Extremely high sensitivity, extreme comfort and a high range of customization, Razer Ouroboros is the gaming mouse every PC gamer dreams about.
Now I want to start this review by saying a few things first. This is probably my first big tech review and my first ever Razer product and what better way to kickstart our Tech Review category than with the review of the amazing Ouroboros. I have been a gamer for as long as I can remember, mainly a PC gamer (been since the Wolfenstein 3D/Doom times), but lately I switched to the consoles. I switched because I couldn't afford a powerful gaming PC to play the latest games. It sucks not having money to fuel one of my biggest passions in life, but what can I do. So I kinda suppressed that itch of wanting a gaming rig well, that was until I got my hands on the Ouroboros.
Razer was extremely nice enough to send me a review unit and let me tell you that I have never seen and used a more beautiful and badass mouse than the Ouroboros. Throughout the years as a PC gamer, I have used many mouses (or mices) made from Logitech, LG etc. but none of those were proper gaming mouses (mices). Lately a friend got a RAT 5 from Mad Catz and I spend some time with that and I liked very much. But none of the previous ones can be compared with The Ouroboros.
Now the name, Ouroboros. Other than sounding incredible and continuing Razer's legacy of badass names like Blade, Naga, Kraken, Black Widow etc. for those of you who might like myths and legends, the Ouroboros is also the serpent that eats its own tail. He does that to sustain its life, in an eternal cycle of renewal becoming infinite. And after more than two weeks of usage, I think the mouse stand up to its name, I think this will be my mouse for like, forever!
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It is incredible. The sensitivity is insane. For all the nerds out there, the sensor of the Ouroboros combines a laser and an optical sensor to enhance tracking precision and detects surfaces ten times faster than previous generation sensors. The DPI can go as high as 8200 and special buttons, like the DPI clutch, let's you temporarily reduce or increase the DPI as you game in an instant giving you an extra edge in whatever game you are playing, FPS, RTS, RPG etc. The Ouroboros also features an ultra-low 1ms latency wireless play that is as responsive as it is when it is corded. Super customizable, where you can change everything from button functions, X-Y sensitivity, acceleration, polling rate and pre-record a sequence of keystrokes also known as Macros.
Now the "normal, not so nerdy, guys" version: The Ouroboros can be either a wireless or a corded mouse and there is no difference between the two like lag or feel or anything. The sensitivity and the accuracy the mouse offers is beyond anything you have ever used, but you might ask "WTF is DPI and is 8200 a good number for it?". Well, the DPI means "dots per inch" and what that means is how many dots can your mouse travel along the screen in an inch of movement. For example if you have your screen resolution at 1920x1080 and you set your DPI at 1900, it would take an inch to move the cursor side to side. So you might ask "If this is the case, why there is a 8200 DPI?". Well, some gamers like to have insane sensitivity on their mouse to pull those insane 720 trickshots or want insane camera speed when playing Starcraft or Dota 2 and the Ouroboros caters perfectly to them. But this DPI is also very useful if you have two or three monitors hooked up to one PC. I tried this on a Mac Book Pro/27 inch monitor setup and the Ouroboros performed better than expected. I raised the DPI when I wanted to move the cursor between the two screens and then bring it back down.
And all of this can be done very easily using the two "sensitivity stages" buttons that are on top of the mouse, just below the scrolling wheel. The Ouroboros is said to have 13 buttons, but it really have only 8 unique ones (not counting the Scroll Up/Down and the duplicate ones). That is because the Ouroboros has an ambidextrous design, meaning that it can be used either by right or left hand users. Here's where the duplicate buttons come in play. On each side there are three buttons, so it has the right and left click, scrolling wheel up/down/click and two sensitivity stage buttons totaling in 13 usable buttons. Switching between right and left hand is easy and it can be done in seconds using the Razer Synapse 2.0 software.
To use Ouroboros and any other Razer device, I presume, you need to install Synapse 2.0. The software is not that good at this stage, but the concept behind it is simply groundbreaking. It's the world's first cloud-based storage for personalized gaming settings and although sometimes it doesn't work, you can see the genius behind it. Anyway I installed it and I started messing around with the Ouroboros settings. You can customize pretty much everything, from the button configuration, DPI settings, power management to the brightness of the LEDs. Another cool thing is that you can customize everything and you can save it as a separate profile, but the cool thing is that you can link a program to that profile. For example, I messed around with the sensitivity and the acceleration, saved my custom profile and I linked it to Half Life 2. Now every time I open that game, those custom setting automatically load on the Ouroboros. And you can do this for every program, for example, on Chrome I use the side buttons for back and forward, on iTunes next or previous track etc. The possibilities are endless. On Synapse 2.0 there's also a Macros tab, but over the two weeks of use I never understood what it was for and frankly, I was not that very interested to know.
