Customer Reviews

Microsoft Habu Laser Gaming Mouse (Black)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First thing, the drivers are poorly implemented. I followed the directions on the razer site and once I got everything done and I thought I was in the clear, I rebooted and I could never get the mouse to be seen by the drivers. again.. so I started searching for fixes and read this is an issue with these mice.. great! I returned my last razer mouse because the drivers were buggy.. sort of the same issue also, wouldn't detect the mouse sometimes.. anyways, I see not much has changed. But I was determined to get this working because I fell in love with the feel of it.. So, I did get it all working finally, but this what I had to do:

--> uninstalled all Habu software..(which is just the driver pack)

--> installed the 2.01 drivers from Razers site from a clean slate.

--> said YES to the windows warning about non WHQL drivers

--> then said NO to the reboot now option and went into the firmware folder (part of the driver pack) and installed the new firmware!! (with /no/ reboot).

--> after the firmware is successfully installed, it tells you to unplug and re-plug the Habu.. do that, /then/ reboot.

NOTE: It's very important to not reboot before attempting the firmware update because the OS and the drivers see the mouse ONLY after the driver install but after a reboot with the old firmware the mouse was never detectable by the drivers again.. it was very frustrating! anyways.. it seems any of the Habu/Razer drivers will only detect a mouse after a reboot with 2.01 firmware installed. My mouse had 1.0 firmware..

I as I said, and the more I use it the more I love the feel of the Habu.. so much like the old IME 3.0 which I still adore.. the only mouse which really just felt like a key in a lock with my hand. The buttons click is awesome and the wheel is PERFECT (resistance for up/down and depress center). The side (thumb) buttons come with an alternate panel which has the two buttons more out of the way.. I have yet to try it but that's a nice extra.. the mouse tracking is spot on! very precise and very smooth.. me likey!

giving it 4 stars because the mouse is awesome now that I have the drivers working, but wow that was frustrating.. it's a mouse for crying out loud.. it should be a no brainer install. whew.

I hope this helps some people who are thinking about this mouse!

I am editing this review because the mouse really is that good, I bought another one, and I'm still extremely impressed.
Best mousing experience I've had.
I want to change my review to 5 stars...but Amazon won't let me.


I know some of the reviews here don't seem that great.

But let me tell you, the Habu is the best mouse you can possibly buy today.

The latest revisions have fixed all the software problems, and all the hardware problems.
You just have to upgrade the firmware, and use the drivers off of the internet.

7 buttons, all work wonderfully, and all are FULLY PROGRAMMABLE unlike Sidewinders. You can assign macros and media functions, unlike G5/G9's.

And since there's two buttons under the scroll wheel, you don't have to sacrifice any of your main 5 buttons (again, sidewinders, Intellimice, DeathAdder)

It's got a 2nd gen laser sensor, so it tracks better than the Copperhead and original G5 (the G5 2007 uses the same laser as the Habu)

You can't go wrong with this mouse.
Anyone who gets it will thank me for this review.

It's shape and comfort are of the same exact shape and comfort in the following mice.

Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 (virtually the same shape)
DeathAdder (almost the same shape)
G5/G9/Sidewinder/MX518 (mostly the same shape)

Habu also looks the best out of all these mice, except possibly the Intellimouse Explorer 3.0

You can't go wrong with a Habu, so if someone's telling you that they're awesome.
It's because they are awesome.

I rarely comment on any products, but given the poor rating that this product has had because of poor driver & firmware execution upon its initial release, I decided to add a review.

I'll start out by saying that I am a civil engineer, and I do a great deal of drafting and design at work. I am extremely picky about the mouse I use for drafting purposes, and recently (after a monitor upgrade) I went looking for a new mouse, due to the fact that at the high monitor resolution, I couldn't adjust my old optical mouse's pointer speed up fast enough to be useful for drafting.

