We canรขโฌ™t help but notice the lack of diversity in the wireless gaming mice scene. Sure most manufacturers especially the big names have at least one or two in their catalog but rarely do we see them constantly take on varying forms. Razerรขโฌ™s Mamba and Naga Epic are amongst the flagship in Razer’s mice catalog with the Mamba getting a refresh last year with souped-up features. This time around Razer takes their signature Naga Epic form and gives it a Star Wars redesign.
Today we check out Razerรขโฌ™s Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) Gaming Mice, a new wireless gaming mice designed for the SWTOR game and features the Naga lineรขโฌ™s signature number pad and distinct styling. Will this mouse be as great as its untethered brothers? Letรขโฌ™s get started and allow me to say: Showy, we shall make this!
As noted in the intro paragraphs, Razerรขโฌ™s wireless products are a flagship of sorts brandishing the Elite distinction and are the pinnacle of their gaming mice technology. Such is the Mamba and Naga Epic, both of which are highly successful products. For their Star Wars: The Old Republic line of equipment, Razer has taken the Naga design but totally reimagined it in SWTOR fashion. Featuring Razerรขโฌ™s new Synapse 2.0, this is one of their newest offerings featuring their new technologies. Letรขโฌ™s see how it feels and performs in a bit but first some specs and photos.
[toggle title=”SPECIFICATIONS”]- 17 fully programmable MMO-optimized buttons (including 12 button thumb grid)
- Wired/Wireless dual mode capability
- Interchangeable gold-backlit faction emblems
- Charging dock (also functions as a wireless receiver unit)
- Multi-color lighting
- 5600dpi Razer Precision 3.5G Laser Sensor
- 1000Hz Ultrapolling/1ms response time
- Battery life: 12 hrs (continuous use); 72 hrs (normal gaming usage)
- Approximate Size : 116 mm / 4.6รขโฌย (Length) x 77 mm / 3.0รขโฌย (Width) x 41 mm / 1.6รขโฌย (Height)
- Approximate Weight: 142 g / 0.31 lbs
| [singlepic id=4648 w=260 h=180 float=center]The SWTOR Gaming Mouse arrives in a medium-sized box with a clear side to let you view the mouse in detail. As with the SWTOR mat, this also features the SWTOR boxart from the game and the overall gold motiff. | [singlepic id=4649 w=260 h=180 float=center]The back of the box highlights some major features of the mouse. |
| [singlepic id=4654 w=260 h=180 float=center]Some more marketing highlights on the side. | [singlepic id=4651 w=260 h=180 float=center]Details and and some bullet highlights. |
| [singlepic id=4652 w=260 h=180 float=center]Feature icons on this side. | [singlepic id=4653 w=260 h=180 float=center]The top flap features a dramatic close-up of the scroll wheel. Nothing fancy here. |
| [singlepic id=4650 w=260 h=180 float=center] | [singlepic id=4655 w=260 h=180 float=center] |
| [singlepic id=4656 w=260 h=180 float=center] | [singlepic id=4657 w=260 h=180 float=center] |
| [singlepic id=4658 w=260 h=180 float=center] | [singlepic id=4659 w=260 h=180 float=center] |
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| [singlepic id=4660 w=260 h=180 float=center]Let’s get the smaller items out of the way first. First up we have the lithium-ion battery included in this mouse. This is Razer’s standard battery for their wireless products. Its rated for up to 12 hours of intensive gaming use and 72 hours of general usage. We’ll see about that later. | [singlepic id=4661 w=260 h=180 float=center] The charging dock is tailored to match theรย motifรย of edges and curves with a white-grey body with a black bezel on top and bottom. This dock is weighted and is quite hefty for its size ensuring stability and avoids unnecessary movements. |
| [singlepic id=4662 w=260 h=180 float=center]The included insignia of the Sith Empire to replace your existing ones. | [singlepic id=4663 w=260 h=180 float=center]Braided USB cable to hook up your SWTOR dock or mouse with. Its around 1.5meters long so you’ll have plenty of cable to run through behind your case and route around. |
