Firstly, one important thing to address is that this is a review for the Razer Basilisk X mouse, not the Razer Basilisk Ultimate, which is the majorly upgraded version of the mouse. Most reviews, for some reason, are of the Basilisk Ultimate, but with the one picture and the one you order on this page, you will be getting the battery powered Razer Basilisk X.
TL;DR: I used this mouse for a month for office use. Great price for what you get. Feels nice in hand using common grips (claw, palm, fingertip), responsive clicking, nice scrolling, glides well across mouse mats, fair for gaming, really good battery life.
I have only ever used wired mice. I wanted a wireless mouse for office use because my desk got smaller. I also share a desk now, and wires go everywhere from our headsets, keyboard, desk decorations, etc. To say the least, I wanted something cheap, but something I could still rely on with decent quality for the price. After doing some extensive research, I limited myself down to Logitech or Razer. When I finally laid eyes on the Basilisk X, I liked the look and the features. The more I thought about it, the more I fell in love with it. I was skeptical, as I've never used a wireless mouse. However, below are my thoughts after a month's use regarding the mouse and why I think, for the price, this mouse deserves five stars.
To start, the price falls at $59.99 at the time of writing this review. Even in paying full price, I felt that I was receiving a great quality mouse. Below are some more specifications of this.
Firstly, when getting the mouse, you get some detailed instructions regarding how to set it up. This is a nice touch, as trying to offhandedly figure out where the battery compartment and the USB stick is can be difficult. The cover lifts up nicely, but is a little hard to put back on. Ultimately, though, it has a nice compartment for the USB stick and for the battery. This mouse takes one AA battery inserted into the mouse. The weight of the mouse is very light and it's easily mobile. The build of the mouse feels decent for the price, and seems durable. The look overall of a matte black with some glossy parts and highlights is personal preference, but I do like its simplistic look with no lights on it.
Overall, the feel of this mouse is nice in the hand. I used it in a few different grips to sample how it would feel. I used claw, palm, and fingertip, the most common grips I could think of. When using each grip, each time, I did feel relatively comfortable. The mouse fits rather well in my medium-large hands. I personally use a hybrid palm and claw grip, in the sense that my palm encompasses a large amount of the mouse, but my fingers are raised slightly. It is a little less comfortable for this type of grip, but you can still feel comfort using the mouse. It seems from my usage the mouse is mostly intended for palm grip, but that shouldn't discount other grips at least trying the mouse. It's much better than the mice the office provides me, trust me on that. As for the other parts of the mouse, such as the buttons and scroll wheels, I like the clicky responsiveness of the mouse buttons. Also, my fingers don't hang over the edge, even when using palm grip, which I personally love. I rather like the scroll wheel because It doesn't take too much pressure to move it up or down, but locks into place pretty solidly with ease. It is relatively easy to scroll at fast paces, but not seemingly as easy as a Logitech mouse, which my friend allowed me to use for a moment (more on that later). There are three other buttons to be used, one below the scroll wheel, and two next to the thumb. One complaint I had about some other mice I used, including Steelseries and (in some mice) Corsair, involved me accidentally pressing this sensitivity button below the scroll wheel. Well, I can safely say I've never had an accidental press of the sensitivity button. Since I am clumsy, though, I do accidentally press the two buttons on the side of the mouse every so often. However, whenever I have a mouse that has buttons in those places, I always click them on accident, no matter the mouse, so I cannot fault it for that. The buttons on the side stick out a little more than I usually see on other mice, but they don't get in the way, especially the sensitivity button. It sits flush with the two buttons used to click. Overall, you get pretty easy access to the thumb buttons when using the provided thumb rest as well. I can say it has a more simplistic design, which some will favor over multiple buttons. The cover in the back for the battery and USB holder have never come off accidentally for me, and I haven't had issues otherwise with the build. I'd say if you have medium hands, this would probably be the mouse for you, but with someone like me who has hands that are somewhat large, it works well still.
Moving along swiftly, I'll now cover how the mouse performs when moving it around, and then dive into gaming with the mouse. Overall, on a decent quality mouse mat, the mouse glides really smoothly across the surface and calibrates easy. All you have to do to calibrate it to the surface you're on, software or not, is hold down the button just below the scroll wheel for a few seconds, and then it is calibrated and optimized for the surface it's on. It's never caught itself on anything and feels pretty smooth, albeit a little bit speedy. Otherwise, it's very elegant in its dance across a surface.
Finally, the point that I've been looking forward to most, which is gaming. This is a gaming mouse so, after all, how does it perform for gaming? Well, after spending a few days gaming with this mouse instead of my regular mouse, a Corsair Nightsword, I can say it isn't too bad. Granted, I will always recommend a wired mouse for certain types of games, but if you want something wireless where delay and response time are not as important, this could be a great mouse for you. I spent time playing Destiny 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, and even the rhythm game osu! The delay is a little more noticeable here, but it is still not that bad. It was easy to be precise, though, of course, it was an adjustment. After playing with it a few days, I was able to play at around my normal level, which isn't that good to begin with. Needless to say, it does its job with certain types of games, but for the FPS genre or reaction time sensitive games, you might notice the delay. Granted, you could probably get used to it, but you might get better results from a higher tier mouse or from a wired one. That's not to say that the mouse didn't perform, because it very well did. I'm sure that if I played Dota 2, an RTS, or an MMO, that this mouse would still be viable, but from what I understand, you may want some more keybinds readily accessible if you're going to play an RTS or MMO. To wrap it up, though, it does its job.
Lastly, battery life. I went into this with a grain of salt. I saw a review saying it ate batteries in the matter of a week and a half repeatedly, so for Razer to claim up to 285 hours of hyperspeed wireless, I was a bit skeptical. However, I had one Energizer battery that came with the mouse (thanks Razer!) and it lasted a full month. Keep in mind, this was for office use, and I have a desk partner. As soon as she leaves, I am right there to take over her station (she loves the mouse too by the way). She works eight hour shifts five days a week, while I work six hour days, four days a week. I figured calculating out this mouse's approximate battery usage using just these numbers would be inaccurate or possibly a bit skewed, so I'll just leave it at the pure statistics of how often we use it to prove the battery life. Also, only one AA battery. To say the least, you may pay for some batteries, but I really can't complain with the battery life I get from it.
So, if you've stuck around this long, I want to thank you for sticking around, and I hope that if you're considering buying this mouse, I have laid out what my experience with this mouse was for a month regarding office usage. Take the gaming section with a small grain of salt as I didn't use it for more than a couple days. And again, this article is mostly opinion, but I tried to keep it open to show some cons, but mostly pros for why I like it. Thanks again!
| Brand | Razer |
|---|---|
| Series | X |
| Hardware Platform | PC |
| Color | Black |
| Power Source | Battery Powered |
| ASIN | B08YT6TK3P |
| Date First Available | March 13, 2021 |
