Do not buy Razer Imperator

Thanks for the review unrealsword... guess I'll be using mx-518 for some time still.

 
Try turning the dpi down from 5600?

You'll notice the bass coming from your subwoofer will move the cursor slightly, too, until or unless you turn down the dpi.

Your DNB is inappropriate and premature.
 
I have got an Imperator (had to spend the voucher Razer gave me after numerous other failures) I did note it tracks perfectly on the desktop with the wrapper still on, so wasn't sure if you'd done the same.

Side to Side

I can't duplicate that side to side swipe issue as you demonstrate it. It's hard to get really flat horizontal strokes with wrist resting on the table, I tried it using a Logitech mouse as well the Imperator to be sure, I get something vaguely similar to your video but the line described by the pointer slopes up instead of down, and both my mice are similar in pattern. So I think the pointer slope is probably coming from the wrist/arm movement that describes a gentle arc instead of a flat line.

Try 'holding' the mouse abnormally? I tried to get very flat horizontal movement by standing over the desk, index & middle finger only resting on the top centre of the mouse, fingers close to vertical, pushing it side to side quickly. I end up with very thin, stretched ellipses from the mouse pointer - the average is very flat and horizontal.

More investigation needed I think...


Lift off pointer jump

I'm seeing that sometimes, but only when I try to copy your demonstration. Normal lift off sometimes just results in a different type of small deflection - I think because normal lift occurs when the mouse is already moving in some direction and the sensor is able to detect and compare frames correctly. Lift off when the mouse is static and it does throw the sensor every time. My Copperheads (plural) all did something similarly weird, usually the pointer would just go shooting off in a vertical direction.
 
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I can imagine how this could be an issue for gamers but what about people who either don't lift their mouse during gameplay or people who play games only on occasion?
 
Then it probably won't affect them. But the fact that the issue is there vs other mice is unacceptable. And it's not like this is new either, other razer mice apparently suffer from this thing. I think razer bought a truckload of philips 2 eye sensors and doesn't want to lose money by using something else so they go with accepting the anomaly and screwing the user.
 
badcaps said:
Try turning the dpi down from 5600?

You'll notice the bass coming from your subwoofer will move the cursor slightly, too, until or unless you turn down the dpi.

Your DNB is inappropriate and premature.
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Haha okay so a known issue with multiple other Razer mice from multiple users and reviews isn't worthy of speaking out about? :rolleyes:
 
So I got a reply from razer and they basically told me that people don't lift their mice and that it's my fault for doing so and that it's not their problem. Also they said they did receive the feedback from others about the issue but once again it's not the vast majority of users. :eek: Sent an email back, let's see if they are willing to do anything about it or not.
 
unrealsword said:
So I got a reply from razer and they basically told me that people don't lift their mice and that it's my fault for doing so and that it's not their problem. Also they said they did receive the feedback from others about the issue but once again it's not the vast majority of users. :eek: Sent an email back, let's see if they are willing to do anything about it or not.
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:eek: Indeed...

This should be interesting.
 
KayossZero said:
Haha okay so a known issue with multiple other Razer mice from multiple users and reviews isn't worthy of speaking out about? :rolleyes:
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And apparently other peoples posts aren't worth reading properly. Try again. If English isn't your first language I'll rephrase it for you.
 
badcaps said:
And apparently other peoples posts aren't worth reading properly. Try again. If English isn't your first language I'll rephrase it for you.
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The issue is the sensor has problems during manufacturing resulting the error. Why are you bashing people?
 
unrealsword said:
The issue is the sensor has problems during manufacturing resulting the error. Why are you bashing people?
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...? Someone has quoted what I said and replied as if what I said is entirely different. I am attempting to correct their glaring error.
 
unrealsword said:
So I got a reply from razer and they basically told me that people don't lift their mice and that it's my fault for doing so and that it's not their problem. Also they said they did receive the feedback from others about the issue but once again it's not the vast majority of users. :eek: Sent an email back, let's see if they are willing to do anything about it or not.
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People don't lift their mice?