| [singlepic id=4664 w=260 h=180 float=center]Capping off the USB cable are gold-plated connectors. Like we’ve said on previous reviews, its not just for bling but it also gives much cleaner signals especially if the contacts themselves are plated. | [singlepic id=4665 w=260 h=180 float=center]And now the mouse itself. A grey-white shell with a light pearlescent coating adorned with thick panel lines give this mouse that distinct Star Wars look. |
| [singlepic id=4666 w=260 h=180 float=center]Another angle of the SWTOR mouse. Barring the evident number pad, the SWTOR Gaming Mouse’s design is a more edge-filled variation of the Naga line. That distinct numpad as well as bulge on the opposite side is signature Naga. | [singlepic id=4667 w=260 h=180 float=center] And another angle. |
| [singlepic id=4668 w=260 h=180 float=center]Just below the scroll wheel are two not-so-obvious programmable buttons. By default they server as forward and back buttons but can be programmed to do many other things. | [singlepic id=4669 w=260 h=180 float=center] Of course the main features of this mouse is the inclusion of a number pad. Contrary to the Naga’s individual number keys, the SWTOR’s Gaming Mouse’s keys are rowed and a touch larger. |
| [singlepic id=4670 w=260 h=180 float=center]Underneath we can see the 5600dpi 3.5G laser sensor Razer brags so much about. From what we’ve seen in most of their products, they really have something to brag about. Other things worth noting is the number/123 switcher which toggles which input will be used for the SWTOR mouse’s number pad. This is dependent on your game. Lastly, some ultra slick feet are placed in specific locations. | [singlepic id=4671 w=260 h=180 float=center]The battery is inserted on the right side of the mouse opposite the number pad. Heavily reminds me of Go-onger. |
| [singlepic id=4672 w=260 h=180 float=center]The faction symbol is easily detached revealing a white orb, well its LED shroud. The faction symbol is magnetized into placed. | [singlepic id=4673 w=260 h=180 float=center] Here is the dock wired. |
| [singlepic id=4675 w=260 h=180 float=center]Putting out the lights let us see that the dock only lights up with a small strip on the front. The scroll wheel, number pad and faction symbol light up on the mouse though. | [singlepic id=4676 w=260 h=180 float=center] The SWTOR mouse docked and that faction symbol glowing like a boss. |
| [singlepic id=4678 w=260 h=180 float=center]More lights. | [singlepic id=4679 w=260 h=180 float=center]Side by side with a Razer Spectre. As you can see the battery feeds enough power to juice up those LEDs to wired level. The brightness you have on wired is still much more powerful though. |
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One particular point of interest in this product is its inclusion of Razer’s new cloud-service: Synapse2.0. Razer describes this technology as follows:
The new Razer Synapse 2.0 software revolutionises this concept by harnessing next-gen, cloud-based technology to ensure that you have full access to all of your peripheral hardware settings, anytime, anywhere at tournaments, LAN centres, at home and at the office. With the advent of Synapse 2.0, onboard memory for devices is now obsolete.
Basically this technology does away with the onboard memory chip that stores profiles internally on the device. We currently have yet to open-up any of the new devices that support Synapse2.0 to verify if Razer has removed onboard memory entirely in their PCB design.
Synapse2.0 works as a client-server setup with the Synapse2.0 client installed on the end-users’ setup. This software requests information specific to an account (logged-in) and downloads that to the client. That means anywhere a person goes, as long as an Internet connection is present, they can use their configuration anywhere irregardless of device (as long as the same model, doesn’t matter if its a redesign like the regular Naga or Molten.) Synapse2.0 also downloads drivers once a new device (if supported) is connected. Razer plans on doing away with their old device-specific driver model and are aiming at unified system centered around the Synapse2.0 model. Right now the following products are Synapse2.0-capable: Razer Blade (the world’s first true gaming laptop), Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) gaming line, the Naga (Molten) and NagaHEX.
