Razer Taipan, Razer Naga 2014
Razer Taipan
Razer's Taipan has been out for a little while but it certainly deserves a spot in our roundup as it's built from the start to be the company's all-around elite gaming mouse and it's priced as such at $80.
We thought the Taipan felt a little light during our first use and we were right to think so as it weighs only 110g – a potential deal breaker for some since there's no weight system. Combine that weight with a small frame (124mm long x 63mm wide x 36mm tall) and big-handed palm users are mostly out of luck.
In saying that, we managed to use it for hours with a typical claw grip and the lightness wasn't too bothersome as it's very well balanced. That's partly thanks to the contoured rubberized sides that flare outwards too, giving excellent grip for decent gaming sessions.
If you're worried about accidental clicks, Razer used pretty sturdy silver/chrome buttons on the side. As right handers, we found those buttons a little hard to use at first (as was the case with most mice in this roundup), but we imagine this won't be an issue after regular use.
The Taipan has nine solid-feeling programmable buttons and its ambidextrous design checks nearly all the expected boxes.
Razer did an exceptional job with the Taipan's hardware and the company's Synapse 2.0 cloud software does equally well at maintaining your settings across Razer's products, offering lighting changes (only green, which may upset some people), lift-off/surface calibration, the usual sensitivity and acceleration tweaks. Recording macros is all too easy.
As the cherry on top, the Taipan's 4G dual sensor setup offers lethal accuracy in games, relying on a combination optical and laser sensors to provide a DPI of 8200.
Razer Naga 2014
Razer isn't new to the peripherals market and its latest efforts have been as fierce as ever. Along with its Taipan, the company supplied us with the $80 Naga 2014 to show how it has improved an already well-respected mouse.
The Naga also stands on the lighter side of things at around 105g (sans cable) and as with the Taipan, it lacks weight tuning. To be honest, we were a little surprised it weighs so little because it doesn't feel light, and certainly not cheap.
Thanks to its well-designed form (offered in both left and right hand versions), the Naga's balance is right on and it measures a comfortable 119 long x 75mm wide x 43mm tall. The 2014 version also fixes the side MMO pad with more pronounced mechanical switches and a more contoured shape to better match your hand.
The Naga 2014 is well suited for both claw and palm grips. When using the latter, we had no trouble reaching all of the device's 19 buttons. Meanwhile, its matte anti-slip, anti-fingerprint finish is a step up from the Taipan's extra rubberized side grips, while Razer's Snyapse software is equally powerful here.
Creating or recording macros is easy, even with delays. We also like the addition of the in-game configurator being easy to bring up at your will, by setting your own shortcut. This could save quite a few alt-tabs in your favourite MMO, and adding your own images to each button adds a little more personalisation that we liked.
This is one impressive MMO mouse with our biggest gripes being its price, even though it's justified in our opinion, and the fact that you can't change colors is a bummer, though Razer also offers a wired/wireless multi-colour Naga Epic.