Razer Mamba and Microsoft SideWinder X8 mice reviewed (Verdict: Both excellent)

Matt Buchanan reviews the Razer Mamba and SideWinder X8 wireless gaming mice, both of which are wireless mice finally have a fast enough response to be indistinguishable from wired mouse while gaming.

They are also both inexplicably named after snakes, which if I'm not mistaken, are corded.

[#1 posted by Anonymous, April 13, 2009 12:04 PM]

Snakes eat common mice, Joel. Get it?

[#2 posted by cujoquan, April 13, 2009 12:13 PM]

I suppose it was too daring for Razer to stray from its cool-snakes checklist.

[#3 posted by Cowtown2, April 13, 2009 12:18 PM]

I always assumed the MS sidewinder line was named after a missile that was named after a snake.

You know, since that's so different.

[#4 posted by Anonymous, April 13, 2009 12:59 PM]

I'm pretty sure snakes aren't corded - they're just cords, especially if you stack them properly.

[#5 posted by claud9999, April 13, 2009 1:18 PM]

Why not Bluetooth? Bluetooth mice/keyboards seem to be a true rarity. Bluetooth trackballs all but fiction.

[#6 posted by dculberson, April 13, 2009 1:41 PM]

Claud, I'm similarly mystified. Any Bluetooth mice I've found are always markedly more expensive than the kind that include a dongle. Are the Bluetooth licensing fees actually more than making a dongle?? That's crazy.

[#7 posted by mr.skeleton, April 13, 2009 1:41 PM]

Wireless mice should be called hamsters.

[#8 posted by Michiel, April 13, 2009 2:04 PM]

Razer's website is very 1998.

[#9 posted by rak0ribz, April 13, 2009 2:16 PM]

Claud, DCulberson:

IANABTFM*, but I think that historically one reason (as far as mice are concerned) has been that the Bluetooth power-saving mode necessarily includes a lower RF polling rate; waking up from sleep mode involves negotiation with the BT host for a time slot, and takes tens or hundreds of milliseconds. This isn't too annoying in a keyboard or headset, but can be painful behavior in a mouse, especially if the timeout-to-standby interval is set too short. I think that's the reason for the small numbers of BT mice, at least in the past - they were just too annoying to use, and required a fair bit of specialized microprocessor brain to keep track of all that extra Bluetooth stuff.

Now that prices for the chips have come down, though, I'm a little surprised that the problems haven't been licked; even if Bluetooth isn't really architecturally suitable for meeses, there are still an awful lot of people with BT receivers built into their PCs.

*i.e., IANA Bluetooth Forum Member

[#10 posted by grimc, April 13, 2009 2:22 PM]

$130 for a mouse? Really? Zoinks.

[#11 posted by danilo, April 13, 2009 2:42 PM]

I have the most turgid woody for thumb shelves on mice, so the one on the right looks pretty sweet. The one on the left is sexy in a future-military-ala-Mass-Effect kind of way.

I love dark-shaded input devices.

[#12 posted by Anonymous, April 13, 2009 8:29 PM]

I have a Razer (one of their cheaper models) and love it to death. But I'm a sucker for nice textures and the pulsating snake logo on mine.

I can't use Microsoft mice because their scroll wheels have are smooth rather than offering any sort of tactile response that lets you scroll in units. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I'm sure there is some technical jargon for that difference. It just makes me feel weird to not have those sorts of ridges, and I sometimes scroll past where I really wanted to be.

[#13 posted by grimc, April 14, 2009 12:33 AM]

@#12

I know what you're talking about, but I don't think MS has done that with the scroll wheels for quite a while. At least the 2 sidewinders I've had over the past few years had segmented scrolling.

[#14 posted by PaulR, April 14, 2009 4:31 AM]

Matt Buchanan's not left-handed, obviously...

[#15 posted by nightingale, April 15, 2009 9:05 PM]

the mouse looks so wonder , just like a really mouse for the first sight, I think it must have a good feeling too!