Digital Trends

Razer Lachesis

March 23rd, 2008 | by Josh Norem

Use and Testing

Unlike most mice packages that just give you the mouse and a software CD, Razer throws in a few stickers that you can put on your chassis. We took the mouse out of the box and were impressed by the seven-foot USB cable, which is great for people (like us) who have huge desks.

We plugged in the Lachesis and installed the Razer software. Like any USB mouse, you don’t have to install the software to get the mouse to work in Windows, but you’ll need to use the software if you want the full functionality of the mouse.

We used the mouse for approximately two weeks and came away impressed by its accuracy and comfort. It honestly took about three days to get used to, however, as we were not used to using a mouse this sensitive. We like the customizable dpi settings, which let you determine what the sensitivity will be when you push the dpi adjustment button You can set the sensitivity anywhere between 500 and 4,000 dpi, which is great. You can also adjust the polling rate of the mouse, but you have to reboot in order for it to take affect. We found that 4,000dpi was way too sensitive, but it’s nice to have the option.

Software Control

The amount of customization available through the software is almost overkill, as you can do a million different things to customize the mouse. In addition to setting up different profiles for different applications, you can tweak the sensitivity of individual axes of the mouse, change button assignments, double-click speed, make macros and much more. 

Though we had no problems setting up different profiles and adjusting sensitivity settings, we ran into two issues with the software that were reminiscent of our last experience with a Razer mouse. The first was that we were had a confusing experience when trying to update the firmware on the mouse. We ran the software and it said it was updated, and that all we had to do was unplug and reconnect the mouse. We did so and the software told us we were still using version 1.0 instead of version 1.64. We tried re-installing the firmware but were told the firmware was the same version as the one we were installing. We looked in the manual but it just said to go online for the latest updates. On a lark we rebooted, and that successfully updated the mouse’s firmware, but it would be nice if Razer provided more explicit instructions about this process. We had similar firmware installation issues last time, and we wish Razer would make this process easier as there’s no reason for it to be this confusing.

The Razer software offers a wide range of adjustments for every facet of the mouse.

We also could not get the on-the-fly sensitivity to work every time. In theory, you assign it to a button and then press the button and a little meter pops up on the screen. You can then use the mouse wheel to adjust sensitivity up and down, but we couldn’t get this feature to work. We assigned it to every button on the mouse except one, and it just didn’t work. Even after we updated the firmware this feature still did not work for some reason.

Conclusion

We like the Lachesis a lot due to its comfort and features. It’s disappointing to see continued software issues though, and we would like to see Razer make the updating process simpler. If you’re a left-hander looking for a gaming mouse we’d say the Lachesis is a no-brainer. For right-handed mousers however, it’s not quite as clear-cut.


Pros:

• Extreme sensitivity levels
• Ambidextrous
• Comfortable


Cons:

• Firmware update issues
• On-the-fly sensitivity feature didn’t always work