I went to a local electronics store, and picked up a wireless mouse & keyboard package from Microsoft, thinking that it would be a great thing to be wireless - what a mistake I made! I saw now that nearly every mouse manufacturer out there (I assume to keep up with their competitors) has a new side-scrolling/panning mouse wheel (that I can only assume is useless to 99.9% of the users out there) - I didn't think much of it when I purchased the package, but upon using the mouse, I realized that they made the downward click pressure of the mouse wheel much greater, to prevent accidental clicks when you use the side-scrolling feature, and it made the pan feature in AutoCAD difficult to use, and very hit and miss, as often the wheel would click into the side-pan mode instead of a down-click (useless in AutoCAD). This is absolutely horrible for AutoCAD, due to the fact that the downward center mouse click enables panning. There was also a terrible lag between clicking the pan function, and it actually enabling pan in AutoCAD - I'm sure due to the fact that they try to maximize battery life in wireless mice, so the response isn't instant as with wired mice. After 2 days of use, I promptly returned the setup.

I started looking (and looking, and looking!) for a wired mouse to buy, but had a difficult time finding any good-quality wired mice without the side-scroll/pan feature. Finally, searching on an online retailer's website, I finally stumbled on Razer products, as well as the Microsoft Habu mouse (made by Razer). I passed it by previously in the store, because the packaging looked so ridiculous, and it was marketed as a gaming mouse. I figured it would be overloaded with buttons and side-scroll/pan features, being a gaming mouse. I was very wrong - I looked at the features, and noticed Razer products are absolutely no-nonsense mice - apparently they realized that 10 extra customizable buttons and side-scrolling/panning on mice are not only useless, but difficult to use and undesirable. I went to the store, clicked the display model a bit, and realized that I finally found exactly what I wanted.

I read extensively about the driver/firmware problems, and I tracked down a no-fail guide to updating the firmware and software on the Habu mouse before even attempting to connect it. I downloaded the latest software from the Razer website, and installed it without any problem using the no-fail guide (see below). I started using it, and all I can say is "Wow!" All of the functionality of my old mouse, excellent wheel click pressure, instant response, excellent tracking, fully customizable sensitivity in both x and y-directions, fully customizable buttons, and sensitivity settings so high that you can make the mouse useless! (For those of you who have no idea what they mean when they talk about mouse resolution (I previously didn't understand it either, before purchasing the product) is that basically you can set this mouse to 1 of 3 different resolution settings, which sets the overall sensitivity of the mouse. You can, however, still adjust the sensitivity of the mouse at any of these 3 resolution settings, to make the mouse less sensitive, if you find the speed too fast.) The "polling rate" also has three setting, which, as far as I can tell from mouse use and reading about polling rate on the internet, adjusts the number of readings the mouse submits to the computer about position, to make the mouse pointer more accurate and smooth. (To tell you the truth, I don't see much of a perceptible change when adjusting the polling rate from the smallest setting to the highest.)

The only negative on this mouse is that there are internal lights with this mouse, which I found not only tacky but distracting. You can turn them off with the Razer configurator, but the lights always turn back on after a cold start, a reboot, or return from standby. You have to reset the lights in the configurator (even though the configurator reports the lights as set to "off") every time. This was obviously a firmware or software problem, and no worries - I contacted Microsoft tech support, and they are aware of the issue. Their development team is going to fix this problem in the next driver/firmware release.

I find it horrible that the truly excellent hardware was plagued by initial software/firmware problems, doing a great deal of damage to user opinion's of the product. I wish Microsoft had more thoroughly tested the software before releasing the product, but I suppose there is always pressure to deliver products to store shelves before they have undergone thorough testing. Rest assured, after applying the latest driver and firmware update, you will have an excellent mouse in your hand!

Here is a summary of the online instructions for updating the software (note: this guide assumes you already have the Habu mouse installed on your system with an old version of the software - adjust the guide accordingly if you just purchased the mouse and are doing a fresh install of the latest software from the Razer website).

Installation Instructions:
- make sure the Habu mouse is plugged in
- uninstall all Habu software (which is just the driver pack), and reboot your computer
- install the latest drivers from update package downloaded from Razer's website, from a clean slate
- (if you get this message) say "YES" to the windows warning about non-WHQL drivers
- VERY IMPORTANT! - say "NO" to the "reboot now" option, and navigate to the firmware folder (which is part of the driver package), and install the new firmware
- after the installation program reports that the firmware was successfully installed, unplug and re-plug the Habu
- reboot your computer

NOTE: It's very important NOT to reboot before attempting the firmware update because the operating system and the drivers see the mouse ONLY after the driver installation. After a reboot with the old firmware, the mouse was never detectable by the drivers again. It seems that the Habu drivers will only detect a mouse after a reboot with (at least) version 2.01 firmware installed.

