Hey guys, as promised, I came through with my new mouse review.. enjoy!
Introduction:
It is here! The most customizable mouse in the world! Surely you probably had enough of seeing high-end mice coming from various brands and surely I think that until now you had enough of this subject. Each of them has shit loads (excuse the expression) of customizable buttons, macro keys (the most macro oriented mouse to date to my knowledge is the Steel Series dedicated to World of Warcraft with approximately 15 programmable buttons), LCDs which show DPI and in the best case the profile being used. In this market as I was saying everything is very similar, almost everyone is making excellently geared up mice with high-end specs, the choice depending on each one’s tastes or the different influences but now it is time to see something that really is new and revolutionary.
Entitled RAT 7, it is the top of the line (in the wired Saitek mice category) and one of the most complex mice I have ever used during my lifetime and believe me there were quite a lot of them. What makes it so special? Hmm, I don’t think that I should tell you everything in the introduction but I will throw an interesting number at you, which will make it interesting, at least for gamers: 5600DPI. Let’s be real about this, no one will ever use the maximum sensitivity setting, but this does not lower its performance or the way that this mouse will react to day to day life. A small minus that I cannot but point out is to talk about the lack of drivers for the other operating systems, except the ones produced by Microsoft. Starcraft 2 players using Macs will not have the opportunity of using it, so this might be a minus. You cannot really do everything with the Mighty Mac Mouse. In any case at least not what a RAT 7 can do.
Specifications:
- DPI: 25 – 5600dpi (in steps of 25dpi)
- Acceleration: 50G
- Polling Rate: Dynamic until 1000Hz
- Tracking Speed: up to 6m/sec
- Always on: it does not allow the operating system, no matter what the settings are to close the USB port for energy saving
- PTFE “Slick” feet – very tough and slick plastic with which the mouse slides very easily
- Gold plated connector
- Braided USB cable
- Customization kit includes in addition to the ones that were installed from the factory: 2 pinkie rests and 2 palm rests
- Solid metallic chassis (necessary considering the changing nature of the mouse)
- 4 possibilities of hardware customization
- Software with extended possibilities of function programming
- DVD containing software, Multilingual manuals, complex packaging
Packaging Gallery: HERE
Visual Inspection:
Visual Inspection Gallery: HERE
Software:
I have a complaint here; Google does not seem to be RAT 7 friendly. Using the usual search strings I have not been able to find any available driver for this mouse, at best I found some old drivers which did not support the RAT product line. Quite annoying, but I stopped and used the software DVD included in the package. And so I have managed to customize the mouse to my likings. Warning: everything in this chapter is based on the software from the DVD; other drivers which will pop up after the launch of this review might differ or may have improved instruction sets and possibilities.
The software is divided in 4 possible tabs, the first one being the presentation, then the Settings from where we can configure all the 4 sensitivity profiles and the Precision Aim technology (useful for those who like shooters). What is Precision Aim? At a simple press of a button it stabilizes the target spot reducing the tremor coming from the players hand. Targeting the target and “pulling the trigger” being faster. To activate this function you will need to press an additional button that can be found on the thumb rest. It takes a while till you get used to this function but once you’re used to it, it becomes very useful. Sensitivity for the Precision Aim can be configured, so don’t worry about it, anyone, no matter the play-style can learn to use it without large efforts.
The most interesting tab is the Programming tab, which I will try to review largely because it contains a hidden configuration power, making the extensive customization value of the RAT7 exquisite. First of all it’s about being able to configure all the buttons on the mouse, completely without any restriction by using 3 profiles. Changing the profiles is done by pressing a small dedicated button on the side of the mouses left click button. Therefore we can set a particular button to do a macro recorded by me for example in the screenshot below – build pylon, build gate. Used wisely this macro can give you an edge in Starcraft 2 due to lowering the build-time. We can however record a lot more than that, a macro composed out of both clicks and keys based on any combination that can run through your mind. Do you think I will stop here? Do you think that the customization possibilities have been exhausted? Nooo, not by far!
