Razer Naga V3 Pro Review: Buttons Galore

Comfortable shape. Hot-swappable broadside panels. Side digit remainder doubles arsenic a 3rd button. Horizontal scrolling. Smooth scrolling. More buttons than anyone needs. Great internals.

Heavy for a gaming mouse. Needs other dongle for 8kHz polling. Only disposable successful black.

One of my archetypal gaming mice was the archetypal Razer Naga Epic, which I was talented arsenic a teen alongside my archetypal gaming PC. Gaming has changed a batch successful the past 15 years, and yet, the Razer Naga enactment hasn't changed much. It's wide signifier and relation person remained singular consistent.

While PC gaming has travel to stress ultra-lightweight, competitory mice designed for fast-paced shooters, that's not everyone's cupful of tea. If you're a PC gamer who mightiness similar a much comfy mouse—perhaps with immoderate other buttons—the caller Naga V3 Pro conscionable mightiness beryllium the champion gaming rodent for you. The caller exemplary folds successful immoderate of the newest performance-focused innovations into a much applicable and comfort-focused shape.

A Comfortable Grip

Comparing the existent Naga to the models since 2015, the signifier is astir identical. The lone large quality is the summation of a 3rd rodent button. Recently, Razer has shifted its absorption erstwhile refreshing mice for a caller version: Instead of importantly redesigning the shape, caller versions support a wide silhouette and shell, portion receiving important updates to the internals. Considering however bully the shapes of existent offerings feel, it makes sense: There’s nary crushed to alteration purely for change’s sake, particularly erstwhile thing already works.

As acold arsenic that goes, the ammunition of the Naga V3 Pro is inactive rather nice. The large, wide signifier is perfect for a thenar grip, portion inactive being usable with a claw. The 3rd rodent fastener is simply a adjuvant touch, but with the locking mechanics underneath, I recovered its alternate usage arsenic a broadside enactment to beryllium overmuch much comfy utilizing either of these grips. (The 3rd fastener was the astir usable with a fingertip grip, wherever determination wasn’t immoderate hazard of accidentally putting unit connected it.)

Really, the signifier is perfect for semipermanent use. It’s reasonably ergonomic, and it's casual capable to laic your manus crossed with a relaxed grip. I recovered it to beryllium a large enactment for raid nights successful Destiny 2 (with arsenic galore arsenic 5 oregon six Crota runs successful 1 night) and much chill games similar The Big Walk, wherever precision and agility instrumentality a spot of a backmost spot to consistency and comfort.

While the Naga V3 Pro weighs 116 grams with the heaviest twelve-button broadside sheet (the six-button sheet is 115 grams, and the two-button is 113), the rodent doesn’t consciousness peculiarly heavy. The value is each kept reasonably low, and is distributed good crossed the mouse. Compared to immoderate older mice with high-up batteries and nose-heavy shapes, the Naga hardly feels similar its weight; I would’ve guessed it was beneath 100 grams if I hadn’t checked. You’ll announcement the added heft if you’re switching straight from a 60 gram gaming mouse, but otherwise, this rodent manages its wide precise well.

One downside to its old-school vibe is the constricted colour options. Black is the lone mentation available, and portion that'll ever beryllium the astir fashionable (especially for Razer), a much niche rodent similar the Naga V3 Pro could person decidedly benefitted from different color.

So Many Buttons

This rodent has an absurd fig of buttons. I recovered myself struggling to usage each of them, but I’m definite determination are rather a fewer radical who inactive won’t deliberation it’s rather enough.

Like the Logitech MX Master 4, the Naga incorporates a customizable rodent instrumentality with options for creaseless oregon ratcheting operation, on with a “precision tactile” mode that decreases the abstraction betwixt each of the scrolling steps. The instrumentality besides has a tilt relation for horizontal scrolling; it’s perfect for spreadsheets and multimedia enactment that requires 2 axes of movement, but tin conscionable arsenic easy beryllium remapped to immoderate fig of macros (I could spot it being utile for leaning to the near oregon close successful a tactical shooter similar Rainbow Six: Siege).

Drawing further comparisons to the MX Master line, I truly recovered this rodent to beryllium bully for mundane work. The comfy signifier and extended navigation capabilities made it large for multimedia work, and the fig pad was perfect for mapping software-specific functions, particularly for photograph and video editing bundle that tin necessitate immoderate repetitive and analyzable inputs.

Despite the sheer fig of buttons, I truly recovered that they ne'er got successful the mode erstwhile not successful use. All of them are placed successful specified a mode to beryllium easy accessible without disrupting the basal near and close click functionality. The lone fastener I recovered myself regularly pressing connected mishap was the 3rd click button, which tin beryllium locked wholly utilizing a power connected the underside of the mouse.

The spotlight diagnostic of this rodent is the interchangeable broadside panels, which connection two, six oregon twelve customizable buttons. These connect magnetically utilizing a grid of pogo pins, and underneath the panels is simply a tiny cubby to store the USB dongle. Swapping these retired is wholly effortless, taking lone a fewer seconds, and Razer Synapse volition automatically observe which of these 3 panels is attached, storing specific, customizable keymaps for each of them.

Of the three, I gravitated towards the two-button panel, which replicates a “standard” gaming rodent with larger buttons. I recovered the size of these chunky buttons to beryllium preferable to the ultra-thin buttons recovered connected astir gaming mice, creating much aboveground country portion inactive maintaining a reasonably ample rubberized grip pad underneath. These volition people beryllium champion for first-person shooters that necessitate much agility and little customized keys.

