Razer Copperhead Review

Razer Inc - www.razerzone.com

Razer has made a good name for itself in the gaming community by producing quality products at the cutting edge of technology. In the late 1990’s, Razer unleashed the Boomslang with an advanced Dpi that blew the competition from the water and was embraced by many serious & Pr0 gamers alike. The next triumph for Razer was the Diamondback, an optical mouse boasting a Dpi of 1600 with a funky design and tactile feel that made it perfect for extended hours of hard gaming. Now, after much hype & anticipation comes the Copperhead laser mouse, aimed squarely at the more serious gamer.

Packaging

The Copperhead arrived safe and sound within 24 hours courtesy of PowerDrive Computers. The mouse sits in the middle of the box, suspended in a clam shaped clear plastic housing with a silver reflective background.

 On opening the box the first thing I noticed was the very long non tangle cord, 7 feet of it to be precise!  Also included is a certificate of authenticity with a message from the Razer Guy and a circular manual with the driver disk fixed neatly on the back page.

Look & Feel

At first glance the Copperhead could easily be mistaken for a Diamondback; after all it shares the same shell apart from some subtle but important differences. The mouse is available in Tempest Blue, Chaos Green & Anarchy Red.

First, the mouse wheel now has ridges giving a better feel of control over the Diamondbacks smooth offering.

Second, the four side buttons are no longer cutting into the glow pipe non slip side rails but are placed just below, this widens the side rails giving a better feel of grip and width.

Third, the side buttons are now separated and work independently of each other instead of using the awful rocker switch setup on the Diamondback.

Fourth, underneath the mouse is a small recessed button, this is the reset & profile selector.

Last but no means least, when powered up a small Razer emblem on the Copperheads back pulsates and glows making it seem almost alive.

The weight of a mouse is very important to how it feels and to this end Razer has released the Razer Pro Tool Set. The set is sold separately for around £10 and includes 3 customizable weights plus a set of dummy side buttons.

   A word of caution, using this tool set WILL void your warranty!

Technical Specifications

• 2000 DPI Laser Engine Powered by Razer Precision
• 1000 Hz Ultrapolling with 1 ms response time as compared with 125Hz/8 ms response time used by other conventional gaming mice
• 32KB Onboard Memory Powered by Razer Synapse
• 7 independently programmable buttons optimized with Razers Hyperesponse technology for ultra tactile button feedback and maximum actions-per-minute (APM) gameplay
• Zero-Acoustic Ultraslick Teflon feet
• 16 bit data path, as compared to 8 bit and 12 bit data paths used by other conventional mice
• High speed motion detection, up to 45ips and 20g / Over 7080 frames per second
• Always-On mode pioneered by Razer - the laser engine sensor never powers down to provide instantaneous response at all times during gameplay
• Award winning Razer drivers featuring On-the-Fly Sensitivity DPI adjustment pioneered by Razer
• Size: 5.04" length x 2.5" width x 1.54" height
• GlowPipe non-slip side rails
• Ergonomic ambidextrous design
• Ultra large non-slip rubber coated mouse buttons
• Gold plated USB connector for maximum conductivity
• 7 foot, lightweight, non-tangle cord

Software installation & Driver Control

Installing the mouse is simple enough, I inserted the gold plated USB connector and powered up ready for action only to find the mouse had other ideas!!! My PC didn’t make it past the post screen and locked me out of the BIOS too. This didn’t surprise me at all having similar problems with the Razer Diamondback.

A quick visit to the Razer sites support page allowed me to track down a new driver version 6.09 & firmware release 6.17i, after following the simple instructions and installing the relevant software the Copperhead sprung into life, job done.

The driver panel & interface are very much like the Diamondbacks, only more refined and easier to navigate. On the main panel you have button assignments & options for loading personal configurations, polling rates, Dpi settings & profiles. To the left of the panel are two nifty pop out menus containing sensitivity, scroll speed, click speed & advanced pointer options.

Profiles can be mapped to any button for quick changes of Dpi & polling rates as can on the fly sensitivity, this gives a great deal of control without having to open the Razer control panel every time you want to change one of these.

Firmware upgrades are also supported (much like flashing your motherboard BIOS) and make this a very upgradeable piece of kit with a certain degree of future proofing. The firmware upgrade is a very simple process with step by step instructions from the excellent Razer support pages.

http://www.razerzone.com/copperhead/help/firmware.htm

Test software   Counter Strike Source - F.E.A.R. - Age of Empires 3 - Adobe Photoshop.

Performance

As an active Counter Strike gamer I was very interested in the polling options available on the mouse (125Hz to 1000 Hz) as a higher polling rate means smoother movement.

I wasted no time in CSS & F.E.A.R, mapping 500hz polling + 800Dpi to one side button & 1000hz polling + 2000 Dpi to another, the result was very impressive indeed, for close combat the high sensitivity (2000dpi + 1000hz) gave me speed & agility in firefights while at the click of a button I could drop sensitivity down (800dpi + 500hz) for precise headshots with sniper rifles.

Playing Age of Empires for an extended period proved comfortable with smooth & accurate pointer movement, while editing photographs in Photoshop was much the same as my old Diamondback, not a bad thing at all.

The three Teflon pads on the underside of the mouse make movement silky smooth on almost any surface & the laser tracking is pin point accurate on cloth, glass, plastic or the latest anodised gaming mats.

For everyday basic PC use, the Copperhead performs very well, but no different in my opinion to any other high spec optical mouse on the market, where it starts to pull away from the competition is in its gaming ability. Make no mistake, this is a gaming mouse through & through, built for no other purpose.

Is it worth the hefty price tag? In my opinion, yes! This is the best mouse currently available for the dedicated gamer, full stop.

-=YUK=-Quickstep