In all the LAN parties I've been to, I've never seen a player that *didn't* lift their mouse.
 
Well low sens players are lifting the mouse. High sens players really have no reason to lift it. I'm using a mx518 on a Sx and with high sens I rarely lift the mouse and then its just to pull the cord back.
 
LOUSYGREATWALLGM said:
This is one of my first choices :(
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If I was spending my own money I think I would go for a G9x/TactX instead. However I do have an Imperator which I got for nothing (well technically not nothing, 11-12 years of dodgy Razer mice failing due to build quality issues :rolleyes:) Anyway OP is overstating the problem to some extent, for sure there is a problem that will affect low sensitivity (large movement) users a lot more than high sensitivity (small movement) users. It's been this way with Lachesis and Mamba as well. If you can try out the Imperator and the shape is great for you, and you lift the mouse infrequently then it may still be worth buying.
 
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I disagree IanM, I had an Imperator and while it seemed nice at first, eventually it had too many problems tracking properly, sudden stops of the cursor while I still moved the mouse, and other weird tracking anomolies manifested regularly enough for me to go buy another mouse a couple months after I got the Imperator. I also had a Mamba that I had to return because it was just crazy with it's tracking errors, very noticeable tracking errors like going up instead of down when I moved the mouse down and so on, I got the G9x and it is 100% smooth and tracking error free, I highly recommend against new Razer mice (My death adder tracked fine, but it lacked hardware memory so side buttons wouldn't work in some games with UAC on.) It's really sad I used to love Razer but they are really saying FU to users with these new mice, imo.
 
devil22 said:
too many problems tracking properly, sudden stops of the cursor while I still moved the mouse, and other weird tracking anomolies manifested regularly enough for me to go buy another mouse
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For sure I will post again if I see anything awry that I can blame on Razer, for the time being my Imperator has seemed OK.

Out of interest devil22, which mousepad do you use?
 
IanM said:
If I was spending my own money I think I would go for a G9x/TactX instead. However I do have an Imperator which I got for nothing (well technically not nothing, 11-12 years of dodgy Razer mice failing due to build quality issues :rolleyes:) Anyway OP is overstating the problem to some extent, for sure there is a problem that will affect low sensitivity (large movement) users a lot more than high sensitivity (small movement) users. It's been this way with Lachesis and Mamba as well. If you can try out the Imperator and the shape is great for you, and you lift the mouse infrequently then it may still be worth buying.
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Thanks for sharing your experience and hints.
 
devil22 said:
I disagree IanM, I had an Imperator and while it seemed nice at first, eventually it had too many problems tracking properly, sudden stops of the cursor while I still moved the mouse, and other weird tracking anomolies manifested regularly enough for me to go buy another mouse a couple months after I got the Imperator. I also had a Mamba that I had to return because it was just crazy with it's tracking errors, very noticeable tracking errors like going up instead of down when I moved the mouse down and so on, I got the G9x and it is 100% smooth and tracking error free, I highly recommend against new Razer mice (My death adder tracked fine, but it lacked hardware memory so side buttons wouldn't work in some games with UAC on.) It's really sad I used to love Razer but they are really saying FU to users with these new mice, imo.
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1) Thanks for bringing this up. I had this impression the Razer's tracking ability is great, well maybe not. :(

2) This is no good, I'm really expecting to have good -> great experience on Razer gaming mouse.

3) Very convincing statement there :). I think I'm going to pick the G9x then.

4) This was one of the reason why I haven't got the adder yet.

Thanks again!
 
IanM said:
For sure I will post again if I see anything awry that I can blame on Razer, for the time being my Imperator has seemed OK.