Although the previous levels of customization are enough for the large majority of the gamers, there is a 3rd and final level in which the settings can be made in a more advanced way. Even the most exigent macro users cannot say anything bad about the RAT. In this last setting option named Advanced Command we can setup a macro, after the initial macro we can set it up so that after pressing the same button again, it will use a different macro and after we end the click another macro! That’s not all, you can configure action delays, add commands such as stop, play, etc. Surely, much more than sufficient to anyone.
Software Gallery: HERE
User experience:
I must warn you that this is not an easy to handle mouse if you want to use all its features. It took me more than an hour to set it up and configure it to my style and preferences. The challenge is big but it’s worth the while. First you have to figure out how you can customize the mouse hardware to be able to extend or retract it, or changing the palm rest or the pinkie rest so that it fits your style, hands or type of grip (palm or claw). The tune key, in a hexagonal form is cleverly disguised in the shape of a screw which unscrews from the weight support of the mouse. There are 4 main adjustments that can be done with its help so that the mouse can be arranged in such a way so that it will fit anyone’s hand. I will try to largely explain this. The first adjustment can bet located between the palm rest and thumb rest or the place where the thumb sits. In the gallery below I have circled the zone in which the respective screw is located. Once this adjustment switch is open, the finger support of the mouse can be distanced from the main body of the mouse by a few degrees. The second accessible adjustment is on the right side of the mouse. Once this little screw (the only one on the right side) is removed we can easily pull the pinkie rest out and attach one of the 2 additional ones from the accessory box. The third adjustment can be done using the attached hexagonal key and with it you can adjust the length of the thumb rest, so that the attached commands are always in a good spot. You can find a photo of it circled in the gallery below. The fourth adjustment is important for replacing or sliding the palm rest backward and it can be done very easily by pressing a small lever built into it and simply pulling the palm rest backwards. Be careful though, until you adjust the angle to the right position the palm rest will not come out, it is surprisingly well built. There is a photo of the lever in the gallery as well.
Now that I have explained the methods of correctly adjusting RAT 7 I will proceed to my personal impressions of this mouse. Please remember that they only reflect my opinion. Some of you who own or will own this mouse might have different opinions, better or worse. I am pretty sure though that among the readers there are certain individuals that have tried a lot of mice during their lifetime of pro or amateur gamers, which nothing has ever completely satisfied their needs. To those people I extend my challenge of using a RAT 7. This mouse can extend, retract, slides from all of its bindings so that once it’s completely configured it will all sit firmly on its metallic chassis. The next step obviously is setting up the 4 usable sensitivity profiles, and figuring out the finer and finer tuning of the macro settings by configuring them to your needs to even the level of small fractions of a second. Dedicated buttons control the dpi according to the settings you have made in the software, they switch the profiles and activate the Precision Aim. A second wheel, the metallic one near the palm rest can be used very easily for changing weapons in shooters while the scroll can be used for targeting zoom. The possibilities are quite many, so many in fact that only after a large period of time of using this mouse you will only be able to use it to its full potential (and yes I know I have it just for a day but even though I played around with it for the better part of the day I am not fully able to use it to its full potential, but I hope I will be able to do so soon enough).
User Experience Gallery: HERE
Conclusion:
We are looking at an evolutionary step, the first evolutionary step ever since the replacement of the mouse ball with an optic sensor. The evolution consists in the huge customization value, something that goes way beyond what we were used to. If until this moment we had mice that had weights, interchangeable palm rests and software capable of recording macros, now through the RAT 7 we have a mouse that can do all the above but also a lot more. Customizing hardware is the tip of the pyramid. Anyone buying such a mouse cannot be unsatisfied, anyone that buys this mouse and says he is not happy with the way it works and feels clearly does not know how to configure it. A transformer, well done by all points of view, apparently with no weak spots. I for one salute it and offer it a perfect 10/10 score, although I know there are quite a few competitors worthy of being remarked on this market segment. For now at least, this modular design taken to extremes for such a peripheral device, and the much improved and well thought software on difficulty levels for each type of user have made a perfect combination with a perfect score that cannot be equaled at this moment in time and human history. I am looking forward to seeing how Logitech, Razer and Microsoft will react in order to try to equal or surpass this performance.
