Hardware Review: Razer Mamba — What a piece of shit!
Razer Mamba
Update (Jan 23, 2011) :: So several months ago the mouse optics just up and quit.. Everything else worked, but slowly over the course of a couple days the optics got less and less responsive and then finally stopped all together.. I had put the mouse in the closet on the shelf which is generally where hardware goes to die at my house.. Today I went in there to do some cleaning and putter around only to find that the mouse battery cover had been forced off by a battery that had swelled to more than double its original size!!
My opinion on this thing is back to “avoid at all costs”.. The level of support being what it was and the number of other folks who have similar issues tells me that this thing sucks bad. Add to that the random deaths, the number of folks who have similar optical issues, the battery swelling issue, the very short battery life and it’s inability to work on some surfaces… yeah.. don’t buy this mouse.
Update (Nov 1, 2009) :: After all is said and done, I have the mouse back from Razer and it is working as I think it should. It doesn’t do the sleep-death thing it was doing previously which implies to me that the old firmware was horribly buggy and the newer firmware is required for sure.. That was the number one issue previously and it appears to be resolved.. The Razer management team that I dealt with were nothing but professional and courteous though I am still concerned about the “standard” support they are providing as those folks didn’t give anywhere near the level of support that I got directly from the president and his main man (of course).. My over all opinion on the device itself has gone from “avoid at all costs” to, “okay its not bad so long as you get the most recent version”. I still find myself occasionally using the G7 which I still find telling but I am not sworn off Razer products as I was previously.. And no they didn’t pay me or make me say these things..
Now on to the original post :: I was pretty frustrated and angry when I initially wrote this. The tone is a lot harsher than it should be and for that I apologize, but the message is still basically what I want it to be..
As I have said previously, I’m a pretty hard core Logitech fan. I use a lot of their hardware, and am always very happy with it.. I have used several Logitech mice in my day (corded and cordless) and up until fairly recently was using a Logitech G7. The G7 is one of their cordless gaming mice and I have used it for a while. I really like it, it’s a wonderful mouse and I highly recommend it. My only complaint being that I wish it had 2 thumb buttons instead of one.. that was it.. my only complaint.. I managed to break the mouse wheel on mine though due to my own stupidity and being a bit rough with it, so it was time to replace it..
A buddy of mine has a Razer mouse and loves it, so when I was at the store and saw the Ferrari of the Razer mouse line; the Mamba wireless gaming mouse — I went ahead and picked it up..
At $129.99 I expected this thing to perform like no other.. In fact, at twice the cost of my Logitech G7, I expected it to perform twice as well.. It came in a really nice box, with a lot of high and mighty claims on the box so I was thinking I had a winner..
Let me be clear here – this mouse is the biggest piece of shit, I have ever.. and I mean.. EVER used..
I have been struggling and fighting with it for a while now, it’s beyond the time for me to take it back or I would. I’m going to compare it to the Logitech G7, which I now know to be a superior mouse in every way except possibly the three listed below which has nothing to do with how I use the mouse;
- Packaging: The Razer folks took some queues from Apple on this one, the unboxing of the mouse is actually really impressive. They use very high quality packaging. Nice job. I mean the packaging was so nice, I still have it all..(that’s not normally for me.. I usually toss the box asap)
- Dual Modes: The mouse can be used both in cordless or corded modes. That’s a nice innovation and frankly I think all mice should adopt this. Again.. Nice job guys.. I seriously like this and hope all mice do this in the future.. Quick! Patent it!
- 5600 DPI: The mouse has a very high resolution so I’ll throw this in as a plus but I never used it.. Frankly 5600 is way too high to be useful in my FPS games.. It’s twitchy as hell.. I usually used one click up from default.. (not sure what that resolution actually is)
Yeah.. that’s really it.. I’m trying to think of other nice things to say but I just can’t think of anything.. I have used this mouse from day one as a wireless replacement for my G7 and I expected it to perform as such.. Boy was I wrong;
- Battery Life: Their packaging states clearly that this mouse has a battery life of approximately 14 hours of continuous gaming or 72 hours of normal gaming usage. Horse shit! I mean it doesn’t even come remotely close to 72 hours of ANY kind of use.. 72 hours of sitting on the desk and it’s dead.. it doesn’t come close to 14 hours either.. If I get 8 hours of just “work use” I’d be happy.. 14 hours of continuous gaming use?! Bullshit.. This is just a marketing lie.. There is also only the one battery, and the only way to charge it is to put the mouse on the stand. Fail.The G7 comes with two batteries, and you charge them via a charging station thats plugged into a USB port.. One G7 battery lasts a full day of constant gaming.. I would have to change the battery every day, but it takes a second to eject the old, and insert the new and have the old one fully charged again in no time. Win.
