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Having previously given Razer's DeathAdder Elite KitGuru's ‘Must Have' award, you can bet I was excited to get hands-on with the company's latest mouse – the Basilisk. The Basilisk is an entirely different beast to the DeathAdder, however – and please excuse the pun. With a new, ergonomic shape, a replaceable DPI clutch as well as adjustable scroll wheel tension settings, could this be your ultimate gaming mouse?
As befits the latest mouse from Razer, the Basilisk oozes class and style – and you can bet that it supports Chroma RGB lighting. However, looks aren't everything, especially not with something as personal as a mouse. Can the Basilisk match the standard set by the DeathAdder Elite, or is it destined to fall short? Let's find out.
Specification
- Razer 5G optical sensor with true 16,000 DPI
- Up to 450 inches per second (IPS) / 50 G acceleration
- Razer™ Mechanical Mouse Switches
- Eight independently programmable Hyperesponse buttons
- Gaming-grade tactile scroll wheel with customizable resistance
- Ergonomic right-handed design with enhanced rubber side grips
- Razer Chroma™ lighting with true 16.8 million customizable color options
- 1000 Hz Ultrapolling
- Razer Synapse 3 (Beta) enabled
- Approximate size: 124 mm / 4.88 in (Length) X 75 mm / 2.94 in (Width) X 43 mm / 1.69 in (Height)
- Approximate weight 107 g / 0.24 lbs (Excluding cable)
Razer mice and keyboards are always nice spec wise, use a good spec base for switches/sensors and usually aren’t overly gaudy in terms of design, logo aside. Where they’re let down is 3 key areas:
1) Software. It’s just plain bad, it’s unnecessarily resource heavy, requires a login/server connection and isn’t completely user friendly.
2) Durability. Razer products often feel nice to use, but many don’t stand the test of time, and suffer some form of degradation (double clicking, dead switch, weak cable connection on wired devices). This particular problem is something that tends to not crop up in reviews as it’s something that happens months into use, a window far too large for any prospective new product review. It’s a long running problem with a very large number of their products, even into their laptop line (see Linus’ vid about their 10 Razer Blades they bought for their office, 8 were either replaced or in need of repair within a year of purchase, that’s pretty damning). This leads on to:
3) Customer Service. Razer are (in)famous for having some of the worst warranty and replacement services in gaming hardware, up there with the likes of Asus. If you do plan to get a Razer product, do so through a trusted retailer with a good reputation for handing device issues/rma requests and not through Razer’s own store.
If they could polish their software and improve their build quality, in all likelihood problem #3 would greatly diminish as there’d be less stress on their CS/RMA departments. I like the design/feature set of many of Razer’s products, but the risk and associated price tag that comes with them is too much for me to take on. Personally, it stops me ever recommending their hardware to folks.