Let's be honest with ourselves—when it comes to gaming mice, there is such a thing as diminishing returns. I'm not talking about the esportists among us, those hyper-reflexed human beings that leave the rest of us gamers in the dust. For them, only the very will match their fighter pilot-like reflexes.
No, I'm talking about me and you, dear reader. Your average gamers, simply looking for an excellent mouse to plink away at our games with. Let's face it, buying a top-end, uber-expensive mouse in the hopes it will improve our gaming prowess is like buying a Ferrari and thinking we'll all be driving around the track like Lewis Hamilton.
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Quick links
- Razer Basilisk V3 |
- Razer Viper V3 HyperSpeed |
- Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed |
Razer Basilisk V3
Yeah, I'll just wait here while you admire the photos in the listing above. Can you believe an RGB-adorned Razer gaming mouse with a 26,000 DPI sensor and 11 configurable buttons can be had for less than the price of takeout for two?
Sure, it's got a cable. Big deal. If you can get over the fact that you have to plug it in, you'll find yourself with a gaming mouse that looks and feels like it costs $100+ . It'll be as speedy as you like (esportists non-withstanding), and its larger, ergonomic shape means it'll be comfortable to hold, day in and day out.
You could even throw one in your bag and use it as a backup mouse for this sort of cash. Take it to work and turn up the RGB, I dare you. It's sure to make Barry from accounts raise his eyebrows, that's for sure.
Razer Viper V3 HyperSpeed
Okay, this Viper V3 almost steps on my point of "who needs an esports mouse anyway". I mean, it literally is, it's just a cheaper esports model than the Pro variant.
Let's run through what you get for just . A 30 K optical sensor. 280 hour battery life. A HyperSpeed low-latency wireless connection. Razer's Gen 2 mechanical mouse switches. A "mass-centralised design" oh wait I've fallen off the wagon and gone into pro-gamer territory again.
The downside here is you'll need to swap an AA battery in and out yourself when it runs out of charge. That's slightly inconvenient, but when you only have to do it every 280 hours of usage, I'd say it's a reasonable caveat for the price.
Otherwise, this is a tight-like-a-tiger gaming peripheral that will likely last for years, all for very reasonable money. What was the last internal component you bought for your gaming PC, and how much more did you spend than $50? Exactly.
Razer DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed
And for my final trick, how about a fully-fledged DeathAdder? This one even manages to beat out its usually-more-expensive older sibling, the DeathAdder V3 Pro, in a couple of key specs, namely lightness and battery life. What does this mean in practice?
It's our pick for , full stop. I mean, I could stop writing here, but let's go into why, shall we?
It's usually (but not always) a fair bit cheaper than the Pro, and that tilts the scales in its favour. And while it doesn't support 8 kHz polling (at least, not without ) its 1 kHz rate is realistically all any gamer needs, and it saves on battery drain, too. And yeah, yeah, the Pro has a slightly higher DPI. As if anyone every complained about a 26,000 DPI top whack, anyway?
What you're getting here is the iconic (and [[link]] super comfortable) Razer DeathAdder chassis, excellent gaming performance, subtle, stealth-ed out good looks, and a very reasonable price tag. The DeathAdder is an astonishingly good gaming mouse in any configuration, but this version makes so much financial sense it had to go at the top of our recommendations.
It's a bit loud, though. And fairly fingerprint-prone. But other than that? It's a winner, and the best of the best for . How's that for a sign off?
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1. Best wireless:
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3. Best budget wireless:
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5. Best lightweight:
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8. Best ambidextrous:
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