Razer Lachesis Gaming Mouse

Introduction:

With gaming mice becoming more prevalent every passing year, the market is becoming inundated with new models seemingly every week. Due to the wide array of choices out there, it can be hard to figure out what's actually worth your money. Further complicating the situation is that at first glance, many of the options appear very similar.

Razer is one company that's been in this business for quite some time. They've been making gaming mice for several years; in fact, their entire product line is geared towards gaming, making them far from the typical bandwagon-hopping company. Many gamers are using, or have used one of their products, giving Razer a solid following.

However, with the increasing competition from other manufacturers, Razer has responded with their latest weapon - the Lachesis Gaming Mouse. Sporting an astounding 4000 DPI laser sensor and an atypical symmetric/ambidextrous design, the Lachesis seems poised to take the leadership in the gaming mouse arena. Let's see if it lives up to the Razer brand name.

Specifications:

The Lachesis sports an astounding list of features. In addition to a 4000 DPI 3G laser sensor, it also has on-the-fly DPI switching, up to a 1000 Hz polling rate, 32 KB of onboard memory and 9 programmable buttons among its features. It is, of course, a wired mouse, as most gaming mice are, to eliminate any notion of lag due to a wireless connection.

• Full Specifications

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Lachesis is its ambidextrous design. While most (normal) mice are ambidextrous, the opposite is true of most gaming mice: They tend to be only for right-handed users, in an effort to offer the most features and comfort to the majority of people out there, leaving southpaws out in the cold. Razer, however, has designed the Lachesis to be equally usable by both right and left-handed users, with its symmetric design.

The Lachesis comes in a nice box that displays the contents well. The Lachesis actually comes in two versions, either blue or white, which merely refers to the colour of the LEDs that light up the scroll wheel and Razer logo under the palm rest. The version under review is blue, which seems to be pretty typical as far as computer lighting is concerned. Opening up the box, you're treated to a fairly complete package of contents.

The Razer Lachesis.

Nice display case.

What's included.

In addition to the mouse, you also get a driver CD, a bunch of manuals/quick start guides, a certificate of ownership and some stickers. The manual is quite detailed, though I doubt many will take time to read it, but nonetheless it's a nice addition. For most, the quick start guide will be enough, if anything at all is read. As the Lachesis doesn't support weight tuning like the Logitech G9 we reviewed earlier, no accessories related to this are present.

The Lachesis features an ambidextrous design that is quite large/long. The overall profile is quite flat up front and then slopes upwards near the back to provide a substantial bulge. The entire top of the mouse is very smooth and covered in a matte/satin material that feels nice and provides decent grip. The sides and bottom are made of smooth plastic. All of this ends up giving the Lachesis a very distinct look and feel.

The Lachesis unboxed.

Wired.

Ambidextrous.

Bulge at the back.

Side buttons.

More side buttons.

Some may scoff at such an expensive mouse being wired, but for most hardcore gamers, there is no other alternative. Being wired allows the Lachesis to never doze off into sleep mode, ensuring that it's always ready to respond to your movements.

The Lachesis is also no slouch when it comes to buttons, having 9 of them, all of which are configurable using the provided software. Besides the standard left/right and middle/scroll, there are two more buttons on top of the mouse for adjusting DPI sensitivity on-the-fly, anywhere from 125 to 4000 DPI. On the sides are four more buttons, two per side, thus giving thumb buttons to both left and right-handed users. This ambidextrous configuration, while nice, has the unfortunate downside of not being as easy to use as other right-handed-only mice. In particular, the side buttons opposite the thumbside are hard to use.

Unique shape.

Wheel is quite wide.

DPI switch buttons.

Flat front.

Wheel lights up.

Bottom.

The buttons do provide good tactile feedback though. The scroll wheel is also quite wide and very easy to use; you won't have any accidental scrolling while clicking it. The DPI switch buttons, which are directly below the scroll wheel, are also very easy to use and within range. Looking at the bottom, you can see the laser sensor and three Teflon feet. The feet do a great job at keeping the Lachesis gliding easily. There's also a profile switch button, but this isn't the only way to switch profiles; any button can be assigned to do so from within the software.

Front.

Side.

Very long.

Very bulky at back.

Compared to other mice.

Compared to G9.

Compared to other mice, the Lachesis has a somewhat odd and large shape. The front is very flat while the back feels bulky and curved. The mouse itself is also very long. All of this creates a shape that feels somewhat weird to hold, at least for me. It took some time to get used to the overall feel. As you can see in the pics above, the Lachesis is larger than most mice. Overall, despite the weird shape, the Lachesis feels like it is solidly built, as none of the buttons feel too loose; they are all firm and have the right amount of travel to them.

Lights on.

Scroll wheel and logo illuminated.

Lights can be turned off.

When the Lachesis is plugged in, the scroll wheel and palm logo light up. The Lachesis is available in either white or blue colours, with blue being reviewed here. The palm light logo slowly fades on and off. If you find the lighting to be annoying, it can be turned off using the supplied software.

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