After your system reboots, a Razer icon will appear in the Windows System Tray, which launches by default when Windows starts. Right-clicking on it brings up a menu with choices of launching the DeathAdder Control Panel (which can also be launched from the icon in the Windows Control Panel). You can enable or disable On-The-Fly Sensitivity and choose whether or not to have its indicator visible on the screen; enable or disable Universal Scrolling for the wheel button; and close or disable the Tray Icon. Keep in mind that if you want to take advantage of the DeathAdder’s full range of features, the Tray Icon must be enabled at all times.

Rocking a 2D black and green “techno-grunge” design rather than the usual 3D “glass” variations of the Windows GUI, Razer definitely marches to a different drummer when it comes to the look and feel of their hardware control panels. Love it, hate it, or somewhere in between, there’s no denying that everything you need to tweak your Razer DeathAdder Gaming Mouse to near-perfection, is laid out logically and conveniently at your fingertips—or more accurately, your mouse pointer.

Button and profile assignments, DPI settings, and polling rates are located on the main panel. Don’t like the glowing click-wheel and Razer logo? Turn ‘em off right here. Not quite sure how to create a macro for one of the mouse buttons? Click the “?” icon and launch the online version of the printed Master Guide. Driver and firmware versions are visible at the top of the control panel at all times—no burrowing through layers of menus for the information. Click the green Update button and your default browser will launch, taking you directly to Razer’s support site where all the action is when it comes to driver and hardware updates, submitting a trouble-ticket to the support folks, or looking through the Knowledge Base for answers. Sensitivity and Advanced Settings panels slide out to the left when clicked. When Advanced Functions is selected for any of the mouse’s buttons, the Advanced Functions panel which allows you to record single key and macros, or assign additional commands to that button, slides out on the right.

Razer’s On-The-Fly feature allows you to assign a button to the DeathAdder to adjust the sensitivity with the click-wheel while the assigned button is pressed. An on-screen sensitivity scale appears while you’re using On-The-Fly. The on-screen indicator can be disabled in the DeathAdder Control Panel.

Up to five individual profiles can be assigned to the DeathAdder, which can be selected either directly at the control panel, or you can configure one of the mouse buttons to toggle forward or backward through each profile. If you left the Razer Glow-Logo light enabled, it will flash the corresponding number of times for the selected profile—once for Profile 1, twice for Profile 2, and so on. If you get too far off-track with your customized button configurations, or just aren’t happy with the results, you can quickly restore both the profile and mouse defaults with a single mouse click of the respective button under Save/Load Settings.

I installed the Razer DeathAdder on an Intel Core2 Duo E6600 system with a GeForce 8800 GTS video card (640MB and Release 162.18 WHQL drivers), 2GB of RAM, and Window XP SP-2 with the most recent critical updates. The games tested with the DeathAdder were Company of Heroes, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, all patched to their latest versions. Razer’s Version 1.07 drivers and software for the mouse, were used. The DeathAdder in this review has the most recent Version 1.10 firmware, so I didn’t need to update it.

Incidentally, Razer has just released a set of beta drivers—Version 1.07b, and firmware—Version 1.25b, for the DeathAdder, that addresses an issue that certain ASUS motherboards have in not recognizing the DeathAdder when installed. These beta drivers and firmware must be used together and are not compatible with earlier versions. You should only download and install them if your PC has an ASUS motherboard that does not recognize the Razer DeathAdder when installed with the official drivers and firmware!

Using the DeathAdder in all three games was a real joy. Response was instantaneous and the shape of the mouse made long gaming sessions a more comfortable affair than with my Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse, mostly because the DeathAdder provided better support for my palm. The detents in the click-wheel are smoother than the G5, which not only allowed more precise control when zooming in on a target through a rifle scope, but also allowed me to scroll through long inventory and spell lists faster and more smoothly.

Although the DeathAdder’s 1800dpi sensor is 200dpi slower than the one on the Logitech G5, that didn’t have a noticeable effect on my ability to make faster lateral movements while moving the mouse shorter distances. I was able to quickly scroll around territory maps in Company of Heroes, covering more ground efficiently—much faster than I would an ordinary mouse—gaining a significant tactical advantage over the enemy.