- Sleepy Mouse: I have never had a mouse go to sleep as often nor as quickly as this one does. If you stop using it for 30 seconds (or less sometims), it goes to sleep. It then takes up to 30 seconds for it to recover, IF IT RECOVERS AT ALL!So you get up to go to the restroom.. Yeah mouse goes to sleep.. Getting a quick drink from the kitchen? Yeah sleep mode..Most of the time when the mouse came out of its self imposed torpor the buttons would work but the laser optic wouldn’t — so you couldn’t move the cursor. I would be forced to turn the mouse off via the switch on the bottom, then turn it back on and hope it woke up. Sometimes it would.. sometimes it wouldn’t.. Fail.This was an extremely common occurance too, it really made me wonder if I had a broken mouse..The G7 never sleeps.. or if it is sleeping it wakes up the absolute instant you move it.. Win.
- Responsiveness: Their claim to fame on the box is that the Mamba has a 1ms response time!!! Further stating that other mice have 2ms and others have 8ms.. *gasp*Again.. Marketing shit. Frankly the response times of this mouse mean nothing.. I am not sure exactly how long it takes my eyes to observe a targer, decide to react, tell my hand to move and my finger to click, and my muscles to actually perform that action.. but I’m pretty sure the difference of 1 or 2 milliseconds wont make a difference.More over, due to internet latency all that speedy mouse shit is completely lost in the noise of the intertubes..Further more, due to the sleep issue from above and the fact that it would take up to 30 seconds to recover half the time the mouse seemed incredibly unresponsive.. Epic Fail.Again, the G7 which might be one of those “other” mice and have a 8ms poll .. Bit it always performs perfectly. And using it I still come in first on CoD Multiplayer more times than not. Win.
Mouse Suicide!
I can go on.. The form factor took me a little getting used to but it wasn’t bad.. The clicks sound good and feel good, and the mouse wheel is okay if a little “mushy”.. (personal preference) But its performance as a mouse left me wanting.. A lot.. And often.. The simple fact is the Mamba is extremely unreliable and quirky.. It may work fine as a corded mouse, but as a cordless it’s almost worthless..
On one of the forums I visit they suggested I update the firmware of the mouse to see if that helps.. So I did: At which point my Mamba committed suicide.
Yeah not kidding. (Firstly; why the hell does my mouse have a firmware?! It’s a mouse!! ) I installed their firmware update software, followed their instructions to the letter.. And for my trouble got a paper weight. The firmware updater erased the mouses brain completely, started its bootloader process then stopped working.. Now it doesn’t even work as a mouse and nothing I do will fix it.. The best part is, there is no hardware reset.
Seriously?! I mean I thought it was telling before that I was forced to leave my broken G7 on my desk for when the Mamba decided to go off into the weeds, but now its completely shit the bed and I’m forced to use the G7 entirely..
I can’t tell you how unhappy this makes me.. I’m so entirely and completely dissatisfied with this piece of hardware.. I’m seriously considering boxing it up and just sending it back to them with a letter to their president.. If this is the quality of their hardware, I will never ever buy a Razer product again.. Ever.. More over I will tell people of my experiences with it.. Ala this blog post, my forums and others..
At this point as my last ditch effort I have created a ticket with their technical support in the hopes that I get some help, but I’m willing to bet I wont get a response. I also plan to call them tomorrow and see if I can get this straightened out.. I’m sure there is some way to reset the darn thing and I just don’t know how.. But again my hopes aren’t high.. I also seriously doubt the firmware update will fix the other issues this mouse seems to be plagued with..
I really wish I could write this as a personal letter to Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff.. He’s the president and co-founder of Razer and I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t make excuses for the experiences I have had.. So.. Mr. Krakoff, this is to you..
Your company missed the mark by a mile on this one.. Now lets see what your customer service department does.. This can still be a complete win for your company if you do the right thing here.. Good customer service can still save my opinion of you, but at this point I’m frustrated with the Mamba to the point of not wanting it any more..
I’ll keep ya’ll posted.
Day 2 — Razer Phone Technical Support — (888) 697-2037
Razer email support did reply within the 24 hour period.. The response seemed somewhat canned but did ask relevant questions so it was just a way to start the ball rolling.. I wanted faster results so I decided to call..
