Tell me, have you heard this before?
"Razer Mamba... it's got a 5700dpi sensor... unbelievable accuracy.... best mouse ever..."
"Logitech G9.... the Ferrari of mice...."
"RAT9... the most comfortable mouse I've ever used..."
Yada yada yada.
Let me tell you my friends. I am a hardcore PC gamer. I have owned more gaming mice than most people have children. No wait, that's not a very big boast. But what the hell. Point is, I've been around the block. I've tried gaming mice from a lot of the "super brands" of the mouse world. Yeah, that includes Logitech, Razer, Cyborg and Steel Series. I am used to paying $100 for a gaming mouse. Why? Because I want a really nice mouse to use when killing schmucks. Because I'm a connoisseur. Because little things annoy me. Because I like wireless mice and hate cables. Because I hate lag. Because I... I could go on and on. But I better not waste your time any further.
Let's just say: I am serious. Like the internet. Yeah. Serious business. So over the years I have gone through a ton of models. I buy a new gaming mouse every year. But you know what? It suddenly hit me. Why the hell am I buying a new mouse every year? There was a time when I only bought a new mouse every 3-4 years. That was when I was back in high school and not really earning much (actually, I earned squat, I just had an allowance).
Lately, though, I've been buying a new mouse every year. Why is that? Because the goddamn freakin' mice keep BREAKING DOWN. And I ask myself... why the hell is my $100 Razer or my $100 Logitech breaking down after just a year of use, when I used to have el-cheapo mice from A4Tech that... guess what... still work perfectly fine today! And A4 Tech is a name synonymous with "cheap" -- The "A4" in A4 Tech actually stands for "Affordable."
So why is it that this mouse has served me well for the past 7 years?
That sirs is a true classic, the A4 Tech X7 Gaming Mouse. It's a simple mouse. It's an optical, corded mouse with 4 DPI settings - from 400 to 1000. It has a red button near the LMB that is a "Turbo Button" -- it returns two clicks on each press. Great for shooters. Two thumb buttons and a scroll wheel round off the package. The cord was nice and thin, very flexible, hardly gets in your way when playing... this is the only mouse cord that didn't bother me when playing FPS games because it was so slight. So slight, indeed, that as you can see the plastic has frayed off the cord and exposed the wires underneath. Surprisingly, it still works perfectly today, around 7 years after I first bought it. Every single part of this mouse is still in perfect working shape, even though it looks like trash.
Now, compare that with this sorry lot:
You'll notice here a trio of $100 mice. Why, that one on the left most... the famed Logitech G7.... is actually worth $250 nowadays! Go check it on Amazon. But I digress. Here's a sorry set of mice. I actually had two G7's. One was the original green one... which by the way was much better than this newer blue black one. But what really pisses me off about these three mice is that all of them gave up the ghost around a year after I got them. Actually, not even. The G7 lasted me about two years to be honest. Each of them in turn (I had two remember?)
But the RAT9 pictured above only lasted me about 6 months, and the Naga Epic on the rightmost also about two months before problems started. Actually, no, problems started almost from day one with these two mice, but the really annoying problems started about a 6 months in.
The Logitech G7 -- ahh, I'll be honest. This was a GREAT mouse. The shape was perfect. It was soooo comfortable. The weight was perfect, not too light, not too heavy. It slid on any mouse pad, and tracked really, really well. The problem? The damn left mouse button. Logitech, for all their expensiveness, tends to break down in one of two ways. The real problem with these mice though is that the left mouse button tends to break and do its "double click trick" after a year or so. To be fair with the G7, these mice usually start having issues around a year or so in. The double click was an issue, and I had to open the mice to fix them.... there's a way to do so by bending the copper click thing inside. You can google it or find it on YouTube if you need to know how. It's a pain in the ass to do, took me about 2 hours, but I loved the G7 so much that I persevered.
But these mice tend to break down anyway later one thanks to its radio-frequency tech. Since its' a 2.4Ghz wireless, apparently with wireless mice the receivers fry themselves out every now and then. Too bad for me, because I can't live with corded mice anymore. That's why I moved to the G7 from the X7 in the first place. Long story short, even after fixing the LMB, the wireless tracking just breaks down after a while, and I know of no way to fix it. It's sad that the wireless tracking breaks down even before the batteries die out! But such is the life of a tailless rodent.
