Have razers improved their quality?

hedron

hedron

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 24, 2008
Messages
495
I have a first batch Razer Naga and I've had a ton of quality issues with it. Right now the scroll button is sticky and doesn't function the way it should. I have a Diamondback and I used to have a Copperhead, both of those never had any issues.

I'm just wondering if Razer had just gone downhill in their quality since their earlier days?
 
Have they finally given up on their mandatory cloud drivers?
 
Basically, if you want something dependable and sturdy, don't buy Razer-created products.
 
I just forgo the cloud drivers altogether. For my Deathadder, I keep all of my settings on the mouse. Plug it in and works the same on every setup (450 DPI, 1000hz, etc).
 
hedron said:
I have a first batch Razer Naga and I've had a ton of quality issues with it. Right now the scroll button is sticky and doesn't function the way it should. I have a Diamondback and I used to have a Copperhead, both of those never had any issues.

I'm just wondering if Razer had just gone downhill in their quality since their earlier days?
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My very small sample size of one BlackWidow mechanical keyboard suggests that Razer's QC is at least acceptable.

The keyboard has worked well for at least three or four years. I probably wouldn't buy another one, but that has more to do with there being so many great options than it does with any particular deficiency of the BlackWidow.
 
Meeho said:
Have they finally given up on their mandatory cloud drivers?
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I didn't like that at first, but the only thing I find annoying is that they force updates on you. But I do admit it's convenient not to have to go to the website to check if there's updates.
 
The quality is still debatable. Some of my Razer products have lasted awhile, and some have stopped working within a year. My DeathAdder only lasted one year before the secondary button stopped registering. However, my Tiamat has worked well the past two years.
 
Their resource hogging companion app aside, I've found their hardware QC to at least be acceptable based on a few Razer mice over the years and the BlackWidow mechanical keyboard lasting a few years with no issues and heavy usage.
 
IMO, they're build quality doesn't justify the price. I returned the Razer mouse I bought and got a Logitech. Corsair makes much better mechanical keyboards for the money. Aluminum vs cheap plastic.
 
I would of bought one 4 years ago if they were good sporting a Rival instead.
 
I've had 2 Deathadders now and I loved them both. First one started having clicking issues after 3 years of abuse and the current one is working great still. Maybe it's the Naga that sucks.
 
cvinh said:
I've had 2 Deathadders now and I loved them both. First one started having clicking issues after 3 years of abuse and the current one is working great still. Maybe it's the Naga that sucks.
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I think a lot of people agree that deathadders are one of the few things that Razer gets right.
 
Rayzero said:
I think a lot of people agree that deathadders are one of the few things that Razer gets right.
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Even still the Older ones had far fewer issues

Razer death-adder is the last Razer product I am buying
 
hedron said:
I have a first batch Razer Naga and I've had a ton of quality issues with it. Right now the scroll button is sticky and doesn't function the way it should. I have a Diamondback and I used to have a Copperhead, both of those never had any issues.

I'm just wondering if Razer had just gone downhill in their quality since their earlier days?
Click to expand...

Short answer?

No.

Long answer?

They offer alright hardware products, but charge WAY too much for them. On top of that, since 2013, every razer product REQUIRES their Always Online™ drivers to function as anything other than a basic product (If you are offline: no macro keys, no sensitivity adjustment, no light control or custom button layouts). On top of that, you can look at just about ANY other brand's product for the same price and it will be a higher quality. Take for instance, a Razer keyboard for $100 will be rubish compared to a Corsair or Ducky or Asus or Thermaltake or just about ANY other keyboard at $100. The Razer keyboard will be quite nice against, say, a $50 keyboard from any other brand.

These are opinions from a guy who used to sell Razer products.
 
I like my Deathadder but thats about it.
The whole "Razer using Kahl switches" is something that still really bothers me because they have more then enough money to just use Cherry Switches in the keyboard.
 
tylertoast said:
The whole "Razer using Kahl switches" is something that still really bothers me because they have more then enough money to just use Cherry Switches in the keyboard.
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There's nothing wrong with kailh switches as long as they are priced appropriately. I have several Cherry MX boards - Leopold red, Ducky brown, Roccat black, and Cooler Master blue. I have been using a Thermaltake brown kailh board for the last several months as my primary.

If they are using kailh switches, but pricing for Cherry that's a different story. At a quick glance their Blackwidow boards are priced at $110 retail which I think is completely appropriate for kailh switches. If they made it with Cherry switches it would be $150+ retail.
 
junkman_ said:
I just forgo the cloud drivers altogether. For my Deathadder, I keep all of my settings on the mouse. Plug it in and works the same on every setup (450 DPI, 1000hz, etc).
Click to expand...

but they all still lack on-board memory right? if you like the default settings you are fine w/o the software....
 
I had no problem with the first two black widows i bought years ago but the chroma i got last year required an RMA due to a non-working alt key after a few months. The replacement now has a minor problem with the lighting on the F key. It's only minor so I'm not sure if i can be bothered to RMA but going 2/2 with faults on this newest board means i'll probably look elsewhere for my next one.
 
hedron said:
I have a first batch Razer Naga and I've had a ton of quality issues with it. Right now the scroll button is sticky and doesn't function the way it should. I have a Diamondback and I used to have a Copperhead, both of those never had any issues.

