Razer Mamba HyperFlux wireless gaming mouse review / Overclockers.ua

As we noted earlier, the main competition in the field of wireless game controllers has unfolded between Logitech and Razer. It is their decisions that set the tone for the market as a whole, and the brands themselves are trying to produce symmetrical responses to each other’s proposals. One such product born out of opposition is the Mamba HyperFlux, an induction mat and wireless mouse kit. Technically, such a solution is far from the latest, for the first time a series of such devices was released by A4Tech in 2004, but, as they say, everything new is a well-forgotten old. Moreover, if then this technology did not take root, then why not try to bring it to mind now. So, let’s see what came out of it.

Specifications

Contents of delivery

Since the product bundle includes not only a mouse, but also a mouse pad, the size of its package is quite large. On the front part, both products are depicted almost in natural size. The advantages of the device are described on the back side in the form of small text footnotes, and the dimensions are indicated in the lower left corner. There are traditionally no detailed technical specifications here.

The manufacturer approached the protection of goods from damage responsibly, everything is packed in soft foam rubber and closed on the sides with polyurethane dampers.

The package includes an induction hard mat with a double-sided interchangeable coating, a detachable braided USB cable, a mouse, instructions and one sticker with the company logo. Interestingly, this is the first product from Razer in my memory that does not contain the usual speech from the company’s president, Min Liang Tan, about the superiority of this device, placed on a separate plastic sheet.

Appearance

In terms of body shape, the Razer Mamba HyperFlux has “returned to its roots” (when compared with the latest current versions of the Mamba) and has become extremely similar in its contours to the DeathAdder Elite. The top panel is solid, covered in a plastic that is smooth to the touch but grippy and dirt-resistant. There is a company logo on the back, in the middle there are two narrow buttons responsible for changing the resolution, which work easily and with a dull click. The left and right mouse buttons have good switches, both in terms of properly selected pressing force (slightly lighter than average), and in terms of responsiveness – no free play, a clear, quiet and dry actuation sound. The bad news is that the main button panels are quite thin and noticeably go to the sides, especially if you slightly squeeze the body of the mouse on the sides. This does not affect the operation of the mouse, but in terms of assessing the overall quality of the product, it is a minus.

The shape of the left side has its own style, and a line configuration not found on other Razer mice. The top panel folds to the sides and hangs over the side buttons. The thumb pad is made of rubber and is screwed back with longitudinal grooves. The oval profile selection key has moved to the front part from the base of the case. It has a checkered surface texture and is slightly recessed inward, so pressing it inadvertently will not come out. Directly above this mini-switch is a multi-colored dotted LED that indicates the current profile of the manipulator with a certain color. Both side buttons are medium in size, made of matte plastic, groped intuitively. When pressed, they are quiet, operate with medium effort and no free play. It is pleasant to use them both in the browser and in games.

The scroll wheel has changed both in terms of tactility and the nature of the work. It, as before, is rubberized around the perimeter, but the pyramidal transverse notches on it have decreased in size and now do not feel sharp. In general, it is this option that can be called close to the ideal in terms of a combination of tenacity and information content. The rolling resistance of the wheel is quite stiff, and it taps out all the lock positions in turn. Therefore, with rapid rotation, the crack is quite loud, although this sound cannot be called excessively annoying. In addition, the wheel tilts with a certain force to the sides, allowing you to implement any two additional commands on it. And the best part is that the wheel does not dangle. At the bottom in the middle of the front panel there is a socket for connecting a USB signal cable, which turns the device into a regular wired mouse.

The signal cord does not have mechanical latches, but sits very tightly in its connector. It will take effort to extract it, even if it is done intentionally. The rubber anti-kink protection is long and located at a low level, if you bend it down even a little, it starts to cling to the mat.

