On the first day of QuakeCon 2005, I had a chance to interview the president of Razer, Robert Krakoff. He wanted to speak about the release of their latest gaming mouse, the Razer Copperhead.

“Razerguy” Robert Krakoff

    I won’t be getting into an in-depth review of the Razer Copperhead in this write-up, as I will be reviewing a sample Copperhead in the coming weeks. I intend to use the mouse for at least 3 weeks before even starting a review. I’ve seen too many rushed reviews of products that don’t take into account the nuances of everyday use that comes from really using something.

    Most of the gaming community knows that Razer started out with the “Boomslang” mouse in 1999. They attempted to create the perfect mouse for hardcore computer gamers. Since that time, they have evolved their line of mice as technology advanced. While they have had various successes and their share of problems, the last year has seen Razer at one of their highest points.

   I must admit that when I agreed to the interview, I had not used Razer's previous products, but I knew of the company and it’s products. Compared to some of the larger sponsors at QuakeCon, I couldn’t bring myself to get excited about a small specialized company that made mice, regardless of how impressive their stats might be. I expected a barrage of stats and marketing hype from someone who just wanted to put a positive spin on everything.

    It was a great surprise when I actually started the interview with Robert. I didn’t have a set list of questions to ask him, but my years of FPS gaming along with the research I did on Razer before the interview had given me more than enough ideas I could run with. The first thing I brought up with Robert was his competition, specifically Logitech, one of the most successful peripheral producers around. I asked him what he thought about their methods and products, just to get an idea of where he stood. Instead of a typical prewritten response, Robert complimented Logitech. He said they make some of the best mice on the market, probably the best for all-round office use. Someone who works in an office making slow repetitive movements using a spreadsheet or AutoCAD program is probably best served by Logitech branded mice. Razer, he said wants to continue to specialize making a mouse that he hopes will be what everyone who is serious about gaming will want.

    One of Razer’s claims is that they have been listening to gamers requests. So I asked him what they had changed in their new mouse that was directly affected by gamers requests. One of the biggest requests he spoke about was the need for customization, the trick was to do it with minimal driver interference. Gamers want a mouse with lots of features but they don’t want annoying programs taking up space and sucking up valuable CPU cycles.

   The Copperhead has 32Kb built into the mouse to store up to 5 different personalized groups of settings. All of the settings for the buttons on the mouse work without any drivers installed! The only time you need to install the drivers is to setup the different tasks for each button and grouping. Personally, of all the features of the Copperhead this one is the most impressive. I hate the software that normally comes with mice, forcing you to use some terrible interface just because you want to use the one useful feature it gives you.

Stock Photo	Stock Photo	Stock Photo
Stock Photo	Stock Photo	Stock Photo

One thing that surprised me about the Copperhead was its shape. Almost all the other mice out there have switched to ‘hand conforming’ shapes. Unfortunately, my hands don’t seem to be in the group that fits those mice. So it was interesting to see the Copperhead having a more neutral shape. Robert’s reasoning for this; most gamers tend to hold a mouse with tips of their fingers to get the most accurate control. So having extra curves doesn’t do anything.

    Of course the Copperhead is a laser optical mouse, and all the statistics on that are incredible. Going into that after only using the mouse for 5 minutes at their booth wouldn’t be fair and balanced, so I’ll hold off on talking about that.

    One limitation of the mouse however, might be that it is too fast, and by that I mean it uses too much of the polling bandwidth available to USB. I did not have anyway of testing this, but Robert mentioned that the reasoning behind being able to switch the mouse from USB polling rate to 125Hz, 500Hz, or1000Hz was because it can interfere with the transfer speeds on other devices. Now this shouldn’t be too much of a problem for 99% of people, but I wonder about some gamers who might have everything connected via USB ports having to remember to “slow down” their mouse if they want to use a external hard drive.

    An interesting ideology that Razer has been using, is not to use prefabricated parts. Instead of looking at different microchips or mechanical parts that can just be picked off a shelf, they contracted out to make everything custom built to their specifications. This is great for quality control, but it does end up increasing the costs involved. Robert pointed out that to keep costs down, they also have not attempted to place all the R&D costs onto the price of the mouse, instead relying on the extra sales from a lower price to eventually cancel those costs out.

    Robert seems to know exactly where he wants to head with Razer, everything he talked about was spoken with very sincere enthusiasm and a real understanding of the barriers that he needs to overcome. A small company creating a single very specialized product can not survive without either completely taking over a market (which is virtually impossible these days) or diversifying into other products. Robert hinted at the possibility of keyboards and other devices geared to the gaming market. If they put the same ‘driverless’ abilities to gain extra functionality in these products, I know I would look forward to trying them out. Overall though, I get the feeling that this is a very important point for Razer. The company has matured enough that they understand the market and their place in it. If the Razer Copperhead becomes popular enough, Razer could see some very fast growth in the next year.

   I’m looking forward to doing the review of the Copperhead, being able to look back at this article in a few months time to see if my opinions of Razer have changed, or if my initial impressions remain will be interesting. Between now and then, I’d also like to ask everyone to contact me about their experiences with Razer and their products, even if it was from 5 years ago. I hope that will give me an even greater insight into the company and if they have been successful in doing what they say they want to do.