I'm just wondering if Razer had just gone downhill in their quality since their earlier days?
Click to expand...

I had an original Naga and the mouse buttons eventually started double clicking which was very annoying when surfing and sometimes in wow but didn't happen until about 2-3 years after purchase and I played WoW almost everyday for several hours a day raiding back in 2009-2010. I bought a Naga Epic to replace it and havn't had any issues with it and have had it for at least 2 years now. After using Razer mice I cant use any other mice out there. I love the indented mouse buttons and have tried other mice that have rounded buttons and just can deal with it. I'll continue to buy Razer mice on the ergonomics alone even if their QC is shitty.
 
I had a Deathadder that doubleclicked with both LMB and RMB and the scroll didn't work. The mouse was only about 1.5 years old. Right now my Rival has been with me for over 2 years and no faults except some visual signs of constant use
 
The Deathadder Chroma I tried was very comfortable, but also very very light and plastic feeling. I went with a Logitech G500s to replace my G500. Nice hefty feel, but everyone likes different things.
 
KazeoHin said:
Short answer?

No.

Long answer?

They offer alright hardware products, but charge WAY too much for them. On top of that, since 2013, every razer product REQUIRES their Always Online™ drivers to function as anything other than a basic product (If you are offline: no macro keys, no sensitivity adjustment, no light control or custom button layouts). On top of that, you can look at just about ANY other brand's product for the same price and it will be a higher quality. Take for instance, a Razer keyboard for $100 will be rubish compared to a Corsair or Ducky or Asus or Thermaltake or just about ANY other keyboard at $100. The Razer keyboard will be quite nice against, say, a $50 keyboard from any other brand.

These are opinions from a guy who used to sell Razer products.
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I haven't noticed this at all and I just spent two years on a Razer Laptop with a Razer Taipan for the mouse. Maybe it's different if the Laptop is a Razer product but I didn't see this at all.

Maybe I demand so little "flash" that I just don't notice it.
 
Oh, and to answer the OP, my Razer Taipan has worked without issue for over a year now, my Razer mouse pads have stood up very well, and I ran a Razer Blade for over two years and my kid needed something so I passed it to her. It only had an engineering design problem, the cooling system cools the CPU and Video card well enough, but the wireless radio card overheats and causes problems. I bought a USB3.0 powered hub with 1GB NIC interface and everything was golden.
 
I've recently purchased the Mamba Chroma when they had their 50% off sale. The mouse is very nice in terms of comfort and design, but there were a few issues. The texture on the mouse felt very rough, this may be a design choice but felt weird at first. The mouse would sometimes jerk around, that is, I would move the mouse and the mouse pointer would stay put and then jump. Not sure why, this was with wireless mode and no software installed. Finally, and this caused me to RMA the mouse for an exchange, the mouse would make a very loud buzzing/squealing noise while charging, I mean I heard it from another room! Sounded just like coil whine, and I could not find any reports of this anywhere so it may have been defective. We'll see when the replacement arrives. To their credit, Razer issued an RMA quickly so we'll see if the replacement is better.

For the record, I've used a Mionix Naos for a while and my current daily driver is a Steelseries Sensei Wireless which I like a lot. Although I did have some issues with the Sensei as well, but overall the quality of the mouse just feels higher than the Razer. I think for the 50% off, it's definitely a good buy, but I'm not sure I would pay full price for it.

I should also add that I had their first generation Blackwidow Ultimate keyboard back in 2010. After 3 years or so of usage the keyboard completely failed because the USB cable got so brittle it would snap like a twig (for reasons I still cannot understand since the cord was never really flexed after it was plugged in), caused short circuit protection to kick in on my PC motherboard preventing a proper power-up. Unfortunately, Razer would not do anything for me back then, but again the keyboard was out of warranty. Other than that issue, I had no problems with it.
 
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My Razor history consist of a 2013 Deathadder 3.5g, 2014 black widdow tournament edition and a Deathadder chroma. I had virtually no issues with my Razor products. My 2013 was working fine and I sold it to get Chroma since the textured feel was more comfortable. The only issues I had was with the black widdow keyboard was not being detected and I found out it was a motherboard bios issue. I also hate the synapse driver software. I upload the settings I want to my Razor products and then uninstall that software. I guess I lucked out but I heard crazy quality problems on this forum with their products.
 
The quality used to be better. I had a Diamondback 3G for about 5 years until the scroll wheel went out. I replaced that with a Deathadder Black. The left button developed the double click syndrome after about a year. Rather than whine like a little bitch, I ordered up some Omron switches at $1.50 each and busted out the soldering iron and fixed the damn thing. That was over a year ago now. The only thing I really hate is the always on software.
 
Avoid Steelseries.
They have no UK support and tried to make me pay for shipping of my faulty Sensei to Holland from UK. The cable had a fault where it enters the mouse.
I wouldnt have minded paying to ship in the UK, but a signed for package to Holland is a bit much, especially on a high end product they should stand behind.
I made them aware that its their duty to pay shipping under EU law while under warranty.
They tried to dodge it then eventually said they will ship a new mouse and to destroy the old one.
I agreed but kept the old one for spares just in case.
This took a few months of annoying emails and none response.

