Customer Reviews

Razer Deathadder Black 3500 High Precision 3.5G Infrared Gaming Mouse

5 star:		(261)
4 star:		(69)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

This is the upgraded version of the Razer DeathAdder. 3500 DPI instead of 1800 DPI. This is the main difference, although I believe the newer version has a gold plated USB connector and obviously different drivers for each model. Either way both models are identical in physical shape.

The arc of the mouse is by far the most comfortable I've ever used, in that it actually follows the curve of one's hand how it instinctively would grab a mouse. It is also a right handed mouse, sorry southpaws, which adds to the comfort and control of the mouse. I can't say I know what the mouse grip is made out of, but it is completely slip resistant and oil resistant/absorbent. The sides of the mouse are a hard plastic and between the teflon feet and light weight of the mouse there is almost no resistance to movement.

I upgraded from a Logitech Revolution wireless mouse and wireless mice, while convenient, can't compete with the accuracy and precision that a wired mouse provides. My old wireless mouse would lag and skip across the screen and often when closing a program it would accidentally close the window behind it as well, which I never quite figured out why it did that (I'm guessing radio interference?). With the DeathAdder, I have not had that problem once and every click I make is exactly where I expect it to be.

I played with a Logitech G9 and MX518 as well as the Razer Salmosa, which all felt like solid and accurate mice, but they lacked the feel the DeathAdder has. The technical specs are important, but it doesn't really matter how accurate a mouse is if it still isn't comfortable to use. In short, I'm pretty happy I went this way. However, the Razer Salmosa was a close second, but it just seemed like a simple version of the original 3G DeathAdder.

As for gaming I haven't had a whole lot of chances to test it out yet. I've played a bit of Left for Dead with it and after some getting used to and tweaking the settings (independent X and Y sensitivity, button assignemnt, acceleration, etc.) it is way easier to shoot hoards of zombies in the head. I also have played a bit of Fallout, and while the mouse is definately smoother, I can't say it has affected gameplay all that much. I've tried this mouse on my desktop and laptop (Vista and 7 respectively) and both operating systems seem to run the Razer software perfectly fine. Windows recognized the mouse immediately and it works fine with the windows drivers, but I highly recommend downloading the latest Razer drivers for maximum performance. The level of adjustment this mouse offers is wasted otherwise.

Other thoughts:
The blue lights on the mouse wheel and the glowing DeathAdder logo are pretty cool. I can see them becoming annoying after a while, but they are easy enough to turn off in the settings.

The DPI and Polling rates can be lowered from the 3500DPI and 1000ms if desired, but I only notice a decrease in accuracy and performance so I'm not sure why you would.

My only real complaint is the "On-The-Fly" sensitivity switch is on the bottom of the mouse. I'm not sure how on the fly that is if I'm playing a game, which is the only time I would need to use that feature. Ultimately, it's not that big of a deal, but it is kind of false advertising in my opinion.

I can't stress enough how form fitting this mouse is, not to mention that is looks pretty cool at the same time. Something about it just feels "right." Granted it took me a couple days to get used to it, but now I don't think I could go back. If you already have a Logitech G9 (or something similar) I can't say I'd tell you to go replace it right now, but if you are looking for an upgrade this is the way to go.

I like this mouse. It's stylish and pretty comfortable. I play a lot of fps and spend a lot of time on the computer in general. I have pretty big hands. I've found this mouse to be true to its claims on comfort and ergonomics. I can use it for long hours with no fatigue. The exception to this is my right ring and pinky finger pressed against the right side of the mouse can get sore after many hours of intense gaming. This may just be an issue with my personal grip style, I don't know. The software is easy to use and there is almost every setting you could ever want to adjust on a mouse available. However, it took me a long time to find the correct settings for my personal system and games (I use 1800 dpi, 500Hz polling rate, 7 sensitivity with a cloth pad). I find the default settings are far too sensitive and I doubt anyone will ever use the highest. You have to lift the mouse ~1 inch off the surface before it loses contact which took me a while to get used to.

There are only a few things I don't like about it. I don't like that you can't set the razer logo led to solid instead of pulse. I also don't like that the slick glossy plastic material on the sides gets dirty very easily. It somehow manages to accumulate gunk faster than any other surface, requiring regular cleaning. The matte top is very sensitive to moisture. If you just washed your hands, got out of the shower, or they are the slightest bit moist from sweat or whatever you will notice the whole mouse looks like it is soaked in moisture. Furthermore, the mouse gets warm very quickly with both leds on, which ends up making your hand sweat and lose grip. I find turning the leds off may help with this problem. Some people complain about the braided cable on this version being worse than the plain rubber insulated original. I do find it tends to cling to the edge of desks, but this can be fixed by simply gathering up extra slack. Coming from a conventional mouse the unique shape of the deathadder took a very long time to get used to. Don't expect to just jump into your games out of the box and be a better player. However, I think once you grow accustomed to it you'll love it.