This replaces the older model wherein you can carry your Razer mouse around and as long as the driver is installed on the used PC, the profile saved on the mouse will work. This works best for people who tend to be very possessive of their Razer gear. Many other company follow that classic onboard setup since a small 32kb chip is quite cheaper than setting up a large server farm to host a cloud-service. Seems like Razer has enough though to make it happen. Getting back to our review subject, here are a couple of shots of its Synapse2.0 configuration screen:
| [singlepic id=4709 w=260 h=180 float=center]The main screen allows the user the configure the button functions. One can define numerous functions to the mouse keys to suit their needs. They can also tie this configuration to a certain program and link that to a profile for instant loading when a certain game or application launches. | [singlepic id=4710 w=260 h=180 float=center] The performance tabs allows adjusting of the DPI settings as well as the stages at which the mouse will cycle when the On-the-Fly DPI button is set. This mouse goes up to 5600dpi and 1000hz polling making it very fast. |
| [singlepic id=4711 w=260 h=180 float=center]The lighting tab allows changes to the lighting feature such as intensity and color mode. It also has a checkbox to enable/disable the in-game lighting interaction with Star Wars: The Old Republic game. | [singlepic id=4712 w=260 h=180 float=center]The power tab shows options for configuring the power management of the SWTOR gaming mouse. Also indicated is the current drain level. |
| [singlepic id=4713 w=260 h=180 float=center] The macro menu is pretty much the same from all prior Razer products. This menu allows you to record macros for future playback. Advanced macro recording features include precision delay input. | |
PERFORMANCE, COMFORT AND FUNCTIONALITY
First things first, we charge the unit using the dock with the mouse turned off. Let’s just get initial charge time out and Razer states the average charge time is around 3 hours. Our test unit charged in around 2 hours and thirty minutes to max capacity. Using wired mode, charging was apparently faster. Both very impressive. The Synapse2.0 configuration screen indicates the drain status of the SWTOR mouse for your reference as shown above.
EDIT (2/20/2012): Battery life is quite impressive as we’ve seen the mouse last up to 3 days of office usage. Its hard to confirm the maximum charge during intense use as the SWTOR game is not really that intense (mouse movement), but we did however managed to last well over 10 hours of continuous FPS gaming. Like the new Mamba 4G, the SWTOR Gaming Mouse has more juice and power management therefore giving this mouse a good drain length. One thing we didn’t really appreciate is the low-battery warning. Razer could’ve opted for a more noticeable sign like rapid flashing than the default pulse the scroll wheel exhibits during such an event.
On to performance, we test out the mouse on the SWTOR Gaming Mouse Mat (review here) to simulate the optimal mousing surface as intended by Razer. The default settings of the mouse puts it in 1800dpi with 500hz polling which is a bit a low for me. Still playing around with the default setting, we found the SWTOR Gaming mouse to very responsive for a wireless mouse (and we didn’t expect any less.) Ramping up the polling to 1000hz we get a better feel of the precision of this mice. We found the wireless signal to have a decent range to it with excellent performance even at 3 meters away from the dock (I doubt any of you even has a desk that far away from the monitor). Switching from wired to wireless (vice versa) was easy and makes swapping out during a low-bat situation fast. The lock-free cable lets the user swap out modes quickly unlike the Mamba which has a bottom-lock for the USB cable that hinders fast changes during intense games (which sucks when that happens in game.) Plus points for that.
[singlepic id=4720 w=320 h=240 float=center]We tested the SWTOR Gaming Mouse in nothing else but Star Wars: The Old Republic. We really didn’t expect much in-game interaction aside from lighting effects, the main meat of this product is the thumb number pad. รย First time users really need to get a feel of the mouse first before diving into using the number pad. The nubs on the number pad helps in guiding the finger on the right key without looking so nice touch by Razer there. Pointing out the tendency of the mouse to be a bit hard to lift during wide panning might bring those who have surround-monitor setup some woes so it is highly suggested that you set the On-the-Fly DPI buttons. Overall, we already expected the mouse to perform well and it satisfies out of the box.
