Customer Reviews

Razer Mamba Wireless Gaming Laser Mouse 5600 DPI

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

Pros: This mouse does everything that I've read in all the reviews including the slight jittering of the mouse. However that is easily fixed by removing the silver/embossed ring around the sensor that reads 5600 dpi sensor, etc. A quick e-mail to the support at Razer will net you a teflon ring to place into the ring (the mouse however will work fine with nothing there). I have always preferred wired mice being a very competitive gamer, I would never have chanced my batteries going out on me at a key time in game play. However this mouse allows you to have the best in both wired and wireless gameplay.

Cons: I wish it weren't so expensive, but you can't always have it your way. I'm a little leery of having the Razer software update the onboard mouse memory, Synapse, every time I open it to make a change; but that is a fairly minor problem as long as it works.

At the writing of this review, a firmware update is available from the Razer website that solves the problems that many have been experiencing with the battery not charging to full capacity. I can confirm that this update solves the problem. Thumbs up to Razer.

This is the mouse I have been waiting for. One that has the body of a Razer DeathAdder, and the high customizable DPI of the Razer Lachesis.

Pro's
-Highly customizable DPI
-Wireless
-Can be used as a wired mouse
-5 Stage Sensitivity Changes (i.e. 800,1600,1800,2000,5600)
-Sensitivity change buttons can be re-mapped to key buttons
(if you don't know what the buttons are they are the two small one's next to the left click)
-X & Y DPI can be changed to increase vertical or horizontal DPI speed of your choice (this is great to move your mouse down to hold gun recoil down with machine guns and STG44/BAR recoil in Day Of Defeat Source or any other FPS game)
-Software can manage multiple profiles for different games
-Software can create/record macros (I haven't extensively tried it so I can't comment on this yet, just got the mouse today from Amazon)
-You can turn off the lighting for Charging Dock/Mouse Wheel/& Battery Level indicator
-It turns off the battery indicator lights and lights on the wheel when you are not using it to preserve battery life
-Jitter problem is fixed if you use a well flat textured surface, I can confirm it works nearly perfect on a Razer eXact Mat (I use the speed side)

Con's
-It jitters on the Razer Destructor mouse mat, I own the Destructor Special Edition white version and it jitters a lot
-Jitter is caused by poorly textured surfaces so the laser doesn't track well, this is why people are complaining about the jitter and when they left click the mouse jitters
-1.02 firmware has problems with battery life, update to 1.03 firmware, I had a problem updating in Windows XP so I updated my firmware in Windows 7
-Cost, most people will not be able to afford this mouse,this mouse is purely marketed towards the hardcore FPS players, it's not a mouse that you would use to play World of Warcraft or online Bingo on a Saturday night with your grandma
-Thumb buttons, this might be bad if you have big hands, I have small hands so I find the placement of the thumb buttons to be fine but if you have large hands you might complain that the buttons are placed too high

I believe if you contact Razer they will give you a teflon ring to fix part of the jitter problem. I suggest a well textured surface to use with the Mamba. I created my own ring using lamination sheets and used a dime to trace a circle and cut it with a scissor. What people don't understand about laser mouses is that lasers are PRECISE. Any little movement will cause the laser to move, this results in jitter because many people don't have a solid steady hand so they complain about a technology they know little of and if you think you have a steady hand I dare you to think again. Hopefully Razer will continually release firmwares to correct the jitter problems even further.

I don't think anyone needs a mouse over 2,000 DPI. Don't believe the marketing hypes of any company that advertises a mouse with high DPI, not even Razer's competitor. Not many people can control 5600 DPI. I have used Razer mouses since 2005, so that's about 4 years of usage. It took me at least 6 months to get very good at 1600 DPI. After that I went to 1800 DPI and 2000 DPI; as far as I can tell it's very difficult to control anything over 2000 DPI. I find 1800 DPI to be the sweet spot for gaming.

I own 1 Razer Diamondback Red (Original non-3G), 1 Razer Diamondback (Original non-3G) Plasma Blue Limited Edition, Razer Diamondback Chameleon (Original non-3g), 1 Razer DeathAdder 3G, 1 Razer Copperhead Laser Mouse, 1 Razer Lachesis, 1 Razer eXact Mat with Gel wrist pad, 1 Razer Destructor Special Edition White mouse pad. So you can see, I have a trailing history of Razer products. If you loved the DeathAdder then you'll definitely love the Mamba.