The USB signal cable is 2.1 meters long and encased in a nylon braid. It is medium in thickness, soft and flexible. Holds its shape relatively well. On the side of the large USB connector, a ferrite ring is put on the cord to eliminate signal interference. Both connectors are provided with protective transport caps against dust. A sticker on the cable warns that the induction mat should not be placed on metal surfaces, and that mobile devices, chargers, or other metal objects should not be placed on it. And you should not place the mats closer than half a meter to each other or closer than one meter relative to the router.

The right sidewall is rubberized along the entire length, from bow to stern, the relief in the form of longitudinal stripes here is the same as on the left. There is nothing more special here.

The stern of the mouse has a hump characteristic of all DeathAdders in the upper left part. In the middle at the bottom is an induction charge indicator, it also has the ability to reproduce all RGB colors and glows when a wireless connection is established between the pad and the mouse.

Ergonomics of the mouse is asymmetric, designed for the right hand. In fact, this is a classic DeathAdder, with a low weight and good distribution along the axes, suitable for all types of grip, plus with large rubberized sidewalls that previous models did not have. For owners of medium and large hands, this manipulator will fit perfectly in the hand.

Based on the mouse, everything looks pretty ordinary. One large semicircular leg is glued on the back. Two trapezoidal in front and another thin oval around the sensor window. There are no hooks to facilitate the dismantling of the legs. There is a beautiful optical sensor installed here, Pixart PMW 3389, which is a proprietary modification of the PMW 3360 series for Razer.

Now let’s deal with the rug. It looks like an ordinary Firefly. But in addition to lighting around the perimeter, induction plates are inserted into it over the entire area, which continuously provide the mouse with energy. As such, the Mamba Huperflux doesn’t have a battery (which helped keep it slightly lighter), but it does have a capacitor that retains enough charge to keep it running for about 15 seconds from the moment it loses contact with the carpet. Therefore, you can not worry about the fact that the mouse turns off when it is taken off the surface during the game. The dimensions of the carpet are 355x283x12 mm.

The playing surface is freely separated from the plastic base, if you pry it from the notch in the middle from the bottom. The effective size of the pad, therefore, is 345×239 mm, with a replacement part thickness of 1.5 mm. A sticky substance (akin to the one on which the Razer Sphex V2 rests), applied in the form of dots over the entire area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe base, helps this surface not to slip.

The surface has a different texture on both sides. On the one hand, it is a smooth plastic, on which the mouse slides like on ice. And on the other hand – velor artificial fabric with a high coefficient of adhesion, which perfectly dampens inertia.

The ledge at the top of the carpet is slightly wider than on regular Firefly. It hides both a wireless transmitter and a charger. In the middle, under the Razer branding, is an RGB LED strip. It glows if the pad has successfully connected to the PC.

On the reverse side there is a square port where the complete signal cord is connected.

The thickness of the part of the carpet used by the player is 4.5 mm.

The entire reverse side, with the exception of the sticker with the serial number, is rubberized. The texture of the surface is made in the form of small hexagons and holds the table quite well.

As far as RGB lighting is concerned, there is a lot of it. On the mouse itself, the scroll wheel, logo and connection indicator on the back are highlighted. All this is regulated separately. The dot indicator of the current profile has fixed colors – white, red, green, blue, cyan. The mat has a connection indicator and 12 separate lighting zones on the front and side edges of the base. In general, all this looks good, but, for some unknown reason, it cannot correctly reproduce white and orange colors.

Consider software.

Proprietary software

As software, the Razer Mamba and Firefly Hyperflux kit uses the updated Razer Synapse 3 universal driver (the current version is 3.3.229.21420), which still does not leave Beta status. The driver is installed along with the user account control and branded applications called Razer Central. Synapse starts through it. The software is updated both automatically and forcibly.

In the settings, you can select one of a dozen supported interface languages ​​(including Russian), and configure driver autorun settings. The official product manual is also available from here, as well as the choice of interface color – light or dark.

In addition, you can reset the connected devices to their default values, and reset the start guide to view it again.

