Cyborg R.A.T - 9 Wireless Mouse (PC)

I've searched high and low for a gaming mouse that I'm 100% happy with, and I've finally found it. I've gone through a Razer Imperator, a Razer Abyssus, a Roccat Kone Plus, and a couple of budget numbers all in the last 4 months. The two Razers were fantastic, admittedly, but a good portion of the surface is covered in shiny plastic that I find too slippery for extended gaming sessions. The Roccat mouse suffered greatly from reliability issues and the mouse wheel ceased working after a couple of weeks. And the budget mice, well, the age-old adage of "You get what you pay for" rings true.

So I decided to give the RAT 9 a go. My friend had the RAT 7 (essentially the wired version of the RAT 9), and he gave it a glowing recommendation. Furthermore, I had heard many good things about it... and it looks so damn cool.

I went with 9 (the wireless version) over 7 (the wired version) for a couple of reasons. Namely, 9 features a few minor adjustments that help with stability and protecting the laser from dust particles. Secondly, the back of my computer is a mess of cables, and I'm sick of constantly adjusting my mouse so it doesn't catch on anything or restrict my movement. I'm pleased to report that the fact that this mouse is wireless (often seen as a big no-no amongst the gaming community) will have no adverse affect on your performance. To paraphrase someone else - you could glue a fake wire onto it, tell someone it was wired, and they'd be none the wiser. It's lightning fast.

The ability to heavily customise the shape of the mouse is another big draw for it. My set-up is to have the raised palm rest all the way back, the thumb rest all the way back and out as wide as it can go, and I have the big little finger rest. I've never known such comfort from a mouse. There's a short adjustment period when you begin using this mouse as it's a wildly different shape to any other mouse out there, but it's worth persevering through.

Another huge bonus from using this mouse is the inclusion of that red 'Sniper button'. Pressing and holding this button will lower the sensitivity of the mouse, allowing you greater precision when, say, sniping. It's a Godsend, and something that will make you wonder how your survived without it.

I'd like to say a few words about the batteries too, since they seem to cause quite a stir. How it works is like this; it comes with two batteries so you can be using one whilst the other one charges in the wireless receiver. Each will last a few days with normal use, or an 8-hour solid session. I don't understand the controversy surrounding this since there's always a fully charged battery ready and waiting to go. It also takes a maximum of 10 seconds to switch them. What I do is switch the batteries at the end of each session; This means I always start the next session with 100% battery, and never have to change during a game.

My single negative, and it's most likely a consequence of how I have my mouse set up (with the thumb rest all the way back), is that I do find it somewhat tricky to use the rear thumb button. It's hardly an essential button, but I do think it could have been better placed.

After recently building a PC, I decided that I needed a High-end gaming mouse to go with it.

I needed a wireless mouse, with good battery life, great responsiveness, and a few customisable buttons.

The packaging for start, is very nice. Expensive feeling packaging, makes the experience a lot better, and would create a great gift, as it definitely looks £85 packaged.

As you open the box, you're faced with the Mouse itself, a tin containing spare panels and weights, and the wired unit for receiving the mouse functions.

Again, you can see and feel the quality on the mouse, as far as looks and quality goes, this mouse would receive 10/10 in all area's.

However, The functionality lets this mouse down a little, sometimes the mouse itself is unstable and can rock when the palm rest is fully extended.

Also, I find the scroll wheel only works on 50% of my games, meaning I have lost some functionality, and having to lean over to the keyboard to press the key, when really, the mouse is just under performing.

I also have some issue's with battery life; if my PC isn't turned on for 3 or more days, I find that the battery is down to the final 10%.

Also, I find the programming software bad, you have to load your own custom profiles every time the PC is turned on, as the mouse doesn't store them (which for the price, I would expect a tiny on board memory unit to remember the 3 customisable profiles that have been created)

All in all, the Mouse has let itself down every since it was turned on,
It looks good, and feels nice, and does everything it says on the tin, I was just expecting a little bit of a wow factor, considering it is one of the most expensive gaming mouses on the market.

10/10 Looks
6/10 Functionality.

The Good
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The R.A.T 9 is well built and aesthetically pleasing. It feels solid and looks as if it could stand up to heavy use. The customisation options are fun, easy and pretty damn awesome. As you probably know you can change the palm rests, pinky rests amongst other things.

The red aiming button which lowers the DPI while pressed is fantastic. It really does help with precision when sniping.

The Bad
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Where to begin....

Batteries Life - The R.A.T 9 has a very short battery life. Under heavy use a battery lasts 6 to 8 hours. Under light use the battery last 8 to 10 hours. When you spend £80 on a gaming mouse you do not expect it to die in the middle of a gaming session. The new Logitech mouse I bought lasts 48 hours on a single charge.

Changing Batteries - The battery itself is hard to change. At times it feels like you need pliers to pry it out. If your battery dies during a game you can forget about a quick change.

Battery Quality - The first two batteries I received only charged to 70%-80% from the first time I charged them. I ended up getting two replacement batteries, one of them charged to 90% and the other to 100%. The batteries are defective, another review on here also mentions this issue.

Tracking - Sometimes the Y axis stops tracking while the X axis tracks perfectly and vice versa. There is also a lot of stutter at times. I was using the mouse on a professional gaming mouse pad so it should have tracked flawlessly.

Wake up time - The mouse goes into a sleep state after 20 minutes of no use. It sometimes takes as much as 30 seconds for the mouse to wake up. This may seem like nothing but it can actually get very annoying. Most of us are accustomed to our mice responding as soon as they are moved. With the R.A.T 9 be prepared for a very long and annoying wake up time.

Software - The mouse control software is buggy and it makes the mouse unusable. For me and many others the profile editor window of the software was completely blank. Just Google "r.a.t profile editor blank" and you will see how many people suffer from this issue. Saitek claim that the software has been fixed but it hasn't for me and many other people.

Saitek Support - I called for support on the software issue above. To be fair the lady I spoke to was very nice. She told me that she would email me a beta version of the software that should work. What I was emailed was old software for the R.A.T 3... I thought this may have been a mistake so I called again but I was told it wasn't a mistake. The support team seems to be working on very outdated information.

Saitek Blog and Forum - Saitek wrote a blog post about the infamous blank profile editor. I left several comments on the blog post claiming I was suffering from the issue and needed support. The comments were always removed. I think it is extremely dishonest to remove a users comments. The support forum itself is shut down to new users so you wont get any support there. You can see this yourself by googling "saitek forum" and trying to register. They delete comments from their blog and they shut down the support forum...... I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.