Razer Naga MMOG Laser Gaming Mouse

The Razer Naga is designed with MMO games in mind, instantly noticeable by the number of macro buttons included. It also has an impressive specification to back up its gaming orientation, wielding a powerful 5600 DPI precision laser sensor and a 1000Hz polling rate to directly mirror your every moves.

The Naga comes packaged within possibly the largest box I have ever seen for a mouse, even considering it is bundled with a mouse mat and carrying case. This box is designed to appeal to the gamer in you – it has the appearance of a chest that you might find a fantasy game. In the protective foam inside this box we find the Razer Naga contained within an even smaller box, the Megasoma Gaming surface and a protective case.

Inside the smaller box we find nothing but mouse itself, a quick start guide and various other information cards about the product. These include a card directing you to the Razer website to download the mouse drivers and a button training card with stickers to place on the buttons to help you learn the layout of the macro buttons on the mouse.

The Naga shares a number of design traits with the Mamba and Orochi, with the distinctive curve of the mouse buttons and the highlighted mouse-wheel. To me, this design means the Naga is one of the most attractive mice on the market with its sleek lines and ergonomic shape. The materials used in construction seem to be of good quality. The cable is made of braided sleeving for added durability and a gold plated USB connector so that it makes the best possible connection with your computer (to utilize that 1000mhz polling rate).

One of the main features of the Naga is the 17 MMO-Optimized buttons – the numbered buttons on the side keypad are preset to the numbers on the keyboard, the two buttons sharing the left click area of the mouse operate the forward / back functionality in an internet browser. Even though this new placement isn't ideal it is a good compromise to allow for the plethora of new buttons.

All of the buttons seem very responsive on the Razer Naga and give a nice amount of feedback. This doesn’t mean that you’re likely to click them accidentally as they are generally well positioned and provide just enough resistance to prevent this. The mouse-wheel is also very good – it can be flicked multiple clicks with ease while the clicks seem larger in magnitude when you roll the button slowly making it very easy to move just one or a few clicks at a time.

The Naga Software/Driver isn’t actually provided with the mouse itself and has to be downloaded from the Razer website, however, at only 14.0MB, this doesn’t take long and avoids the need for a dedicated driver CD. The first page of the software allows you to configure the performance of the Naga, enabling you to adjust DPI, both with X&Y axis independently and together at 100DPI increments between 100 and 5600 DPI. It also has three different polling rate levels at 125, 500 and 1000Hz.

The second page contains controls for the somewhat limited lighting effects, to turn both the scroll wheel and keypad lights on and off and the logo light on and off. It also contains an automatic driver and firmware updater and a button to reset all of the settings to default.

The third page lets you download add-ons for certain games, allowing you to configure the keypad buttons in-game. At this point in time there are only two add-ons available for the Naga, for Warhammer online and World of Warcraft and I would imagine that, in time, Razer will release add-ons for other existing and future MMO’s.

While gaming, the Naga performs very well in general: tracking was impeccable and there was no sensor lag whatsoever. The combination of the smooth Megasoma surface (INCLUDED WITH THE MOUSE!) and the complete surround of Teflon on the base of the Naga means that it glides very well.

In fact, the only slight problem I encountered while gaming was with the keypad buttons. I found that buttons 1 – 6 are very quickly and easily accessible, however 7 – 9 were a little difficult to reach, requiring quite an awkward thumb movement. I did find buttons 10 – 12 a little easier to access as they are perfectly placed to use with the joint of your thumb.

This mouse, even though its got a semi-premium price is top of the line, add to it the sheer quality of the Razer Naga and the Megasoma mouse surface and you have yourself an incredible value.

Specifications:

17 MMO-Optimized Buttons
5600dpi Razer Precision 3.5G Laser Sensor
1000Hz Ultrapolling™ / 1ms response time
200 inches per second max tracking speed
Zero-acoustic Ultraslick™ Teflon feet
17 MMO-optimized buttons
12 button customizable thumb grid
Optional MMO-specific software AddOns
Unlimited character profiles with AddOns
Approximate size: 116L x 69W x 41.6H
Program up to thousands of different in-game commands
Game for days with the Razer Naga’s ergonomic design, optimized for easy access to every button.

Package Contents: