Yawn.
Before I write this I will tell you where to get this from for the price I paid. Otherwise? Well the closest you will get is play doing it for £49.99 at 50% off.
http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.p ... =KB-042-RAIn the beginning.Razer started out at the end of the 90s. They began with one product and one product only ; the Boomslang. If you weren't aware of what a Boomslang is then let me enlighten you.
Pretty little fellow isn't he? You wouldn't think he was very dangerous at all. Well he is. What makes him different however is the way he is constructed. Instead of having fangs at the front of his mouth the Boomslang has them at the back. Making it notoriously hard to be bitten and invenomated. However, if you are bitten and he does get those fangs in? Brother, you are in all kinds of trouble. Drop for drop the Boomslang's venom is right up there. The Boomslang's venom is a
hemotoxin. This means that if you are bitten your blood will not clot and become thin and watery. You will likely die as a result of internal and external bleeding.
God I love snakes. If there is one thing man has had trouble messing with on this planet it is snakes.
So there you go, you can now consider yourself of Steve Irwin status.
Moving on then it's clear to see that Razer are into snakes. Maybe as much as I am? maybe not. Looking at their product lineup over the past few years I would say yes.
The Boomslang was what was considered the first real gaming mouse. From what I recall it was the first mouse ever packaged labelled and sold with the title
gaming mouse.This was a very bold claim from Razer who at the time no one had heard of. Also this was way back in the day when our mice had balls in and you constantly had to take them apart, clean the ball and scrape the gank and fluff from the little roller wheels.
Did I have a Boomslang? no !. But then back then £100+ for a mouse was ludicrous. I know a couple of people who did however and they said and
still say that the Boomslang is simply the best mouse they have ever used. Pretty high acclaim eh? Up until 2007 Razer had made the Boomslang in two variants. The original and the one that was launched around 2001.
Back then most of us simply found the nicest mice we could find (usually M$) and mess with the settings in windows to make it go faster (at a loss of accuracy). The Boomslang changed all of that and pretty much tipped it on its head.
That was then, this is now.Fast forward to 2007. Razer could have quite simply left the Boomslang where it was with its almost legendary status and forgotten about it. But no, they were going to not only remake the Boomslang but redesign and make it better than ever before. Gone would be the ball that was at the bottom of the mouse under your palm (revolutionary at the time) and would be replaced by a lazer. Other than that though the design was going to remain pretty much the same but the finish would be changed. They also decided that they were only going to make 10,000 units. I suppose they figured they would sell faster than hot cakes but the main problem was that the original Boomslang cost £100. In 1999. That would buy you a Voodoo 3 3000 (well, almost, they were £130 at the time).
So what do I get?Taken from Razer's site
The Razer Boomslang™ Collector's Edition 2007 - the original gaming mouse that took the world by storm - is now back by popular demand. Coming to you this fall, the Razer Boomslang™ Collector's Edition 2007 has everything you loved in the original Razer Boomslang™ and more.1800dpi 3G Infrared SensorThe 3G infrared sensor in the Razer Boomslang CE enables movement speeds at 2.25 times faster when compared to a standard 800dpi optical sensor. Before the enemy sees you, he's been fragged.
32KB Onboard Memory With a 32KB onboard memory, you can store up to five unique gaming profiles.
1000Hz Ultrapolling™A response time of 1ms, as compared to that of 125Hz / 8ms found in conventional gaming mice, gives you the competitive edge over your opponents.
Sounds good. Now let's have a look shall we?
The box is a nice black cardboard type affair with a pretty thick clump of brushed alu on the end keeping it closed. It has the Razer logo stamped in it and must have cost them a pretty penny to have done it this way. You can tell they loved the original Boomslang and (even if you had never had one) want you to love the new one.
Taking that off and opening up the top (and peeling back a cloth cover to protect the card) you can then see your credit card style ID number. Yes, they really care so much about this mouse that they are going to have these cards pressed and made with unique numbers on. They could have simply gone for paper or card but they actually went to the trouble (and expense) of having proper credit card like ID cards made.
So by now we are beginning to realise the quality and workmanship
on the packaging. So, we delve a little further and then we get to this.
It's a tin made of metal with the Razer logo on ! Opening it you will find -
Lots of foam protection.
A Boomslang 2007 mouse.
Spare teflon skid feet for the mouse (these are about £6 a set !)
Manuals and product sheet.
Installation CD.
The cable on it is just long. Really really long (7 feet). Plugged in and put on the desktop you are greeted with this.
