Razer Orochi

[Kamil]

So, I just tried to write a review and I HATE HAVING FORWARD AND BACK BUTTONS ON MICE. Fortunately I can turn them off.

 

Anyways, I recently picked up a Razer Orochi because it was on sale. I will be comparing it to my previous mouse, Logitech's M305 (i.e. cheapest wireless mouse available from Best Buy 3 years ago).

 

Starting with build quality, it's actually very solid. The materials are just glossy plastic on the sides and bottom with a more soft-touch or rubberized top, but they feel more comfortable than when I tried out a G400s (or something from the GX00s series at least) and it doesn't seem like it's going to break or peel in any way from regular use. I wouldn't exactly chuck it around all the time, but it feels like it would survive if I happened to drop it out of a backpack or whatever. It also came with a simple carrying pouch, nothing fancy but it's a nice little touch for their "portable" option. All of the buttons have satisfying clicky sounds, though I'd prefer the side buttons be a bit quieter and the middle click has very little travel. The scroll wheel is very stiff, which can be a bit of a hassle when scrolling through a long document or webpage but should prevent going too far in games where the scroll wheel changes weapons. When it comes to weight, if you plan to use it wirelessly the batteries give it a very solid heft despite being on the small size. For wired use you can remove both AA batteries and presumably put whatever weights you want in their place. With no batteries it ended up being extremely light if you prefer that.

 

Ergonomically, I mentioned before that the materials feel nice and the shape is... acceptable. Its contours seem to be indicating a fairly uncomfortable position with your ring finger sharing the right mouse button on a small ridge, which is fine for just holding the mouse but puts my wrist in an odd bend during actual use. I was able to find a more familiar alternative grip though, and it is just fine overall. The design is quite angular, so if you rest your fingers in the wrong place it will be uncomfortable. The thumb buttons are fairly accessible, with the "intended" grip putting them right under the top of the thumb so squeezing in to pick up the mouse won't cause many accidental presses but they will both be easily available. My adjusted grip moves the whole hand back a bit, so only one of the buttons is immediately accessible with the other requiring a bit of a stretch. The buttons on the non-thumb side are practically inaccessible, intended only for use with the other hand (though I can reach if I try. Not good enough for anything important mid-game, but there might be some use for them).

 

The software is where things started to break down, though it's not entirely Razer's fault. It is partially though; what happened was, between Microsoft and Razer there failed to be sufficient communication that the product I was buying was the Razer Orochi, but NOT the Razer Orochi that has a page on Razer's website; That Razer Orochi is actually the Razer Orochi 2013, but the product page mentions that exactly 0 times. Eventually I figured that out and thus discovered that it was NOT compatible with Synapse 2.0. The Razer Orochi Configurator is sufficient, but a bit of a disappointment compared to what I expected. Nothing too horrific though, I have access to the DPI settings, polling rate, multiple profiles, macros... Just not cloud sync or integration with future Razer products. It's also a bit slow, but overall usable.

 

Usability is where the product takes a massive nosedive. In wireless mode the maximum DPI is a mere 2000, polling rate is locked at 125 Hz, and there is no way to make it lighter. It also comes with an aggressive battery-saver function that puts it to sleep after an absurdly short time, cannot be turned off in any way for any reason, and completely ruins your ability to play games unless you are literally constantly using your mouse (or just don't need your mouse to be responsive at all). Despite all that the maximum quoted battery life is only 30 hours of use off 2 high-performance AA batteries in the best case scenario. Even with all of that, the Bluetooth connectivity isn't the best and I had it drop several times in the first hour of use before I switched over to wired mode.

 

Speaking of wired mode, I had to completely restructure my setup in order to have the wire reach from the mouse to any USB port on my laptop. It's a fairly decent cable, with some pretty good braiding and a solid connection on each end (hopefully) but it's also only about 1m long. To put that in perspective, with the mouse sitting on a mousepad on the right side of my laptop, the farthest it can be connected to without being unusable is... the left side of my laptop. Any further away than that and it would run into the end of the cable before the end of the mousepad. The wired mode is basically unusable for any setup other than a laptop where you use only the built-in keyboard and screen, because there's no way you could put the laptop itself out of the way and still have the mouse connected to it. It might be worthwhile to use a USB extension cable, and the connectors are actually just USB A to Micro B so any Micro USB cable works (I tried) but good luck finding one that doesn't rub against either the scroll wheel or the mousepad, and without wearing out over time. A 2m cable really wouldn't have made it any less portable (especially since the wireless aspect means they don't really expect you to bring the cable anyway...) and would make it usable for people who prefer an external monitor and keyboard for their home setup instead of forbidding the use of any other peripherals if you want this one.