Good job I kept the old mouse because all 3 major buttons developed faults of missing clicks and double clicking.
I decided to transfer the innards of my old mouse into the new one and realised this new mouse had already been opened, the PTFE pads were loose at one end and had been bent to access the screw holes!
This was a mouse supplied in a sealed box as new.
It looks like they shipped a known faulty mouse to me pretending it was new. Co-incidence, I dont think so.
All would be well now but this cable has developed a fault as well.
I have had enough of them, I will get a mouse from another company.


I'm really put off by Razer requiring you to make an account with them to use their software and then having to be online to use features.
My wallet voted no, they have to completely stop this.
And I am still annoyed my Deathadder only lasted 2 years before double clicking.
They lost a sale of the Mamba Tournament.

Currently looking at a Mionix...
Anyone got experience?
 
I got the orichi as my travel mouse. And I have not had any luck of that thing working in bluetooth mode. It will work for a few minutes and looses connection and not connect back. I have to erase it from the device and re-pair it. Also, the synapse software is crap. Can't even do a proper update without something going wrong.

The only thing that work good and does its job with no problem day and night is the mouse pad.
 
2k3eblade said:
My Razor history consist of a 2013 Deathadder 3.5g, 2014 black widdow tournament edition and a Deathadder chroma. I had virtually no issues with my Razor products. My 2013 was working fine and I sold it to get Chroma since the textured feel was more comfortable. The only issues I had was with the black widdow keyboard was not being detected and I found out it was a motherboard bios issue. I also hate the synapse driver software. I upload the settings I want to my Razor products and then uninstall that software. I guess I lucked out but I heard crazy quality problems on this forum with their products.
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So my chroma developed the double click syndrome recently... Time for a new one or try to fix the switches.
 
I got my replacement Mamba Chroma and it still makes a buzzing sound while charging, less so than the previous one but it's still quite annoying while in a quiet room. Not sure whether its coil whine or ceramic capacitor noise (I suspect the latter since the current and voltage involved are probably quite low). The mouse is nice and feels well in my palm, but the noise is annoying. My Steelseries Sensei Wireless is absolutely silent while charging. I suspect low quality components inside that are responsible for the high pitched whine, really annoying.
 
Armpit said:
I got my replacement Mamba Chroma and it still makes a buzzing sound while charging, less so than the previous one but it's still quite annoying while in a quiet room. Not sure whether its coil whine or ceramic capacitor noise (I suspect the latter since the current and voltage involved are probably quite low). The mouse is nice and feels well in my palm, but the noise is annoying. My Steelseries Sensei Wireless is absolutely silent while charging. I suspect low quality components inside that are responsible for the high pitched whine, really annoying.
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Yea Razer has been money grabbing since the success of the first DeathAdder, I had a Diamondback and a few DeathAdders that were decent, they would last a few years. But I also had a Imperator which went to crap after a few months and also had 2 Black Widows, one that bricked when they launched that Razer Cloud update. Won't be buying from them again. I also had a horrible support experience from them with my Black Widows, they claimed I installed some unapproved firmware or something. I really didn't even need a firmware update, it was working fine before then.
 
tracer11LB said:
I got the orichi as my travel mouse. And I have not had any luck of that thing working in bluetooth mode. It will work for a few minutes and looses connection and not connect back. I have to erase it from the device and re-pair it. Also, the synapse software is crap. Can't even do a proper update without something going wrong.

The only thing that work good and does its job with no problem day and night is the mouse pad.
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I have a Razer Orochi as my travel mouse too. I've gotten it to work in Bluetooth mode just fine, but the lag makes it unbearable, even at the desktop. That mouse is disappointing. It does work ok if plugged in.

On the flip side I have a more than 5 year old Razer Black Widow keyboard that's in good shape. It works great and always has.

I also agree with you, Synapse is garbage. I don't install it anymore.
 
Razer is playing in a very tough market segment. 8 years ago, they were practically a "first choice" option for those who wanted a well-known and gaming oriented brand (I still have fond memories of my Diamondback mouse and, of course, its successor -- the venerable DeathAdder). Nowadays, with the "gaming peripherals" market being so crowded and cutthroat as it is, I have no brand loyalty, and if anything, if I'm hitting up Razer, it's for "discount" refurbs or when I see deals on Woot for their stuff. I've been using Logitech for mice and Corsair for keyboards over the last few years -- so far, so good. They just seem more durable, and offer better value, than what Razer is offering (not that Razer doesn't have some good stuff, they do). So to answer the OP's question, yes, Razer's quality is declining, IMO -- due to the crowded market, I'm sure that they introduced cost-cutting measures (Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan has alluded to this in the past, noting that his accountants won't let him put in some things that he would have liked to add in Razer gaming gear).

Also of note is that a number of their competitors have much larger capital to invest than they do, and this plays itself out in the quality of the gaming gear (better components, better warranty, tech support, and so on).
 
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