Soldato
- Joined
- 11 Dec 2005
- Posts
- 11,364
- Location
- Cheshire
Today I had the glorious task of reviewing the new Saitek R.A.T. 7 gaming mouse.
Now at first it would seem Saitek (like many other case brands) must have been on some very hard drugs when they drew up the designs for this mouse. However the R.A.T. 7 isn’t just another “hip” gaming mouse for hyperactive 12yr old gamers, it actually has reason behind the visual madness.
The R.A.T. 7 is marketed heavily as being “customisable” containing the usual gaming mouse gubbinz such as weights, ridiculous DPI settings and programmable software. This is all well and good but does any of this make it stand out from the rest of the crowd?
Now let’s talk about important stuff, packaging. Packaging is very important as it conveys the instant “judgement” of any product and adds to the desirability, if something is packaged nicely you always want it more. So it comes in a very swish box with a window/door and has a fair bit of weight to it. The card used isn’t OEM china card, so you don’t have to worry about cutting yourself.
The mouse itself is very sturdy, the quality of the materials used is excellent, all the buttons give precise “clicking” and the wheel also clicks nicely which is a thousand times better than these “smooth” wheel mice that are beginning to appear. The USB cable is sweet as well, with a braided cable-esque appearance and a gold plated USB connection (hint Corsair) which always adds to the overall quality.
Now after passing the mouse around and having a little play everyone begins to look rather confused about how to begin “customising” it. Inside the box there is a metal tin contain different panels and palm rests to bolt on and remove from your beloved R.A.T. The small thumb screw and the back of the mouse unscrews to reveal itself as an allen key which allows you to adjust the mouse and remove the side panel.
In the kit you get:
2 extra side panels – 1 rubberized and 1 standard with a “pinkie rest”
2 extra palm rests – 1 rubberized and 1 raised standard
1 weight holder
The mouse itself has 5 small weights inside the back these are removed after taking out the allen key thumbscrew and a spring is released which keeps the weights compressed and free from movement. Any weights that are removed are placed into the weight holder that Saitek kindly provide with the mouse.
You can adjust how far back or forward the palm rest is or how far back or forward the thumb buttons are or even what angle the thumb buttons sit at. So when you combine this with the removable panels, the R.A.T. begins to shape up to something very special indeed. I likened it to a transformer as you can make it look very different with every config. My favourite config was the raised palm rest with the pinkie rest and with the thumb buttons all the way back at a slight angle, oh and with all the weights in as well. To make things easier to explain, here is a pic:
Now to the actual gaming performance. Now the R.A.T. performs like any good gaming mouse, ridiculously quick, the DPI is adjust up and down by a small rocker button just in front of the scroll wheel. This is show by a small bar on the left hand side of the mouse, which shows 1 bar for low, 2 for medium, 3 for high and 4 for very high. I found 2 were good for general PC use and 3 was good for gaming. It is especially useful when playing Battlefield BC2 when you get into a tank and the turret turns very slowly, just ramp up the DPI and you’re away! Making tank kills even easier (if they weren’t enough).
The most interesting button is the “precision aim” now a lot of you are probably wondering what this is, now the concept behind it is very simple but also very effective. Basically by holding the precision aim button down it reduces your DPI by a programmable percent e.g. 20%, 30% etc. So when you scope in on someone say in Battlefield BC2 old down the precision aim and all of a sudden quick scope sniper shots are possible. Now I am rubbish at sniping and yet I became “god of sniping” with this mouse. Very, very useful indeed.
The supplied software is very easy to use, you can have up to three profiles with an infinite amount of keystrokes/macros available to assign to certain buttons on the mouse. For example my “dolphin dive” macro, now I know it is terrible and is very unsportsman but it was rather funny being able to do so, so incredibly easily.
All in all I am extremely impressed with the R.A.T. 7, I for one will certainly be purchasing one. The looks may put some people of (stealth fighter and transformer combined) but the functionality that is available is ridiculous. The build quality and customisability make the R.A.T. 7 a sure winner. The award winning feature has to be the precision aim, so simple yet so effective, I couldn’t even believe how immense it was. Do want!
