.
Another thing that I am concerned about is that you can't buy an extra battery in their shop. Hopefully their will offer that later.

By the way I am using my Func F30.R mousepad for the mamba and it works like a dream ;-)

Fluffier

I decided to order the steelseries sx mousepad ( Information - SteelSeries ) to use with my mamba which i should recieve in about a week or so.

I'll keep you posted how it works and if there's any difference between the steelseries sx and the razer destructor when using the mamba. (If there is no difference, i just wasted a lot of money on my new mousepad. xD)

MortenN: Did you try charging the mouse with the switch set to off mode?

Page 4 of the review describes what might be the problem: http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews....d=738&pageid=4

MortenN

I tried to charge the mouse in both on and off position. Didn't make a difference. Right now I am trying to see how long it lasts with the scroll wheel light turned off. I just figured out that you can disable it. Better late than never It probably consumes a decent amount of power.

Fluffier : How long time does your mamba last on a full charge?

Fluffier

I'll find out when it comes during this week.

MortenN

Ahh sorry I just got the impression that you already had it...my mistake :-)

BelligerentBill

I believe this is normal. It detects that the battery does not have a full charge and so drops to 2 LED's. I haven't had it drop below 2 LED's as of yet. It certainly stays at 2 LED's much much longer than 3. I haven't bothered to drain the battery as of yet.

MortenN

Thanks BelligerentBill. I guess you are also running the mouse without scroll wheel lightning enabled? I will just wait and see how long time it is actually staying at 2 leds.

BelligerentBill

I leave all lights enabled (don't see any reason not to since I can just go wired even if the battery were to fully drain).

BelligerentBill

Please post ASAP with your results after you get this pad. I'm very interested in buying it. I'd order it right now but I already wasted $40 USD on the Destructor

MortenN

It didn't last much longer from 2-1 than from 3-2 leds. It already dropped to 1 now after maybe another 4 hours standard windows use. This would mean that I probably need to charge the mouse every 2-3 days just for normal use. I don't even want to think about how long time it would last at a lan party. Bit dissapointing since my old logitech MX1000 only needed recharge every 14 days.
And these results are even with scroll wheel light disabled.

BelligerentBill

Fluffier,

Any update on how this pad performs with the Mamba?