It's been a few months since the reptile fanatics over at
Razer dished out a
new input peripheral, but the wait for yet another ends today with the introduction of the ambidextrous Orochi ($79.99; ships mid-August). Rather than shooting for the desktop gamer, the company is aiming squarely at the laptop crowd with its freshest portable Bluetooth laser mouse, which is the first to offer a 4,000dpi Razer Precision 3G laser sensor and dual-mode wired / wireless functionality. There's also seven programmable buttons, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity and on-board memory for setting up performance profiles. In related news, the outfit is also issuing a new gaming surface in the Razer Kabuto, an ultrathin, ultra-soft mat that's probably nice, but not quite $19.99 nice.
posted Jul 23rd 2009 2:11PM
Sweet, about time they put that Pokemon to good use.
I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To catch them is my real test
To train them is my cause
I will travel across the land
Searching far and wide
Each Razer Orochi portable Bluetooth gaming mouseto understand
The power that's inside
Razer intros Orochi portable Bluetooth gaming mouse!
It's you and me
I know it's my destiny
Razer intros Orochi portable Bluetooth gaming mouse!
Ooh, you're my best friend
In a world we must defend
Razer intros Orochi portable Bluetooth gaming mouse!
Our hearts so true
Our courage will pull us through
You teach me and I'll teach you
Razer intros Orochi portable Bluetooth gaming mouse,
Gotta catch 'em all!
I'm suprised nobody's said anything about naruto (Orochimaru and his Kabuto). Ha.
I second Ian, it's a naruto thing rather than pokemon
@lan
Yea, I'm sure that's what they're going form, especially since they're selling it as a duo right now.
That's actually kind of clever, a gaming surface that doubles as a keyboard/screen protector for a laptop.
So I've owned other Logitech wireless mice that were wireless (not bluetooth) that had no lag, then I tried a bluetooth mouse, and it had terrible lag.
What did Razer do (if anything) to mitigate the lag inherent in the Bluetooth stack?
Included a wire with the mouse.
There's nothing that you can do about the bluetooth lag, I'm afraid. I think it operates on something structured very similar to TCP/IP for communication.
If its good enough for ps3 fighting games, its good enough for pc gaming.
@koala
Two things:
1) PS3 Games are designed to make the latency less noticable
2) Analog stick precision and response is nothing compared to a mouse. It will be quite noticable.
I totally agree with you. I used to own a bluetooth mouse and keyboard and i got the problem of lag constantly to the point i took it back and reverted back to my tried and tested logitech wireless keyboard and mouse and its never let me down. Shame cos I'm such a techno geek that i have to have anything remotely high tech in my pad and yet bluetooth is great for headsets and audio devices and yet crap for anything else....Shame.
I have the Logitech MX Revolution. It's Bluetooth, and I use the Bluetooth built into my computer. Yeah there is lag if you're just starting to use the mouse for about a quarter second. After the initial lag, it's pretty good and accurate, not too bad for gaming. It's more than adequate for other tasks, and not having to plug in a dongle is quite an advantage. If I had to buy again though, I'd probably save the money and go with a USB mouse and keyboard (also have the MX5500 Bluetooth keyboard). So in conclusion, for gaming, Bluetooth is not as good as wired or proprietary wireless. But for other tasks, Bluetooth is good (at least if you spring for something high-end like I did. My keyboard and mouse were $133, but I had to use up a giftcard from Dell.)
@Jacob
You have one of the VERY rare Bluetooth MX Revolutions. Only available if you bought the keyboard and mouse. It's one of the few mice that's known to not have bad lag issues on the Bluetooth interface. If you use a regular MX Revolution and a BT MX Revo side by side, you will definitely notice a difference.
If you're playing a game that requires fast, precise, accurate and high responsiveness, then the BT MX Revo is not your answer. Which is a shame, because the MX Revo is one of the finest general purpose mice that money can buy.
I too use an MX Revolution, and it's pretty neat, no lag at all.
Btw, don't put the receiver on the back of your computer, sometimes your mice will have some lag because of it and I don't know why.
I have experienced that lag, then I put the receiver in front or/and on a USB hub and it works perfectly now.
For a second I thought the mouse was 19.99 and I got excited.. then I read the link and saw 79.99 and that is when my excitement died down.. I will stick to my little dell BT mouse a little longer
Thanks Engadget, I was just about to purchase a different Razer mouse but this one seems much nicer.
I'll stick with my VX Nano.
I really like my VX revolution. I had to break down and buy a second VX revolution since I had dropped my first one too many times. It lasted over three years and I had accidentally dropped it from heights of over 3 feet several times. The first thing to go was the smooth scroll, then the battery compartment was a little loose (I had to jostle the mouse to get the battery re-seated at times) and batteries no longer showed their true charge, and finally it just quit on me about 4 months ago. I promptly went out to newegg and bought another one, these things are tanks and they fit perfectly in the palm of my hand. Best mouse I've ever used, but I might look into this mouse should I ever need another.
