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.

This is a nice mouse in many ways however it has two very obvious problems that should not exist in a modern wireless mouse.

Problem one is the strength of the wireless signal. My computer desk has about an inch of chip-board on the top where the receiver sits and the mouse sits on the retractable keyboard shelf like most computer desks. The signal can't properly penetrate the chipboard making tracking incredibly erratic unless I pull the receiver right to the edge to give it line-of-sight.

The other problem is the battery life. It's nice that they gave this mouse two battery packs but I don't think they had much choice. My old mouse could run on a pair of rechargeable AA batteries for about 12 weeks, the R.A.T. 9 won't last 12 hours.

You could argue that these are minor flaws, but at this price tag I don't expect any flaws.