The ‘Bringer of Silent Death’ brought mixed emotions when we opened it up for the first time. Does a new laser engine make the Lachesis excel?

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Category: Mice
Manufacturer: Razer
Product: Lachesis
Gallery: Click Here
Price: $59.49USD ($79.99 MSRP)

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For about the past year or two, Razer has put out one great product after another; from their incredible DeathAdder mouse to their extremely fast Tarantula keyboard. With their gamer-centric design and solid mechanics, Razer has created quite the niche in the gaming market and has built up a solid reputation for itself with gamers across almost every genre. Their latest device, touting a claim to market-high 4000 DPI, is the Lachesis Gaming Mouse and is aimed at twitch gamers everywhere. Does the Lachesis carry on the Razer tradition of giving gamers the best bang for their buck, or is it a dud to be left on the side of the electronics road? Let’s find out.

The Packaging

As of late, Razer is really one of those companies that know how to make some really eye-appealing packaging. When I first saw the DeathAdder in stores last year, the first thing that I noticed was how professional the box looked- the Razer Lachesis is no different. A nice mix of matte and glossy black comprise the box while the occasional reflective lettering really makes it standout from other mice on the shelf. Inside, an easy-to-open, molded plastic shell keeps this mouse from moving around while still in the package.

The package also includes the manual, driver CD, stickers and other documents. In all, the box is very attractive to the eye and is quite easy to open. But we all know that “it’s what’s on the inside that counts”, so let’s get to the mouse.
{mospagebreak heading=Introduction&title=Features and Specifications}
Features and Specifications

• 4000dpi Razer Precision 3G Laser™ sensor -
• Nine independently programmable Hyperesponse™ buttons
• 1000Hz Ultrapolling / 1ms response time
• On-The-Fly Sensitivity™ adjustment
• Ambidextrous design
• Seven-foot cord

Going back to the ambidextrous style of mouse that was quite popular with their other mice (Diamondback and Copperhead), the Lachesis is completely symmetrical, and even sports two programmable thumb buttons on each side. A nice addition Razer has included this time around is the center sensitivity buttons which are situated nicely between the left and right mouse buttons. Another welcomed change is the improved scroll wheel with more prominent detents. A problem I feel plagues the DeathAdder is the “soft” stops while rolling the scroll wheel, which leads to things like choosing the wrong weapon in-game. This problem was addressed with the Lachesis.

The Lachesis also sports the signature glowing blue scroll wheel and Razer logo on the palm. Another feature Razer brought back was the black, rubberized surface that I was first seen on the DeathAdder, which makes those long hours of nonstop gaming oh-so-comfortable. This time around though, it seems like Razer has made the mouse buttons a bit firmer. Each click on the Left and Right buttons feels prominent and firm, a much-needed improvement from the sometimes mushy-feeling buttons on the DeathAdder.

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Now for the feature that separates this mouse from any other out there: the Razer Precision 3G sensor that supports up to 4000 DPI. Able to be fine-tuned to accommodate even the most hardcore of gamers, the Lachesis is the latest of Razer’s mice to include this highly-celebrated engine. Though I don’t have the equipment or tools needed to verify this, Razer claims that the mouse can track up to 100 inches per second, and if it tracks like its predecessor did, this should be good sign of things to come.

On the downside though, the Lachesis has quite an odd shape to it. With a sort of “hump” in the back of it, gamers with even medium-sized hands will have a hard time getting their mitts into a comfortable position. Unlike the DeathAdder, where I can rest my palm completely around the curve, I felt like my whole hand was left in an uncomfortably tense position and I was constantly trying to keep a grip on the front of the mouse. I guess the fans of ambidextrous mice might be into this kind of stuff; not I. Also, the Lachesis is a bit slim for as long as it is, causing users to almost have to reach under the mouse to hit the side buttons.

Also, Razer needs to start using mouse feet to accommodate gamers with softer mouse pads. A common problem many gamers had with the DeathAdder was that the feet were too shallow and would make the mouse almost feel like it was scraping along the pad, which I actually remedied by placing additional mouse skates on top of the given ones. Though the Lachesis suffers from the same problem, the stock mouse feet are still of very high quality. I did test the Lachesis with a hard pad though, and boy did it feel great. The extremely slick feet combined with the mouse’s naturally light weight make this an attractive choice for both low and high sensitivity gamers.

The Lachesis also features 32K of Razer Synapse onboard memory for storing user profiles and settings. At first I was a bit confused as to how this feature could possibly be useful, as any average gamer usually just stays at their same computer for the better part of the time. But then I thought about the professionals who are constantly at tournaments using provided machines or gamers who travel to other’s houses (like myself) or to LAN centers to play with teams, and realized that it’s a really great idea. This cuts down on bringing a sperate USB drive with mouse configurations or going through the machine menus by hand to change settings; just plug-in and go. This option will save a lot of trouble for any gamer on the move.
{mospagebreak title=Drivers}
Drivers

In my opinion, the ease at which a user can adjust the different settings on their mouse is probably the second most important criteria when thinking about a mouse to buy, behind the actual usability of it. In this case, Razer has brought back their excellent driver set with the Lachesis to let gamers tweak virtually every setting on their mouse. As of writing though, the Lachesis doesn’t have any updated driver or firmware versions, so I’ll be testing the firmware and drivers that were included in the original packaging.