I bought this mouse at the price of 80Euros (70GBP) and I believe it was worth every penny
P.S. my apologies for any grammar mistakes, I have written this review in a rush and I didn’t have time to correct it, English is not my primary language
I will try to edit it and flush out the mistakes if any later, also looking forward for your feedback
Introduction:
It is here! The most customizable mouse in the world! Surely you probably had enough of seeing high-end mice coming from various brands and surely I think that until now you had enough of this subject. Each of them has shit loads (excuse the expression) of customizable buttons, macro keys (the most macro oriented mouse to date to my knowledge is the Steel Series dedicated to World of Warcraft with approximately 15 programmable buttons), LCDs which show DPI and in the best case the profile being used. In this market as I was saying everything is very similar, almost everyone is making excellently geared up mice with high-end specs, the choice depending on each one’s tastes or the different influences but now it is time to see something that really is new and revolutionary.
Entitled RAT 7, it is the top of the line (in the wired Saitek mice category) and one of the most complex mice I have ever used during my lifetime and believe me there were quite a lot of them. What makes it so special? Hmm, I don’t think that I should tell you everything in the introduction but I will throw an interesting number at you, which will make it interesting, at least for gamers: 5600DPI. Let’s be real about this, no one will ever use the maximum sensitivity setting, but this does not lower its performance or the way that this mouse will react to day to day life. A small minus that I cannot but point out is to talk about the lack of drivers for the other operating systems, except the ones produced by Microsoft. Starcraft 2 players using Macs will not have the opportunity of using it, so this might be a minus. You cannot really do everything with the Mighty Mac Mouse. In any case at least not what a RAT 7 can do.
Specifications:
- DPI: 25 – 5600dpi (in steps of 25dpi)
- Acceleration: 50G
- Polling Rate: Dynamic until 1000Hz
- Tracking Speed: up to 6m/sec
- Always on: it does not allow the operating system, no matter what the settings are to close the USB port for energy saving
- PTFE “Slick” feet – very tough and slick plastic with which the mouse slides very easily
- Gold plated connector
- Braided USB cable
- Customization kit includes in addition to the ones that were installed from the factory: 2 pinkie rests and 2 palm rests
- Solid metallic chassis (necessary considering the changing nature of the mouse)
- 4 possibilities of hardware customization
- Software with extended possibilities of function programming
- DVD containing software, Multilingual manuals, complex packaging
Packaging Gallery: HERE
Visual Inspection:
Visual Inspection Gallery: HERE
Software:
I have a complaint here; Google does not seem to be RAT 7 friendly. Using the usual search strings I have not been able to find any available driver for this mouse, at best I found some old drivers which did not support the RAT product line. Quite annoying, but I stopped and used the software DVD included in the package. And so I have managed to customize the mouse to my likings. Warning: everything in this chapter is based on the software from the DVD; other drivers which will pop up after the launch of this review might differ or may have improved instruction sets and possibilities.
The software is divided in 4 possible tabs, the first one being the presentation, then the Settings from where we can configure all the 4 sensitivity profiles and the Precision Aim technology (useful for those who like shooters). What is Precision Aim? At a simple press of a button it stabilizes the target spot reducing the tremor coming from the players hand. Targeting the target and “pulling the trigger” being faster. To activate this function you will need to press an additional button that can be found on the thumb rest. It takes a while till you get used to this function but once you’re used to it, it becomes very useful. Sensitivity for the Precision Aim can be configured, so don’t worry about it, anyone, no matter the play-style can learn to use it without large efforts.
The most interesting tab is the Programming tab, which I will try to review largely because it contains a hidden configuration power, making the extensive customization value of the RAT7 exquisite. First of all it’s about being able to configure all the buttons on the mouse, completely without any restriction by using 3 profiles. Changing the profiles is done by pressing a small dedicated button on the side of the mouses left click button. Therefore we can set a particular button to do a macro recorded by me for example in the screenshot below – build pylon, build gate. Used wisely this macro can give you an edge in Starcraft 2 due to lowering the build-time. We can however record a lot more than that, a macro composed out of both clicks and keys based on any combination that can run through your mind. Do you think I will stop here? Do you think that the customization possibilities have been exhausted? Nooo, not by far!