To bad it does not work with OS X!!! Says on their website it only works with Windows XP / x64 / Vista / Vista64. Kind of misleading to show a shot of the MacBook black there with the mouse pad if the mouse will not work with it.
They do make a great weird gaming mouse that is the only wired mouse I can find that has a programmable side button for OS X, it is called the DeathAdder. You can buy the windows one and just install the OS X drivers software.
It probably will work for a Mac like almost all mice out there, including every single mouse from the Razer line. Only problem is that it'll have to work the way the OS wants it to, instead of a driver allowing you to customize all the extra buttons.
"Kind of misleading to show a shot of the MacBook black there with the mouse pad if the mouse will not work with it. "
The Mouse pad works with OS X
There's no difference between the Mac and PC versions of the Deathadder other than the color of the LED.
A lot of Razer mice have onboard memory and profile storage, like the Lachesis, for example. You can program your profile fully in Windows and then if you plug into your Mac, you can access the profile. It looks like this BT Orochi mouse might have this, so this could be a non issue.
@Calvin
LOL.
this would go great with the laptop i purchased a few months ago. I think I will buy this mouse.
A gaming mousepad for 20 bucks is overpriced? Depending on who you talk to, a good mousepad is more important than a good mouse. I suppose it also depends on the games you play; if you're doing something like WoW, you can get away with a magazine. If you're trying to get headshots in CS 1.6 (and thus playing at reallly low sensitivities) then an oversized (say, 17"x11") low friction mousepad is a good investment.
$20 sounds fair to me too. i spent $30 on a Razer ExactMatX and i couldn't be more impressed with it. its made of aluminum. how badass is that!?
Razer makes awesome stuff. i have a DeathAdder, Lachesis, Lycosa, ExactMatX and Characias. my only gripe is the Lycosa keyboard just started acting strange with my BIOS and sometimes it won't function at all until Windows boots. very frustrating
I currently have a smooth, reflective desk, but I'm not sure what I'll have next semester. I'm lookin at the func F30r-17. 17"x11" of slippery plastic.
I recently got a Razer Sphex mousepad myself. Now I am stuck wondering why the hell I've not been using gaming caliber pads till now.
the only mouse endorsed by orochimaru himself
I'll be interested to get this mouse. I think i'm going to pick it up. In the past, i've had very poor experiences with bluetooth mice. I'm going to order it asap and i'll put a review up on my blog @ http://www.crazyhawt.com !
thanks kev can't wait ;)
this may actually be worth replacing my logitech vx nano with mainly so i can get back the use of my second USB port (man i wish they'd create the vx nano with bluetooth).
I'm so not an anime nerd, but did anyone else see the Naruto reference in these two products?
Orochi (Orochimaru (Main villian)
Kabuto (his evil glasses wearing lackey)
I feel like I'm a virgin all over again just saying something like this in public, but it kinda made me lol.
I thought it was a Giants: Citizen Kabuto reference. That game was probably the most fun I've ever had gaming.
This has to be a rebranded Logitech vx Nano. I know the case is a little different, but it really looks too similar.
Rebranded VX Nano?
First, the standard VX Nano's not even Bluetooth.
Second, I don't see the resemblance at all.
I'll stick with optical. I don't like the look of the twitchy laser mouse on the monitor. The copperhead I owned was a complete piece of junk.
I agree that optical is better for games that require twitch reflexes, but my Death Adder is crap, too. It tracks fine, but it's built like crap. I'll be getting an Ikari soon, and hopefully I'll have better luck with that.
Wow, I was trying to save up for the Mamba for use with my laptop (which does games very well, thank you very much). $129.99 is no small price to pay for a mouse, but I was willing to pay. When I saw this post for a LAPTOP sized mouse with BLUETOOTH (NO DONGLE!!!), I was thrilled! My laptop has built in bluetooth, and this mouse costs $50 less?
Sold!
Its... bluetooth, tho. What kind of games do you play?
Yeah, be careful giving up on the Mamba for this one. There is a reason this is cheaper. The Mamba is built to be as lag free as a wireless can get. This bluetooth based mouse may not be so pleasant to game with. I'd still get the Mamba if I were you. This is just for plain portability and convenience. For games, it looks like they recommend utilizing the wired mode for gaming grade performance.
Is this lag issue only if you are a born-in-the-blood gamer which a reaction rate faster than the screen refresh? I have new a Logitech wireless mouse and sure there is a tiny lag when first moving it (I assume to 'wake'' it up) but after that, very agile.
Erm, maybe I am being stupid here... Just realised my laptop has built-in bluetooth, but I am still using the logitech dongle... Somebody slap me!
What ever happened to the blow-up mouse concept...?
Orochi - Orochimaru
Kabuto
Naruto!
release some damn mac drivers already.