That said, I would have to say that the Logitech G7 is the single best mouse I have ever owned. It is great in so many ways, but namely the hot-swapping of the batteries that never left you out to dry, the super comfy ergonomics (batteries would die out and I still felt no strain on my hand), the light feel, awesome tracking and the tilty click wheel (which gave you an extra two buttons) were just awesome. The only real problem with this mouse was that they reduced the thumb buttons to just a single one! Why Logie, why? It baffles me how stupid Logitech can be. Less is more sometimes, but this is NOT one of those times! Why not just give us a cordless MX500 Logie? That was the perfect mouse, if it only didn't have a tail. The G7 was supposed to be a cordless MX510, except you took out one of the buttons. It. Just. Baffles. Me.
For 4,000php a pop, it was not bad. Over two years, I spent 8,000 on my gaming mice,a nd although they broke after a while, I was not mad with them, just sad to see them go, and sad to learn that Logitech had discontinued these mice. (That's why they're so expensive on Amazon... some hacks are trying to cash off of the only remaining G7s left in the world! Endangered species, let's put it on the IUCN list)
Then we have the RAT9, which I got next. Oh. Where to begin. This clusterfuck of a mouse looked sooo cool that I had to have one. I bought one at Data Blitz for about 7,000 bucks or so (that's around US $160). It had that super cool function that no other mouse at the time (including the G7) had... a Sniper Button! This nifty button is what made me grab this mouse up in the first place. If you press it, your DPI settings drop down as long as it's pressed... which let you snipe with the needed fine tuning, while you still had your regular DPI for your CQB combat. It was an awesome idea! On paper.
In practice though, the issue with the RAT9 is how fucking unergonomic it was. This was the most frustrating thing about this mouse. The RAT7 and RAT9 were billed as the most comfortable gaming mice in the world... and if it didn't work for you, you could adjust it! Now, I have the Saitek Cyborg Stick. It's a flight stick that has adjustable grips, button placement, etc. It was really nifty. Now Saitek applied this concept to a mouse, and had MadCatz sell the product. As I had had a previous good experience with the Cyborg Stick, I felt that the RAT9's exorbitant price tag was worth it.
But sadly, no matter how much I adjust his damn mouse, I can't make it comfortable! So let that be a warning all of you... it's not a mouse that works for everyone! I would say it works best for people with small hands, because it's a tiny mouse. There weren't enough options to change the shape... even at the longest extension with the biggest palm rest, it was not comfortable. And by the way, the customization options on this mouse are a joke. You only can change the palm rest with three options (two shapes, one is plastic the other matte) and they don't really help. In fact, choosing the larger palm rest just makes for a weird, bumpy shape that will NEVER be comfy. You can also change where this part rests along the length of the mouse to make it "longer," but this makes it even worse as now there is a big hole in the middle of the mouse that is so not comfy. You can also change the pinky grip... frankly, I took it out altogether so I could grip the mouse better, it was too big and unwieldy and heavy with any grip on, especially the "wing grip" -- and change the angle of the thump rest. And that's it! Oh wow, did the marketing hoopla every get me! This mouse is barely customizable, and woe to you if its basic shape doesn't work for you, because there's not much to adjust!
Because of this, and how heavy the damn thing is (I took out all the weights, but it was still too heavy as the base of the mouse is solid steel or something) and how small it is, it's hard to actually press the sniper button and maintain a good grip to snipe with in the heat of battle. As a result, I never used it. Whenever I tried, I had to adjust the way I gripped the mouse, so I couldn't aim naturally as I was used to, and I failed to hit anything with the supposed fine tuning I got. Such a shame.
Basically, this mouse was uncomfortable to use from the get go, never grew on me, and gave me right hand cramps. The G7 never did. Worse, the mouse sucks at tracking! It's got like 5,800dpi tracking or some such, but frankly the mouse was skippy and never really gave me the kind of fine tracking I needed. For a $160 mouse I was sure as hell expecting a lot more, considering that my cheap A4 Tech X7 only cost $10 and tracked much, much better, even with its measly 1000dpi.
It was such that, after six months when the mouse started having problems finding the receiver... it would have "skip lag" for like 5 seconds at a time before it would start working, and this happened intermittently to the point that it was unusable... I was actually relieved that I now had an excuse to buy a new mouse.
Freaking 6 months.... god dammit. Where is the quality control?
Enter the Razer Naga Epic. Well, this was a pretty decent mouse. Shape was much, much better than the RAT9 for ergonomics. Looks nice, too. I opted for this one over the Mamba because I wanted the extra buttons. Took some getting used to, but it worked for me. This is another one of those 5600dpi mice. In practice, it doesn't really track as well as the G7 or the X7. Huh. I got this mouse for 6,000php, around $140US, and wow, I was really expecting a hell of a lot more, especially since it's by Razer, which if you would believe the poor fucks writing reviews on the internet, is Mouse Maker Royalty.
Sorry, the emperor ain't wearing nothing and I'm here to tell all of you people:
STOP FREAKING THINKING THAT MORE EXPENSIVE MICE ARE BETTER, THEY'RE NOT!!!!
The Razer tracks poorly, it felt "slow" and that's all I can say, even though it has a much higher theoretical DPI than the G7. DPI doesn't really mean anything, anyway. I never game with more than 3200 DPI or so on my mice which could go over 5000. Higher DPI is really only important when your monitor's resolution is so high that you need more DPI to cover it. The X7, for instance, has 1000dpi and I find it now moves the cursor a little too little for the amount of physical space I move the mouse. Other than that, higher DPI means NOTHING. I currently have a 1920x1080 monitor, and at this res the X7's 1000DPI doesn't cut it. About 2000dpi is just right for me at this resolution, though of course your mileage will vary. But back when I still had a 720p TV, the X7's DPI was perfect for me.
The Razer, now, it worked okay. Not the best, most responsive mouse I tried, and yes I used it in wired mode too... a lot actually, since the battery keeps dying on me mid-session, and no, there was no difference in the feel of the mouse other than the cord getting in the way because it was so fat. So, why isn't it as nice to use as the G7 or X7? Hell I know. But I think it's because Razer uses cheap components, doesn't know how to engineer properly, and just plain suck.
Cheap components you say? Hell yeah! The Razer's RMB is now double-clicking! Oh wow. I am used to the LMB getting the double click problem from all the Logitech mice I had, but this is the first time that a mouse's RMB wore down before the LMB! Amazing that Razer was the first one to let me down in such a novel way! Hats off to you Razer, it takes talent to fuck up the wrong way so differently from how everyone else fucks up.
But at least, Razer's receiver tracking still works after six months. RAT9 died by then.
Anyway, yes, I know these mice have warranty, but come on! For >$100US I expect that I shouldn't have to use the warranty for at least a year, preferably not for 3 years! None of these super expensive, "Mercedes Benz of PC Peripherals" companies lasted that long! Not Cyborg, not Razer, not Logitech. And this is a repeating trend. I've had corded optical Logies as well, and they all broke down after a while in one way or another... usually the LMB with Logie.
I have had so much ire for Logie that I even kept myself from buying a Logitech G700 (the successor of the G7) because I was wary of the brand after letting me down so many times. I will probably eventually get one though when the Razer Naga Epic becomes totally unusable. Fortunatley, double clicking on the RMB is not as huge a PITA as double left clicking, but it still sucks when you are working in Excel for instance.
Well I'll get a G700 one of these days, yeah I'm a sucker for punishment, but in the meantime, I was using the X7 to play some games where double RMB is a no no, like the unbelievably great Dungeons of Dredmor. (Double right clicking often ended up with you double casting a spell, double-shooting an arrow, or double-drinking or eating a potion or consummable -- not healthy in a genre where one wrong move kills you and your entire character is wiped).
But as I mentioned, the X7's low DPI was giving me fits on my 1080p monitor so I went out and got this to tide me over until I felt like splurging another $100 on a gaming mouse:
Say hello to another el-cheapo brand, the Elephant!