Again, I will stress this again, this mouse is for the hardcore only. Don't cry saying you wasted $130 for a mouse. Know exactly what you are buying before you buy it. But I will say this, it works excellent with eXact mat and a custom ring around the laser. The boxing of the product is clever and very nice. You have to see it for yourself. Don't be discouraged by other reviews to buy this mouse. Buy it and try it out for yourself. Buying a mouse is like buying a car, we all like different things, some like Lamborghinis, some like Ferrari's, some just want something to get from point A to point B. Even if you don't like it and want to return it, Amazon has a great return policy.

*UPDATE* APR-19-2009
After further testing I was able to update my Mamba to firmware 1.03 by running the 1.03 executable file in Windows 98/ME compatibility mode. Running the software in compatibility mode was the only way I could get rid of the InstallShield 1628 Error which says that the application wasn't able to install itself. You have to manually install the firmware which gets extracted to C:\Program Files\Razer\Mamba\Mamba Firmware Updater from there you can manually run the updater and follow the directions. I tested it on the Razer Destructor Special Edition White Mouse Mat and the jitter is now gone. I can confirm that it works without jitter on Razer eXact Mat, Razer Destructor Mouse Mat, and tested on two different colored cloth mouse pads (blue and black) and there is no jitter at all.

Pros
Great looks and one of a kind packaging. Feels good in the hand and similar to the fantastic Death Adder. That being said, 2 additional buttons are pretty easy to assign a macro to and were big selling point for me. I wanted a mouse with more buttons than the Death Adder (which I love) and the Razer Mamba was a dream come true before I received it. When working properly, there is no noticeable lag in the wireless part of it. Overall build quality is top notch. This mouse does not feel flimsy at all and the materials are of good quality. Probably the most impressive build quality I have come across in a mouse.

Cons
Battery issue is true and annoying. Had full charge did not get much use before the battery was showing that it was dying. The mouse is pretty heavy in my opinion and made my hand tired the first night. I have rather big hands and I was surprised with the heft of this mouse.

The first night with the mouse began with trouble right off the bat. My software kept crashing when I tried to open it. I, uninstalled, re-downloaded, and then I was able to open it in wireless mode only. The software was glitchy and synapse memory saving painfully slow. It seemed as if everything needed to write to the synapse memory even if just closing a menu with no changes. However, in the middle of gaming, my Mamba software crashed and was nice enough to put me to the desktop to tell me. At this point, I decided to try the wired mode after a reboot and could not open the software as it would say that it could not detect the mouse, but the mouse saved much of the settings and in wired mode, felt okay to use. Going wireless solved this problem of getting back into the software, but I was left me scratching my head.

One odd item is that I could not find an option in the software to use 5600 dpi and lower the mouse pointer speed. Other mice put the windows slider in there to make it easy to adjust. I personally like to use full DPI available and adjust the speed of the pointer to suit my taste. I feel this enhances precision in games and the DPI is sort of what I am paying for. This software uses DPI as the speed and I thought this was silly. When my software crashed, the mouse would be extremely slow and a pain to use.

Second day, bad problems began. I had charged the mouse overnight to make sure the battery was fully charged. I could almost live with the software issues with the hope that they could be ironed out. The real issues began when getting the freezing of the mouse reminiscent of my G7 years back. My hope was that this mouse with its "advanced" channel scanning feature would be different that the G7 experience I had (note: G7 worked for months before the freezing. I thought it was broken at the time and not environment related). I, uninstalled, re-downloaded, and installed multiple times. I tried nearly every USB port in the back of the computer and it would work for a second and freeze for 5 seconds. I tried syncing it and everything I could think of. There was nothing online to help to give me any direction. Razer's site is not helpful and a bit too self promoting. I uninstalled the Mamba and reinstalled the Death Adder and had no issues at all with that mouse. My conclusion was that there were some defects with either the mouse or software or both. The only thing I did not seem to have problem with was packing it up and sending it back to Amazon.

