You may have read or seen his tech and gaming coverage at IGN, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Variety, Digital Trends, and, of course, PCMag. The Razer Viper Ultimate is a new wireless mouse aimed at e-sports, with Razer claiming its new HyperSpeed wireless technology is a significantly superior alternative to Bluetooth in terms of speed, reliability and accuracy. The Viper Ultimate relies on Razer's software suite for all its customization, including Razer Synapse to change its settings and Razer Chroma to customize its lighting. Razer claims that its HyperSpeed Wireless tech provides markedly less latency than other mice available right now, and we can certainly attest to there being nearly zero.

You can customize mouse and dock lighting individually, as a pair, or together with other Chroma-supporting gear (such as a keyboard). You can customize and save as many profiles as you want in the Synapse software PC-side, though, and swap them out as you move games in and out of rotation. million colors, countless patterns, dynamic in-game lighting effects—experience full RGB customization and deeper immersion with the world’s largest lighting ecosystem for gaming devices. I went hands-on with the new peripheral to see whether those incredible specs can equate to an incredible performance.More than 20% lighter, armed with all-round upgrades, and one of the lightest wireless gaming mice evercreated. The bottom rim of the dock features RGB lighting, and changes colour to reflect the battery status of the mouse. In fact, it looks pretty much like a traditional gaming mouse, with the green Razer logo slapped on for good measure.

As we've seen throughout the year on mice like the Logitech G502 Lightspeed and the Corsair Ironclaw Wireless RGB, these connections generally work better than Bluetooth, providing a stable, nearly lag-free experience. HyperSpeed connectivity gives the Viper Ultimate an excellent and stable 998Hz polling rate, which effectively means the mouse is reporting its position to the computer every millisecond for pin-point accuracy. You can use the charging dock to replenish your mouse’s battery and to extend the reach of your USB wireless dongle.We honestly don’t know how Razer was able to engineer such a product that feels like waving around nothing at all, especially on a plastic mouse mat.

Designed especially for e-sport players, the Viper Ultimate sees the same streamlined form as the wired Razer Viper, cutting off any excess fat or buttons to see the weight fall to a feather-light 74 grams. PCMag is obsessed with culture and tech, offering smart, spirited coverage of the products and innovations that shape our connected lives and the digital trends that keep us talking. This doesn't make it ideal for anyone who spends a lot of time playing games that require macros or abilities beyond four of them being easily accessible, but it's perfectly serviceable for just about any other gamer.

Weighing just 74g, it achieves its weight without compromising on the build strength of its ambidextrous formfactor. Having played a few rounds of Counter-Strike and seeing several performance demonstrations from Razer, I’ve got extremely high hopes for the Razer Viper Ultimate.

Common wisdom would suggest that a wireless mouse might be heavier, thanks to the additional radio-frequency (RF) components and battery hardware. It tracked beautifully as well, even when we opted to put it on top of the blanket we’d wrapped ourselves in when trying out a round of Overwatch and switching between completing work-related tasks. This mouse marks a notable improvement to the brand, and may be one of the best gaming mice on the market. There are eight programmable buttons on the Viper Ultimate – two optical switches up top, two extra buttons on each side and the DPI switcher underneath. Again, the difference is marginal to say the least, but Razer was keen to remind me every little advantage counts when it comes to competitive gaming.The Viper Ultimate isn't the lightest mouse on the market, but it is exceptionally well-balanced, and light enough that you barely notice you're pushing it around when you move your cursor. Gaming manufacturers have realised Bluetooth has been throttling the performance of gaming mice, with the latency and accuracy not quite high enough to compete with wired peripherals. Razer has chopped away all the needless plastic to make its e-sports focused peripheral as light as possible. The introduction of Razer's new HyperSpeed wireless technology and Focus+ optical sensor offer the Razer Viper Ultimate legitimate potential of becoming the very best gaming mouse for e-sports.