Razer Lachesis 4000 dpi Laser Gaming Mouse (Banshee Blue)

I will be using a review template similar to that of the one in Derp's review of the SS Sensei: http://www.overclock.net/t/1165120/steelseries-sensei-review

I realize this mouse is fairly outdated but I just felt like writing a review for it, I'll be mainly comparing it to the mouse I was using before this one: the G5. I've since gone through a G500, a DA, and a WMO. I apologize if this review was hard to read, I was quite tired.

Sensor Quality:
Let's get right down to nitty-gritty of this mouse: the sensor. Now when I bought the Lachesis it was to replace my worn out G5, I didn't know anything about sensor quality. I had no idea what jitter or prediction was, I didn't even know much about DPI. I do remember my initial impression being that the mouse was very sensitive, the cursor would move quite a bit if I pressed any one of the buttons on the mouse. The cursor would move if I tapped my desk, I thought this was just because of the high sensitivity I was using at the time, I had no idea that this was because of the infamous Phillips Twin-Eye.

Originally I had some crappy generic office mouse pad, one of the ones with the rubber base and the thin plastic top, and whenever I would press part of my hand into the mouse pad it would move the cursor. Now I was perplexed at this, I had no idea that this was the infamous Z-Axis tracking bug that the Twin-Eye was notorious for. So I decided to buy a hard mouse pad, I eventually settled on the Razer Sphex because I was cheap and I didn't know any better, it worked alright and I didn't have to worry about the z-axis tracking bug because the Sphex was so thin that it was basically part of my wooden desk.

Now I know better, I know that the Twin-Eye is the spawn of the devil and is something to be completely avoided. I recently tried the Lachesis on my Puretrak Talent and it was the worst thing that I have ever used on that mouse pad. Whenever my wrist would press into the mouse pad the cursor would just jitter all over my screen, even typing on my keyboard would sometimes make the cursor move. I haven't even gotten to the lift off bug, basically if I were to lift my mouse up and place it back down the cursor would move down and to the right by quite a bit, it's a lot more pronounced at higher DPI levels although it is still very noticeable even with 400 dpi. Also the mouse sometimes stops tracking after lifting up the mouse and putting it back down, it is truly terrible for a low sens player like myself.

Design
The Lachesis was made for claw grippers and finger tip grippers in mind and I can definitely see why. The mouse has a very narrow body, it's fairly wide up at the left and right mouse buttons but the shape tapers off around the middle of the mouse into a fairly thin form. I came from a G5 which is more suited towards palm grippers so the shape was not that comfortable for me, I honestly had no idea what a palm grip or claw grip was at the time but I could at least figure out that the shape of the Lachesis was not for me.

After comparing it to another claw grip mouse, the WMO, I can say that I absolutely hate the shape of the Lachesis. It's way too narrow, and it's so thin height wise. Whenever I would try to claw it or use a fingertip grip it would cause horrible cramps in my hand, it just felt so unnatural to grip as opposed to the WMO.

Build Quality
This was my first Razer product ever and I had read a lot about Razer's very spotty quality control and I can say that the mouse felt kind of cheap. I think the main reason why I felt that it was so cheap was because of the glossy sides, it just felt like cheap plastic to me. Also the cable was so thin, I honestly thought that I was going to break it just by tugging the cable on the edge of my desk. I'm not a big fan of braided cables but I would much rather have one on this mouse than the thin plastic cable on the Lachesis although I do believe the newer version has a braided cable.

The side buttons were my another concern, they felt so loose that I was actually afraid that I was going to break the components they were attached to. I didn't feel any noticeable flexing in any part of the mouse, I have seen a few Razer mice have problems with flexing pieces.

Surface Material
Personally I hated the glossy plastic sides on this mouse, Razer is known to use a rubber top and glossy plastic sides (except for special edition mice and the BE series). The glossy plastic would cause my fingers to sweat and create a really disgusting gripping surface, it felt slippery and I just did not feel sanitary even after washing my hands before using the Lachesis. The rubber portion on the other hand was quite nice and while my fingers did sweat a bit I never lost grip on the top of the mouse.

Scroll Wheel
When I came from the G5 my main problem with that mouse was the scroll wheel, it was just awful so the scroll wheel on the Lachesis was quite an improvement. I didn't have to deal with the left and right scroll buttons and an unstable mouse wheel. It felt a little bit mushier than the G5's wheel when scrolling but at least it worked unlike the G5's wheel which would skip scrolls and sometimes randomly scroll on its own. Depressing the scroll wheel was also much easier than the G5, personally I have tried better scroll wheels since but it was much better than the G5's wheel and even the G500's scroll wheel.

Buttons
The buttons on this mouse are awful, I will just point that out bluntly. The left and right mouse buttons require a large amount of force to actuate, I have never used a mouse that has required so much force to use the buttons on. They were stiff and would cause hand fatigue in a short period of time, it was just awful, the G5's buttons were much better as they didn't require that much force to use and they were very responsive.

The side buttons were even worse, they were the exact opposite of mouse 1/2, they were so incredibly mushy that I was afraid of pressing the buttons too hard for fear of breaking the mouse. I also accidentally hit the opposite side's thumb buttons quite a bit, I eventually unbound them but since they were so loose feeling I felt like I never had a good grip on the mouse.

Cable
I mentioned earlier that the cable felt cheap, it was very thin and looked like something that came on a cheap pair of ear buds. I was worried that I was going to break the cable just by accidentally tugging the cable on the edge of my desk, luckily (or unluckily) the cable never broke. I do believe the cable on the newer Lachesis is braided.

Conclussion
While this is the older Lachesis I'm sure some of my opinions on the shape, the sensor, and possibly the buttons could apply to the newer Lachesis. I honestly would never recommend this mouse to anyone, it is such an awful mouse. I am really hard pressed to find any positives in the mouse, I wouldn't even recommend to a person I hated because it is just so bad. Do yourself a favor, if you're looking for a decent claw/fingertip mouse then get a G9x or a CM Storm Spawn/Xornet, you could even get a WMO. The sensor alone is enough to prevent me from recommending this mouse to anyone, the PTE is seriously a piece of junk.

I'll try to get a more positive review of the Deathadder and possibly WMO later.