******11 Month Update******

After about 9 months of use, the mouse developed a click problem with the left mouse button - it often registers twice when clicked, which gets very annoying. And, as I mentioned above, I already used my free 90 day consultation (about the problem with the mouse lights turning back on after reboot - incidentally, they haven't yet fixed the problem with a promised firmware update, 11 months after Microsoft said that they were aware of this issue) - as a result, to send the mouse in under the three year warranty, I would have to pay $45 up front for them to give me the ok and send me their return shipping information. I have to hand it to Microsoft - they sure have figured out a great way to avoid warranty costs. I have recently purchased a Logitech MX518 (no more Microsoft / Razer mice for me!), so hopefully it will last better than the Habu.

I bought this mouse as a replacement for my Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer which I've had for almost 8 years now. It finally developed a short in the cord and cuts out occasionally. Other then that it still works perfectly. Imagine my disappointment when right out of the box I noticed that the bottom button bellow the mouse wheel on the Habu stuck in the down position the very first time it was depressed. Definitely not the quality I was expecting.

I decided to go ahead and try to install it anyway. I was really curious to see if it was as tough as everyone is saying. IT IS!!! I consider myself pretty good with computers. I have built several of them. This was by far the toughest install I've dealt with. Even with following some instructions I found on the internet step by step, it still failed to recognize the mouse and upgrade the firmware. I finally had success (quite by accident) after uninstalling the Habu software, installing the software update from razer and then flashing the firmware. Basically follow the instructions in Adams review and you should be fine. I wish I had read them before wasting 3 hours of my life.

So now it works. How good is it? The mouse itself is very comfortable. I like the interchangeable side buttons. I opted for the buttons further to the rear. The scroll wheel and left and right buttons all work fine and have a nice feel to them. The major complaint I have is with the two buttons below the wheel. The bottom one sticks and even the top button has a "cheap" feeling click to it. The tracking for the cursor is very smooth and precise.

Now on to the software. The UI is ugly and tacky but is fairly straight forward and easy to figure out. The biggest disappointment here is with the standard options for the buttons. There are no options for forward, back, close or minimize. All of these were available on my 8 year old mouse. I ended up having to make and assign macros to each button to get everything to work the way I wanted. The macros function itself was a bit buggy. Sometimes they would work and sometimes not. After redoing them several times it seems to have "taken" and is working OK. It's just allot of hassle to go through to get to what I feel should be a standard option.

Amazon is sending me a replacement. I will see if the sticky button was just a fluke.

Pros:
Nice Looking
Comfortable
Excellent tracking and precision

Cons:
Extremely difficult install
Sticky button "cheap" feel
Lack standard options for button assignments
Expensive
Lack of tech support

This mouse is great, the only thing that holds it back is its software which is a bit difficult to install. Once the mouse is installed it performs beautifully. My recomendation is that users install the mouse according to the directions on the razer support site rather then using the directions the mouse is packaged with.

This mouse feels very good in my hand. I have slightly smaller than average hands, but it seems like it would fit a bigger hand just as well. I have been trying a lot of different mice, and this is the first mouse ever where I can comfortably press the side buttons with my thumb without shifting my hand. The alternate side buttons are a great idea. This mouse combines the best of both worlds for me. The fast sensor from Razer allows me to have a fast cursor speed without the cursor jumping over pixels. Microsoft gets credit for the great ergonomics. (I am switching from alternating between the Razer PROv1.6 and the Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000.) This mouse has a huge weak spot, however. The software that comes with it is really ugly and unprofessional, and looks like it does not belong on my computer at work. It looks like a videogame, and is also hard to use. But that's not the worst -- I can't even get it to work! I have followed the instructions that came with the mouse, and it failed to detect it. I then uninstalled and reinstalled the software, having to reboot each time. I then followed the online instructions from Razer to try the software for their Copperhead mouse instead -- no luck! Finally, I e-mailed their support department and they tried to walk me through reinstalling the software again, followed by trying to install the Copperhead software instead. It still doesn't work, and I am waiting for another response from them. The mouse works well otherwise, and I am able to set it to the 2000 dpi mode with the two buttons next to the scroll wheel. I am able to adjust the cursor speed with the Windows standard mouse control panel. However, all the "advanced" functionality is dead in the water at the moment. I noticed that the bundled software gives you the option to turn off the glowing edge, and I'd really like to do that. Update: For those of you claming user error, I followed the instructions issued by Razer tech support to the letter, and was still not able to resolve the issue. I removed all traces of my previous mice and all traces of the software. It was indeed a firmware-driver incompatibility issue, because afer I kept trying the new version firmware/driver package every time it was released, the fourth one I tried finally worked. The driver now talks to the mouse. That's the good news. The bad news is that I almost wish I hadn't -- the driver software is absolutely awful and unusable. All of the controls are tiny and unclickable, and the software is confusing. Earlier today, I somehow disabled the middle mouse button, and have not been able to re-enable it since. I have been in the software industry for ten years, so I've seen my share of bad user interfaces. This one is not the worst I've ever seen, but it's close. The drivers ruin this otherwise great mouse. Second Update: I finally got the software to work, but it slowed down my computer and actually caused Windows to blue screen (i.e. total system crash) several times. I have since removed the software and have been happily using the mouse with its limited basic functionality. I am still happy with this mouse, but cannot give it more than 3 stars.