It took me ages to find the damn phone number.. It isn’t on their website at all.. I had to get it off a forum where someone else did a bunch of research to get it..
Bob answered the call and asked me my name… I told him and at the same time told him that I thought this mouse was a hunk of junk and it was also extremely frustrating and hard to find a phone number for them..
He then mumbled ” ‘ats by design ” prior to asking at normal volume; “What phone number can you be reached at if we get disconnected..”
I stopped him and said “Wait, did you just say thats by design?” He said “no no I asked for a phone number to reach you at..”.. what a tool.. I’m not deaf..
I’m using a stereo headset to make the call so I can hear you in both ears with perfect clarity.. I know what you said.. You should never say something like that to a customer, even if its true — which apparently it is..
Bob seemed nice enough if maybe a little snarky.. But as a Razer T1 Support monkey, I could tell he was just browsing the web looking for solutions and was out of his depth..
At one point he had me completely remove the drivers for it, then had me try to update the driver via the device control panel, to the driver installer.. Not the driver itself, but to the installer.. I told him that this wouldn’t work and why — he seemed completely confused and put me on hold..
I got put on hold 3 times over the course of the call, each hold period got progressively longer while he researched solutions.. (read the internet, or went to ask someone..etc.. I know how our support monkeys work..)
Later in the call I casually asked “So do you guys get a lot of support calls?” He said “No not really.. “ I said, “Thats cause the phone number is so hard to find.. thats by design right?” to which he stated.. “Thats right! Its what we hope for…”
… Sure.. why bother supporting your products… I can’t believe you admitted that.. Saying things like that to a customer can get you fired..
Bob of T1 support knew nothing about this product or how to support it other than what he could read.. After 35 minutes on the phone with him he admitted that “he might actually have to escalate this call to T2″.. Stressing the word actually, as if he was shocked.. I wasn’t..
In my own testing of the product prior to calling I did more trouble shooting and research than he did ..
At 42 minutes he came back and asked “Does the mouse light up?” .. No it doesn’t.. The lights stopped working the instant the bootloader firmware update failed.. I’m pretty sure I mentioned that early in the call, but maybe not.. I was thinking it if nothing else..
To which he said; “Okay we are done.. we have to get you a new mouse!” I’m thinking, Yeah.. I knew this yesterday.. I certainly knew it 45 minutes ago..
So now I’m supposed to wait for RMA notice in the email..
Day 2 + 45 minutes — Razer Email Technical Support — RMA’ing this thing
So I got the email pretty much as soon as I hung up the phone.. I have filled it out and returned it.. One thing they wanted was proof of purchase.. well.. I have the thing don’t I? I have all the packaging too..
I stated on the phone that I didn’t have that so I’m going to assume for the time being that it will be okay..
So far I’m not blown away by customer support here.. It was painful to find and the person I found wasn’t all that helpful..
Lets see if they will RMA it without proof of purchase..
Day 2 + 3 hours — Razer RMA Process
Fail. It appears they are refusing to RMA this defective piece of crap without proof of purchase. I have the product in its full packaging, with the Fry’s Electronics label on the front.. but I don’t have a receipt thus they are saying:
- They can’t verify that the product was purchased from an authorized seller of Razer products.
- Can’t verify that it wasn’t previously “used”, it isn’t “counterfeit”, and not “gray market goods”.
- Can’t verify that the product isn’t “defective”.
- Can’t verify that the unit is still within the warranty period.
Wow..
1. The product was purchased from Fry’s Electronics in Austin Texas. I still have the packaging, and at this point I have put the mouse back in the box entirely.. There is a label on the front that is the Fry’s label.. I’m pretty sure their authorized to sell Razer products cause they have a lot of it.. So this is a BS excuse.
2. I gave you the serial number of the product in the RMA request. With that you should know if the product has been previously used, or if its counterfeit.. You should also know to which country the product was initially shipped.. Again.. BS.
3. I can 100% guarantee you the product is defective.. Your software made it so.. That’s the whole point of this attempted RMA..
4. Your website states that the Razer Mamba has a warranty of 2 years. Since it was unveiled to the world at CES in Jan of 2009, I’m pretty sure we are still win the warranty period..
This was a canned response letter and is very likely the first thing they do.. Deny first..
Never mind that their product is BROKEN DUE TO THEIR SOFTWARE.. Yeah you heard me.. THEY BROKE IT.. Their update software killed my product, but its my fault and I’m just out the money and now the mouse..
So apparently the only thing I did wrong was to buy a Razer product..
