Patriot Viper V570 Blackout Edition Gaming Mouse Review

When I think about Patriot, I must be honest, gaming peripherals are not something that first pops into my mind for them. Patriot, to me, has been about memory and storage, so when I heard about their Viper gaming peripheral line of products, I was quite interested and looked forward to checking out what they have on the market. Enter the Viper V570 Gaming Mouse Blackout Edition, a mouse that gives you high-end performance with an a large selection of customization for your gaming needs and experiences.

Features and Specifications

• Xtreme Precision Laser Sensor
• Up to 12,000 DPI ( 8,000 hardware | 12,000 software)
• Multi-zone customizable RGB LED system
• Advanced MMO+FPS all-in-one ergonomics
• Custom RGB profiles
• 13 programmable macro keys
• Ceramic foot pads
• DPI LED indicator
• Adjustable weight up to a total of 34.2g
• Zero Delay
• Light Source: Laser
• IPS: 150
• Polling rate: 1000Hz
• Switches: Omron (10M clicks)
• Sensor: Avago ADNS-9800
• Controller: Sonix

What’s in the Box

The retail packaging gives you the quick low-down on the Viper V570 right away. When you open the flap on the front you can see more features as well given the ability to place your hand sort of on the mouse before opening the package. It be nice if more manufacturers did that, you could sort of get a general sense of the feel of the mouse before purchasing it. The inside flap also highlights the features and I don’t know about you but I am quite interested in checking out how smooth the mouse glides with the ceramic feet.

Included in the box is the Viper V570 Blackout Edition mouse, the product pamphlets, the container with the 7 weights and two Viper branded stickers.

First Impressions

When I first took the V570 out of the box, I liked how it fit nicely within my palm-type grip. The contours where your thumb is placed on the left side made gripping the mouse more comfortable than other mice I have used. Access to the macro buttons can be a bit tricky, but with practice it is not that much of a hassle. The scroll wheel reminds me of a car tire from its tread pattern. It also has a good size too. Behind the scroll wheel is a profile button and the DPI setting button, both easily accessible.

The thumb side, or left side, of the mouse is textured with easy access to the “Sniper” button. By default, this button allows you to quickly boost your DPI but it can be programmed to something else. You can rock your thumb up against 1 of 5 other macro buttons located along the top too. An LED strip can be seen below the thumb rest area.

The right side of the mouse has a little contoured area for your ring-finger or pinkie if you wish to rest it there. When viewing the V570 from the back, you can see the contoured area where your thumb rests. I have found it to be quite comfortable for short and long periods of use.

Here is a better angle from the top front. The LEDs located a bit behind the scroll wheel are a visual indicator for the profile and DPI setting you have selected. The two buttons on the image right are the typical mouse “forward and backward” buttons that can be reprogrammed if needed.

When looking straight on to the front of the mouse (something most people wouldn’t normally do) you can see two little LED panels which add to the overall RGB lighting of the Viper V570.  The Viper V570 Blackout Edition has 7 RGB lighting zones that can be set independently of each other. You can fine tune the colours to suit your gaming experience needs easily.

Flipping the mouse over you will see the 5 ceramic feet and the laser sensor. I would love to see more mice move away from the PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) feet or as some people may know it as Teflon, to these ceramic type feet. I am sure that the ceramic feet will wear and tear far less than the Teflon feet that that majority of other mice have.

Flip the mouse back over and you can pop off the little area where the weights can be installed. You can adjust the weight of the mouse by adding the little cylindrical weights. Six (of 7) additional weights can be added to change adjust the weight from about 159 grams to about 182 grams.

Setup

As with most computer peripherals, there is software you can download to configure the device to your specific needs. The Viper V570 Blackout Edition gaming mouse is no different and can be highly customized to suite your play styles.

The first tab is the button configuration page. Here you can specify what each and every button does on the mouse. You can also see that you have 5 profiles to choose from so if you play multiple games you can set up a profile based on what game you might be playing; you could even make profiles based on character type within a game too if you can handle that sort of thing.