If we look toward the bottom we can see one of the side buttons (one each side of the body) and one of the green light ring on the mouse. Contrary to what I had read before hand you can see it and see it well. I would imagine it depends on mouse mats though.
The body of the mouse is made up of that wonderful velvetty like rubber stuff that every one seems to be using now and a titanium coloured shell.
Build qualityIncase you missed it go back and look at how this thing comes packaged. TBH I would have no problem stating that the £35 you can get this mouse for now would have been for the packing at the original price of £99. The mouse doesn't dissapoint either. It's firm, sturdy and incredibly solid. I had a Salmosa before and it felt light tacky and cheap. But then, it was. That was a £15 mouse and this is a £99 mouse and you really can tell the difference.
The softwareNormally I wouldn't bother with this but the mouse was really slow. With the Salmosa it had switches on the underside so I didn't need to bother with the CD. This time however I had to install it. The software is nice and simple and very easy to use and looks like this.
Pretty self explanatory.
The feelThis is quite a big mouse and I have small hands. At first it seemed a little strange but within ten minutes I was browsing the web like never before. Instead of moving my mouse to the forward and back buttons on my browser and clicking on them I was simply pressing the left side button with my thumb to go back and the right side button with my little (pinky) finger to go forward. I was quite set aback by how quickly I took to this, especially when you consider I began my PC career building 286SX units for Samsung.
The glide of the mouse is also quite lovely. It's slick and requires just the right ammount of movement to get it where you want it to go.
However,
it is incredibly fussy about the surface You can see my mouse pad in the pics. I got it free from Dell on a promotion but they used to charge about £30 for it. It's a darn good mouse pad but sadly it's not good enough for the Razer. If you move the mouse slowly it seems to read the pattern in the mat and get a bit juddery. So I shall be ordering a Razer mat to go with it shortly.
The outcomeWell colour me impressed. I guess this is the first time I have ever had a £99 computer mouse in my sweaty mitt and it will probably be the last unless when it wears out I find another mega bargain. I really like the Boomslang 2007 and gaming with it seems snappier and cleaner. Due to the nice weight of the body it's incredibly accurate and really does show me just how poor the Salmosa was in comparrison. Hats off to Razer for trying to make a budget mouse with the Salmosa but it really doesn't show off what they are all about. The Boomslang is a class apart from pretty much anything I have used before (and that's easy to understand when you realise that it cost £99 at launch).
However I also accept that this mouse may not be for everyone. It's a very marmite product and I would imagine that is why not only can you still get one from the 10,000 units that were distributed
world wide but also why it is in the bargain bin. Gamers are usually young and thus would have no idea of Razer's history or heritage. If it wasn't for the original Boomslang and its loyal following though? well, you wouldn't have your Razer mouse, keyboard or headseat etc today.
So I think a fair summary of the Boomslang would be to give it the classic car status. Sure there are newer, faster, sleeker models but you just can not deny it's charm and build quality.
The goodThis thing screams quality right down your eardrum until you get that horrid piercing pain in the side of your neck. The build quality is just ridiculous and I actually quiver when I think about how much they threw into the R&D and packing. You can just tell that this wasn't done to make money but to celebrate the Boomslang. And in my eyes that makes it fabulous. You can get one for £35. TBH even if you were not going to ever get it out and use it it's worth that just to take it out now and then and look at it.
The badCall me critical but I will always find bad with something. I'm never blindsided enough not to notice flaws. The Boomslang was obviously designed for men. Real men with massive hands and fingers like bananas. That doesn't rule you out if you have smaller more delicate hands but it does make it a little harder to get used to. Once used to it you will love or hate it. As I mentioned before this is the mouse version of Marmite. It also does not like all of the surfaces I have tried it on and can be a bit fussy. TBH at this level I am not surprised. It's kinda like buying a Ferrari and running it on watered down low octane petrol.
Final thoughts.Get one now.
EDIT.
This mouse is advertised with a Tshirt (a free one). I did not recieve one and tbh I wasn't expecting it because it did not come as a part of the original package. However I did email OCUK and explained that whilst I wasn't bothered about it (I wanted a mouse not a fashion statement) that they might want to change the description. I received a very timely response from OCUK who apologised profusely and said that I was indeed supposed to get it. I was then pointed to here -
http://eu.razerzone.com/razer-gear/losi ... itude-tee/And given a choice of colour and style. Both are very large however (white XXL and black is XXXL) but hey, if it arrives I get another 20E worth for my £35.