Summary
Overall, I had a bad experience with this mouse. Will it happen to you? Who knows. Since most reviews online I have read seem to be slam dunks (makes me question the source honestly), I think the odds could be in your favor. I might just have issues with the 2.4ghz frequency where I live since the G7 gave me the same type of problem after 6 months. One other thing noted often about other products is that Razer support is weak. They responded to my detailed account of what happened, but the response was "try a different USB port on the mainboard directly". I asked if others had the same problem and whether it could be fixed with update etc. No responses to those questions only the try other USB ports, which I already did. I did not have the patience to "hope" it would be fixed later on.

The packaging is nice and I had people from all around me at work marvel at it. You really need to see this in person to appreciate it. However, I would rather have simple clamshell packaging and save a few bucks in the process.

The mouse has great potential and I wanted to love it. I rate it 2 stars for the apparent build quality and the packaging. I am not trying to bash Razer. If you read my reviews, you will see that the Death Adder is thought of highly by me. I also have a Tarantula keyboard that I like a lot, so I do like Razer products. However, this experience was so bad in so many ways, I was shocked and disappointed with them. I ended up sending mine back to Amazon for a full refund of everything including return shipping. So I did not lose any money in the process. This is why Amazon is my go to retailer for almost anything that I can wait a day or two to get. They stand behind what they sell and treat the customer properly. In the end, I wanted a mouse with more buttons than my Death Adder. I eventually went with the G9 and generally pleased with it and had no problems whatsoever installing and using it. Looks like Razer will have to win back my loyalty from Logitech, again.

I was one of the first (literally) to purchase the Razer Mamba when the pre-order went up on razerzone.com. There was a slight problem with the early shipments and the pre-order was pulled for about a month, though I still received my Razer Mamba. There were no drivers, the initial 1.0 firmware did not charge the battery fully causing the light to blink continuously, and it seemed my scroll wheel had a tiny hair in it causing it to squeak when scrolling. All in all, I was impressed with the mouse (minus the annoying squeaks).

I received an email (one that went out to those who bought the first batch of Razer Mambas), which said they were disappointed with the quality of the first batch and would be sending us a second Razer Mamba for free while letting us keep our first Mamba. The second Razer Mamba that I received came with a newer 1.02 firmware and the scroll wheel had no ear-piercing problems to complain of.

I recently upgraded both mice to firmware 1.03 and updated the drivers to 1.03 and it has been smooth sailing ever since. I set the polling rate to 1ms (1KHz) and the sensitivity to 2000dpi (anything higher is pushing it and is only useful if you're sniping in a game). Performance is great paired with a Razer Destructor Professional Gaming Mat or any other hard gaming mouse pad surface. The 3.5G Laser is very precise and using a cheap $5 Fry's mouse pad just won't cut it.

Once you get used to the Mamba it's hard to use anything else for gaming. I'd recommend the Razer Mamba to professional or hardcore gamers since all the mouse settings are saved on the local memory of the mouse and you can take it to tournaments and simply plug it in, preserving all of your settings and sensitivity stages that you customized in the drivers.

I've had this mouse for almost 2 months, and I regret not returning it.

I was hesitant of buying this mouse because it was over $100 bucks, which some would consider a ridiculous price. But I wanted to upgrade from my basic Logitech mouse, and I figured I would go with a "top of the line" mouse.

The good:

The performance of this mouse in terms of accuracy and speed is good. The "gaming grade" laser is noticeably better than your normal mouse laser (it will detect the slightest rumble of your desk). The left and right click mouse buttons are designed to click with speed, if you put a little pressure on either one it will immediately click. This is actually a problem for me because sometimes I accidentally right click because the button is so sensitive to my touch, and while playing games this might cause my character to do something I don't want it to do (like in counter strike I would accidental put on the silencer for the M4 while shooting someone). This sensitivity issue might be specific to me, but I'm sure some users might have this problem too.

Also, the mouse looks cool, and the back and forward buttons are pretty useful while internet browsing.

The bad:

I hate the battery life on this thing. It says it has 3 days of battery life per charge, which was acceptable to me at first, but now I hate it. Every chance I get I put it on the charger (like when I go out and stuff) because if I don't then I will be forced to charge it for hours later, or use the wire, which defeats the purpose of having a wireless mouse. The battery life seems to only last 2 days for me per charge, even after following the first time battery use instructions.

