Razer has released their newest mouse, the Viper. This is a wired ambidextrous gaming mouse with a theoretical eight programmable buttons (more on those later) and a 16000DPI optical sensor handling the movement inputs.
The Viper weighs in at a nice 69g, which is pretty light even for a gaming mouse. There is no means to add to or adjust the weight, so the Viper is for players who are committed to a less is best philosophy on the weight of their mice.
Button-wise the setup the Viper is somewhat atypical. Being ambidextrous it has two thumb buttons on either side, which is great for righties and southpaws, although these buttons aren’t ideal for use on the off-side, so the Viper’s eight programmable buttons aren’t all nicely situated for every player. One interesting development is that the button to control the mouse sensitivity is moved to the underside of the mouse. This is a great idea to avoid accidentally pressing it and sending your mouse sensitivity off on an adventure when you’re trying to concentrate on the game. The trade-off is that you can’t adjust sensitivity in the middle of the action.
The Viper includes optical mouse switches for the main left and right buttons; these use an infrared beam to register when the button has been clicked. The claim is that the optical switches offer a cleaner and faster registration of inputs.
The Razer Viper is available now for £79.99.