[singlepic id=4647 w=320 h=240 float=center]Now for comfort and ergonomics, right off the bat the SWTOR Gaming Mouse just feels so unique from any gaming mice I’ve held. Razer’s Naga line has a unique curve to them resting the palm on the bulbous body of the mice. The SWTOR Gaming Mouse gives this curved design a bit of a blocky feel with edges flowing from the main body to the corners on the left and right side of the mouse. At first grip the number pad feels rough and unnatural but their adequate sensitivity proves they won’t be pressed easily. The right side/battery cover though lacks any rubber coating which is present on the other Naga mice. This makes the SWTOR mouse not very friendly to people who like to lift their mice during quick panning. Razer tried to counter this by adding a shallow beveled groove to the right side but people with slippery hands might need to exert a bit of effort to lift this mouse. Overall though, the SWTOR Gaming Mouse has an excellent feel to it and the large body rests the palm easily but a word of warning to claw-grippers: this mouse demands your thumb on the numpad for optimal performance. Some clawers who hold the mice by the base might want to practice a bit to familiarize them with the Naga style.
The SWTOR Gaming Mouse’s number pad is its main feature alongside the wireless functionality. The number pad puts in-game commands tied to number keys at the tip of your thumbs making spell-casting and skill-use fast and easy. This requires a bit of getting used to but once mastered this functionality will make most adept gamers highly efficient. No need to drop the mouse to jump over the number keys or over-extend the left hand to reach far-out numbers. The bottom switch easily lets the user change from number pad to number keys whichever the game uses. With solid features like that, we have no problem saying that the SWTOR mouse is one excellent and feature-packed device. Add to that the Star Wars styling which gives this mouse a certain attitude that will appeal to Star Wars fans. The light-up keys and faction logo are also appreciated. They don’t add to the performance, but gives this mice a well-defined identity.
CONCLUSION
We’ll be straight to the point and ask: what are we getting from this US$140 mouse? For starters, you’re getting top-of-the-line gaming grade precision and handling. You’re also getting a number pad on your mouse to improve gaming efficiency with MMOs thus increasing your gaming swagger (master it, better mice don’t make you better.) You’re getting a wireless mice that won’t get tangled around. So are all these points enough to warrant the price tag?
[singlepic id=4665 w=320 h=240 float=center]The answer is a straight NO. The Naga Epic is US$10 cheaper and performs the same as the SWTOR gaming mouse,รย but the similarities end there. What it (Epic) doesn’t bring you is the Star Wars swag, a color crystal code for in-game e-peen flaunting, full Synapse2.0 support for on-the-move gaming, swappable faction logo that glows and bragging rights that you own a US$140 mice. How is that reasonable you ask? A replica Star Wars lightsaber costs upwards of US$150 dollars and more and the only thing it does is make you look like a Star Wars geek. I think its a nice proposition to show off my fandom with a more functional device. As a hobbyist myself, this reviewer feels that the US$10 premium over the regular Naga Epic is a reasonable tax. And don’t get me started on what Star Wars fans buy for more money than that, seriously. That said, this mouse is also a part of the prestigious Razer SWTOR line of gaming devices, one that showcases their pinnacle technologies as evidenced in the keyboard alone. This mouse is an integral part of that set and will give any desktop that complete Star Wars appeal given the right investment.
We cannot recommend this mouse straight-up to anyone seeking an MMORPG gaming mouse or basically anyone looking for a gaming mouse, we can however easily recommend it to anyone interested with it already but are having second thoughts on how the mouse will perform. We can honestly say this mouse ranks on the top of the gaming mice food chain and reigns alongside the Naga Epic over MMO-oriented mice.
EDIT (2/21/12): Corrected info about Naga Epic and Synapse2.0.