I could be coming away saying; “Wow, I didn’t really like the mouse but their customer support was excellent.. they treated me really well and took care of me.. I’d do business with them again..”
Or, I could be coming away saying; “Wow.. what a bunch of asshats.. I will never ..ever.. ever.. buy from them again.. and now I’m going to tell everyone I know not to.. ”
Based entirely on the experience I’m having, its clear to me they want me to do the second..
More as it happens..
I am going to switch to doing the updates in a reply so others can reply inline..
On a whim while initially writing this I looked up who the President of the Razer company.. I managed to find his name and email address so I sent him a note.
Basically I let him know that I was an unhappy customer, and that I didn’t feel his company was acting in their best interest.
To my shock, He responded almost immediately saying that he would have Glen Frick, their head of customer satisfaction, contact me..
He hasn’t yet, but I’m fairly sure he will in short order since the president of the company told him to.. =)
I am foreseeing some conflicted feelings.. The “Razerguy” is very responsive, as anyone would expect him to be.. Thus I’m sure his customer service will be top shelf.. But I had to go well out of my way (out of the normal channels) to get that customer service.. (almost to the point of spamming the poor guy) So.. is this a win for Razer then?
If everyone has to email the president of the company directly then I don’t know that it’s a win.. =(
Mamba 129.99, broom 2.50..:-)))
Days later..
I have been in contact with Glen Frick the customer satisfaction expert at Razer and so far the guy is doing wonderfully by me. After a very brief exchange I have gotten an RMA number and will ship the box with the defective part off tomorrow.
All the while, I’m still getting “tough shit” emails from their support. While talking to Glen and Robert, I have continued to work the normal customer channels and they have failed completely.
At this point they have resorted to sending me short “Sorry for the inconvenience” emails which basically imply that I’m out of luck..
So I take away from this that while the razer higher ups are extremely interested in customer support and satisfaction, the rest of the team isn’t. Well it’s the rest of the team that most folks deal with.. This sounds like a serious training issue to me..
I told the support monkies the same story I told Glen and Robert.. Glen and Robert gave me an RMA after what would amount to a very short conversation by phone. The main support crew refuses to help at all.
I’ll likely tell Robert and Glen about this after its resolved. I think that while the customer support folks are polite they aren’t helpful and I forsee a lot of bad feelings from customers which will only hurt their bottom line.
Sounds appalling! Now I know to never buy one of thse.. a shame.. because it does sound like the top of the line in mouses!
Well I’m still hoping that I just got a lemon and the one I get back will have me completely change my tune..
Hey jason, I just installed my razer mamba yesturday and the biggest problem i had was turning it into a paper weight like u. While i was updating the firmware for the dock, the installation froze and the mouse would not light up. However, I did some research on the net and was able to unbrick the mouse.
Search up “razer mamba bricked” and you should be able to find some ways of unbricking it.
1) Download and install the latest versions of firmware and driver.
2) Attach the mouse to the USB cable, then plug it into a new USB port while holding down the pairing button.
3) Your OS should say there is an unknown device. Now go into “device managment” and find the unknown device.
4) right click on the unknown device then go to drivers and select update. Now find the folder that contains the firmware and install it.
5) once you have done that it should light up again and allow you to run the firmware upgrade again.
I tried this a couple of times though, you also might have to go to the device manager and just uninstall the device then replug it back in and do the steps above again.
Hope when u get ur mouse again, the firmware upgrade wont freeze up…. that is pretty much the only reason why the mamba turns into a brick.
A problem i have is when i use the mouse with wired, (to charge the mouse while i game). Going back to wireless causes the mouse to not respond. I left it over night and it still didnt come back to life. Only restart of the computer will fix it.
Hey Scott.. Thanks for the advice..
I actually went through these exact steps on my own, and with the help of the tech support lackey on the phone.. The mouse was still dead..
I went ahead and sent it in as stated above and just got it back yesterday.. I have yet to reinstall it.. Long story short is, upon getting the mouse Glen stated it was completely dead. But that he was able to get the computer to recognize it and reapply the firmware patch..
Something I wasn’t able to do even with the tech support person on the phone walking me through it.. I followed the instructions to the T, both written and verbal.. No luck.
In all likelihood I’m going to have to use this as a wired mouse because of the sleep issue I was previously seeing.. I don’t know if it still does that though so I’ll post again once I get it back up and running..
If that issue still exists I would stay away from this device..
I stumbled over your site by finding solutions to the very same problem.