9/10
Now at first it would seem Saitek (like many other case brands) must have been on some very hard drugs when they drew up the designs for this mouse. However the R.A.T. 7 isn’t just another “hip” gaming mouse for hyperactive 12yr old gamers, it actually has reason behind the visual madness.
The R.A.T. 7 is marketed heavily as being “customisable” containing the usual gaming mouse gubbinz such as weights, ridiculous DPI settings and programmable software. This is all well and good but does any of this make it stand out from the rest of the crowd?
Now let’s talk about important stuff, packaging. Packaging is very important as it conveys the instant “judgement” of any product and adds to the desirability, if something is packaged nicely you always want it more. So it comes in a very swish box with a window/door and has a fair bit of weight to it. The card used isn’t OEM china card, so you don’t have to worry about cutting yourself.
The mouse itself is very sturdy, the quality of the materials used is excellent, all the buttons give precise “clicking” and the wheel also clicks nicely which is a thousand times better than these “smooth” wheel mice that are beginning to appear. The USB cable is sweet as well, with a braided cable-esque appearance and a gold plated USB connection (hint Corsair) which always adds to the overall quality.
Now after passing the mouse around and having a little play everyone begins to look rather confused about how to begin “customising” it. Inside the box there is a metal tin contain different panels and palm rests to bolt on and remove from your beloved R.A.T. The small thumb screw and the back of the mouse unscrews to reveal itself as an allen key which allows you to adjust the mouse and remove the side panel.
In the kit you get:
2 extra side panels – 1 rubberized and 1 standard with a “pinkie rest”
2 extra palm rests – 1 rubberized and 1 raised standard
1 weight holder
The mouse itself has 5 small weights inside the back these are removed after taking out the allen key thumbscrew and a spring is released which keeps the weights compressed and free from movement. Any weights that are removed are placed into the weight holder that Saitek kindly provide with the mouse.
You can adjust how far back or forward the palm rest is or how far back or forward the thumb buttons are or even what angle the thumb buttons sit at. So when you combine this with the removable panels, the R.A.T. begins to shape up to something very special indeed. I likened it to a transformer as you can make it look very different with every config. My favourite config was the raised palm rest with the pinkie rest and with the thumb buttons all the way back at a slight angle, oh and with all the weights in as well. To make things easier to explain, here is a pic:
Now to the actual gaming performance. Now the R.A.T. performs like any good gaming mouse, ridiculously quick, the DPI is adjust up and down by a small rocker button just in front of the scroll wheel. This is show by a small bar on the left hand side of the mouse, which shows 1 bar for low, 2 for medium, 3 for high and 4 for very high. I found 2 were good for general PC use and 3 was good for gaming. It is especially useful when playing Battlefield BC2 when you get into a tank and the turret turns very slowly, just ramp up the DPI and you’re away! Making tank kills even easier (if they weren’t enough).
The most interesting button is the “precision aim” now a lot of you are probably wondering what this is, now the concept behind it is very simple but also very effective. Basically by holding the precision aim button down it reduces your DPI by a programmable percent e.g. 20%, 30% etc. So when you scope in on someone say in Battlefield BC2 old down the precision aim and all of a sudden quick scope sniper shots are possible. Now I am rubbish at sniping and yet I became “god of sniping” with this mouse. Very, very useful indeed.
The supplied software is very easy to use, you can have up to three profiles with an infinite amount of keystrokes/macros available to assign to certain buttons on the mouse. For example my “dolphin dive” macro, now I know it is terrible and is very unsportsman but it was rather funny being able to do so, so incredibly easily.
All in all I am extremely impressed with the R.A.T. 7, I for one will certainly be purchasing one. The looks may put some people of (stealth fighter and transformer combined) but the functionality that is available is ridiculous. The build quality and customisability make the R.A.T. 7 a sure winner. The award winning feature has to be the precision aim, so simple yet so effective, I couldn’t even believe how immense it was. Do want!
9/10
Good times.
I've tried every fitting option possible but I just cant get a comfortable fit! My wrist aches after an hour or so using it and it just doesn't feel stable in my palm, even without weights it feels a bit too heavy and on it's slimmest setting feels a bit too wide and cumbersome.