Battery life is always a concern with a wireless mouse (mice), but that is not the case with the Ouroboros. I clocked around 13 hours of continuous gaming before the battery died. I charged the battery for like 7 hours after that and managed to clock around 11 or so hours of gaming. But here is the interesting part, since the Ouroboros doesn't have it's own built-in battery it uses a AA rechargeable one, I switched it with a standart new one and game on. It died after 8 hours or so (cause it was a second hand one). Then for my next test I used a fully charged Energizer AA Nimh battery and it lasted more than 14 hours. So it all depends on the battery you are using, a brand on will give you way more use/game time than a second hand one. The charging to 100% takes around 7-8 hours and you can do it by putting the mouse on the dock or by plugging the cord directly into the mouse.
My current Toshiba laptop is cr*p, it can't run the latest games or any game to say the truth so I couldn't really test the Ouroboros. But luckily my friend has a "beast" PC went on vacation, so for an entire week, I stayed over there. I played Battlefield 3, Dead Space 3, Black Ops (the first cause the sequel is cr*p), AC3, Far Cry 3 and every game that released for the past year and the Ouroboros just made my experience even better. While I was playing BF3 I mapped the grenade and the knife keys to the side buttons and the result was just glorious. The DPI clutch button which lowers the sensitivity, improved my sniping and aiming in overall. And the same thing was with every other game, it actually made me a better player offline and online (if you don't believe me, talk to the guys who got their heads blown off).
Now that the technical stuff is over, I want to talk about the looks, the feel and how it improved my gaming experience. As I said in the beginning, the Ouroboros is my first Razer product and I know that Razer make some of the best product packaging around, but I hadn't really seen it hands on till now. The Ouroboros comes inside a thick plastic cube standing on a stand in the middle looking epic. Inside the stand there's the charging dock that also acts as the wireless receiver. In the base of the cube, there was manuals, stickers, the gold plated USB cord, rechargeable battery (yes they included one) and the other two flat side panels.
Razer is know for making absolutely beautiful products that challenge those of Apple, but I think with Ouroboros they have outdone themselves. Other gaming mouses (mices) look cool, with a futuristic design where you can see the nuts and bolts, but the Ouroboros surpass each and every one of them. It looks like something Batman might have designed. I posted a photo on Twitter asking people what it was and only a tech guy guessed it right. It's fricking unbelievable how good it looks. Also the green LED lighting make it even more badass looking especially at night. Apart from being beautiful, it is also very comfortable. You can change the overall length of the mouse by sliding the end back and forth to suit perfectly your hand. You can also change the back arch of the mouse by using the recliner wheel. And you can also change the finger rest panels. The build quality is excellent. The buttons have a really nice feel when pressed and you can easily understand when you click one. The plastic is of a high quality and it feels really sturdy, also the texture of the plastic feels amazing on hand. It has a matte finish, so expect none of that glossy fingerprint and slippery sh*t on Ouroboros. You can use it as a wireless or as a wired mouse even without the battery inserted, but I didn't like that, it felt strange and not weighty enough.
Now we come to the most important question of all: The Ouroboros can't be all sunshine and rainbows so what are the flaws? Well there are a few, but none on the mouse itself apart from the logo in the end not having an LED light. The only flaws I can think of are on the sofware and, I don't know if you can call it really a flaw, the price. Razer Synapse 2.0 as I said is a great concept and works most of the time, but often it kinda f*cks up. Sometimes it will crash for no apparent reason, sometimes it will lock out the mouse from doing anything. Sometimes the DPI sensitivity will go back and forth like crazy, again for no apparent reason. When you remove the USB from the dock to insert it in the mouse, most of the times Synapse 2.0 will crash. The last time it happened was while I was writing this review and I have a screenshot to show it. The other "flaw" is the price, The Ouroboros is priced at 149,99€ making it probably the most expensive gaming mouse there is. 150€ is crazy for a mouse and I personally wouldn't have bought it, but then again as I said, this will be my mouse for like, forever. So if you have the cash and want something that will live practically forever, with Razer Ouroboros you can't go wrong!
Bottom Line: Technically the Ouroboros is a "beast" gaming mouse and probably the best one money can buy. The DPI levels it can reach are insane. The sensitivity is crazy, you can use this mouse over any possible texture and it will still be accurate. I tested it over wood, cement, plastic, paper, reflective plastic, different pieces of cloth (Yes, sometimes I play laying in the bed) and every time it performed beyond expectation. Customization possibilities are endless since there are 8 programmable buttons which mixed with the profile system and Macros (if you understand it) make it even better. Battery life and charging time are both fantastic. It looks fricking cool, it can be customized to suit any type hand making it extremely comfortable and ergonomically correct. The overall feel is amazing. The software sucks at times, but I think it will improve with each update and the price might put off buyers. However adding everything together make the Ouroboros rise above the competition.
Razer Ouroboros was reviewed using a review unit provided by Razer and it was tested for over two weeks. Razer Ouroboros is now available for purchase over at Amazon and will be soon over at RazerZone. For more information about it or other Razer products, click here.
PS: If you want the whole Razer’s desktop experience, you might want to check this out!