I own the mamba now for 2 days. On the first day it worked fine. On the second day I couldn’t even get it to start up. I connected the cable to the device and so it worked for another half an hour. In my attempt to get it to work anyway I sturted the updater as well and *ding* it stays black. Not even an LED is going to flicker, regardless how hard I try all the things that could come to mind.
The reason why I found this site was just because I did not even found a link to a proper forum, even if user maintained, not to speak of an email address…
right now i’m really p… and, well i don’t know how to express it otherwise, feel a bit … abased. I paid almost 130 Euro (thats regular price here), which would mean almost 160 dollars for a piece of stylish and ‘top-notch’ hardware that failed on me on day 2….
Hopefully I will get it exchanged at least. I bought at Amazon, so chances are good…
Okay so after getting the mouse back from Razer, its working MUCH better than it was..
I think the previous firmware had a bug or something.. The sleep of doom doesn’t seem to be happening any longer so Yay for that..
I’ll keep using it and let you know my final opinion later.. right now I’m still testing it ..
Anthony Hollister ( anthonyhollister@googlemail.com ) writes:
You are a complete dick .. you said the only way to charge the mouse was by the docking station. When it’s quite obvious to anyone that bothers to read the manual that plugging in by wired mode also charges. After hearing that part of your review you lost all integrity as an unbiased reviewer with half a brain, then you go on to bitch about the battery not lasting 72 hours and (claiming) it only works 8 hours… whats the matter? 8 hours of use in one single day not enough :s it’s easy enough to put it on charge over night and only needs 3 hours. Are you honestly saying that you use your mouse constantly for 8 hours and can’t even find a 3 hour break with which to charge it back up?
from this point on I stopped reading the review at that point
your reviews are completely biased and it’s obvious you haven’t even read the manual because you’re wrong when you claim you can charge only by docking station. Manual clearly says you can charge by usb cable.. guess you must have missed that during your thorough review huh? reading the manual ?
razer claims the mouse works for 72 hours of CASUAL use. and only 14 hours of “hardcore” use. Yet your complaining how it doesnt go anywhere near 72 hours of use and completely fail to mention if that was casual or hardcore.. very very un professional . You have already denied two of my comments on this review and a completely different review for a different product. It seems you only allow reviews that compliment your opinions, so i made extra effort not to be insulting in this post, just to satisfy my own curiosity of how biased you are.
And I will be making a complaint to this website about you, because I think making such biased reviews and only accepting agreeing comments must be wrong.
So very hostile.. Firstly Anthony, let me welcome you to my personal website.. I’m glad to know that I have angered you.. It makes me feel good that I’m able to evoke an emotional response from people..
However you seem to be under the impression that a) you have some right to post here and b) are entitled to have your opinion heard on my personal website.
You don’t and you’re not. I may delete any comment I so choose because I pay the bills and this is my ranting spot, not yours. =) I typically don’t delete ANY comments. In fact, the only one I can think of that I have intentionally deleted was one that was extremely offensive.. Generally I let people say what they want and let others judge..
However to your point, I have only seen two comments from you (the above two that I consolidated into one) and I “allowed” them as soon as I saw them. Any perceived delay was likely due to my sleeping, working, gaming or simply not noticing comments in the queue. I don’t just sit around waiting for people to comment.
Now to your comments:
“You are a complete dick” — You’re right.. I can be quite harsh and judgmental. I even said as much in this post at the very top.. However, I forget that some people have fragile sensibilities and are easily upset. If I called you a name, ranted in your sandbox or in some way offended you in my review of a piece of hardware that you have no affiliation with then I do apologize.
“you said the only way to charge the mouse was by the docking station” — Right. When using the mouse as a cordless mouse, which I am very clear to say the only way to charge it is to put it back on the stand. By plugging it in as you say (And as I said in the review had you bothered to read it) it is no longer cordless..
“After hearing that part of your review you lost all integrity as an unbiased reviewer with half a brain” — Where did I say I was unbiased? Was that written in my review somewhere? In fact I start the review by saying, I’m a logitech fan and the G7 is a superior mouse (I no longer feel this way but I digress).
“whats the matter? 8 hours of use in one single day not enough” — No.. it’s not. I’m a software engineer and as such I work from home quite often. I sit at my desk from 8am until 5pm or quite often later doing casual work.. after which I play games until whenever I feel like stopping.. I might use the same mouse anywhere from 8 to 14 hours in a day. Their box states it can handle that and it really can’t. (Though it does seem to be better after the firmware update which again, I said above..)