The biggest problem I have with this mouse is that it interferes with my wireless connection. While playing games like starcraft 2 or counter strike, I would randomly lag until the games would be too unbearable to play. It's extremely frustrating, and for a while I thought it was my internet connection. But in the past few weeks I found that connecting the mouse by wire fixes the problem, so it is the mouse's wireless signal that is causing my lag. I am extremely disappointed by this because now I only play with the wire on which totally defeats the purpose of buying a wireless mouse in the first place. I didn't have this wireless interference with my previous wireless mouse, so this lag problem might be specific to the mamba.

The software is super slow and annoying, I dread having to open it to change something. It also doesn't have auto-updating of the firmware and software, which is pretty lame.

So in conclusion, I am extremely disappointed with this mouse, especially considering the price tag. I expected a mouse of this price to be nearly flawless. But it has actually been detrimental to my game play and just frustrating in general.

DO NOT BUT THE RAZER MAMBA.

Now that that's out of the way...first off - I'm not some 200 lb neckbeard-wearing on-the-cpu 24/7 dude that sits and writes reviews for products all day - in fact this is my first review I've ever written for anything ever. Such is the glorious RAGE that this piece of crap mouse has inflicted on me.

The price does not equate to the product in terms of utility and support. After countless updates/ firmware updates/ whatever and the FANTASTIC (sarcasm) tech support from Razer I've decided to take mine out to an outdoor shooting range, blast the crap out of it, then mail it back to Razer along with a pic of my middle finger.

The damn thing was glitchy as hell and wouldn't respond to movement - this being AFTER I first bought it/ applied all of the at-the-time firmware/ software updates. Fast-forward a few months, many angry emails, and suddenly experiencing the epiphany to read user reviews AFTER THE FACT, I've come to the realization that I've bought lead wrapped in gold foil.

I've just applied the latest update (v1.08 using firmware v1.13) and now the Razer Mamba is completely unresponsive. It won't register clicking/ movement/ mouse wheel/ anything. I've had it up to HERE with needing to coddle this piece of crap when the previous piece of crap that I owned (some random logitech mouse from WAL MART - $15.99) worked FINE with not ONE problem requiring me to contact tech-support/ curse the heavens. This thing is supposed to be superior tech. It is not. It is a defective, over-priced paper weight that dumb people like me were dumb enough to buy. Don't be fooled by BS advertising/ the "*****" reviews you read. More often than not they're people that are hired BY their respective companies to give the products THEY make good reviews.

Do a search OUTSIDE of Amazon and you'll see COUNTLESS reviews detailing the nightmare that is this thing - also ask yourself of the validity of my argument unless this thing actually moved me to be this mad.

You're welcome for the $90 or so that I just saved you. Go buy a cheap mouse that WORKS.

The Mamba has worked well for me. The most recent drivers and updates to the mouse housing itself seem to have fixed all the jitter and battery charge issues that previous users report.

The tracking and sensitivity is excellent on this mouse, wireless does not skip a beat. (I run the 1Khz tracking speed at 1800dpi) Charge lasts me two days of 8+ hours of use (I work from home and game), and it charges overnight (about 5hrs).

I'm also using this mouse on a Mac (OS 10.5.7). You get full access to all buttons using something like Steermouse or USBOverdrive (as well as better acceleration control). If you want to custom program the mouse, you need to bootcamp or VM a Windows instance (I use parallels) and program it via the Windows software. The programs/config are then saved INTO the mouse and are active in OSX. I remapped the two DPI buttons to key-combos that I have set as shortcuts in OSX - giving me programmability for every button.

Pros:
Fantastic tracking and movement.
Great weight/physical dimensions, very comfortable (I have large hands)
Charges easily, charge lasts 2 days or so.
Fully programmable.
Can become corded if battery dies while in use by plugging in the USB cable.

Cons:
The highest price normal mouse out there.
The wired->wireless switch back doesn't always go smoothly if your compuer is on. (might take more then 1 try)
If you turn your computer off nightly, battery life will be a problem for you.
To use in OSX you still need a Windows machine to customize the mouse and update its firmware.

I've had this for a while now, and wow, what a piece of gaming equipment. Even though the mouse's max speed is 5600dpi. I doubt you'll even find use for it, it's just too freaking fast!!

