As the “Bringer of Silent Death”, the Razer Lachesis is named after venomous pit vipers found in Central and South America which can strike its victim multiple times at lethal speeds. Now I don’t call myself an avid gamer but I do like to partake in the more recent windows based gaming titles and it will be interesting to see how a true gaming mouse outperforms a regular ol’ optical mouse that I’ve been clutching. Does this precision gaming mouse live up to its namesake?
The Razer Lachesis is made for gamers who need programmable buttons, on the fly DPI settings and swift movement. Being a USB attached device, this mouse will also be impervious to issues such as wireless interference, lag or even the dreaded drained batteries after prolong use; all things that are, frankly, quite useful in a gaming mouse.
Is it a Mouse or a Snake?
The first thing you’ll noticed about the Razer Lachesis is that it does not look like your typical computer mouse, in fact it seems to resemble the head of a viper it you look at it from a particular angle, like the one above.
The other notable feature of the mouse is that it is slightly longer than a typical Microsoft Optical Mouse and most regular “office mice” that I’ve handled.
Upon closer inspection there doesn’t appear to be any prominent mechanical mouse buttons. You know, the separate left and right mouse buttons. The body of the Razer Lachesis is a complete, one piece, moulded design that offers enough flexibility so they can use a single piece for a clean and unmarred design. The above picture does show more of that viper resemblance with the glowing scroll wheel representing the eye of the snake.
Moving from front to back you will notice the scroll wheel which has 25 click-positions and is illuminated by a white LED. The movement of the scroll wheel is smooth with ever so slight an indent from the aforementioned click positions. Behind the scroll wheel are two black buttons and at the factory settings are set to cycle through the available DPI settings for the mouse. The functions of these buttons can be changed via the Razer software that is included.
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When you rise up and over the palm portion of body you come up to the Razer logo which will slowly fades in and out while in use. You can turn this feature off in the software provided. It’s mainly for eye-candy as there is no other rational for the fading in and out of the logo except for added bling.
When you move to the side profile of the mouse you’ll notice that its height is close to that of a standard computer mouse, in this case a regular optical Microsoft mouse. This higher hump for your palm is to help with ergonomics or so the theory goes. Both the left side and right side of the Razer Lachesis mouse has 2 buttons. By default the right side buttons are used to cycle through the stored profiles whereas the left side ones are programmed as Windows Button 4 and Button 5, which we will get into later.
When you flip the Razer Lachesis over, you are presented with the things that give it its smooth moves. There are four white Teflon feet which help the mouse glide effortlessly across any surface. Granted if you’re not using some sort of mouse pad the soft material used in these Teflon feet might wear down quicker than if you used a mouse pad. Razer would probably recommend their Destructor Gaming Mat which we’ve reviewed earlier. When was the last time I used a mouse pad? As I look at the Teflon feet while typing, I do notice that there is a bit of wear on them alrady. Perhaps Razer could toss me aniother one of their gaming mouse pads to help reduce the wear? If not, any good quality gaming pad should fit the bill and is recommended if you want the Razer Lachesis to stay smooth.
There is a small button on the belly of the mouse and it isn’t to sync it to a wireless receiver either. If you reprogram the two side buttons that I mentioned earlier, you can use this Profile Button as a backup. You’ll lose the on the fly switching of the various profile settings because you have to lift the mouse up and push the button but it stops you from having to open up the mouse’s application to change it mid-FRAG. The Razer Lachesis also comes with 32KB of onboard memory in which the profiles are stored. The Profile button allows you to change profiles in case the mouse is attached to a different computer without the software installed as well. It is recessed slightly so that it does not interfere with the mouse’s flawless gliding action.
The mouse’s sensor on the bottom is classified as a 3G Laser Sensor though don’t let that fool you as you cannot blind someone with this. The 3G Laser Sensor is Razer’s approach to advanced gaming sensors which allows for improved resolution, tracking speed and better precision over older generations.
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The Mouse Configuration
Once you have plugged in the Razer Lachesis mouse into an available USB port it will be recognized by the computer (hopefully) and at this time you can installed the Razer utility software so you can get into finer configurations for your bringer of death gaming mouse. On the main screen there are 9 buttons in which you can program via the Razer Lachesis Utility software and with these 9 programmable buttons there are a multitude of various actions you can assign to them to allow a better gaming experience. The main screen is also where you can change the DPI of the mouse in 125 DPI increments from 125 to a staggering 4000! You are able to set 5 DPI settings, by moving the 5 sliders, for each of the 5 profiles which gives you a great deal of customization when you need it.
The main screen also allows your to toggle between 5 profiles in which you can assign various button configurations to. These profiles are the profiles in which the right-side mouse buttons are defaulted to switch between when you press them. The profile select button also cycles between these settings.