“You have already denied two of my comments on this review and a completely different review for a different product” — Nice lie. I haven’t denied ANY of your comments. You posted two in rapid succession on this thread demanding to know why I didn’t approve them.. well cause I hadn’t noticed you posted them yet..
“It seems you only allow reviews that compliment your opinions, so i made extra effort not to be insulting in this post, just to satisfy my own curiosity of how biased you are.” — really? the first thing you did was to call me a dick and then called me stupid.. They must have a different view of whats insulting in merry old England where you are huh?
What if I went into your house, insulted you, called you stupid, disagreed with your writings while refusing to actually read what it was you wrote, and then get indignant when you don’t instantly tell the world what I said.. You’d probably think I was a nut with entitlement issues.. Or maybe that’s what I’d think..
“And I will be making a complaint to this website about you, because I think making such biased reviews and only accepting agreeing comments must be wrong.” — uh.. who do you think you’d be complaining to?
Please feel free to complain to whomever you think is the correct authority.. Let me know how that goes for you.
Pssst… The G7 is the “other” mouse with a 2ms poll, and the Mamba actually defaults to 2ms as well.
I would like to start off by saying I admire your honesty in your review as well as your updates thru the process of the RMA to the current revision you are using. I am a mechanical engineer who also has knowledge of solid state electronics devices. I did end up getting the mamba and do agree with the slow updates to the on board memory it is quite disturbing sometimes. I have done extensive personal analytical research online and have found a few quirks with the mamba and I was skeptical to purchase this mouse. I only use wired mice on my desktop and wireless on my laptop and after a horrible customer service experience at best buy I received the mamba for half off, so I got it. Since I have had it I have found that on the settings of the configuration tool you can change how many sensitivity settings the mouse will use and also how many per profile. I have found only having two or three sensitivity settings helps with the operation of the mouse. After spending about a day setting profiles and button assignments for the three major programs I use the mouse is working great for me. I don’t do any hardcore gaming with it, so I can’t comment there, but I do feel I have this mouse set up for what I use it for and it works great. I know first impressions are lasting but I hope you warm up to the mouse as I have. I have modified my mouse, as seen on my YouTube video, and I hope you get all the issues ironed out and it working the way you like it as I have.
Hi William..
At this point my biggest complaint with the mouse is its battery life.. All of the other issues (the sleep of death thing especially) seemed to have been resolved completely.. And I would recommend the mouse for casual users, but the battery life just isn’t there..
I still have my old Logitech G7 mouse on my desk for when the battery in the Mamba dies which it seems to do much faster than the G7. I know my G7 goes a day or two without charging, and that’s constant use.. where as the mamba still dies much faster.. (say 8 hoursish at the upper limit of use).. The other nice design is that with the G7 you just plop out the battery and plonk in the spare and you’re back and working.. There is no real down time..
I think that if the Razer crew would just adopt the multibattery charge thing that the G7 does, it’d be the perfect mouse cause then the shorter battery life wouldn’t be an issue.. The batteries always charge faster than you can use them so even if I had to swap the batteries twice as often as the G7 I wouldn’t care.. The problem now is, when it dies.. I have to hang it back on its charger and switch to a different device.. That’s just bad PR..
1. You can charge the mouse while its plugged in via USB
2. I agree with the rest of your review 100%. I personally have purchased 4 razer producs (5 if you include the mouse pad) and have been most unsatisfied with all 4 of them (yes including the mouse pad). Had i known of the poor quality and high falier rates of razer products before i purchased them i would never (NEVER) have chosen razer products. When my current purchases reach the end of their life cycle (which wont be very long at all) i will NEVER be purchasing razer products ever again and will most defiantlly never reckomend a friend ever purchase them
I’m a bit late to the party, but I thought I’d add my opinion.
I have used Razer mice for years and loved them. (I was previously a Logitech fan, too, but a bad mouse coupled with really bad tech support that lied to my father repeatedly broke me of that. I can deal with bad support. He can’t.) I’ve previously used the Razer Copperhead and loved it.
So when I saw what I thought was essentially a wireless Copperhead, I jumped at the Mamba. Man, did I get burned.
The battery life on mine is even worse than yours. If I get a few hours, I’m really lucky.
I used it on Linux, and of course there’s no support for that. But there’s buttons right on it to adjust the speed… Too bad the top one is way too fast and the next setting is too slow. And then today, it has picked some other setting that I wasn’t able to find before in between, but now I can’t adjust it. It’s slightly too fast.
