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    Review: Razer NAGA X ergonomic mouse with 16 programmable buttons

    One of Razer’s newest mice is the Naga X, designed for gamers to not only perform well, but be comfortable while doing it. Ergonomically this mouse offers one of the most comfortable designs and for both long gaming sessions and all-day productivity, that’s incredibly important.

    While the comfort of the mouse is important, it’s unlikely to be the sole reason you buy this mouse over others, for that we’d look to features like the 16 programmable buttons. For gaming these can be mapped to common functions inside each game. While most mice offer a default button to switch weapers (like the scroll wheel press), the array of 12 buttons under your thumb, offer the ability to call up directly the specific weapon you need in any given circumstance.

    While many gamers who will consider this mouse will already have programmable keys on their keyboard, having an additional set of buttons to customise on your mouse, could be the thing that gives you the edge on the battlefield.

    After switching to using the Naga X for the past couple of weeks as my primary mouse, it’s time to break down the design, features, performance and value of the mouse.

    DESIGN AND FEATURES

    Curves in all the right places

    The Naga X is not just a gaming mouse, but it’s an ergonomic mouse which means it’s ready for action all day everyday, regardless of how many hours you spend at the desk. I’m definitely guilty of spending too many hours in front of a computer each day and having an uncomfortable keyboard or mouse can be a real problem, causing wrist or lo

    This means the ergonomic design is the most important design decision, even if its the first thing you’ll forget about. The mouse is really comfortable in the hand and buttons and a scroll wheel, all well within reach. I have a larger hand, and if you do too, you’ll have no problems with the Naga X.

    Also important to how comfortable a mouse is, is having the mouse be light and well-weighted. Razer have opted for a center-weight distribution of 85 grams, making precise snap turns a breeze. Underneath, the mouse features 3 feet made from Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) which is a synthetic fluoropolymer and what that means is the mouse glides effortlessly across your benchtop surface.

    The design of the cable for a wired mouse may not seem like something noteworthy in design, but I feel it definitely is with the Naga X. Known as the Razer Speedflex cable, the cord is not your regular hard plastic, instead made of a woven material that not only makes it light and easy to move, but it places virtually no pressure on the mouse when you move. This offers less drag when performing quicker, smoother swipes for tighter mouse control. Basically, the mouse feels like it’s wireless, even though you have the advantage of a wired mouse, like no batteries or recharging to worry about.

    Razer is famous for the matte black finish on their hardware and I love that looks. With my HyperX keyboard, the pair fit together well, however, I suspect most gamers will go with a Razer keyboard as well. There’s really no other colours to speak of until you power it on. Like virtually all Razer products, you get control over multiple zones of RGB lighting, controlled through the Razer synapse app on the desktop.

    You’ll be using this app to customise those programmable buttons, so dipping into the config for lighting is quick and easy. You have the choice between basic lighting, or going full control freak and setting colours and effects for both the buttons and scroll wheel lighting zones.

    PERFORMANCE

    How does it perform ?

    The acceleration of this mouse is exceptional. To maximise gaming performance, you want to minimise the time between action on screen, you absorbing that, making a decision, then moving your body to feed the input back to the game and having your character respond on-screen .

    While a mouse won’t help with all of those steps, it will help with the control input time, in response to a decision you’ve made.

    Razer calculates changes in direction as G, as in geforces. The higher the G, the quicker the change in speed. A rollercoaster caps at 6.3 G, while a jet fighter measures 9–10 G. As you throw the mouse across the surface of your desk, the Razer 5G Advanced Optical Sensor can track up to 50 G of movement (basically many times what humans are capable of).

    The other aspect of accuracy and performance as well as personalisation, is mouse sensitivity. Measured in DPI, this is how your movements translate to the amount of distance your cursor will move on screen.

    The Razer Naga X offers complete control over DPI, with the Synapse software offering up to 5 steps of sensitivity to customise. Personally, I found 2,000 works well in Windows 10 desktop applications with my display setup, but in games a little higher, around 3200.

    Thanks to a dedicated DPI toggle button below the scroll wheel, you can cycle through these DPI presents. Personally, I liked just 2 different options and it’s great Razer allows you to choose anywhere between 2 and 5 presets. It is this attention to detail that gamers really appreciate and shows that Razer really understands gamers through the products they make. Cycling through 5 presets when I only want 2 would be painful, so reducing that to 2 is perfect.

    Every inch you move your mouse will translate to X dots on screen. As monitors increased in resolution, it continues to challenge some mice, but not the Naga X with an upper DPI limit of 18,000. To appreciate just how fast that is, to move the cursor from one side to the other on my 49″ Samsung Super Ultrawide display, takes just a couple of mm of movement to move it 3840 pixels.

    ISSUES

    Not everything's perfect

    The mouse certainly does what it’s designed to do, however something noticed is this. As a result of having the grid of 12 buttons under your left thumb, there’s nowhere for your thumb to secure against the body in the event you want to claw the mouse to pick it up and move it on your desk.

    Perhaps this is a bad habit I need to need to shake, but after having the thumb rest on the left side of every mouse I’d used until this one, it’s something I found myself wanting to do, multiple times a day.

    When you do this, it’s virtually impossible to do without accidentally pressing a button. Depending on which app or game you’re running at the time, and which button mappings you’ve made, this could have a variety of impacts. In the best situation, nothing happens, in the worst case, you release a grenade while your next to a wall, or back out of a web form before saving.

    I’d almost take a grid of 8 buttons, which still provides plenty of custom options, but could provide a row at the bottom left of the mouse where you could grip the body should you need to.

    PRICE & AVAILABILITY

    How much and when can you get one ?

    The Razer Naga X is available now on Razer’s website. The ergonomic gaming mouse costs A$134.95 which I think is really great value for what you’re getting. For a limited time, Razer have free shipping in Australia for orders over A$129, of which the Naga X clearly qualifies.

    There are of course dozens of mice from Razer to chose from, so choosing the Naga X is a deliberate choice to have a wired mouse as compared to the A$269.95 wireless Naga Pro.

    OVERALL

    Final thoughts

    Overall I’m incredibly impressed with the value for money available from the Naga X. If you’re looking for a gaming mouse that’s comfortable for many, many hours of gameplay (or productivity) then you should definitely add this to your shortlist.

    If you’re a gamer that plays a lot of FPS or MMORPG titles, then you’ll be hard-pressed to find more customisation and configuration than this mouse. The fact it has some personalisation through RGB is nice, but it’s not the reason you buy this mouse over the long list of other options.

    Razer has done a great job with the comfort and design of this mouse, but also assembling a great set of features and the performance. This will definitely appeal to everyone from enthusiasts to gaming professionals.

    Jason Cartwright
    Jason Cartwrighthttps://techau.com.au/author/jason/
    Creator of techAU, Jason has spent the dozen+ years covering technology in Australia and around the world. Bringing a background in multimedia and passion for technology to the job, Cartwright delivers detailed product reviews, event coverage and industry news on a daily basis. Disclaimer: Tesla Shareholder from 20/01/2021

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