As somebody with dinkier palms than most, I really like a very good light-weight gaming mouse. I really like the 80g Logitech G Pro Wireless, and I particularly love the 58g Glorious Model O-. I’m additionally a giant fan of the 69g Razer Viper that got here out final August, which has the added bonus of being ambidextrous so its featherlight design might be loved by righties and lefties alike. You’ll discover all three of them in my best gaming mouse listing, as a result of they’re nice mice. However, it appears that evidently 69g wasn’t fairly gentle sufficient for these snakey rainbow lovers over at Razer, as they’ve now come out with the even lighter 61g Razer Viper Mini.
It is, after all, nonetheless a few grams heavier than the Glorious Model O-, however its tremendous skinny chassis actually is for the teeniest of tiny palms. Dare I say… too tiny? Here’s wot I feel.
Indeed, I didn’t assume it was attainable for a mouse to be too small for my spindly fingers, however once I first obtained the Viper Mini out of the field it felt prefer it was a mouse made for a kid. An excellent factor if you’re, in actual fact, a toddler, however much less so once you’re a full-grown grownup. It’s actually, actually fairly tiny, measuring simply 53mm throughout its minuscule waist part the place your thumb sits. Admittedly, that’s solely 4mm thinner than the unique Viper, nevertheless it’s stunning simply how a lot of a distinction that makes to its total form and really feel. It’s nearly extensive sufficient to assist all three of my major mouse fingers, nevertheless it’s borderline to say the least. For the primary time ever, I really feel prefer it’s my hand swamping the mouse slightly than the opposite manner round.
It’s an odd feeling, and one I’m not completely positive that I’ll ever get used to. The dimension distinction isn’t as a lot of a shock now because it was once I first began utilizing the Viper Mini at first of the week, for instance, however each time I come to make use of it I nonetheless have a niggling feeling behind my mind going, “This is a touch too small”.
The Viper Mini provides a cheeky flash of RGB lighting spherical its rear.
On the plus aspect, it’s an actual breeze to maneuver spherical my mouse mat, and its two aspect buttons are nonetheless inside straightforward attain of my thumb. However, in shrinking the Viper right down to this new Mini dimension, it’s additionally misplaced part of what made the unique so nice – specifically these two additional aspect buttons on the right-hand aspect for our fellow lefties. Whereas the unique Viper was a correct ambidextrous gaming mouse, the Viper Mini is merely a symmetrical one made for righties.
You can nonetheless assign all the identical sorts of features to these two aspect buttons, after all, together with keyboard features, media controls, Windows shortcuts, textual content instructions and completely different sensitivity speeds, however that might be of little comfort to those that had been hoping for a real, ambidextrous Viper successor. Still, a minimum of Razer have sensibly determined to maneuver the DPI cycle button to the highest of the mouse this time spherical, as earlier than it was relegated to the altogether much less useful location of the mouse’s underbelly. It’s nonetheless fairly titchy, admittedly, however its raised floor and nice sense of tactile suggestions do a minimum of make it straightforward to press and cycle by means of its 5 customisable sensitivity speeds when your consideration is elsewhere.
The Viper Mini loses the unique’s rubbery aspect grips…
…and the 2 additional aspect buttons that made its large brother such an awesome mouse for lefties.
Speaking of DPI settings, it’s additionally price stating that the Viper Mini’s sensor solely goes as much as a reasonably common 8500 DPI as a substitute of the Viper’s 16,00zero DPI. That’s not the tip of the world if I’m trustworthy, as you’d want superhuman eyeballs to detect something a lot above the 3000 mark. However, the Mini’s lowest setting of simply 200 DPI could also be extra of a deal-breaker for hardcore aggressive varieties. The regular Viper can go all the way in which right down to a dead-slow 100 DPI, for instance, which some might discover extra helpful on the subject of lining up headshots down your sniper sights in your go-to FPS game. As I stated, although, I’m not too fussed about this, as I’ve by no means actually been one for altering my DPI speeds mid-game.
Instead, the larger loss for me is the Viper’s rubbery aspect grips. This helped to offer my fingers and thumb a bit of additional buy once I was swishing it backward and forward throughout my mouse mat, however the Viper Mini solely has plain plastic sides. Perhaps Razer thought it pointless given its smaller dimensions means it’s simpler to grip within the first place, however from a consolation perspective it simply isn’t fairly as pleasant to make use of over longer intervals of time.
However, once you keep in mind that the Viper Mini prices simply £40 / $40 versus £80 / $80 like the unique Viper, its varied downgrades begin to change into much more palatable. It’s nonetheless a disgrace that it’s not ambidextrous anymore, however at that worth, I don’t actually thoughts a lot in regards to the lack of aspect grips or its barely slower sensor. I do marvel, although, whose palms will really be sufficiently small to profit from it. If even I feel it’s a bit on the small aspect, you then’ll in all probability want actually child-sized palms for it to remain comfy over lengthy gaming periods.
It is reasonable for an ultralight gaming mouse, however when the comfier (and even lighter) Glorious Model O- is presently across the similar worth within the UK (£42) and solely one other $10 over within the US ($50), I feel most individuals can be higher off plumbing for that as a substitute of the Viper Mini. Heck, you would possibly desire the Viper Mini just because its chassis isn’t full of doubtless dust-riddled holes (not that I’ve ever had any issues with it), wherein case knock your self out. For my cash, although, the Glorious Model O- stays my finest mouse for small palms choose, even whether it is bit wider around the previous girth than its Razer rival.