I was out looking for Linux-based solutions to the problem when I found your post. I didn’t find any, and now I’ll be hooking it up to my Windows PC and updating the firmware and seeing if I can permanently modify the speed from it. I know some of my previous mice have been able to do that.
Follow-up comment… I updated the firmware (which worked on Win7 64-bit, even though it was updated in April and didn’t list my OS) and now the speed is much better without me changing any settings.
And I looked at the mouse on that computer. It’s the ‘Death Adder’ that I like so much, not the Copperhead. Too many snake names.
Razer really is a piece of crap. Truth must be told. While everyone goes google-eyed and are salivating at their products, their products would just crap out on them in the next second. I’m going to see how long my new deathadder 3.5g holds out. If I get a year for the $65 I spent for this mouse ($65 on a fricking mouse??? WTF??? I never spent so much on a fricking mouse… all my mice before were either free or less than 20 bucks!!!), then I’m considered lucky. Sorry I was ranting there. Mesage to Razer — RAZER WAKE THE FUCK UP AND IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF YOUR PRODUCTS, OR ELSE WE’LL BOYCOTT YOU, WE THE CUSTOMERS WHO MADE YOU WHO YOU ARE!!! STOP TRYING TO MILK THE SHIT OUT OF US WITH FANCY PACKAGING/ADVERTISING AND MAKING YOUR PRODUCTS LAST 6 MONTHS SO THAT WE’LL SPEND ANOTHER $70-150 BUYING FROM YOU AGAIN!!! YOU ARE BEING EXPOSED RIGHT NOW, SO SHAPE UP!!!
I can see why you are upset with all the issues you’ve had with this mouse. But you are definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I’ve had some of the issues with this mouse. And solved all of them by reading bits and pieces here and there on the interweb.
First of all check out some facts before you begin so whine and cry because your zipper is stuck! I don’t even know where to begin?!
Only thing about the Mamba I dislike is the positioning of the sens up / down buttons. Otherwise it is the best mouse I’ve ever had! THANK YOU SO MUCH RAZER! A bit overpriced thou…
Uh.. Okay so let me make sure I understand.. You think I’m stupid, because their software killed the mouse (they admitted as much) forcing me to send it back, and because I feel that it’s box lies with regards to its battery life.. etc..
Tell me what did you read on the interweb about increasing the battery life of the Mamba.. Educate me.. (Other than don’t use it as much..)
Don’t go to someone elses sandbox and call them names just because you disagree with them especially when you can’t provide ANY information to counter their points other than your opinion.. It just makes you look bad..
Hey Jason,
I am really glad I found this site. I recieved the same mouse as you from my friend for xmas. I know how good the box says they are but I have yet to see the thing even work, a paper weight right now. I am going to call the support line you listed, I am hoping that it wont be like the hell you went through, but I am a bit naive. I will post how this goes. Would love to have this mouse working. =-D
Just got off the phone with support. They told me the hardware was broken, the infered laser that detects movement, broken. That sucks. They want me to return the mouse. Dont thing I am going to get a replacement….
suggestions?
thank you
Yeah my optics died too eventually so in the trash it went.. It was working fine for a while (read; poorly, but as well as it could considering all its other short comings..) then one day out of the blue it would be very sporadic with movement.. As if the mouse optics were dirty or there was a piece of grit in it or something..
But it was clean, as was the desktop.. It got progressively worse over time until one day it just stopped working.. Clicking worked, all the buttons and scroll wheel still worked just fine, but moving the mouse didn’t.. So I shit canned it..
I went out and got a Logitech Performance MX mouse;
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/mice/devices/5845
It’s a superior product in EVERY way.. Its battery lasted 4 days of constant use (both work and rabid amounts of FPS gaming) before I remembered to put it on the charger.. More over it’s new “darkfield” optics work better than the Razer mouse by a long shot..
My razer wouldn’t work if the surface was sufficiently smooth (like glass) or didn’t have a texture or something below it.. This new Logitech mouse works on all of them, including a clear piece of glass..
My advice, send the mouse back with a big “fuck you” sticker on it and go get the MX.. it’s half the cost of the razer, and works much much better..
Well I’m glad and at the same time disapointed that I found this website. I am glad to see that I am not the only one that is having trouble with my mouse, yesterday it was working fine, today the mouse started acting weird like there was dirt on the optic thing so i cleaned it up (the usual stuff). Didn’t seem to help, slowly the movement started getting worst to the point where i could only move on one axis (up and down) but not left and right and then it simply died, well, the mouse still “works” but I can’t move the cursor anymore. So basically the buttons, lights, mousewheel all work but not the cursor.