As you can see on its right mouse button, this is an Elephant. The model is "Masada" which is the only model in the Elephant line up that is wireless. Let's see if it lasts me 6 months or a year. We shall see. But even if it doesn't, I'm not particularly distraught. I only bought this mouse for about 700 bucks! That's like $16US. For $6 than the X7, I get a mouse that's just like the X7, except wireless.
And here's the great thing about this mouse: it's light! As light as the X7, even with two AAA batteries inside to power it. It has no hot-charging options like the G7, Naga Epic or RAT9, but I have a normal battery charger and lots of AAA's so no sweat. I don't know how long one charge will last, but as this isn't a "gaming grade" mouse that polls 1000 times per second, the battery will probably last me 2-4 weeks. I'll get back to you guys on that.
But you know what? That 1000 times per second polling rate that Razer is so proud of is USELESS and in fact, through testing and fiddling with the Razer synapse software, I found a poll rate of 125 times per second actually felt better and less finicky than 1000. Go figure. Anyway, the Masada has a DPI switch to change it from 1000dpi to 2000dpi -- and at 2000dpi it hits the sweet spot for me.
It's also so light, so comfy and has a rubber left thumb grip, much like the Roccat Pyra, which is another gaming grade mouse was somewhat okay, but mostly a pain in the ass because its wireless receiver kept timing out. After a year, its charging circuit apparently gave up because it can no longer charge the batteries I put in, so I just use it as a wired mouse. Which sucks actually because the wire doesn't actually make it wired, it just gives it power, you still need to pop in the finicky USB receiver to use it, so you take up two USB slots instead of one.... but enough of that.
This Elephant is great, it has a nice silent click wheel, a great grip, it's made of plastic and not that icky rubbery matte finish that Razer just loves -- and which sloughs off your mouse after a few months leaving an icky mess that is impossible to clean up, and sticky and yucky to touch -- so yeah, I'm happy this cheap mouse doesn't have that "feature."
The only drawback to the Elephant mouse is that it has no charging features for its batteries, but I'll see if the battery life is good enough that it won't be a major headache. The mouse also feels very cheap, and while it looks great from the top, if you look at it from the underside it's got "cheap plastic" written all over it. Still, that's no biggie, as long as I am not holding the mouse up all the time, it looks great from the top and it performs like a champ. I wish this mouse had more buttons, but it's just a very basic five button mouse with DPI switch. For $16, though, I am not complaining. We'll see if it stays working after a six months, and if it does, shame on Razer and Logie for having mice that cost 10 times as much and yet not being able to stay for the long haul.
It's ridiculous. The Roccat Pyra, a wireless gaming mouse, its wireless tracking still works without any hiccups. It handles better than the Naga Epic and RAT9, by the way, only issue is the USB receiver is finicky, and I had to put two stumps of paper in the USB so that the connections would touch the PC's USB and prevent it from shorting out. Its internal charging circuit gave after 3 years -- I can forgve it for lasting 3 years without anything else breaking -- mouse buttons are fine and don't double click after all this time, and it still tracks like a champ as long as the USB receiver is fit in perfectly. It didn't have all the best options, but at least it's still working properly, which is a lot more than I can say for the Naga Epic, the RAT9, or the two Logies.
So yes, my friends, that is what's wrong with these gaming mice. The big companies like Logie and Razer are just milking you of your dollar on the brand and marketing that has somehow fooled all the gullible twits writing reviews out there. Wish you schmucks would write your review after 6 months or so and see if your beloved "best mouse evar!" is still working properly. Logie and Razer are using cheap mice components, and the proof is in the buttons that stop working way before the supposed "rated for 8 million clicks!" I see on the box. The wireless receivers fry themselves out after just a few months to a year or two, and the annoying matte finishes keep falling off like goo (that's why the original plastic shiny G7 is better than the dark, gooey matte G7). Let's not even get into the piece of crap software drivers Logie and Razer pack with their mice. The latest version of Synapse was so bad, I had to go back to an earlier version that I hunted down from the net.
At least the el-cheapo mice I'm using stay with me for the long haul, which is a lot more than I can say for these crappy emperors with new clothes.
May you choose the right gaming mice for you, and not the ones you buy just from the marketing hoopla!