The other two slide out menus are for the Sensitivity and Advanced settings such as the axis speed and acceleration. If you play around with the acceleration and speeds you can really make the mouse move fast, in fact the slightest hand movement at higher speeds can make the mouse travel across my dual screen monitors at lightning speeds!
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Regular Use and Gaming Performance
When it comes to the design of the Razer Lachesis mouse I find that it feels nicer in my hand but has a bit more of a getting used to curve than a regular type mouse. The Lachesis is slightly longer than mice that I normally use and it took some time to get used to but now that I have been using it more often, I find that it fits my hand better and allows for easier manipulation with less movement.
Off the bat I wanted to try out the mouse and its on the fly DPI changing that is supposed to help gamers when it comes to FPS (first person shooters). I chose EA’s Battlefield 2142 as my FPS since it was the only FPS based game I have installed on my computer at the moment. Switching between DPI settings I found that it did make the game’s experience better especially when I was trying to get those distance sniper shots without the mouse zooming around the screen too fast. Switch weapons, switch DPI setting and wham! It’s much easier to control and much easier to get an accurate shot without the mouse moving around too much.
After taking out an enemy I needed to switch back to the assault rifle which means changing the DPI setting to a higher value so it will track faster across the screen. Easily done with the click or two of a button and allows me to run and shoot at everything around me quickly. It also allowed me to spin around 180 degrees with minimal mouse movement.
Now one thing I’ve always enjoyed is a good MMORPG or massive multi-player online role playing game and since I’ve temporarily retired from World of Warcraft I thought I would give Lord of the Rings Online a go again and examine how the Razer Lachesis mouse would handle moving the mouse around clicking on the various closely placed items without miss-clicking. The response was good without really needing to change the mouse’s DPI settings on the fly and there were no miss-clicks on the various action buttons. The mouse went where I pointed it. I played for a couple of hours and my hand did not get sore from the design of the Razer Lachesis, which is good because hand cramps while gaming will eventually get you dead.
For those who do not game but want a high precision mouse for applications such as Photoshop where fine mouse movements might be needed, or a mouse that is quick to respond and won’t loose movement periodically, will be glad to find that the Lachesis did not fail my little movement tests. My test was pretty simple and involved taking a blank document in Photoshop, moving the mouse around quickly, stopping it suddenly and then moving it in a different direction. With previous mouses I find that occasionally the mouse movements were missed, not with the Lachesis though. There were no issues with moving the mouse around with various pens and brushes. This test was done with and without various pens drawing on the document.
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The Conclusion
The Razer Lachesis is a great mouse and I highly enjoyed using it at home. I have also taken it to work and played around with the on-board stored profiles and found the settings changed easily and were actually useful in an office environment. People at work were also interested in the style and design and found that the mouse glided over the surface of my desk smoothly and effortlessly, even wihtout a high end mouse mat. However, due to the soft teflon feet, it is recommended to invest in a good gaming mat if you’re going to use this mouse long term.
It might take a bit of time to get used to the shape and you might also accidentally click on the side mouse buttons when first moving it a round. Eventually you will get used to the design and find it fits your hand quite nice or at least it did for me. Being able to change the DPI settings on the fly while in-game is definitely a great feature and helps you increase your frag count. Being able to go from a low DPI (125) setting to a staggering 4000 DPI allows for one to move a character 180 degrees with very little mouse movement or going from high to low allows for that more precise sniper shot without weird mouse jerks.
The utility software that allows you to configure your Razer Lachesis mouse is easy to understand and use. Being able to change assigned actions of the buttons also adds great value and functionality over a standard mouse. If you leave it enabled, the software will display on-screen what profile you have currently switched to, which is great for when you can’t remember which profile does what. This is useful especially if you name them and assign them to applications by name.
In the end I am very glad I have this mouse in my arsenal of computer equipment, especially since I do like to play the occasional game that can utilize the on the fly DPI setting changes such as FPS type games. The overall feel of the Razer Lachesis might take some time to get used to but in the end you should find it fits nicer than regular mice and gives you an added edge when at a LAN game or when playing against people online. I would definitely recommend the Razer Lachesis mouse to anyone who plays fast-paced games and wants to beat their opponent with less effort. Bringing death was never easier.
Pros
- On the fly changing of the DPI settings
- Customizable axis sensitives and acceleration
- Stores up to 5 profile configurations in on-board memory
- Smooth movement travel
Cons
- Design is a bit hard on the hand ergonomically at the begining.
- Side buttons can be accidentally clicked while moving the mouse
- Teflon feet can wear away depending on amount of use
Overall Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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