Review of the gaming mouse Razer Viper Mini / Overclockers.ua

The Razer Viper Mini is the third mouse in the family, which already includes the regular Viper and Viper Ultimate. And, as its name implies, it is the smallest mouse in terms of dimensions. Naturally, the changes affected not only the size and weight, but also the filling and, most importantly, the recommended cost. Read about all this in detail in this review.

Specifications

Contents of delivery

The mouse comes in the usual Razer black and green box. There is an image of the product in front and behind, on the sides there is a listing of the advantages of the device and a comparison of its dimensions with the usual Viper.

The package includes instructions and one sticker with the logo.

Appearance

Externally, the Viper Mini is not much different from its older counterparts. It has retained its symmetrical shape and still seems to consist of separate panels sewn together. The mouse became a centimeter shorter, half a centimeter narrower, but kept the height unchanged. The top panel is covered with tenacious rough matte black plastic. In the center, behind a glossy insert, a square small button for switching resolution levels appeared. She presses softly and quietly. Separate panels LKM and RMB turned out to be very successful. Strong, tactile and without significant backlash. Pressing them require less than average effort and respond with loud and distinct clicks. Optical switches are installed under the panels. Their response speed remained the same – 0.2 ms, but the declared MTBF resource for some reason decreased from 70 to 50 million clicks. The middle mouse button is slightly tighter and is activated noticeably quieter.

The rubber insert has disappeared from the left sidewall, now the panel is an ordinary rough plastic, however, it is quite pleasant to the touch. The two side buttons have not changed in shape. Subjectively, they became a little louder in terms of the sound of operation, the pressing force remained average, with a small margin of free play.

The scroll wheel of the mouse is rubberized and covered with small tactile notches, arranged six in a row. It rotates quietly, clearly practicing all fixation positions. There is no play on the wheel. The signal cable enters the case at the center bottom, at a sufficient height from the surface to avoid chafing. At the entry point there is a soft kink protection 15 mm long.

To connect to the USB port, the Razer Speedflex cable is used here. It is quite soft and pliable, with a nylon braid, but I think it is a little tighter than the wires on the older Vipers. The length of the wire is 1.8 meters. The USB connector is shortened, with green plastic around the pad. There is a rubber tie that allows you to wind the excess length of the wire.

On the right side of the mouse, both side buttons and a rubber pad for fingers disappeared. Now there is only tenacious plastic, similar in shape to the left side of the device.

There is an illuminated Razer logo in the form of a three-headed snake on the rear of the mouse. And at the very bottom, at the base, there is a semicircular backlight strip, synchronized with the logo.

The mouse has a symmetrical shape and small size. Suitable for both right-handers and left-handers (provided that the latter do not need side buttons). A small body will only fit into a claw grip in the palm of a large and medium size. But for owners of small palms, the Viper Mini is suitable for any type of grip. The mouse is very light, only 61 grams without cable. There are no complaints about the balance of this small weight.

The base of the mouse has two white Teflon feet on the front and back. The rise in the center around the sensor is made of plastic. PixArt PMW 3359 is installed here as a sensor.

The mouse has one common lighting area on the stern, consisting of a logo and a semicircular strip at the bottom at the base. The LEDs can display the entire RGB color palette and five lighting effects. White color here looks unnatural, however, as always.

Proprietary software

The Razer Viper Mini uses the Razer Synapse 3 Universal Driver (current version 3.5.116.10714) as software. The driver is installed with the Razer Central user account control program and branded applications. Synapse starts through it. The software is updated both automatically and forcibly.

The Synapse 3 start screen has a “modular” program layout structure. The new version of the program has the ability to refuse to load extra modules, such as the Chroma visual effects studio or the macro editor. The developer feedback form, warranty form, information about supported devices, a link to the Razer store, and a link to the proprietary Razer Gold & Silver currency system have remained in place. 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.

On the Customize Mouse Buttons screen, you can reassign any commands to the six keys and two directions of scrolling. The full list of available commands is indicated on the drop-down tab on the left. In addition, you can assign additional functions to the Hypershift mode, in which, when a certain key is pressed and the mode is activated, the functions of all buttons change to an alternative set of commands. Changes are saved to one built-in onboard mouse profile.

