Razer Viper Ultimate
It’s expensive, but this wireless mouse performs as well as any wired unit.
Razer has gone all-out with its Viper Ultimate mouse, cramming in new wireless tech and an improved optical sensor into a slim, ambidextrous body. The result, while not perfect, is the best wireless gaming mouse you can buy right now, and it feels as responsive as any wired mouse I’ve used. You’re paying for that quality – it costs a hearty $260 – but if you’re going to splurge on a lightweight wireless mouse in 2019, the Viper Ultimate is your best bet. It’s a real contender to the Logitech G502 Lightspeed’s wireless throne.
It starts with the Razer Focus+ Optical Sensor, a new bit of kit Razer has slotted into both this mouse and the Basilisk Ultimate. The Basilisk is the bigger of the two, and comes with more customisable buttons, while the Viper Ultimate is slimmer and ambidextrous. The sensor runs up to 20,000 DPI/CPI – higher than anything you’ll find on our best gaming mouse list.
It also boasts a tracking speed of up to 650 IPS (inches per second). For comparison, our current favorite wireless mouse, the Logitech G502 Lightspeed, is rated up to 400 IPS, meaning the Viper Ultimate has a higher ceiling for tracking faster movements. The Viper Ultimate has a resolution accuracy of 99.6%: that’s higher than the Razer Deathadder Elite, arguably the best wired mouse on the market, which sits at 99.4%.
I mainly tested it in Fortnite, where you need to snap to targets and often sweep across your entire mouse pad to build structures. I found it tracked my movement as accurately as any wired mouse I’ve used, no matter how quick my movements. It felt consistently sharp: I never detected any delays on-screen with either my movement or clicks, and it performed well at a variety of DPI settings. I play with quite a low sensitivity, and dialling down the DPI on the Viper Ultimate is easy thanks to a small button housed on the bottom of the mouse, where you can’t accidentally nudge it. It has five settings to cycle through, and you can customise the DPI for each one in Razer’s Synapse software.
The long-life battery means you can keep playing for days on end without worrying about charging. Razer claims it will last 70 hours between charges, and my experience wasn’t far off.
I used it as my main mouse for an entire week without it running out of battery. When I measured it during intense gaming, I was draining around 2-3% per hour, which would pan out to somewhere between 35 and 50 hours of battery life. However, I was using the “responsive” lighting setting, which illuminates the Razer logo on the mouse when you click: if you turned the light off entirely you could definitely squeeze more life out of it.
It’s not perfect – you’ll find mice that are more comfortable, and ones with more programmable buttons – but it’s light, ambidextrous, feels good in the hand, and tracks your movements as well as a wired unit. You can connect it to your PC directly via a micro USB, but when it’s this responsive in wireless mode, why bother?
• 20K CPI sensor is the best we’ve seen
• Light in the hand, with a grippy finish
• Ambidextrous
• Expensive – over $200
• Right and left clicks feel a touch flimsy
• Fewer programmable buttons than competitors