EDIT: 1/27/2011 The Black Edition (with glossy sides problem mentioned above fixed!) of this mouse is now available. You might want to check it out.

As a lefty, I've been using ambidextrous mice my whole life. In the past I've tried right-handed mice with my right hand, just to see what they felt like (I was jealous). However, when I first laid my hand on this mouse, I was amazed at how comfortable it was. I would recommend this mouse to any left-handed PC user, not just a gamer (although it is great for gaming) because it's so comfortable.

Pros:
Specifically made for lefties (duh)
It's precise, sensitive, and fast.
The cord is braided, and is a lot tougher than most mouse cords. This might be important if you want to lug it around with a laptop.
It looks great.
Clicking is quiet (audible but not obnoxious) and comfortable.
The Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 buttons on the right side are really convenient for games or just web browsing; these buttons are missing from most ambidextrous mice.

Cons:
Other people have said this too, but the primary and secondary mouse buttons are switched by default. I haven't had that much of a problem with it though, because it's pretty easy to switch the buttons back by changing mouse settings. For the average lefty who's been trained for right-handed mouse buttons, this is only a problem for about two minutes.
The surface of the mouse is a matte rubberized plastic material. It will grab onto any moisture or oil on your hand, and could be annoying to a neat-freak, but it's quite easy to clean off.
The mouse is rather large, but I have large hands, and it is extremely comfortable. But for someone with smaller hands, I doubt it would be uncomfortable. Contrary to what another reviewer said, this mouse feels pretty light to me.
All in all a great mouse. When I have the money, I want to buy a spare just in case these are discontinued!

A solid gaming mouse. Seems a little large and heavy (even though I personally have large hands.)

The one thing I absolutely hate, however, is that the left and right mouse buttons are hard-wired switched.

I know it is easy enough to switch them in windows, but whenever you remote desktop into another machine, you have to go in and switch there too which is a real pain.

Pros:

- Comfortable, even for small hands. Going from a G9x to this, my hand has stopped feeling cramped after prolonged use. (main reason for buying)
- Thumb buttons are well placed
- Oversized main buttons feel nice, and have a wide area for clicking.
- Scroll wheel is perfect. Both the feel and the default distance for scrolling. Doesn't make an annoying audible sound when used.
- Scroll wheel lights up and the logo on the body of the mouse pulses and can be individually turned on or off.
- Up to 5 DPI settings can be saved and stored (Caveat - to change your profile, the button is located on the bottom of the mouse, so if you plan on using the "On the fly" adjustable DPI a lot and in a middle of a game, might want to look into another mouse)
- Long and braided cord.

Cons:

- Side plastic is a gunk magnet. Never had any problems with my previous two Logitech mouses. Also makes me readjust my grip after sweating since I start losing some grip. (-0.5)
- Thumb buttons, while well placed, have a cheap plastic feel. Also makes an annoying clicking sound. (-0.5)
- Scroll wheel does not tilt (was aware of this and is not a factor for the star reduction)
- Weight not adjustable (once again, aware of this and is not a factor for the star reduction)


Overview:

Though the mouse is very comfortable, the use of plastic on the sides was a bad decision on Razer's part. I personally am not fond of the gunk build up and the adjustments I have to make from sweating because of the plastic sides. I have a Logitech G500 ordered and on the way and I can see it replacing the Razer. However, I am not returning this mouse because it's still a good, comfortable mouse and will either use it with my laptop, a future second pc, or may give it to my niece or nephew. If you don't like dealing with the build up or will use the DPI a lot then this mouse is probably not for you. Otherwise, this is a solid mouse.

Being left-handed, I have been starved for ergonomic gaming mice for my entire life. I had to be content using ambidextrous mice, such as the Razer Copperhead. That was a great mouse but there is a world of difference having a mouse that is molded to fit your hand. I had no idea how much of a difference it would make simply because I had never used a left-handed one--they didn't exist!

The mouse performs very well, it is very precise and the two thumb buttons are great. It has a pleasing blue glow and the cable is plenty long enough, even for those with their computer under the desk. It fits very comfortably in my left hand!

I gave the Deathadder 5 stars for each of the categories, but only two stars overall. For the price, I expected a much longer lifespan than this mouse could provide.

Within 6 months of purchase one of the buttons failed and I had to disassemble the mouse and oil the button to get it working. I wasn't happy about that.

Then after about a year and a half, the scroll wheel developed a dead spot that made 30% of the wheel not scroll at all. Thus ended the life of my mouse!

I also did not like the top finish, which I was able to scratch by accident. The side finish was shiny and I found it collected finger prints and dirt and needed to be cleaned constantly.

Overall, very unhappy with this product.

I've read plenty of bad reviews of Razer products, but I really like their stuff. The mouse was the most awesome mouse I've ever used. I've had a Tarantula keyboard for over a year and it is awesome. If it lasts another two years, then breaks, I'll buy another one. If it doesn't last at least 3-4 years, I'll never buy another Razer product again.