Although the previous levels of customization are enough for the large majority of the gamers, there is a 3rd and final level in which the settings can be made in a more advanced way. Even the most exigent macro users cannot say anything bad about the RAT. In this last setting option named Advanced Command we can setup a macro, after the initial macro we can set it up so that after pressing the same button again, it will use a different macro and after we end the click another macro! That’s not all, you can configure action delays, add commands such as stop, play, etc. Surely, much more than sufficient to anyone.
Software Gallery: HERE
User experience:
I must warn you that this is not an easy to handle mouse if you want to use all its features. It took me more than an hour to set it up and configure it to my style and preferences. The challenge is big but it’s worth the while. First you have to figure out how you can customize the mouse hardware to be able to extend or retract it, or changing the palm rest or the pinkie rest so that it fits your style, hands or type of grip (palm or claw). The tune key, in a hexagonal form is cleverly disguised in the shape of a screw which unscrews from the weight support of the mouse. There are 4 main adjustments that can be done with its help so that the mouse can be arranged in such a way so that it will fit anyone’s hand. I will try to largely explain this. The first adjustment can bet located between the palm rest and thumb rest or the place where the thumb sits. In the gallery below I have circled the zone in which the respective screw is located. Once this adjustment switch is open, the finger support of the mouse can be distanced from the main body of the mouse by a few degrees. The second accessible adjustment is on the right side of the mouse. Once this little screw (the only one on the right side) is removed we can easily pull the pinkie rest out and attach one of the 2 additional ones from the accessory box. The third adjustment can be done using the attached hexagonal key and with it you can adjust the length of the thumb rest, so that the attached commands are always in a good spot. You can find a photo of it circled in the gallery below. The fourth adjustment is important for replacing or sliding the palm rest backward and it can be done very easily by pressing a small lever built into it and simply pulling the palm rest backwards. Be careful though, until you adjust the angle to the right position the palm rest will not come out, it is surprisingly well built. There is a photo of the lever in the gallery as well.
Now that I have explained the methods of correctly adjusting RAT 7 I will proceed to my personal impressions of this mouse. Please remember that they only reflect my opinion. Some of you who own or will own this mouse might have different opinions, better or worse. I am pretty sure though that among the readers there are certain individuals that have tried a lot of mice during their lifetime of pro or amateur gamers, which nothing has ever completely satisfied their needs. To those people I extend my challenge of using a RAT 7. This mouse can extend, retract, slides from all of its bindings so that once it’s completely configured it will all sit firmly on its metallic chassis. The next step obviously is setting up the 4 usable sensitivity profiles, and figuring out the finer and finer tuning of the macro settings by configuring them to your needs to even the level of small fractions of a second. Dedicated buttons control the dpi according to the settings you have made in the software, they switch the profiles and activate the Precision Aim. A second wheel, the metallic one near the palm rest can be used very easily for changing weapons in shooters while the scroll can be used for targeting zoom. The possibilities are quite many, so many in fact that only after a large period of time of using this mouse you will only be able to use it to its full potential (and yes I know I have it just for a day but even though I played around with it for the better part of the day I am not fully able to use it to its full potential, but I hope I will be able to do so soon enough).
User Experience Gallery: HERE
Conclusion:
We are looking at an evolutionary step, the first evolutionary step ever since the replacement of the mouse ball with an optic sensor. The evolution consists in the huge customization value, something that goes way beyond what we were used to. If until this moment we had mice that had weights, interchangeable palm rests and software capable of recording macros, now through the RAT 7 we have a mouse that can do all the above but also a lot more. Customizing hardware is the tip of the pyramid. Anyone buying such a mouse cannot be unsatisfied, anyone that buys this mouse and says he is not happy with the way it works and feels clearly does not know how to configure it. A transformer, well done by all points of view, apparently with no weak spots. I for one salute it and offer it a perfect 10/10 score, although I know there are quite a few competitors worthy of being remarked on this market segment. For now at least, this modular design taken to extremes for such a peripheral device, and the much improved and well thought software on difficulty levels for each type of user have made a perfect combination with a perfect score that cannot be equaled at this moment in time and human history. I am looking forward to seeing how Logitech, Razer and Microsoft will react in order to try to equal or surpass this performance.
I bought this mouse at the price of 80Euros (70GBP) and I believe it was worth every penny
P.S. my apologies for any grammar mistakes, I have written this review in a rush and I didn’t have time to correct it, English is not my primary language
