Razer Lancehead review: Gaming mouse with ambidextrous design

The Razer Lancehead is a superb mouse to use. Its grip is comfortable and its response to your hand movement is lightning quick.
The Razer Lancehead is a superb mouse to use. Its grip is comfortable and its response to your hand movement is lightning quick. PHOTO: RAZER

The Razer Lancehead is the world's most advanced wireless gaming mouse, according to its maker.

It features Razer's Adaptive Frequency Technology (AFT) that is supposed to ensure 100 per cent transmission stability. As its name implies, the AFT constantly scans frequency channels for interference, and switches frequency accordingly for a lag-free connection.

The Lancehead also features a 5G laser sensor rated at 16,000 dots per inch (dpi) that gives you a tracking speed of up to 210 inches a second.

It uses the Mechanical Mouse Switches that Razer co-designed with Omron, a company that manufactures switches found in many computer mice. These new switches have a durability of up to 50 million clicks, and are said to be optimised to reduce click latency.

Design-wise, the Lancehead is around the same size as my favourite gaming mouse, the Razer DeathAdder Chroma. But, unlike DeathAdder's asymmetrical contoured design that favours right-handers, the Lancehead uses a symmetrical ambidextrous design that caters to both right-handers and southpaws.

Most of Lancehead comes in a grey matte plastic finish without any rubber coating. I am not a fan of rubber coatings, as it will disintegrate quickly in Singapore's humid weather.

The front of the mouse features two vents that look like those on a car's bumper. On both sides of the mouse, there are rubber grips with lines that seem to run from the front vents.

  • TECH SPECS

  • PRICE: $229.90

    SENSOR: 16,000dpi 5G laser sensor

    ACCELERATION: Up to 210 inches per second

    BACKLIGHT: Up to 16.8 million colours

    WEIGHT: 111g (without cable)


    RATING

    DESIGN: 5/5

    PERFORMANCE: 4/5

    BATTERY LIFE: 3/5

    OVERALL: 4/5

It comes with a 2.1m braided-fibre USB charging cable that connects to the front of the mouse between the two vents.

You can also use it as a wired mouse with this cable.

On the underbelly of the mouse, you will find a compartment that houses the 2.4GHz USB dongle for the wireless connection to your computer.

Apart from the usual left- and right-click buttons and the scroll wheel, the Lancehead has two buttons behind the scroll wheel, as well as two buttons on each side of the mouse. The top two buttons are the dpi buttons that allow you to change the mouse's sensitivity on the fly. The four side buttons are customisable using Razer's Synapse software.

Most PC gamers use either the palm grip or claw grip when using their mouse. Palm grippers rest their palm on the mouse, while claw grippers arch their hand and their fingers grip the mouse.

Thus, Lancehead's ambidextrous design and grippy rubber sides are great for the claw grip. Being a right hander who uses a palm grip, I still prefer my DeathAdder Chroma.

Nevertheless, the Lancehead is a superb mouse to use. The grip is comfortable and the mouse's response to your hand movement is lightning quick, with deadly accurate tracking across the screen. The scroll wheel and all the buttons have a nice tactile click to them.

Whether I was playing first-person shooters, role-playing games or real-time strategy games, the comfort level never dropped. Also, no lag was encountered during these gaming sessions when I used the Lancehead as a wireless mouse.

It can last 24hr on a full charge, according to Razer. But battery life depends on usage.

In my tests with the Lancehead's backlight set on dim, I found it lasted only about 10hr of continuous gaming.

• Verdict: If you are a left-handed gamer who prefers the claw grip, the Razer Lancehead is definitely a gaming mouse to consider.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 02, 2017, with the headline Razer Lancehead review: Gaming mouse with ambidextrous design. Subscribe