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Razer Diamondback 3G Gaming Mouse
In Use
The most common complaint about the Plasma was how useless the buttons on the flanks were. And they're totally grounded, as the amount of force required to manipulate them took too much focus away from the game to make them worth pressing. This isn't an issue with the 3G, as the buttons are no longer rubber--they're hard plastic with good tension--but the placement is still irritating. This is a common predicament for designers; with symmetrical designs, thumb buttons don't make good finger buttons and vice-versa. Thus, the mouse only has thumb buttons, and the number of side controls is effectively halved. Still, it's an improvement when you remember that the sides of the Plasma were unworkable. The primary buttons are a little stiffer than I like, and offer just enough resistance to support an index finger, but not the middle or ring fingers; they click while resting. This is only, of course, when you "palm" the 3G, and it's perfect for "fingering" it. The middle button resists only enough to not mis-click when scrolling, and the scroll wheel doesn't spin when clicking middle. There are no other functions of the middle button, and it doesn't side-scroll, which would go against the tight, single-minded controls of the mouse. The crux of the Diamondback isn't the buttons, though. It's how it moves. The third-generation Diamondback weighs five grams more than the Plasma, so 95 grams (125 with the cable). Nevertheless, it's better balanced, with the majority of the mass at the very center of the mouse, right under your fingers. The control you can exercise is a kind of practical telekinesis; a discernable improvement on what was already irreproachable. That is why people fall in love with Diamondbacks. Some of the buttons have futile placement, but who cares? As long as games are played with mice, this kind of transparent control will be the closest thing to not using a mouse at all. The infrared sensor has not failed me on any surface, not even glass or marble. It's really unflappable. Because it uses a new sensor, the mouse pointer doesn't suffer from the rare problem where the Plasma skipped: From Wikipedia: "The A3070 sensor suffered from an issue known as pixel jitter compensation; one units worth (a single pixel in the context of a GUI desktop with a 1:1 mouse input/output ratio) of accurate movement was lost immediately after reversing the physical direction of travel of the Diamondback, resulting in the 'skipping' of the mouse pointer." This was fixed for the later production runs of the Plasma, and is history as far as the 3G is concerned.
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