This is an excellent gaming mouse, for those of you who actually bought it for uses other than browsning the internet. I play UT2k4, which is a rather demanding game in terms of speed and accuracy, and this mouse performs great. The feel is wonderful, and the tracking is great with ultra fast response.

The first incarnation of the software was bugged, but version 2.01 seems to work fine. My only complaint is that I'm unable to permanently disable the scroller light which I find annoying. And so I have to turn it off every time I start my computer.

I've used a number of gaming mice, including MX518, G5 and Copperhead. This bests them all in the sheer comfort and play. However this mouse is only good for right-handers. If you are a lefty, check out the Copperhead instead.

A recent update: I find Razer's Deathadder to be somewhat superior even to Habu.

I bought a wired mouse because I wanted it to just work. Now two years later the cord is failing. It cuts in and out, and wiggling it affects it. What a waste of money. Not what I expected in a high end gaming mouse. The only reason it gets two stars is because it looks cool, is comfortable, and worked well for over a year.

First, the retailer offering this mouse through Amazon was VERY prompt. Free shipping and the mouse was here within three days which included a weekend! Props to Amazon and their network of retailers.

I own 2x Razer Copperhead mice, 1x Razer Diamondback, 1x Logitech G5, 1x Microsoft Intelli Explorer 3.0... and a few others. Of all these mice, IMO the Intelli Explorer 3.0 is THE MOST comfortable. I haven't been using it for the past 2 years because of the low DPI. In a dual screen work config, the high dpi laser mice allow for fast mouse movement with little hand movement.

Enter the Habu. The Habu is close to the Intelli Explorer 3.0 with the speed of the copperhead. Although it's not quite as comfortable, it's much much much better than the G5, and a little better than the copperhead.

The Habu offers fast mouse speeds and good comfort while not requiring a wrist pad. Solid mouse at a very attractive price.

BTW. Over a 2 year period I've had 1x Razer and the G5 die. Both companies offered a replacement HOWEVER both required I return the mouse to them for replacement. The one Microsoft item that failed, a sidewinder joystick, was replaced WITHOUT me sending it back to Microsoft. Microsoft's customer care, in my experience, is second to absolutely no one. If you purchase Microsoft's retail products you can expect a level of customer service usually only found in fairy tales. This truth is not said often enough.

This is without a doubt the best gaming mouse I've used. I purchased this mouse awhile back and just bought another one this week. This is one of the only mice I've used that fit my hand. I've used the Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 and 7000 but there is always lag with wireless mice. This mouse is insanely sharp and has instant response. I turn up the DPI to MAX and then have the sensitivity around half in the mouse settings. = Perfect gaming mouse for Call of Duty, Age of Empires, and other games I play.

As a long time user of Microsoft keyboards/mice the first rule of thumb: never ever install the software...

Four stars because the scroll wheel, after bout half a year of daily use, goes bad. When you scroll down it goes up and down. The new one I just bought doesn't do this but will eventually I assume. (Yes, you can use the scroll wheel as a click/drag to scroll down/up webpages).

Definitely recommend this mouse - it works and has worked for me for 6+ months.