In the “efficiency” settings, the sensor resolution is adjusted in the range from 200 to 8500 cpi in increments of 100 units. You can set five separate sensitivity levels, or leave only one level (disabling the corresponding slider). There are three polling rates 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 mouse backlight settings, you can adjust the brightness (between 0 and 100%). There is a slider that allows you to turn off the backlight completely. 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 or static lighting, “breathing”, cyclic color changes, or a volume indication mode when the mouse winks in time with the sound. Color and effect settings are selected separately, with different options depending on the current mode. Effects can be synchronized for other devices that support Chroma lighting. For more complex settings, you need to click on the “advanced effects” tab and go to the Chroma Studio editor.

In the surface calibration section, you can adjust the sensor lift-off height for a specific mat. Unfortunately, only branded rugs are available to choose from. But by choosing one of them, you can set the separation height in the range from 1 to 10 units, which approximately corresponds to a distance of 1 to 3 mm.

A convenient macro editor allows you to record all commands from the mouse and keyboard, including the direction of the scroll wheel and the trajectory of the cursor. Delays are recorded as is or at certain preset values. All macros can be renamed, deleted, imported, exported and copied. Here you can directly bind them to the desired key by setting the parameters and playback conditions.

Ergonomics and testing

The Razer Viper Mini was tested on a monotonous black Mionix Alioth M cloth mat. The mouse has become significantly smaller in size and even in a medium-sized palm it feels rather narrow and short. As a result, in a large hand, the grip naturally tends constantly to the claw. At the same time, if the palm is narrow and small, then the mouse will be comfortable in any type of grip. The weight has decreased to 61 grams and now the device has become almost weightless. A big plus worth noting is the build quality. The case is almost monolithic, without backlash and squeaks. Even better than older Viper models. The scroll wheel, which is pleasant to use, has no backlash. The same can be said about the main keys. Their panels sit firmly in place. Optical switches have become more intelligible and tactilely understandable, but they have significantly increased the volume. In other buttons, everything is also relatively good. The low weight of the mouse, even in combination with slippery feet, creates very little inertia, so sudden movements can be made without fear that the manipulator will fly farther than necessary. The cable here is officially claimed by Razer Speedflex, but in fact it is not as soft as in more expensive models. However, it is still quite flexible and does not interfere with mouse movements.

In terms of software, everything is simple and clear. An advantage over the first Viper can be considered the presence of an onboard memory slot for one profile. There are no questions about the backlight, except for the traditionally incorrect display of white.

As a sensor, an optical PixArt PMW3359 is installed here, which is a proprietary modification of the PMW3331 – sensors found on SteelSeries Rival 3 (under the name TrueMove Core) and Roccat Kain 100 AIMO (Pro-Optic R8). In terms of its capabilities, this is a strong middle peasant with a decent speed of 7.62 m / s and is not subject to breakdowns. Razer has managed to address some of the issues we’ve previously seen with the PMW3331. In particular, now the separation height can be set to a minimum, and smoothing is still fixed, but in percentage terms it is already half as much. The bad news is that at resolutions above 3500 cpi, spontaneous cursor jitter can be observed, increasing as the resolution level increases.

Results

So how good is the Razer Viper Mini as a gaming mouse? Compared to the regular Viper, the smaller Mini version is better in terms of the quality of the case, but loses in terms of filling. Therefore, it is difficult to give an unambiguous answer here, since there are both pluses and minuses. Let’s start with the merits. Sturdy case with good coverage, light weight, optical switches, scroll wheel, flex cable, on-board memory. Everything is great here.

The disadvantage lies in the simplified version of the sensor installed here. Although it has been tightened up in comparison with its counterparts, cursor jitter appears here at high resolutions. In addition, this is still an average level, while the Viper had a top-end sensor in all respects.

The Razer Viper Mini is a compact and cute mouse that fits small palms in all grip types. From the older version, the name and shape of the case remained in it. The simplified sensor, although it has some problems, behaves quite adequately at a lower resolution. With this in mind, the cost of it could be less. The mouse is suitable for FPS games, although you should carefully try on the dimensions of the device before purchasing.