As a brand, Razer is known for their flashy peripherals, but they have actually released their fair share of products that blend in visually. The new Deathadder Elite follows in this blend-in mentality but manages to stand out by delivering a comfortable and reliable gaming experience.
The Deathadder Elite retails for $94.99 CDN and is rather pricey as far as mouses go. It offers a 5G Optical Sensor that sports up to 16,000 DPI and 450 IPS. As a result, the mouse has a wide range of sensitivity options that should work for practically any play-style or preference. Like most Razer products, it comes with Chroma support, which allows you to change your colour scheme and play with your sensitivity settings. Razer has perfected their lighting options over the past few years and it gives the Deathadder a real sense of customizability.
The Deathadder Elite has a curved surface that thins out near the scroll wheel for added comfort. As with most mouses, there are two rather bulky buttons on the left side, two thin buttons below the scroll wheel, and left and right mouse buttons. The mouse buttons feature a satisfying clicky-ness that apparently is good for up to 50 million clicks. While I haven’t quite gotten that far, I did click it 1000 times in a row to see how it would feel on my fingers, and the Elite does a good job at being comfortable even if you’re clicking like a madman/woman.
The scroll wheel, on the other hand, isn’t quite as comfortable. It features a rigid, almost spiky texture that left imprints on my fingers and a mild amount of soreness during long play sessions. In the past, other Razer mouses, like their recent Overwatch models featured a smoother scroll wheel, and it’s unfortunate that the Deathadder doesn’t continue this trend.
Still, the real test of how good a mouse is to use comes down to how little you notice it while playing. For the first few sessions that I used the Elite, I was tinkering with sensitivity and light settings practically every few minutes, trying to get the most out of the mouse. However, once I found my comfortable settings I stopped paying attention to the light settings and various customizables and just enjoyed the gaming experience. It’s nice that the options are there, but it’s even nicer that the Deathadder Elite is comfortable and responsive enough to make that all fade to the background.
Overall, while the Deathadder Elite is a more visually subdued peripheral it makes up for it with its top tier sensor and good switches. While the scroll wheel isn’t all that comfortable, it’s about the only part of the mouse that isn’t. If you’re looking for a mid-high range mouse with some customizability, then the Deathadder Elite is definitely worth a look.