This is a wonderful mouse. You can read the other reviews to hear about it. However, it's appeal is lost when it stops working. I'm now awaiting my third mouse in the past 4 months.

I suspect the mouse has an inherently flawed design because the first two mice failed in exactly the same way. I was able to kill the mouse by unplugging and plugging it into a usb port repeatedly. The mouse eventually pops up an error in Windows: USB Device Not Recognized. This means the mouse is just completely dead with no chance of recovery, though it's not clear to me whether the firmware or hardware is hosed. I've read enough posts on the web stating similar experiences and spanning years of time to suspect this is just a design flaw Razer is unwilling to fix.

Since I'm a firmware engineer myself, Razer gets points for allowing in-field firmware upgrade. They lose all the points and then some for using a mouse-in-a-box solution (Cypress part) and writing poor quality firmware. The firmware should not need to be updated frequently if it was designed well, and reading the release notes, I find the reason for some of the firmware updates suspicious, because the functionality should probably be controlled by the driver.

I've also found the mouse/driver does not deal with standby properly. If you turn off the blue glow via the control panel, there's a good chance it won't work at all once you come back out of standby.

Don't expect support from Razer. So far I have only been able to get 100% canned responses from them. Don't expect to expedite the process by sending all the information they want in your first request, they will just ignore it and ask for it again later. And responses are generally slow. They can take several business days to respond. They do not pay for return shipping, require an invoice for proof of purchase and do not send your replacement until they receive the old mouse at their processing center in California. So if you're on the east coast, expect a couples weeks wait from the time your mouse dies.

You should definitely buy this mouse if you're willing to risk the problems mentioned above. But don't buy it if you're looking for a mouse that will just keep working until it breaks down mechanically over the years.

Indeed I have, and let me tell you about it! It's REALLY cool. The left/right click on the mouse is really easy and sensitive, but not too sensitive. It's just perfect for my COD4 MW2 playing. I love the feel that my hand has when it rests on the mouse. The cord is a lot better than my old [G5] mouse... The two side buttons are perfect sizes for my thumb too! The symbol on the mouse glows on and off 24/7. It doesn't drift. The other review was obviously someone who had their mouse cord in an awkward position, and it was trying to expand. My brother saw this mouse and thought it was really cool too. The mouse lazer is awesome, and it moves with the SLIGHTEST movement of your hand. I like the symbol on the mouse too, its very cool. I used the software once, just to adjust the speed on the mouse pointer movement on the screen. initially, its a little fast, but i just adjusted it easily to what i like. I also saw that you could make your buttons do things...like, if you "left click", the letter g will be put in as text. Its just used for gaming, if you know what im talking about.

I've loved this beautiful thing since the moment i got it-- i wouldn't write this otherwise.
Took 3 days to ship to me [Illinois].

DO NOT BUY THE LOGITECH G5. The cord bunches up and then the wires twist around and then it breaks. I went into best buy and saw that the G5 out in display was doing the same thing-- it wasn't because i was careless with my mouse. Get this one. Its worth it. IT WILL ROCK YOUR WORLD!!!!!

Box comes with cool stickers, and a bumper sticker [of the symbol]
And a couple other cool things/phamplets.

DO IT!!!!

(You might also want to read the One-Star review by Dan S)

I am giving the mouse an overall rating of one star. But first, let me explain my attribute ratings. The mouse is very comfortable to my hand and the low-friction design is very smooth. Sensitivity and speed are excellent, but it doesn't provide a lot of additional functionality over any other mouse: only two extra side buttons.

I am only giving one star for price vs quality because I have had two mice fail in the first hour of use. For the price, I would expect a less volatile piece of hardware.

I received my first Deathadder about a week ago. I loaded the current drivers (v3.01) and played my favorite MMOG for about 45 minutes. The performance was EXCELLENT, and I was very pleased. I went to customize the settings. Had no problem with sensitivity settings or changes in DPI settings. However, when I changed the polling rate, the mouse died...completely! I did everything reasonable: removed the mouse from the computer's hardware device settings, removed and reloaded drivers, etc. No help, the thing was toast.

I read forums that suggested updating the firmware. So, when I got my replacement today, I loaded the appropriate drivers and ran the firmware update (v2.41). The mouse immediately died...again! I'm very disappointed that a precision device like this should be so prone to failure. I'm sure that Razer is aware of this, but I'm not expecting any help from them, as the mouse was not purchased directly from them.

Unfortunately, Amazon will replace, but not refund, opened products. I don't fault their policies at all. But, I hope they will honor my request for ANOTHER replacement. Otherwise, I have purchased a $47 paperweight.

My suggestion to all is, "buyer beware!" This is a GREAT mouse when it works, but don't change any of the default settings and DON'T update the firmware!!!!