The new Razer Krait is the latest gaming mouse in a long line from Razer. It boasts 1600 DPI, 1200 actions per minute, "zero-acoustic" teflon feet, and the classic Razer buttons. The Krait's marketing materials say that the mouse is optimized for real-time strategy games and MMORPGs, but let's get real: any true gaming mouse should be adequate for all games. When the Krait was first announced, many conspiracy-theory minded gamers dismissed it as a way for the company to use up its remaining Razer Viper shells.

Is the new Krait simply a copycat of older gaming mice, or is it a worthy addition to your arsenal? The nice folks at Razer sent us a review sample to find out.

The test system:
AMD 64 4000+
Asus A8N-E Motherboard
GEForce 7800GT
2GB RAM
Windows XP SP2

PACKAGING

Upon opening the UPS box, we were immediately struck by how the mouse was presented. Razer has a traditon of presenting its products in elaborate ways, and the Krait is no different. It came in a fold out package that resembles a display case.

All images will pop to full size.

Razer has also stayed true to its professional gaming roots by featuring a prominent pro gamer on the box. When once Sujoy Roy, Amir 'Hakeem' Haleem and Jonathon 'fatal1ty' Wendel graced the box of the Razer Boomslang, they've been replaced by none other than Manuel 'Grubby' Schenkhuizen.

But packaging is only one part of the product, and the least important one at that.

SHAPE AND FEEL

The Razer Krait is shaped exactly like the old model Razer Viper. We were pleased to find that the side rails on the mouse were rounded off, instead of coming to a point like on the Copperhead and Diamondback.

Rounding off the edges of the side rails makes it easier to grip and control the mouse, because they don't get in the way as much. Here are some size comparisons for the Krait:

Left to right: Andrew Jackson, fatal1ty 1010, Microsoft Intellimouse 3.0, Logitech G1, Razer Copperhead, Razer Krait.

Upon using the mouse on a fabric mousepad, the first thing we noticed is an odd scraping sensation coming from the bottom of the mouse. It seemed as though the zero-acoustic teflon feet weren't living up to their name. For most gamers, the sound of the mouse on the mousepad will be obscured by in-game audio, but the feet themselves exist to reduce friction, not increase it.

After closer inspection, it appeared that the edges of the feet were scraping against the mouse pad. Prying the feet off and using the mouse "amputated" was the only way to get a totally smooth feel out of the Krait. This did slow down the mouse's movement across the mousepad, and if you like your mouse to move extremely fast across your mouse pad, it could be a make or break issue. For us, the mouse moved great sans-teflon.

The Krait comes with a seven foot long cord that is acceptably thin. It won't drag very much on your desk and is hard to tangle. so that's a major plus. The mousewheel performed admirably, with well-defined clicks in its rotation, making it easy to precisely switch weapons or whatever else you want your mousewheel to do.

In game, the Krait is designed to be used with a high sensitivity. This isn't helped by the way the mouse feels in your hand; at 76g/2.5 oz., it's a little on the light side, and feels insubstantial. Some sort of integrated weight (like most of Logitech's mice) would go a long way toward improving the stability of the mouse. Adjustable weights would be even better, but at a $39.99 price point, that's too much to hope for.

As far as the mouse sensor itself goes, we were unable to make the Krait skip in any of our (admittedly informal) tests. The Krait sensor is infrared, so it doesn't suffer from the reported inconsistencies of current laser technology. Once we got the mouse feet off it was precise enough for surgical work in 'Counter-Strike' and 'Quake 3/4.' The Krait reached 100 / 250 / 500Hz in USBMouseRate with no problems and no obvious negative acceleration. Your mileage may vary depending on your motherboard and operating system, however.

BUTTONS

The buttons of the Krait are elongated in the trademark Razer fashion, and are made out of smooth no-slip rubber. Razer has always prided itself on having extra long buttons because you can hold the mouse any number of different ways and still comfortably hit midair rockets (or in this case, micromanage thirty Orc grunts). The buttons are easy to click as well, requiring less pressure than the average mouse to trigger.


Posted by mahmood on Jul 7 2006 3:52PM
 
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