 

Overall, the Razer Orochi has no benefit over getting some other mouse. It's an extremely poor wired mouse easily overshadowed in all ways by the slightly cheaper Death Adder unless you absolutely need ambidextrous rather than having the choice between a lefty and righty version, or really want the extra weight. It's an unreliable wireless mouse with annoying battery-saver technology, with performance barely better than my much cheaper, older, and more reliable non-gamer mouse unless I absolutely NEED the side buttons. In the end I'll probably be keeping and using it since Microsoft's return policy is "Defective or unopened only" but there really is no reason to specifically buy this mouse over alternatives. (Especially since you could get an original Deathadder AND a cheap wireless mouse for less than the normal cost of the Orochi.) On the other hand, I can only say any of this for sure about the ORIGINAL Orochi; the 2013 edition could have all or none of these problems.

[CoolBeans]

Mine broke for no reason, that is why I dislike Razer

[sonarctica]

Mine broke for no reason, that is why I dislike Razer

All of my friends Razer stuff have broken in a short period of time... which is why I don't trust them one bit lol

[Titanicium]

Razer really can't make a cheap product good...

 

Go with their high end options if you go razer or else they are just not worth it...

 

Anyway: This is one of the bether reviews I have ever seen written so great job with this

[n0ah1897]

Hey! I think I know you! Nice review btw.

[Kamil]

Hey! I think I know you! Nice review btw.

I don't recognize you, but if you're familiar with the name from somewhere else it's probably me.

 

Anyways, after using the mouse for a few more days it's not AS bad as I initially thought it would be, but that's mainly because I'm currently limited to a gaming laptop so I could rearrange my setup in order to have an adequately positioned USB port without undue effort. It is comfortable to me, and I prefer a weightier mouse like this which was one of the reasons I was hesitant to get a Deathadder. On the other hand, the included cable is still entirely inadequate for any gaming setup that doesn't involve a laptop, and wireless mode is so painful to game with (and not great even for simple tasks) that it makes me wonder why they even bothered to put it in at all. Not much has changed, but I'd pretty much like to say that it WOULD be a decent mouse if there were any reasonable way you could expect to use it.

 

I still don't recommend this for anybody, but if you DO have a gaming laptop then you could probably make it work. Not actually any better than a Deathadder, or probably just about any other gaming mouse, but it isn't bad if you can actually find a way to connect it to your system comfortably.

[n0ah1897]

I don't recognize you, but if you're familiar with the name from somewhere else it's probably me.

 

Anyways, after using the mouse for a few more days it's not AS bad as I initially thought it would be, but that's mainly because I'm currently limited to a gaming laptop so I could rearrange my setup in order to have an adequately positioned USB port without undue effort. It is comfortable to me, and I prefer a weightier mouse like this which was one of the reasons I was hesitant to get a Deathadder. On the other hand, the included cable is still entirely inadequate for any gaming setup that doesn't involve a laptop, and wireless mode is so painful to game with (and not great even for simple tasks) that it makes me wonder why they even bothered to put it in at all. Not much has changed, but I'd pretty much like to say that it WOULD be a decent mouse if there were any reasonable way you could expect to use it.

 

I still don't recommend this for anybody, but if you DO have a gaming laptop then you could probably make it work. Not actually any better than a Deathadder, or probably just about any other gaming mouse, but it isn't bad if you can actually find a way to connect it to your system comfortably.

Does OfficerSledge ring a bell? BeamNG forums?

[Kamil]

Does OfficerSledge ring a bell? BeamNG forums?

I'm afraid not, I don't think I've been to the BeamNG forums, and even if I had I definitely haven't done anything of note there. I do like the concept of it, but not enough to actually play it.

[n0ah1897]

I'm afraid not, I don't think I've been to the BeamNG forums, and even if I had I definitely haven't done anything of note there. I do like the concept of it, but not enough to actually play it.

 

Well then there must be multiple Kamils! That is quite coincidence. Didn't think Kamil would be too common