Some reviewers have complained about the battery life, but mine so far holds its charge for a long time and I haven't had any major issues with the performance. I have big hands and I must say, this mouse is very comfortable, I get not cramps on my hand or any type of discomfort. The design is a work of art, it looks amazing on my desktop and the charging cradle also looks good, so you won't have some ugly charging station sitting atop your desktop.

There are some issues with this mouse you should know though. I do not mind them, but you might, and here they are:


The dpi changing buttons are too close to the left click button, so you have to be very careful, specially during FPS gaming, when sniping, if you try to lower the dpi for more stability, you might accidentally hit the fire button and give away your position.

Second, you can use the mouse wired or wireless, but this can be a tricky thing to do; plugging the freaking USB cable to the mouse can be a pain and it's even more difficult to take off, but with practice it becomes easier. Can be an issue for hard core gamers.

Final words....If you already have, lets say, a Logitech G5 mouse, like I do, you may want to think about it before buying the Mamba, reason being, it's over 100 bucks!! and who knows how/when/where you'll even use the 5600dpi. But if you don't mind spending the cash and want a fast, and I mean FAST, good looking, very responsive wireless/wired mouse, that performs outstandingly, you won't regret buying the Mamba. Also, it is such a cool mouse that besides its amazing speed and performance, it gives you high bragging rights.


UPDATED REVIEW: I WISH I HAD KNOWN WHAT I KNOW NOW ABOUT RAZER'S MAMB...It's been almost a year since I bought this mouse, what a huge mistake that was. I bought it right before Windows 7 came out. Razer DID NOT have any drivers/firmware updates for this mouse for Windows 7, none whatsoever. Once the software updates were out, this was a couple of months later, my mouse bricked during a firmware update, so I had to send it to Razer, who by the way, has the WORST customer service I have ever dealt with. They took 3.5 weeks!! 3.5!! to get my mouse back to me. Once I got it, it was working, but still with old drivers/firmware. What a joke razer is. After a few months, around March, I started having problems with the battery life, it would drain rather quick and so ever since, until this day, my Mamba is now wired all the time.

Now the mouse does what it wants. Sometimes the tracking system fails. The cursor freezes or lags terribly. I even bought a razer mouse pad to make sure I had everything needed to have the best performance out of this mouse. What a huge failure.

My honest advice...STAY AWAY FROM THIS MOUSE, SAVE YOUR MONEY. Buy a Logitech G5 instead, I've had one for 4 years!!! I recently dumped my Mamba for good, dusted off my old G5 and could not be happier.

this mouse is by far the best mouse i've ever used. i've been using microsoft wireless mouse (and keyboards for that matter) for quite a few years now and while those were pretty good as i have never experienced a problem with any of them. however, when it comes to gaming, they lacked extremely. a wired mouse was better off than them. of course they weren't designed for gaming in mind (and i'm sorry but the microsoft sidewinder mouse just looks ugly).

when i first heard about this mouse all the critics and reviews stated the only down side to it was it's price. i was actually waiting for the price to go down, and then it DID on amazon. a pretty hefty price cut so i went for it and i can safely say i'm amazed. the ability to connect the usb cable to the mouse or the the mouse dock as you please is amazing. i've never seen anything like this before and this has been done so well. it's easy to configure. for those who don't want to dilly dally with installing drivers or what not shall be glad to know that it works right out the box and you can adjust sensitivity settings from the mouse itself (the battery indicator acts as the sensitivity indicator while adjusting it).

this mouse is one hell of a looker, it's easy AND comfortable to use. this is strictly a gaming mouse, don't get it just because it looks cool (which it does) unless you have some extra cash laying around. that being said, this is my first time trying a razer product and i am super impressed (and i thought logitech's G7 was good until it started acting up on me not even a month after i got it!).

I was hesitant to buy this mouse given the conflicting professional reviews and some really awful user reviews. I decided to take the risk and buy it. First the packaging is absolutely top notch, this is a premium product and is packaged as such. The mouse is beautiful and extremely comfortable. The first thing I did was go to the Razer site and update the driver & firmware. It was easy and I had no problems. I have not experienced any issues with jitters or poor battery life. The software lets you customize everything possible and works without a hitch (Vista 32). The mouse looks and works very well. I am replacing a Logitech G7 I had for 4 years, this mouse is clearly superior. Yes it is expensive, but for me it was worth the price given the overall performance, build quality and sharp looks. I definitely recommend this product.