On-The-Fly was much better behaved with my test suite of games than it was when I reviewed the Razer Diamondback Mice awhile ago. Although the indicator flickered in all three titles, I was able to see it well enough to make whatever adjustments I wanted—no crashes or lock-ups. Earlier Razer mice also had a habit of occasionally not being detected on boot-up, forcing you to unplug the mouse then plug it back in to get it working again—which was a real nuisance after awhile. Thanks to Razer’s Always-On technology, the DeathAdder was ready to go to work every time I powered on the system. No more reaching behind the PC to play to disconnect and re-connect the mouse on every other boot-up. The DeathAdder’s wide range of adjustments also makes it ideal for power users who need more precise pointer control in applications like Photoshop, who also like to crank up the sensitivity and polling rates for a little Counter-Strike or Battlefield fun later on.

Final Observations and Conclusion

Razor has made significant improvements over their earlier line of gaming mice, with the DeathAdder. It’s definitely the best-looking mouse in Razer’s line-up with its rubberized surface, blue-illuminated click-wheel and pulsating Razer logo. Killer looks may impress at LAN parties or make your desk look like a million bucks—but they don’t win games or make them more comfortable or enjoyable to play. Fortunately, the DeathAdder can back up its looks with its comfortable design, excellent performance, highly configurable sensitivity, user-defined keys and customizable profiles that will give you the edge you need in all your games.

Keep in mind that with any mouse—gaming or otherwise—comfort depends on the size of your hands and length of your fingers. Someone with small hands and short fingers for example, may not find the DeathAdder as comfortable to use as I did. I would strongly suggest that you take a drive to your local store if it has the DeathAdder in stock and on display, and try it out before purchasing it. If that’s not possible, order it from an online retailer with a no-hassle returns policy.

The control panel suffers from a few legibility issues which aren’t helped by the flat-looking interface and small fonts. The selected Polling Rate and DPI for example, can be hard to read, as are the settings for turning the mouse’s illumination and acceleration on and off. You have to look really close to see the tiny green “glow” around the equally tiny letters that represents the settings being toggled in the “on” position.

The DeathAdder's software-based On-The-Fly sensitivity gives you a much wider range of settings, than a hardware-only implementation which requires an actual button on the mouse configured to toggle through pre-selected sensitivity settings, accompanied by small LEDs representing each one. Because Razor’s software temporarily overwrites a portion of the screen to display the indicator while a game is running, there’s always the possibility that there will be a particular game, video driver version—or both—that will not play nice with it. Also, some users will undoubtedly find the indicator’s in-game flickering (which does not occur at the Windows desktop when running applications) annoying and distracting—though it is a necessary evil. While the problem can be easily avoided by disabling the indicator, not having any visual clues on which sensitivity setting you’re dialing in that’s best for the game and situation at hand, seems to defeat the purpose of having the feature at all. Still, as appealing as it sounds to be able to lower the DeathAdder’s sensitivity when going for that “one-shot, one-kill” with a sniper rifle, then cranking it back up when you want to “run-and-gun,” few games are written to fully accommodate this level of flexibility, so it’s not a major knock against the DeathAdder in my opinion.

When creating macros to assign to a button, you are limited to eight keystrokes (plus delays), on the Razer DeathAdder. Although another product—the Microsoft Reclusa Wired Gaming Keyboard (which Razer jointly developed with Microsoft and uses Razor’s gaming technology)—drew fire for having a similar limitation, it’s a somewhat less bitter pill to swallow for the Razer DeathAdder, as you would expect a mouse to have less memory available to store macros than a keyboard. You are limited in using 50ms delays for the DeathAdder’s macros, however. Which is no problem—provided the game function you’re recording the macro for doesn’t require a delay longer or shorter than 50ms.

The DeathAdder’s rubberized skin not only feels good in your hand, it really helps when your palm starts to sweat once you’ve battled your way to the 50^th level and come face-to-face with one of those huge “boss” enemies with lots of teeth, a really bad disposition, a ton of hit-points and more ways to tear you a new one than you can count. It’s also a major dust and dirt magnet. Fortunately, the DeathAdder cleans up nice with a damp cloth. Stains can be taken care of with the same damp cloth dabbed in a solution of water and mild soap.

Like most gaming mice, the Razor DeathAdder is designed for right-hand users. I think it would be great if Razer and other gaming hardware companies stepped up and showed Southpaw gamers some love too, with these products. The two-year warranty (with registration) is a year shy of the three-year warranty offered by Logitech on the G5;  but it’s longer than most average and more than a few “hi-performance” mice.

With a street price of under fifty bucks, the comfort, power, speed, precision and flexibility of the Razor DeathAdder Gaming Mouse insures that this snake has more than enough bite to help you take on and take out the competition like a pro.