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.

I must be in some way impaired. I do not notice any delay in the response of my Microsoft G7 wireless laser mouse. My only problem is the battery life, as the battery needs to be swapped seemingly once every eight hours of continuous use. It takes about three seconds to swap, but still, it can catch you off-guard, even with the charge indicator.

I use this mouse and I must say I'm very happy with it. I'm not used to having a mouse with such sensitive before, but I learned pretty fast. It works good and I like the shape of the mouse, fits perfectly for my hand. I like some of the features like changing the sensitivity with the use of buttons on the mouse and such. It doesn't weigh very much and it slides perfectly. Not that I'm very critical, but still...

I can only say the Quality HAS to be superior since I have had the bog standard MS mouse on most of the systems I used for work and they lasted a pretty long time.

I bought the Razer Diamondback after the last article here and was sorely disappointed for three reasons;

1. WAY too quick . There just didn't seem to be a middle of the road setting no matter how I tuned it from the windows standard software to the Razer driver software.

2. The Razer mice I looked at including the Diamondback were all a little TOO small for MY hand ;)  BUT the main issue was the NO WEIGHT factor, the cable tended to PUSH the mouse around when you parked it and all the ones I saw in the store were pretty much the same.  Basically I prefer a heavier mouse that can withstand it's own cable flexing it away from wher I put it. To be honest, how HEAVY can a mouse be? They are not like pushing a BRICK.

3. And the last boils down to the QUALITY I stated at the onset, MS have a pretty decent standard of quality, I know ANY company can have a bad product and maybe MY experience is a one off, but the Razer buttons failed within 2 weeks which I find disturbing. Phantom clicks and not clicking THAT soon? I play MMORPG's and SL, so SPEED isn't so much an issue but accuracy IS usually nice to have AND reliable buttons.

After all this I am still using the best mouse I EVER bought, an old MX518 Logitech.  It never had any issues with drivers or buttons failing and it has the sexiest look ;)

As stated by others, these are just my own opinion. (with a smattering of observations)

A "No Life" onliner - average 6 hours per day gaming.

The Wiz that Waz

Originally posted by Berungijin
i need some advice, soon i will have a new PC, actualy i'm running on a laptop, so i have to buy a keyboard and mouse, but those HAVE to be wireless, cause i dont have a desk and will play from my couch LOL, i'm living in Japan and my appartement is quiete small ;)

My question is does it worth the money to buy a bluethoot set ? Better wireless quality ?

Thanks

A friend of mine was able to get me a deal on one of these babies - just about the time my mouse was crapping out. Not good when your a daily online gamer as I am.

Anyway - the install of this mouse is a nightmare - following all the instructions - if my friend hadn't told me of his nightmarish experience with the constant rebooting - uninstalling and reinstalling of software (after the firmware update) I would have given up and thought this mouse is crap.

But, after 3 or 4 reboots the software finally recognized my mouse - I mainly wanted to explain for people who maybe purchasing this -have some patience with the install.

The mouse works great but, the buttons on the side????????? I hate them - they have almost killed me several times in WoW.... What did I do to remedy the situation? I jerked the removable/swappable side button panel out - unscrewed the plate that holds the button sensors in - removed the mini circut board - and now I'm good to go. Even if you disable the side buttons - if you accidentally are pressing one (as they are right next to where my thumb grips the mouse) it will interfer with other clicks - so basically you will get a non response.

Basically Microsoft tried way too hard with this thing... And as nice of a review as the fellow here stated (I'm sure for the free mouse and future free mice he had to be nice) - this mouse is overcomplicated.

Basically I like it because well.. I paid for it - and after adjusting it for me - it works well enough.

I do not recommend this mouse - get a logitec.

Microsoft failed me with the Zune (overpriced and too late - Apple wins) and this mouse (overcomplicated - logitech wins)

Stick to operating systems microsoft.