The Synapse 3 start screen has a “modular” program layout structure. Separate modules are a mouse driver, a Chroma visual effects studio, a macro editor, a feedback form with developers, a warranty form, information about supported devices, a link to the Razer store, and a link to the proprietary zVault currency system. All modules that are not simple links are duplicated in the usual list of menus in the upper left corner of the application window. In the upper right corner there is access to the current user account. Among the new products, we can note the RGB compatibility module from Philips HUE, which allows you to synchronize the backlight.

On the Customize Mouse Buttons screen, you can remap any commands for the seven primary keys and four scroll directions. The full list of available commands will be indicated on the tab on the left. In addition, you can assign additional functions to the Hypershift mode, the essence of which is that when a certain key is pressed and the mode is activated, the functions of all buttons change to an alternative set of commands. Thanks to this, up to 22 different commands can be performed on 11 active buttons of the manipulator. On the right is a list of profiles (a separate slide-out tab) that can be written to the internal memory in four slots marked in red, green, blue and light blue.

In the “efficiency” settings, the sensor resolution is adjusted in the range from 100 to 16000 dpi in increments of 50 units. You can set five separate levels of sensitivity, or leave only two levels. Separate or synchronous change of sensitivity along the X and Y axes is available for each level individually. There are three polling frequencies to choose from – 125, 500 or 1000 Hz. There is also a direct link to a standard program for basic Windows mouse settings.

In the basic backlight settings, it is possible to control lighting effects for all three zones simultaneously in color and brightness (ranging from 33 to 100%). You can also choose any color from the RGB palette for the power indicators on the mouse and mousepad, as well as turn them on or off individually. You can set the time for the backlight to turn off when the screen turns off or when the mouse is idle, from 1 to 15 minutes. In quick effects, you can choose dynamic, pulsating or static lighting, changing colors according to a wave pattern, or cycling colors. One common backlight color for the scroll wheel and logo is also selected. And the effects can be synchronized for other devices that support Chroma backlighting. For more complex settings, you need to check the “advanced effects” checkbox and go to the Chroma Studio editor.

In the Chroma Studio editor, you can fine-tune the parameters of all zones and lighting effects separately, edit layers and superimposed effects, and arrange real light shows with the mouse and mouse pad, viewing changes in real time.

Calibration allows you to adjust the height of the sensor separation from the surface for a specific type of rug. This can be done by selecting a Razer branded mat from a list of pre-configured settings, or manually calibrating for any new surface type and setting the tear-off height from 1 to 10 units, which corresponds to a range of 1 to 3mm.

The macro editor has wide functionality. The left tab has a complete list of created commands that can be copied, imported, exported and deleted. Commands are recorded in the central window, where not only mouse or keyboard clicks are received, but also the cursor movement trajectory is recorded relative to a specific window or screen as a whole. The right tab shows the available command assignments, options for setting time delays, and a schematically recorded cursor path.

A separate section has also appeared in which profiles can be linked to the activation of certain applications installed on a particular PC. As well as a section in which synchronization and management of HUE devices takes place. However, we will not dwell on them in detail.

Ergonomics and testing

The manipulator was tested on the supplied Razer Firefly Hyperflux mat in wired and wireless modes, on both types of surface. Since the ergonomics of the Razer Mamba Hyperflux fully repeats the DeathAdder, I can’t call it anything other than very comfortable. It fits any type of grip and palm size and is well balanced in weight. A nice bonus to the shape are large rubber side pads, which replaced the small inserts. Both the plastic surface of the top panel and the sides are resistant to dirt accumulation and are easy to clean. The nature of the operation of all keys and the scroll wheel does not cause any complaints or questions, in terms of responsiveness and properly selected tactile effort, they are beyond praise. The legs of the mouse are very slippery, especially noticeable on the plastic surface on which the manipulator literally flies. The velor side of the “Control”, on the contrary, clings to the legs and dampens inertia almost completely, although it also seems silky to the hand. Ultimately, it was plastic that I liked more in terms of the overall usability of this mouse. When working on a wire, as noted above, it clings to the protrusion of the mat in front, and the bend protection is located very low. Therefore, using the wired mode on the native rug is uncomfortable, it is better to take some other surface, or an additional cable holder that will lift it up.