The next tab is where you can change the DPI settings for the Viper V570. Clicking the DPI setting button behind the mouse wheel allows you to cycle through these 4 DPI profiles. Yes, you can even specify DPI settings for the X-axis and Y-axis separately.

You can program macros. The mouse has internal memory as shown in the above screenshot.

The next tab is the Settings tab. Here you can change the USB polling rate, enable and disable some options, as well as backup and restore your settings.

The last tab is where you can change the lighting settings for the Viper V570. You have 5 profiles in which one you can modify to suit your needs.

Accessorize Your Mouse

Patriot also sent along their Viper LED Gaming Mouse Pad to try out. Unlike other mouse pads, this one has a rigid polymer surface that allows for a mouse to glide over effortlessly. In conjunction with the Viper V570 Blackout Edition Gaming Mouse and its ceramic feet, it is a pretty slick combo.

Inside the box is the mouse pad itself along with a USB cable that has a built-in controller for the LEDs around the edge.

When you take a closer look at the Viper LED Gaming Mouse Pad, you will notice the harder surface material on the top side and then high grip rubber backing on the underside.

You can connect the mouse pad to your computer via the included braided microUSB cable. I would have to look closer but it almost seems like the end of the microUSB cable is slightly thicker than the thickness of the mouse pad itself.

Inline with this cable is a little control module with two buttons that allow you to change the 6 different lighting schemes that illuminate the edge of the mouse pad.

Of course you do not need to make use of the USB cable, but you do if you want to make use of the LED colors.

Performance

The games I’ve played with the Viper V570 have been ones such as Fortnite Battle Royale where accuracy can be favored to survival games such as 7 Days to Die to slightly less accuracy required games like Sea of Thieves or Subnautica.

From what I found is that the response from the mouse and its sensor was decent. I’m not a hardcore FPS gamer but more of someone who likes to play a variety of games and the Viper V570 Blackout Edition gaming mouse was able to let me play well and for long periods of time. The macro buttons can also come in very handy of course for FPS style games and of course MMOs. The 5 buttons are easily accessible with your thumb and can definitely give you a slight advantage over those who use mice without as many programmable buttons.

Switching between mouse profiles is easily done as well. When I utilize one monitor, I tend to use a lower setting but when I have more than one monitor, I will bump up the mouse’s DPI setting with a single click of a button on the mouse and then I am able to move across the monitors with very little wrist movement.

To get back to my previous mouse DPI setting, I do have to cycle through all 4 DPI settings before returning to the one I previously had. The same goes for the actual mouse setting profiles, you can cycle them one at a time but have to go through all of them before getting back to the one you previously wanted.

Final Thoughts

I have gotten to used the Viper V570 Blackout Edition mouse for a couple of weeks now and I’ve totally grown accustomed to it. When I go to the office, I of course do not get to make use of the Viper V570, and I find that my hand is not as comfortable and that I miss the smooth glide. The V570 fits nicely in my palm, I can use it easily among the various computer tasks each day. I have used it for general Internet surfing, photo editing, video editing and of course gaming.

The button layout is fairly easy to access when needed. There is one little downside: the default navigation buttons. These are the buttons that are next to the scroll wheel and are a bit awkward to access with your index finger. You sort of have to stretch your finger a bit further than what might seem comfortable. Though someone with longer fingers (is that possible?) may have no issues with it at all. At least these two navigation buttons cannot be accidentally pressed like other mice I have used in the past.

The movement of the Viper V570 I would describe as “gliding over butter.” Seriously!  Thanks to the ceramic feet, the Viper V570 slides along all surfaces with such ease and very little friction. The Viper LED Gaming Mouse Pad is a nice compliment to the Viper V570. Even though the ceramic feet can be used on virtually any surface, it does perform quite well on the rigid polymer surface of the mouse pad. The accent lighting around the mouse pad is a nice touch, but is easily turned off if it does not match your current lighting environment.

If you are looking for a new gaming mouse with programmable buttons, smooth glide over a variety of surfaces then I would recommend checking out the Viper V570 Blackout Edition Gaming Mouse. It’s available now for about $49.99. The original and more colorful V570, which should be functionally identical, is about $10 less.