Now it’s taken a while, but I really think laser technology in certain mice has started to come of age and be a reliable method of tracking; the Lachesis just so happens to be one of these mice. Featuring 1000Hz and a customization feature to polling rate, the Razer driver set really lets the user tune this mouse down to the very core. The driver also allows for quite a wide array of sensitivity and acceleration adjustments to be made. Users can change not only the sensitivity of the mouse in the Razer driver, but also the base Windows sensitivity settings all from the same GUI. Other things such as double-click speed, mouse acceleration, and scroll speed can also be fine-tuned to suit any user’s taste.

Now, if you’ve seen the driver program for the DeathAdder, the Lachesis setup is very similar with much of the buttons and should be pretty familiar as far as the layout is concerned. For each button, there is a drop down of the different functions you can assign to each and even the choice to create and assign macros. You can really make any button on this mouse do just about anything you could ever think of. In addition to the massive amount of options you have with the button configurations, you can make and use different profiles to use them with.

Combined with an amazing tracking system, the Lachesis seems to have one of the best feature sets I’ve ever used. But how well does it perform in-game?
{mospagebreak title=In-game Testing}
In-game

I really wanted to put the Lachesis through its paces and see how it handled both high and low sensitivities on different DPI settings. I decided to test it with 3 games that have been occupying most of my time over this winter break; Quake 3 CPM, Counter-Strike: Source and World of Warcraft.

The ‘Challenge Promode’ gametype in Quake 3 is one of the fastest first-person shooters ever created and one of my favorite to play online. While I’m not the greatest out there, I still enjoy the game for its wonderful online features, fast movement and creativity during duels and CTF. My config for the game uses a pretty low sensitivity, so I need a mouse that can accurately track my long sweeps when I’m strafe jumping and aiming. For this game I actually tried turning the sensitivity all the way up to 4000, and then compensated for it by turning my Windows and Razer sensitivity all the way down. I have to say that it felt no different than my DeathAdder on 1800 DPI. Now without going into an explanation of “negative acceleration” and why a DPI this high isn’t necessary on a resolution like 1280×1024 or lower, it’s looking as if the competition for “Highest DPI” is nothing more than a ploy to sell mice. The upside though is that the Lachesis really does do a great job of tracking. Every movement, no matter how fast, was translated perfectly and accurately into the game, making the Lachesis a real joy to use in such a fast-paced FPS such as this.

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In Counter-Strike: Source I tried a lower DPI setting and a raised sensitivity to make it feel just like my regular settings. Though I’m not one to normally use the feature, I tried out the on-the-fly Sensitivity and DPI switching in-game and everything seemed to work without a hitch. Again, the Lachesis really was able to shine and never let me down. Every motion was tracked quite well and felt crisp as could be. Long sweeps were picked up perfectly the entire way through and even on a “low” DPI such as 1000, tiny movements were still picked up with accuracy.

In World of Warcraft, a game where accuracy and tracking really aren’t the most vital point, I concentrated on the feel of the mouse and how it felt in the long run. While I must say that the velvety surface of the mouse stayed nice and soft against the surface of my hand, it was not enough to keep me from become increasingly annoyed by the odd shape of it. The strange curvature of the device was only intensified after hours of questing and running around Azeroth. Though it may just be my personal preference towards a mouse contoured to the shape of my hand such as the DeathAdder, it’s really hard to see how anyone but a left-handed gamer could appreciate the shape of the Lachesis. For the sake of testing, I stuck out questing for several hours but stopped when I realized that it was unrealistic that I would grow accustomed to the shape.
{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}
Conclusion

Following in the footsteps of the latest mice to come out from Razer, the Lachesis is another example of how a great set of features and a superb tracking engine can really change a player’s game. Featuring more firm mouse buttons on the top and side, more prominent scroll wheel positions and maintaining that black velvety finish I love so much, the Lachesis has some really great things in it. While I did enjoy this mouse quite a bit, I feel that its design really holds it back from reaching epical status like its older brother the DeathAdder. Again, while those who were fans of the ambidextrous shaped mice such as the Diamondback and Copperhead might really enjoy the shape of the Lachesis, I did not.

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Pros

• Excellent Razer 3G Engine.
• Great customizable drivers.
• Controllable LEDs.
• Firm buttons and scroll wheel.
• Excellent mouse feet (on hard surfaces).

Cons

• Shape of the mouse.
• Poor mouse feet (for soft surfaces)

While I am a huge fan of this mouse and it is a good match for me, one must keep in mind that a mouse, much like every other PC peripheral is a very personal thing. What one man deems a fantastic fit for his style of grip and gameplay may be entirely uncomfortable for the next guy. This is my humble opinion after extensive analysis.

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