General Discussion

Today, Carolyn Koh takes a look at The Microsoft Habu, a mouse that came out of a collaboration between Microsoft and Razer.

The Microsoft Habu is a Razer / Microsoft collaboration. The technology of Razer melded into the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer form factor. The resulting offspring, the Habu (a particularly venomous snake found in Japan & other Southeast Asian countries) - a lightning fast mouse with Razer's signature "fanged" head and the Microsoft IE 3.0 mouse's round back and plump butt.

Out of the Box

The Microsoft Habu arrived with a sheet of instructions and a software CD. The gold-plated jack was covered with a green sticker warning you that proprietary software was necessary run the mouse and to install the software on the CD before using the mouse. The Quick Start Guide then of course instructed the user to... Ha-ha... 1. Plug the mouse in, and 2. Install the software.

The fact is that you probably should install the software first. Although I was fool enough to ignore the warning and did not have any issues, some users warn that you're going to need to be a rocket scientist to discover how to install the Habu driver if you did not install the software first before installing the mouse. Perhaps it's because I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling the software.

Read the whole review here.

Originally posted by Samhael
Sweet - had to dig for the small pictures to see what it actually looked like from a top-down view.

I wish this review had been out before I'd bought my Diamondback. There's a very important point made here (and other reviews have touched on it also) about the sensitivity of the mouse and how it's designed to be clicked and moved. The Diamondback is VERY sensitive, to anything: movement, pressure, a strong breeze... You get the idea. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE this mouse, and I've had excellent results with it, but the buttons are almost too sensitive at times. I probably at least three times a day end up clicking when I don't intend to. Most of the time that's not a problem, it's just an irritant, but in a MMOG, when you might be hovering over the buy or the sell button and haven't yet decided, a click at the wrong time can be extremely painful. Now in all fairness, the sensitivity can be gotten used to, and I find the Diamondback to be one of the most comfortable mice I've ever used, even though I'm more partial to the ones you can sort of drape your hand over. It's worth mentioning that you may want to think twice if you're moving from a more robust mouse to something like a Diamondback, as it requires a fair bit of time to get used to that sensitivity.

I've had my Habu for a few months now and absolutely love.  I had a G5 and liked the tech behind it, but the feel of the Intellimouse was always much preferred.  This is the best of both worlds.  Lack of side to side doesn't bother me as I like my scroll wheel to be precise in gaming and side to side motion usually causes it to slip one direction or the other.

I just got my Reclusa keyboard in, matches extremely well and a very good keyboard.  Best combo I've ever had.