Why am I disapointed? Because I see that I won’t be able to get any kind of good service and that makes me mad. There is nothing worst, to me, than a warranty that makes you pay and lose time, “Yes your warranty is still good so you will have to go through the RMA process, pay 40$ to ship back your product from across the world and we will ship a new one back to you (even if you don’t want anything to do with that product anymore), oh and also, this process will take anywhere between 2 and 6 weeks, enjoy!” Yeah, thats the kind of customer service. Too bad I gave away my microsoft habu mouse when I recieved this one as a gift (btw, microsoft habu knew how to deal with broken mice, after 10 months of usage, my power seemed to have disconnected from the inside of the mouse, I called and explained the situation, In less than 5 minutes, the customer support was asking for my address to send me a new mouse, free of charge, without even asking me to send back the broken mouse).
So I am pretty bum that 1. The mouse isn’t working and 2. That I will have to pay 40$ for a mouse that will only last me another year.
If anyone else has had this problem and managed to resolve it without having to use the RMA service, help would be appreciated. (I have tried every combination of install/uninstall, connect/disconnect, wired/wireless without any success).
P.S.: Sorry for my english.
Mathieu
Additional; I was puttering around in my closet where I store old hardware and I came across the mamba.. I noticed the battery cover had come off and went to put it back on, only to see that the battery has swelled to more than double its original size!!!
Now it really is going in the trash..
Seriously.. AVOID THIS MOUSE..
I still have the Logitech MX 510 (red) with absolutely no problems.
Got it sometime in early 2004 to replace my computer’s stock mouse. Since then I’ve replaced the computer more than once, but this mouse has remained. It is getting to show its age though but I really can’t condone replacing it while it works perfectly. It would want to die in battle, not consigned to the closet shelf or moved to a desk job.
Well I am glad to hear that its not just me..However that also makes me terribly upset because I spent 130 dollars on this mouse. This is my first Razor Product..In Decemeber of 2010 I bought one AND a mouse pad for full price. Worked great for about the first month. Come February, randomly after a restart – the mouse cursor wouldn’t respond. After fiddling with it, (unplugging, chaning ports, switching form wirless to wired and back again) Somehow I got it to work.
Then it would work just fine, even after a few restarts or sleep modes here and there. Then randomly again it crapped out on me, cursor not responding after waking up..
Then i thought I found the solution, one time I hung the mouse up on the dock, put my computer to sleep, then made sure I WOKE the computer up by clicking the mouse while it was still on the dock. To my surprise the cursor worked great again….until the next restart several days later. Now it sits here bricked, buttons working perfectly, and the cursor isnt. Worst of all my little “trick” isn’t working anymore.
I demand a new mouse – or my money back. I am not impressed with razor so far.
Oh I have already contacted razor support once, after about 5 days I got a reply telling me to update my BIOS and enable USB legacy support…
After that failing miserably, I now have to go BACK to the website and fill out another inquiry…and probably wait another 5 days. This time I made sure I posted everything I tried so the guy doesn’t give me another “single” possible solution that I have done already.
This needs to be recalled or everyone needs to get their money back.
Wont happen. Your best bet is to vote with your wallet and never buy a Razor product again. Then go one step further and tell people of your experience and let them judge for themselves..
That’s what I’m doing.
I wish I had of read this before I purchased my keyboard and mouse =(
If only i had read this before i bought the razer mamba….
The reason i started searching the websites was the problem
“slow and buggy configuration utility” and all this…tsunami appeared in front of me.
I have concerns on the battery, i had an MX laser logitech wireless mouse (5 years old?) and it still kicks. Razer mamba has the half , even less , weight..MX laser’s mouse config tool is fast and normal, razer mamba’s tool is…a joke “connecting to synaptics” to send a new setting takes 10 seconds? LOL!!
i even updated it’s firmware and software…this is ridiculous “:/
Battery…Hmmm what is this, i had it overnight to fill up and i just cant understand the lights on the battery life indicator, certainly its not full… will check it out…
Oh man and a friend told me, dont buy the razer mamba, i dont have good vibes of it, (he is a hardware pc psychic yes!, whatever he feels right, the hardware is pro etc) take the roccat kone+ .. QQ i should have heard him.
well my mamba laser sensor just died…same problem with u all the cursor wont move but all the buttons and lights are working properly. anyone tried unbricking the mouse?
Btw my mamba is only 4 days old and now its a thrash!