Using the mouse in induction mode is quite comfortable. It is quickly picked up by the receiver and remains permanently active without going into low power mode. If you remove the mouse from the carpet, then the charge accumulated in it is enough for approximately 15-20 seconds of autonomous operation. If you return the manipulator back within this time, there will be no delay in work, that is, mouse movements with lifting along the carpet are not noticeable. If you exceed this time and achieve a full discharge, then it will take about 4 seconds to return to service. In other words, this mouse is wireless only on its mat, it is tied to it, and yet its signal confidently reaches a distance of up to 10 meters. This is the main disadvantage of Mamba Hyperflux in comparison with classic wireless manipulators, equipped with their own battery and a separate receiver. On the other hand, you don’t have to worry about the charge level at all, and there is no difference in responsiveness compared to the wired mode of operation.

A few words should be said about the backlight. It doesn’t display white and orange colors correctly, and while it looks good on a mouse, the glow around the pad’s perimeter isn’t impressive. Also, I ran into problems in the software where Chroma Studio would not start at all, leaving the default highlighting. But I was especially pleased with the moments when the software reset the mouse resolution to 0, which led to a complete stop of the cursor and was treated only by connecting another mouse with changing the parameters manually. It looks like Synapse 3 is in Beta status for a reason and needs some serious tweaking.

The Pixart PMW 3389 sensor performs exceptionally well. It is not whimsical to surfaces, it is almost impossible to rip it off, it has no parasitic jitter, drifting or problems with liftoff height. The cursor almost does not move during separation from the surface and rearrangement. There is no acceleration, but the average smoothing of the trajectory is felt regardless of the resolution level. In addition, the accuracy of cursor positioning sags as the number of dpi increases, this is especially felt after passing the threshold of 12,000 dpi, although it is unlikely that anyone will use such parameters in real games.

Results

A set of Razer Mamba Hyperflux induction mat and mouse is a very specific product. It solves exactly as many wireless mouse problems as it creates. On the one hand, there is no charging problem, and if the user is so lazy that he cannot put the manipulator on the docking station at night, or connect the cable, then this thing is just for him. In addition, the weight problem is mitigated – only 96 grams, because the mouse does not have a battery. Anyway, Mamba Hyperflux is for those who can’t stand cable, so it’s infuriating, but doesn’t want to lose the benefits of wired solutions.

On the other hand, strictly speaking, the Mamba Hyperflux is only a semi-wireless mouse that is fully tethered to its native induction mat. It can’t be used in cordless mode, such as on the road with a laptop, and if the carpet breaks, then there is no separate receiver, and the mouse automatically becomes a regular wired DeathAdder Elite. Also, foreign metal objects should not be placed on the induction mat, and it must be kept away from the router. In addition, it is inconvenient to use the mouse on a complete carpet with a wire – the build-up in the front part of the rug, against which the cable constantly rubs, interferes. In general, everything is ambiguous.

A few words about the benefits. The controller itself is well made. A wonderful traditional shape, comfortable elastic bands on the sides, excellent switches, a scroll wheel brought to mind, and, most importantly, a normal sensor has finally been brought into the Mamba family. In addition, in wireless mode there are no differences from wired.

But there are also disadvantages. To minor points, I would attribute the side play of the main key panels and the incorrect color rendering of white and orange. But what causes real tension in this case is the work of the current current version of Razer Synapse 3 Beta. Several months have passed since I last met her, and during this time the program has become very unstable. The last significant drawback is the greatly inflated price of the product, which exceeds all similar offers on the market.

As a result, it is difficult to judge how successful the Razer Mamba Hyperflux will be in modern realities. In general, the technology is quite interesting, but the question is whether it was necessary to deprive the manipulator of its own battery and autonomy completely. However, I am confident that with adequate cost reduction and a solution to the software problem, Mamba Hyperflux has every chance to win the sympathy of the players.