The Razer Mamba 2015 is the latest in the Mamba line that started way back in 2009 and has long been known as one of the best wireless gaming mice available. It’s always been among the most premium products offered by Razer, featuring the best tech the fabricator can shoehorn into one of their best ergonomic designs. If you’ve ever used a Mamba before or even a Deathadder, the little brother of the Mamba, then you’ll know that this mouse is an ergonomic dream… as long as you’re right-handed palm grip user like myself.
The high arch of the mouse is perfect for long hours of PC usage and provides a comfortable base for a palm grip. If you’ve a claw grip you may find the mouse uncomfortable at first but making the adjustment to a palm grip is relatively easy. The most natural way to hold the mouse promotes a palm grip and the mouse’s size doesn’t impede adjustment. The only real downside is that the adjustment is pretty much necessary, the mouse is 100% designed for a right-handed palm grip and is uncomfortable to use any other way.
The Mamba 2015 packs a 16,000 DPI sensor — you’d be crazy to ever use it this high; the sooner companies kill this marketing ploy the better — that is, from what I can tell, one of the most accurate I’ve ever used. There’s never any of the jarring or lagging of the mouse; it’s always accurate and smooth. Some previous wireless (and wired) mice I’ve used have suffered from laggy movement — including Razer’s own Ouroboros — but the Mamba has been spot on from the time I plugged it in.
It’s particularly impressive that Razer has managed to manufacture a wireless gaming mouse that I happily use in FPS games. The 5G laser sensor does a bang up job and truly is “gaming grade” Razer, like many other peripheral companies, is firmly aboard the “bright and shiny light” train and have been ever since their Blackwidow Chroma launched last year. The Mamba 2015 continues that trend, and boy is it ever impressive. The mouse has the 16.8 million colour Chroma lighting on either side of its waist, in the scroll wheel and around the base of the charging dock. Each side of the mouse has 7 individual customizeable zones for lighting so you can really set this thing up however you want.
The brilliance of the lighting used is immediately evident once you plug it in and does little to hamper the Mamba’s battery life. While we’re on that topic, it has to be said that the battery life on this Mamba is, like most other aspects of this mouse, downright impressive. A full day of use for me, including gaming and general web browsing, lasts roughly 10-12 hours. This means the mouse is off the charge for that entire time and maybe even longer. Never have I seen the mouse below 40% battery in the full time I’ve had it. This could be because the charging dock is also the stand, but most people with wireless mice charge them overnight anyway.
Razer reckons that the battery will last out to 20 hours but, in my experience at least, that seems unlikely. It’s also disappointing to have an inaccessible battery because it will, given time, degrade and so replacing it will be a right pain, but that’s not a deal breaker by any means. It’s also worth mentioning that Razer Synapse, the driver software Razer uses, is among the easiest to use of any I’ve ever seen. The menus are uncomplicated, straightforward and simple to navigate. While not particularly visually appealing the driver software does exactly what it’s meant to and can be relied upon, no mid-game profile switches here.
So that covers the technical side of the mouse but the question still remains: does this mouse perform? To that I can say a rousing ,“yes it does.” In testing this mouse I played my standard go-to games, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends, as well as a few other odd ones too. In Counter Strike the mouse was as accurate as any I’ve ever used, wired or otherwise. Once I’d key into the correct sensitivity aiming was a breeze and I was hitting flicks like you wouldn’t believe. The mouse performed perfectly when it came to League of Legends too, the only reason I was missing skillshots was because I am unbelievably rusty.
One of the first gaming mice I ever owned was a Razer Deathadder. I loved that thing and, up until very recently, it was the best mouse I’d ever used. Its ergonomics, looks and performance just hadn’t been beaten by anything else out there. Until now. This mouse looks premium. This mouse feels premium. Perhaps best of all, this mouse performs exactly how you’d imagine a premium mouse should. Alas, the premium mouse carries a premium price tag too. Initially I balked at the $300 AUD RRP of this mouse. “How,” I asked myself (and my poor editor), “how could this mouse ever be worth $300?”
That was, of course, before I spent a week with it. Now I can honestly say that this mouse is worth your money. It’s been hard to settle on a review score for this mouse. It is almost perfect, but it’s not. It’s designed specifically for right handed palm grip users and it costs a small fortune. I’ve knocked points off of previous mice for less but this one is different. This one feels worth the steep price. Not once has the Mamba 2015 misfired in the whole week I’ve used it — the lighting got a bit funky after a PC restart sometimes, but nothing major –. In the end though I can honestly tell you this: The Razer Mamba 2015 is the best mouse I’ve ever used.
The Razer Mamba 2015 was reviewed using a promotional product, as provided by Razer.
Review: Razer Mamba 2015
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