Razer Naga Hex
Manufacturer: Razer
Device: Mouse
Price: $129.95
Purchase: Razerstore
Gamers, have you ever found yourself wanting your hotkeys closer to your mouse? How about on your mouse? Were you interested in the original Naga but decided that such a large number of buttons would be too daunting? Well maybe you will want to check out the Razer Naga Hex gaming mouse by Razer.
The Naga Hex is a very unusual mouse that performs comfortably and incredibly well for it is. And most surprisingly of all, the additional buttons lain down the side feel amazingly comfortable and easy to use. I actually found this out when I was playing an FPS’ of all things. The game was Battlefield 3 and, I can tell you, this mouse is a dream for that game. I mean, sure it isn’t as precise as the Imperator that i reviewed a little while back, but having those Naga controls on the side made switching weapons a seamless experience and severely outweighed the negatives brought on by the minor imprecision by a greatly disproportionate amount in favour of the positives.
Even further, I found that this mouse is particularly useful in games where you need to use a smaller sub-set of skills, or have a solid rotation on an action-bar. Anything with RPG and MMO in their genres are games which benefit from this mouse the most. For instance, I could easily use all of my Smugglers skills in Star Wars The Old Republic just by pressing my thumb around the buttons on the side, which made the combat feel much more fluid and dynamic. I will always be a clicker when it comes to MMORPGs, but, this mouse had me really considering switching to a different control scheme.
An issue that I found with my other mouses on the market is that they are either too bulky, too heavy or their DPI scales are so bad that you can’t throw them around the desk while trying to quick-scope that n0oB off to the left fast enough because the mouse spazzes out from moving it too quickly. Logitech seem to be the worst for this, couldn’t pull off a rocket jump because of the insanely high mouse speed making the game spazz out. This is one of the greatest reason why I like Razers products, they’re lightweight, they’re responsive and best of all and they’re simply the best at whatever it is that they’re built for.
Honestly I think that this is the reason that Razer is so successful in the peripheral market. Instead of having one mouse that tries to do everything well, they have a bunch of different peripherals that are more specialised in in one area over all others. Do you need a responsive mouse for an FPS’? Grab the Imperator. You need a mouse that’s accurate enough for an online hotkey based game, but need the buttons to be more accessible and readily available for quick use? Grab yourself the Naga Hex.
Now, something that I really disliked about this mouse is it’s topmost section, the bit that you put your hand over and press the left and right mouse buttons on. The faceplate perhaps? Anyway, the faceplate is made out of some kind of hard plasticy material that is quite aesthetically pleasing while it’s clean. However, in my week or so of having this mouse, there has been a significant build-up of grime and possibly deceased semen around the face, destroying the awesome look that had previously been established.
Like most Razer products, the Naga Hex features blinking lights that add a sci-fi feel to your workstation/desk. Even better, there are lights on the buttons and mouse wheel, neither of these blink and as such are solid lights that go well with the one blinking light on the top of the mouse.
What’s really quite amazing about Razer products is the fact that you can fine tune and customise your mouse using the Razer Synapse 2.0 package. The only problem with the package is that you need to be logged in to use it. I can see this becoming an issue for obtaining drivers that aren’t your Windows Update variety, which are needed for some Razer products. I’m not entirely sure why a minidisc wasn’t included with the package with the driver software pre-loaded into them. However, before installing the Synapse program, the mouse did work fine with the drivers from Windows Update, I just didn’t like the default buttons for the middle mouse buttons (M4 and M5) and wanted them to resemble my Imperators layout (Sensitivity up and down, as opposed to back and forward on a web-browser).
But honestly, having to be logged into the Synapse manager is just a minor gripe and is only really required for tuning your mouse, assuming that you don’t like the way it runs. I personally try to get all my mouses to match my reflexes, so this program was a must for me.
Lastly, as per standard Razer operation, the mouse is sold in a very lavish box, filled to the brim with included goodies. These goodies include stickers, instruction booklets, and other assorted curiosities that only serve to increase the value of your package. I also like sticking stickers on everything, so having even more of these Razer stickers is a huge plus to me. Even better, the package includes additional thumb rest thingies of various sizes which can be used to replace the rest in the middle of the Naga buttons on the side of the mouse. Personally, I found that the default size was perfect for me, but I can see why other players might want it to be smaller or larger depending on their preferences.
Overall the Razer Naga Hex is a pretty decent mouse that many players will find to improve their game dramatically. The mouse has virtually no learning curve and I could pick it up and use it with ease. I would just recommend this more for MMO’s or games like LoL or HoN, or even SC2 – as opposed to things like FPS’ games. But as I said, it helped me a lot during my rounds in Battlefield 3, so it’s really not at all that bad.
