Razer Viper Gaming Mouse Gets Deadly Fast With Optical Switches

Razer has debuted a new gaming mouse called the Viper that it is aiming directly at the world of eSports. The big claim to fame for the Razer Viper is the use of new Optical Mouse Switches described as the company's fastest switches yet. Razer says that the Optical Mouse Switches have three times the actuation speed of traditional mechanical mouse switches.

Razer says that while traditional mouse switches send signals when a metallic contact is made, with it's new Optical Mouse Switch no physical contact is required to send a signal. These switches use an infrared light beam that passes through a shutter to fire an electrical signal to the computer. The switches promise to respond instantly to every finger press, so every action is executed when the player intends. Each of the Optical Mouse Switches is built to withstand up to 70 million clicks.

ESports pros have tested the mouse with Razer saying that MIBR CS:GO legend Epitácio "TACO" de Melo has been using a prototype of the Razer Viper in tournaments for the past year. TACO says that the shape of the mouse is perfect and the click of the optical switches is smoother and faster. He also likes the flexibility of the Speedflex cable Razer fitted to the mouse.

The mouse weighs 69 grams making it the lightest wired mouse from Razer to date. The Viper mouse has the Razer 5G Optical Sensor inside giving it up to 16,000 DPI native resolution with 99.4% resolutional accuracy and tracking of 450 inches per second. Viper is also very customizable using Razer Synapse 3 software, and it has onboard DPI setting storage.

The mouse has eight programmable buttons that can be customized with macros and secondary functions. The Razer Viper mouse will cost $79.99 and is on store shelves in Best Buy locations now and can be purchased online via Razer, Best Buy, and Amazon. In other gaming-released news, Razer debuted the Kraken X gaming headset back in June.