Goondu review: new Razer Naga

Gaming

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They just keep packing more stuff on a mouse. With 17 programmable buttons, the new Razer Naga promises to let MMO players cast spells and fire up any other combos with a quick push of the thumb.

Those who have thought about buying it before will be glad to hear that this refreshed 2012 version comes with three removable grips to please various gamers while also having a non-slip surface that does away with the fingerprints.

Surprisingly, despite having that extra dialpad on the side, the Naga doesn’t feel at all hefty or slow. The 134-gram wired mouse slides along smoothly especially when you place it on a great mouse pad like the Razer Scarab.

The 5,600dpi laser sensor helps, of course, and from the time you take the mouse out of the box, you are in familiar Razer territory, which means high quality and cool. The mouse cord is nicely braided, as usual, and the Razer logo lights up and dims subtly.

But what will wow most MMO players will be the number buttons by the side. They are easily reachable (for right handers) and the good news is that they are spaced a little apart so you’ll avoid mashing on two of them at the same time accidentally.

There are two modes here. Out of the box, the Naga emulates the number buttons on the top row of your keyboard, usually the buttons that unleash a powerful attack, say, in Diablo III. If you want to programme a macro on a button on the Naga, you just have to slide a switch at the bottom of the mouse.

Whether it’s faster or better to whack a dozen monsters using your thumb or tapping on a button separately on your keyboard is really down to how used you are to each mode.

For first person shooter fans like me, who are more familiar with using the mouse mostly as a trigger, the keyboard remains an easy-to-reach place. However, the Naga’s buttons by the side could still help by letting you reach, say, a health vial to stay in the fight. In comparison, if you press on the wrong button on the keyboard, you’re done.

To be honest, I’m not sure I’ll be able to feel my way through all 12 buttons to reach an important task, but at least by binding a few of them to frequent tasks to complement the keyboard, it surely helps in games like Diablo. I know I will bind the top and bottom rows to crucial tasks, since I can easily “feel” them and click on them on my thumb.

Not everyone will find the buttons useful, of course. But the usual Razer quality is clear here and the Naga, even without the extra buttons, is a great gaming mouse to own.