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Hardware Review: Razer Mamba — What a piece of shit!

Oct 09

JasonRandomStrings, Rants! hardware, logitech, Razer, review 18 Comments

Razer Mamba

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..

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Hardware Review: Logitech Illuminated Keyboard

Oct 01

JasonRandomStrings keyboard, logitech, review No Comments

Logitech Illuminated Keyboard

I have to admit I like Logitech.  Their hardware is always good.  I find their software is a little bloated and doesn’t always deliver but I can’t fault the hardware at all..

So when I was in the market for a new keyboard I naturally gravitated towards the Logitech flock of peripherals..  I was replacing my old Logitech G15 which is a great device but at this point it had so much dust, dirt and kibble between the keys I was horrified to touch it.   (Mmmm keyboard kibble)

I liked the G15, but it had issues; the primary one being, I rubbed all the paint off the keys.   Apparently I type a little hard for the first generation G15′s and ended up removing the surface paint of the home row and several commonly pressed keys.   You could tell where my fingers and hands always sat.

I also never.. ever.. used the left side macro buttons or any of the other wiz-bang features of the keyboard.  It was wasted on me.  Hell for almost a year I didn’t even install the keyboard software for the little video display.. I just didnt’ see the value of it, and yes I play games that take advantage of it.. I just never look down from the monitor..  I needed something new..

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