I travel a lot, if you haven’t realised that yet. I also tend to have a very mobile office set up and what I mean by that is I spend a good few days a week travelling from meeting to meeting, abusing coffee shops with free WiFi or stopping by the Mettlestate offices to get work done in between appointments. For the most part I’ve become rather familiar with using scroll pads on notebooks as adding a mouse to my already full laptop bag tends to take up space I might need.
The Razer Atheris
Razer has always been gaming peripheral focused. That’s their jam. They have some of the best products on the market to fulfil gaming needs while also offering up great solutions for streamers. Razer is a full fledged gaming tech brand. In South Africa we only have their peripherals but internationally they have a mind blowing range of notebooks in the form of the Blade series and THAT smartphone. They’re renowned for their green three headed snake logo glow and high class Chroma RGB lighting. But they’ve taken a very different direction with the Razer Atheris.
The Razer Atheris is their latest wireless mouse option and you’ll be surprised when it comes out the box. It is small and understated with a sleek and simple design and rubberised sides. The aesthetics of their products vary from understated to over the top. The Atheris is understated but also far more “business” than we’ve come to expect from Razer. It has a simple black matte finish and a small Razer logo engraved at the top of the mouse. There are no Chroma RGB options available for obvious reasons, the battery life will suffer. But we’ll get in to that in a bit. In the box you get your mouse and a set of Double AA batteries as well as the usual Razer welcome letter and instruction booklet. There 2 Razer stickers that I’ve come to love are also included.
Let’s get in to the details
The mouse is clearly designed for office use. This baby is meant to be your laptop companion at work and in meetings. However, as this is a Razer product, it has the necessary tech inside to ensure you can also use it for gaming if needed. Let’s chat about the tech stuff. Razer claims the Atheris has the world’s longest lasting battery life when compared to other wireless mouse products. These are not rechargeable batteries but rather need to be replaced. The mouse can go for 350 hours on a single pair of AAs so by rights you should be able to use the Atheris for about 3 months before needing to replace it.
The mouse connects to your notebook or PC in two ways. The first is via bluetooth and the other is via a USB dongle (which fits neatly inside the mouse when you aren’t using it). The dual 2.5GHz wireless connectivity is lag free. I can attest to this as well. I’ve been using the Atheris on both my gaming notebook and my Mac. I usually stay away from none Apple products with my Mac because even plugging a mouse straight in to the laptop causes a delay. Yet the Atheris was a simple plug and play and has zero lag or response time issues. The adaptive Frequency Technology Razer uses is probably to thank for this.
Because of the incredible battery life on this baby you won’t get the usual Chroma RGB light show you expect with Razer products. This is to save battery but I also think it has a lot to do with the office friendly look the company is going for – the light show needs to stay at home. You have five independently programmable buttons on this baby as well.
But what did I think?
I like the size of the Razer Atheris because carting it around in my bag isn’t a hassle as it is so small. It is sleek and travels well. You can set up Synapse with it or simply plug and play if you wish. It really is a great little mouse and only costs R749 with a 2 year warranty. It isn’t going to replace my DeathAdder Elite in game but it will be added to my work arsenal going forward.
Disclosure: I was given a Razer Atheris as I’m a South African Razer Brand Ambassador.
