Razer Viper 8K Review

Razer is breaking new records with the new Viper 8K which is sporting a whopping 8.000 Hz polling rate – which means it sends data 8 times quicker than your usual high-end gaming mouse. The Razer Viper itself is a powerful, lightweight mouse that is tuned for competitive gaming, and remains one of the most beloved amongst professional gamers – and for good reason.

The Good

• • Incredible, 71g lightweight design
  • Industry-leading 0.125ms click latencyreat battery life
  • Comfortable ambidextrous designuxurious design
  • Excellent sensor with a lot of customizabilityutstanding comfort

  The Bad

  • No wireless edition yet

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While the Razer Viper has a lot of impressive specifications to talk about, such as its 20K Focus + sensor and 2nd-gen switches, the real star of the show is the 71g lightweight design & increased polling rate.

Anyone who has tried a truly lightweight mouse such as the Viper knows that it makes a huge difference and while 20-30g might not sound like much you feel it. It is important to have as little friction as possible when making fast flicks or clutch plays in competitive games and few mice are as well suited for this as the Razer Viper 8K.

Anything below 1ms report rate might sound like overkill and for casual gamers that are mostly true and not something, you will notice. However, if you play games such as Counter-Strike and need to hold a tight angle then that 8K polling rate can come into play. I am not going to oversell it and claim that it will completely change your gameplay, but if you want the best possible conditions for your performance then report rate is one of the most important factors to consider.

An in-depth look at the Razer Viper 8K

Performance & Features

The Razer Viper 8K is an absolute heavy hitter with a powerful engine but remains one of the lightest mice on the market. And that alone should tell you how well-suited it is for competitive games. The Razer Focus + sensor was already one of the most powerful gaming sensors on the market but with the increased polling rate, it stands a bit above all the rest. 

Having a Razer Viper 8K is a bit like owning a Ferrari, it’s amazing to drive around but the likelihood that you will actually get to test it to its maximum capacity is very slim. Its 20K DPI maximum is a speed that I can guarantee you will never find a use for. For context; the average professional CS:GO gamer uses a DPI of around 700. 

But it’s not all useless specifications that look good on the box. The Razer optical mouse switches are excellent and give you more control of your clicks than the average gaming mouse. The 8x higher polling rate, while more niche, could make a difference to some very high-end gamers. The Speedflex cable offers very little resistance which combines perfectly with the lightweight design and gives you the closest feeling to wireless that a wired mouse can give you. 

So, while the Razer Viper might be a bit of a show-off it certainly has some very real assets that you can put to good use.

Design

Far and away my favorite part of the Viper is its ambidextrous design. It is perfectly designed for performance and the combination of its Speedflex cable, skit free skates, and 71g lightweight design is nothing short of extraordinary. There is little-to-no resistance in your movement and allows you to make flicks, twists, and turns much easier than with your regular 100g gaming mouse. 

While I prefer ambidextrous mice it is not for everyone and, if you prefer palm-shaped mice, then this is not the mouse for you. However, I would recommend trying an ambidextrous mouse before rejecting it. Logically they seem much less comfortable but in my experience, it’s quite the opposite as your hand is not forced into a specific grip.

Quality

Despite its meager weight the Viper manages to feel quite sturdy and durable. The hardened plastic and Speedflex cable feels great and proves that weight is not proof of quality. 

So unless you often rage quit your games by throwing your mouse into the wall at full speed, then the Viper 8K should hold up just fine.

Customizability

Razer Synapse is a bit demanding for my taste and I recommend you turning it off on start-up as it draws on quite a bit of resource from your computer. But when it comes to customizability there are very few software’s that offer as much as Razer Synapse. 

You can change pretty much anything to your liking and even save several different profiles and have them available as on-board settings. This is awesome if you play a multitude of games as you might want a super low DPI for CS:GO, a medium-high DPI for World of Warcraft, and a very high DPI for your work station. Razer Synapse makes this very easy to set up.

Final Verdict – Still excellent

I did not expect the Razer Viper 8K to blow me away as I have tested both the old Viper and the Viper Ultimate. And while the new 8K didn’t blow me away I was not disappointed!

Luckily they did not change the exceptional design and stuck to what worked with the older versions of the Viper. If you already own a Razer Viper or the Viper Ultimate then it is not worth upgrading just for the added polling rate, however impressive it is – but if you are currently looking for a lightweight gaming mouse to take your competitive performance to the next level then the Viper 8K is one of the best options on the market.