The six-button enactment is simply a large enactment for games with occasional macros, oregon for movement-based games wherever you privation your fingers connected WASD astatine each times. While the signifier of these elevated keys whitethorn look unusual astatine first, they consciousness earthy erstwhile you’ve acclimated. It’s casual capable to stone your thumb upwards from the rubberized pad to activate the bottommost row, and you tin beryllium your thumb connected apical of the curved aboveground of the buttons to person casual entree to each six astatine once. The buttons are chiseled capable that you tin property the mediate and backmost buttons with the halfway and rear areas of your fingertip without having to set significantly.

The twelve-button broadside sheet eschews the rubberized conception for afloat sum with a numpad-like layout. This sheet crams arsenic galore chiseled keys arsenic possible, aligning them on a basal grid. Unlike a accepted fig pad oregon earlier versions of the Naga, it removes the homing barroom connected the 2nd enactment — a item I decidedly privation was inactive present, adjacent if the sculpted signifier makes it easier to find circumstantial keys without it. While this broadside sheet is perfect for ability-heavy games similar MMOs oregon MOBAs, it has the strongest learning curve, particularly erstwhile trying to utilize each of the buttons. It’s large erstwhile you’ve gotten utilized to the monolithic expanse of vaguely-similar buttons though. Just beryllium acceptable to messiness up astatine slightest a fewer inputs erstwhile you accidentally fat-finger 2 buttons astatine erstwhile oregon hide precisely wherever an quality is mapped.

Longevity

Internally, this rodent is champion described arsenic over-engineered. The internals are robust, fastener-rich, and see immoderate other features for sturdiness that I wouldn’t different expect. The interior integrative braces are each beefy, and determination are integrative supports and cradles for the main buttons’ circuit boards. Comparing this rodent to immoderate of the ultra-light models disposable today, it becomes evident conscionable however overmuch effort goes into making them lightweight and what a rodent tin look similar erstwhile weight-savings halt being a priority.

The astir absorbing constituent is the scroll wheel, which is fundamentally a sealed container sitting atop 3 abstracted microswitches — 2 up front, for the rocking functionality, and a 3rd successful the backmost for the scroll instrumentality click. This plan is ideal, since each 3 of the off-the-shelf microswitches tin beryllium replaced independently without having to unfastened up the proprietary magnetic scroll instrumentality mechanism. While determination is interest that the proprietary scroll instrumentality volition fail, the Basilisk V3 (which uses a akin plan for the rodent wheel) has readily-available third-party rodent wheels, and I would presume the aforesaid volition clasp existent for this model.

Besides this, the interior plan is robust—if complicated. There are nary little than six abstracted circuit boards connected by ribbon cables, and a artillery that connects utilizing a standardized connector. This ample fig of boards marginally increases the complexity and, arsenic a result, the hazard of failures. But it besides allows for each of the switches to link straight to the fastener they beryllium underneath, creating a much “connected” consciousness erstwhile utilizing the mouse. It's a worthwhile tradeoff erstwhile compared to the alternate option, which is 1 circuit committee with agelong posts and mechanisms connecting the interior micro-switches to the buttons.

The Naga V3’s RGB lighting is arsenic awesome arsenic ever, with extended customization and animations crossed the backmost logo and scroll instrumentality done Razer’s Chroma system. Only 1 of the 3 broadside panels, the twelve-button fig pad, features RGB backlighting lighting. While I wouldn’t expect this for the basal two-button panel, I was disappointed that the six-button panel, which has numbered buttons, doesn’t diagnostic immoderate benignant of lighting.

Software

A rodent similar this, with truthful galore buttons and a macro-focused design, is people babelike connected the bundle that powers it — overmuch much truthful than a rodent with lone 2 oregon 3 broadside buttons. Because of this, bully bundle is simply a necessity. In this case, Razer Synapse works wonderfully. Customizations are casual to make, and instrumentality to the rodent instantly. Even analyzable macros are casual to rig up, and the rodent is capable to instantly admit which broadside sheet is installed, not needing to restart oregon person immoderate in-software changes made.

Software-dependence people presents immoderate risks. Namely, an outmoded rodent whitethorn conflict to beryllium usable. Continuing my comparisons to my past Naga Epic, I ran into a large contented erstwhile I tried to revive this mouse: Razer Synapse V2 has been officially discontinued and is… less-than-usable by today’s standards. Changes to settings don’t ever take, the rodent sometimes forgets the macros you assign, and the bundle seemingly protests its beingness with random lag spikes. The rodent itself, which is built similar an implicit tank, is inactive perfectly functional aft 14 years. But trying to wrangle a buggy, half-supported bundle is not an enjoyable idiosyncratic experience. And, arsenic exertion progresses on, it volition apt statesman a agelong march from semi-functional to wholly inoperable. This is simply a hazard that’s contiguous with immoderate software-dependent mouse, since companies can’t beryllium expected to support each of their bundle indefinitely, particularly arsenic operating systems go distinctly antithetic from the ones that they were primitively designed for.

Despite the concerns astir longevity, this truly is simply a bully mouse. The interior plan is robust, and the signifier is incredibly comfortable. Beyond this, the extended carnal and software-based customization options truly marque it a fantastic enactment for users with divers tastes. While the terms is simply a spot steep astatine $179, the convenience of being capable to bash thing with erstwhile rodent is perfectly worthy it, if that’s what you’re looking for.