Out of interest devil22, which mousepad do you use?
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I use this mouse pad from 'rocketfish': http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/p-67-rocketfish-gaming-mouse-pad-black.aspx - Maybe it was the mouse-pad that the razer Imperator and Mamba disagree with, and I guess I should have tried a different one (maybe a 'recommended' one) in retrospect but I can't really see how this mouse-pad would be bad, it's single color, and it has two differently textured sides (speed and control) and the Mamba and Imperator were bad on both sides, and the G9x as I said works 100% perfect on it. I like Razer, and I hope they get their act together soon, but I'm happy with the G9x so... And I just had a ridiculous game in CS:S, 66:12 on Office, with the Imperator I was barely breaking 2:1 ratios most of the time...
 
I'm just curious...how can a low-sens player use 5600DPI? Isnt this sort of mutually exclusive? Using 5600DPI pretty much makes you a high-sens player. If you move the mouse so much distance that you have to pick it up to re-center it on the mousepad, at 5600DPI and default windows settings, the pointer would be going crazy distances.
 
devil22 said:
I use this mouse pad from 'rocketfish': http://www.rocketfishproducts.com/p-67-rocketfish-gaming-mouse-pad-black.aspx - Maybe it was the mouse-pad that the razer Imperator and Mamba disagree with
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I don't know the answer, what I do know is I've been plagued with occasional jittery mouse behaviour across multiple mice and PCs and operating systems: 4 different motherboards, XP, Vista, Win 7, Fedora & Ubuntu Linux, 3 Razer Copperheads, 4 Logitech mice (inc. LS-1 and M115) and 2 Microsoft mice (at work) So I've concluded that some issues must be either to do with the USB protocol itself, or the mousepad and environment.

At home I use two XXL Razer Mantis Control mousepads, so I have a huge mouse area, and I am high DPI / small movement fingertip user. Therefore I lift the mouse infrequently and am less prone to seeing the lift off glitches.

Causes of jittery behaviour that I can identify for sure:
  • Razer + Philips sensor lift off
  • Hairs on the mousepad/under the mouse sensor
  • Poor USB plug to socket connections
I have suspected the pad of being an issue, but I think issues would be persistent if the pad were at fault. Every time the mouse goes haywire I've rectified it by:
  • brushing away hairs
  • freeing the USB cable so it's slack
  • pushing the USB plug back into the socket (even 1/4-1/2mm sometimes seems to make a difference)

Going by the XSreality forum: G9x, TactX, Qpad 5K, Steelseries Xai, Speedlink Kudos and some others, maybe Mionix or Ozone? use the same sensor. However there is bitching about the Xai specifically being messed up with some tracking issue on certain mousepads, and non-defeatable prediction. If you want to use finger tip grip G9x/Tactx is perhaps the only choice left as the others are all somewhat large and styled for palm grip users.

Ritorix said:
I'm just curious...how can a low-sens player use 5600DPI?
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It's a bit of an incorrect description really, you can use a high DPI which will detect very slight movements but still configure that physical movement to a large or small distance on screen - the mouse 'speed' setting, which is also somewhat misleading.

For low sensitivity we tend to mean users who like to move their hand a long way to get a smaller onscreen movement i.e. low 'speed'. For these guys high DPI is not critical at all and many competitive players still swear by the Wheel Mouse Optical and Intellimouse Explorer.

High sensitivity is associated closely with high DPI as small hand movements need to be precisely detected in order to get precise and accurate on screen movement. In this case, low DPI + high 'speed' is terrible as small hand movements would give rise to excessively large on screen movements. The finer your preferred hand movement the more DPI you should use.
 
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I use high dpi and low sensitivity for precise tracking. In other news razer sent me a free death adder respawn, we'll see how that goes (it's not using the twin eye sensor, thank christ).
 
unrealsword said:
(it's not using the twin eye sensor, thank christ).
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I seriously wonder why they haven't by now just given in and offered at least some mice with the same Avago sensors that Logitech use.

At least Razer gave you an alternative. I've noted that the customer service in the EU has been pretty good on the whole, so perhaps they are better than Razer USA about replacements?
 
I only bought earlier Razer mice because they were the only high end mice that were comfortable left handed. Now that my viper & diamondback 3g broke I don't know what mouse I'll buy next...
 
