Testing

To assess the Krait I ran it through several windows based tests such as general navigation and web browsing. I also ran sevarel gaming tests from different genres to determine how capable the mouse is of improving game play. In a final, small test I made my own personal observations on the comfort of its use.

Windows Test: The mouse performed pretty well here, though I did need to turn the sensitivity down a little using the supplied software. This was simply due to the fact that at the 10 setting I found it very hard to click on icons. At the 8 setting it was perfect, I had the accuracy I needed with the ease of only moving a centimetre or two to traverse the desktop. Browser use was perfect, the scroll working perfectly and although the sensitivity had me clicking the wrong icons initially, as I got used to it I found it a genuine improvement over my old mouse.

Gaming Test : For this test I put the Krait through its paces in several different gaming environments. One RPG (World of Warcraft), one FPS (Battlefield 2142) and one RTS (Company of Heroes). In WOW the Krait was a small improvement over my original mouse, though RPGs are not particularly helped by inceased sensitivity. A game like this would be more helped by some side buttons to link macros too, though these were the cause of many problems with the Copperhead series, so perhaps it is best that they are not present.

The FPS was an entirely different story, I saw huge increases in my gaming ability. I was able to react faster to anything that went on because of my increased mouse sensitivity, and therefore decreased real world movement for the same on screen movements. Although the sensitivity did take some time to get used to, and therefore my playing ability did drop slightly while I became accustomed to being able to turn around with tiny flicks of my wrist, I was beyond my original kill counts in no time.

Company of heroes was quite interesting to test with the mouse, as although I was able to move around the map faster, my accuracy was slightly reduced and therefore I occasionally found it hard to click on some of the smaller units in play. However, tweaking the sensitivity I was able to find the niche that I was looking for and overall saw a general increase in my reaction times to enemy attacks. The "On-The-Fly" sensitivity adjustments really panned out with this game as I was able to Alt-Tab out every few seconds and adjust the sensitivity of the Krait using Razer's software with no problems at all.

Comfort

When I first started using the Krait I did find it a little odd. The mouse is slightly slimmer than most generic mice, so my ring, and little finger hung over the edge of the mouse more than normal. This did feel a little odd, though it was far from uncomfortable. After a time I got used to it, and generic mice now feel large to my Krait trained hand.

Price

As I have previously mentioned, the price of the Krait is fantastic for what you get for your money. At around £25-£30 this is the best cost/performance gaming mouse you can find.