Last fall, Ideazon released their latest gaming peripheral: the Ideazon Reaper Gaming Mouse. This was the company’s first foray outside keyboards (ZBoard). It was a solid debut entry and over the last several weeks WarCry Senior Editor Dana Massey has been using the Reaper day-to-day and offers this review.
Article by Dana Massey
Ideazon branched out from keyboards with the introduction of the Ideazon Reaper Gaming Mouse late last year. This lightweight mouse boasts ultimate performance and all the bells and whistles of most high-end mice on the market. It runs at 1600 DPI, features seamless sensitivity switching and a neato glowing logo on top.
Weight is the first thing anyone will notice when they pick up a Reaper. It’s positively light and toy-like. At first, this was off-putting. I had been using a hefty Logitec mouse for a couple years and to change to such a weightless, hollow feeling instrument didn’t feel right. Like most new things, I adjusted though and now the Logitec feels awkward and clunky in my hands.
The physical shape of the mouse is also a bonus. It’s small, but it’s sleek and as someone with rather large hands, I had no problems with it. It’s bigger than it feels (almost identical in length to my old mouse) and has a comfortable groove that is perfect for a thumb.
Sensitivity toggles are the highlight of the mouse’s sellsheet. In English, that means there is a button situated above the scroll wheel that toggles between three different sensitivity settings. The default 1600 DPI moves like lightning with the slightest twitch – something else that took a lot of getting used to – while the lowest (400 DPI) can do fine detail work. For those in the middle of the road, 800 DPI is also an option. The button is perfectly placed – I’ve never hit it by accident – and serves its function. Although, honestly, I found more use for it Photoshop than I ever did in video games. Nonetheless, as a sniper in Battlefield 2, I did use it to hone in and take the final shot at an enemy target.
Its sensitivity combined with its extreme light weight can cause some occasional problems. Most notably, if I sneeze while using the mouse, my cursor flies all over the screen in a way that rarely happened with a more hefty, less responsive mouse. Despite a few easy to undo Photoshop accidents and some disorientation in FPS titles, this is a relatively minor issue born out of the combination of two good things.
The mouse also features three side buttons. The first and second buttons default to home and end, while the third acts as a “back button” (in reality that is backspace, be careful if you hit in a word editor). Personally, while three buttons should beat two, I found myself abandoning all three. On a larger hand, the third of the buttons is awkward to reach and I personally found the page up/page down buttons redundant with the wheel. I much preferred the back/forward for browsing that had become the convention. Mind you, I admit, this is just a default setting. I can make them type any function key on my keyboard (or even open windows like My Computer) through the mouse’s handy software, but I also place a lot of value in the default/intended settings.
The Reaper definitely takes a lot of getting used to, but having gone through the process, I see no reason to switch back. I run two monitors at 1280×1024 each and have a confined space to operate my mouse from. At such default sensitivity, I can get things done and worry less about cord foul-ups or my hand falling off the side of the desk. At 1600 DPI on default settings, I can swing the mouse cursor from the left side of my left monitor all the way to the right side of my right monitor without lifting the heel of my hand off the desk.
Some will want a wireless version, but that’s not my style. I’ve never been a huge fan of all this wireless stuff. It may be in my brain, but it’s the first thing I blame when I fail to get the headshot I thought I’d earned in an FPS.
During the middle of my time with the mouse, I also made the fun and exciting decision to upgrade to Windows Vista. There are all sorts of things to say about that, but as far as the Reaper was concerned, the only issue I had (they released new Vista software on March 5th) was that the black icon in the notification area beside the clock isn’t really visible against the new black taskbar. When that’s a complaint, they’re doing fine. It upgraded without issue and even worked when I forgot to reinstall the software for a few weeks.
Of note, this review was conducted on the Fragmat Mousepad, also from Ideazon. Their page makes it sound fancy and while it is a perfectly serviceable mousepad, that’s all it is. A big mousepad.
On the MMORPG front, it’s hard to say why this mouse helps. In terms of quickly hitting buttons, if you’re sure of hand, then it will be of use, but unlike FPS games where precise movements decide your life, MMORPGs don’t have that. The extra power isn’t wasted, but it isn’t really necessary.
The light weight will put some off and to the average computer user, this may just be a fancy and expensive version of the cheap Dell or Microsoft mice that come with most PCs, but if you’re interested in playing with some of the mapping – which is always only three clicks away – or just want that extra edge in your favorite FPS, then this mouse is more than worth the investment.
Pros and Cons
- Light weight
- Maybe too light?
- Extremely responsive
- Takes some getting used to
- Highly customizableDefault mapping is intuitive
- Poor default button mapping
- Sensitivity toggles
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Published: Apr 16, 2007 06:54 pm