You guys are aware that razer has a mouse picker based on your gaming style right? maybe you should use that before you just go out and buy the newest thing.
 
srbarcena said:
You guys are aware that razer has a mouse picker based on your gaming style right? maybe you should use that before you just go out and buy the newest thing.
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How does that relate to the technical issues which may be inherent in their products?
 
i bought a ocz behemoth as i got big hands, and every review was saying how big this mouse was, its just a little bigger than a g5. though u can rest the pinky on it if u prefer. Im not sure if its a little quirky,, but im thinking it might be my hand movements and not the mouse itself. the imperator was the next mouse i wanted to try. so depsite the tracking when its picked up. how does it feel in the hand etc.? i might still try it, and sell it if im not happy with it. my g5 is a few years old, ive completey worn the finish off the buttons, and a chunk tore off the mouse wheel. but its very sensitive lately to hair and dust.... and sometimes i dont see any dirt and it just tracks funny. im thinking its dying on me.
 
I've been using the Imperator for the past month and have noticed zero issues. I use it with the Razer Destructor mouse pad. I've never (15+ years of gaming) scored so well with another gaming mouse/mouse pad combo.

Why the OP has problems <shrug>. I'm assuming its number of issues, defective mouse (? I've read about these laser issues but have not encountered it with either my Lachesis or Imperator), mouse surface, or even play style. Sorry by the way you had problems. That would also make me mad considering how much it costs.

Oh, I use the claw/finger gaming style, high sensitivity(?). So I'd say I don't lift the mouse off the mouse pad that often.

So based on what I read if you lift your mouse don't buy this one. If you don't then you should be very happy with your frag count especially if you have a good mouse pad to go with it. :)

*********
rob2000

I haven't used a G5 style mouse in years but my best guess is the styles are very similar from what I recall.
 
unrealsword said:
So I got a reply from razer and they basically told me that people don't lift their mice and that it's my fault for doing so and that it's not their problem. Also they said they did receive the feedback from others about the issue but once again it's not the vast majority of users. :eek: Sent an email back, let's see if they are willing to do anything about it or not.
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unrealsword said:
In other news razer sent me a free death adder respawn, we'll see how that goes (it's not using the twin eye sensor, thank christ).
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I spent some time testing my Lachesis, which uses the same twin eye sensor, for this problem and was able to replicate it very easily; the only way to resolve it is to drastically reduce the functional DPI of the sensor. This is not acceptable.

I'm currently engaged in a protracted battle to have my Lachesis replaced with the cheaper Deathadder after its mouse wheel and middle button have ceased functioning, on top of the z-axis issue.

The people I've spoken with have been generally helpful but also told me everything they told you, and after a rather brusque back-and-forth with a manager I expect the RMA department will not deliver what I need. They're being very much inflexible and I informed them I won't be purchasing any more of their products based on my experiences.

I'm still waiting to hear the final word.
 
badcaps - are you in the USA? I'm not surprised anymore when I read about poor attitude from Razer, but customer services in the EU were always really good for me. It's pretty shabby that they can have such an arbitrary approach to different customers.
 
IanM said:
badcaps - are you in the USA? I'm not surprised anymore when I read about poor attitude from Razer, but customer services in the EU were always really good for me. It's pretty shabby that they can have such an arbitrary approach to different customers.
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Everybody I've dealt with has been professional enough, but rather inflexible and not particularly interested in keeping me as a customer by resolving my issue.

I'm glad folks in Europe are having an easier time with their Razer reps.
 
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I am in Canada as well. The deathadder respawn I got is so dam much better then the imperator. I can actually game again and not be screwed up by the jump. The guy I talked to wasn't part of normal support but with customer satisfactions. Send him an email and maybe he'll help you out.
 
unrealsword said:
I am in Canada as well. The deathadder respawn I got is so dam much better then the imperator. I can actually game again and not be screwed up by the jump. The guy I talked to wasn't part of normal support but with customer satisfactions. Send him an email and maybe he'll help you out.
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Thank you for the tip! I'll do just that once I see what they say in the next email.

I'm glad you got your issue resolved.
 
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