Posted 09/24/09 at 01:20:20 PM by Paul Lilly

We were already impressed with Razer's DeathAdder gaming mouse when we reviewed it awhile back, which earned a 9 verdict and Kick Ass! award, so what does Razer do for a follow-up? Tweak it, of course!

The revamped DeathAdder now sports a "state-of-the-art" 3.5G 3500dpi infrared sensor, compared to the original's 3G 1800dpi optical sensor. Not a bad upgrade for super-sensitive gamers who might be able to notice the difference. And for those that can't, the redesigned DeathAdder also boasts a tangle-free braided cable.

"The DeathAdder is undoubtedly one of Razer's best selling gaming mice," says Robert Krakoff, President of Razer. "To date, the Razer DeathAdder has served the gaming community for a good 3 years and with all the advances in sensor technology, we put our sensor scientists and engineers to task to imbue it with the most precise infrared sensor in the world -- but at the same time maintain the specialty designed form factor that gamers have come to know and love."

The second-gen DeathAdder is available now direct from Razer for $60.

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Posted 08/13/09 at 05:00:52 PM by Will Smith

There’s really nothing worse than an otherwise wonderful product with one fatal flaw that brings its whole score down. The Razer Mamba is a wonderful wireless gaming mouse, with an absolutely devastating power problem.

For the Mamba, Razer tweaked the kick-ass shape of the now-classic DeathAdder design—perfect for palm-grip mousers—to sneak in a pair of sensitivity adjustment buttons. The changes paid off: The Mamba is eminently comfortable for long-term gaming sessions, and the sensitivity buttons fix our only complaint with the DeathAdder, which offered imprecise on-the-fly sensitivity adjustments using the mouse wheel.

Continue reading after the jump.

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Posted 07/09/09 at 12:40:37 PM by Paul Lilly

Razer, maker of gaming peripherals, added to its audio lineup this week with a revised pair of in-ear earphones the company is again calling the Razer Moray.

"After the release of the original Razer Moray, we received feedback from gamers who needed something more," says Robert Krakoff, President of Razer. "They wanted a compact headset that provides not only great audio quality, but the ability to talk to their friends."

The noise-isolating earphones come with an inline omnidirectional microphone that Razer claims "captures sound input from any direction with exceptional voice clarity." The company also touts a "powerful" bass response.

The revised Razor Moray is available now in either black or white with an MSRP set at $60.

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Posted 01/21/09 at 02:30:24 PM by Paul Lilly

We wouldn't advise strapping a brick of Black Cat fireworks to a perfectly good computer mouse, but if you have an old rodent laying around just taking up space in your PC parts bin, you now have an excuse to put it to sleep in the most inhumane manner you can think of. That's because gaming peripheral maker Razer is asking users to submit a YouTube video of "how you trashed your old mouse to stand a chance to win the Razer Mamba," which is Razer's new hybrid gaming mouse.

Razer showed off the Mamba at this year's CES, which features a hybrid wired/wireless design in a shell that looks very similar to the company's DeathAdder. The new mouse is set to go on sale in February with an MSRP of $130. The deadline to enter the contest is January 30, with winners to be announced on February 17, 2009.

Razer hasn't said how many winners it will select or what the criteria will be, but this isn't the first time the gaming peripheral company has tasked users with destroying hardware for a chance at trading up. Razer ran a similar contest with its Tarantula keyboard, in which 5 winners were selected.

Don't plan on entering but still have a cool idea on how to destroy a mouse? Hit the jump and share!

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Posted 01/08/09 at 12:49:24 PM by Paul Lilly

One could argue that Razer has pioneered the competitive gaming peripheral market (Logitech might object) starting with the original Boomslang mouse, and the company has been churning out serpent-inspired mice ever since. The latest reptilian namesake to find a place in Razer's lineup is the new Mamba gaming mouse, announced today at CES.

Similar in design to the DeathAdder, Razer's Mamba eschews the ambidextrous ergonomics inherent in the company's earlier products and targets right handed gamers. But the most interesting evolutionary aspect of this new rodent is its hybrid DNA, which has given birth to both wired and wireless functionality in a single unit.

"With dual mode wired/wireless functionality, the Razer Mamba lets users immediately and seamlessly switch from wired to wireless play," Razer says. "With first in class polling rates at 1ms as compared to traditional wireless mice that poll at 8ms, players will have virtually lag free game play."

Razer claims lag free operation when operating in the 2.4GHz wireless mode, saying the Mamba offers "the fastest mouse both on and off the cord." Helping the company make that claim is a 1ms polling rate combined with a 5600DPI 3.5G laser sensor. The company says you can expect 72 hours of battery life under normal gaming usage, or 14 hours of continuous play.

Look for the Mamba to be available in February 2009 with an MSRP set at $130.

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Posted 11/05/08 at 01:25:33 PM by Paul Lilly

Tired of carrying your clan on your back while you clown the competition with moves that would have Fatal1ty thinking about retirement? Or maybe chasing that law degree is turning out to be more work than you anticipated and it's time for a change. Either way, gifted gamers looking for a change will have a chance to go pro and join Team Razer through a recruitment drive at the World Cyber Games (WCG).

"Team Razer is looking to recruit more professional gamers at the WCG Grand Finals, held in Cologne, Germany from November 5 to 9," Razer wrote in a press release. "To be eligible for consideration into the 'Go Pro with Razer' program, Razer will be in search of true hardware evangelists."

Sell-outs need not apply, as Razer says it isn't looking to simply pay talented gamers to user its products, and instead is only interested in those "already using Razer peripherals competitively." Interested applicants not planning on attending WCG are also welcome to apply for sponsorship at gopro.razerzone.com.

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Posted 10/10/08 at 01:55:42 PM by Reed Porter

You’d never credit your headset after winning a Team Fortress 2 match, nor would you ever brag about your soundcard after just acing a round in Call of Duty 4, but any gaming veteran knows that having a sweet set of cans is a must for even the casual gamer’s setup. This is especially true today with the vast majority of professional gamers using headsets instead speaker systems.

Unfortunately, deciding which audio hardware is right for you can become aggravating very quickly with USB headsets, 5.1 headphones, onboard mixing, analog inputs, and incompatible interfaces confusing the market. With this roundup, we’re going to scrutinize six gaming headset options, and examine the largely unspoken differences between analog and USB audio technology.

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Posted 08/28/08 at 05:24:38 PM by Will Smith

We love the shape of this mouse—it’s comfortable for even the longest session—and the DeathAdder just gets better from there. The sensor delivers pixel-perfect accuracy, and we love that the driver lets us adjust everything from X and Y sensitivity to the lights on the mouse. We’re still not sold on the idea of constantly updating firmware for a mere mouse, but Razer’s built a highly compelling rodent with the DeathAdder.

Hit the jump for the full review.

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