Razer Lancehead Tournament Edition review

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A colourful, comfortable offering held back by thumb issues

Going off its name alone, the Razer Lancehead sounds like it specialises in the very extreme treatment of acne – but do not be fooled by this interpretation. The only pinpoint destruction this product deals in is the wholesale popping of enemy heads, not zits. Not a huge difference in end results, really. It'll still make you the bane of many a teenager – an unstoppable shredder of millennial self-confidence.

First things first: prospective buyers ought to know that this is the wired version. Those of you who wish to murder fellow online gamers while being unencumbered by an umbilical cord will need to look into the imaginatively named variant known as the Lancehead Wireless. You'll be paying a good 50 clams more for the privilege, though.

The Lancehead Tournament Edition, meanwhile, is an ambidextrous design, medium-sized gaming mouse that clocks in at 117mm (length) x 71mm (width) x 38mm (height) and weighs 104 grams. To put that into perspective inside the Razer stable, the Lancehead is slightly bulkier than the Diamondback and Taipan – weight-wise it can be considered on the lighter end of the gaming mouse spectrum. Note: a few of my leftie mates have often bemoaned Razer's approach to ambidextrous mice in the past, but none of these south-paws had anything sinister to say about their Lancehead loan experience.

Regardless of which mitt you use, the Lancehead is a pleasure to grip, and this is mostly thanks to sizeable, lined rubber side-grips on each side. Also, Razer has been quite sensible with the placement of (most of) the Lancehead's nine buttons. The main left and right buttons don't have much travel in them at all, thanks to Razer re-engineering its approach to contact points. Faster actuation makes for light-clicking; however, it never feels like a hair-trigger impediment – I didn't suffer any accidental mis-clicks in the heat of PUBG battle. Likewise, I experienced no accidental pressings with regards to the four side buttons (mirrored to two a side). If anything they were hard to click when the Dark Zone chips were down in The Division and are a touch too recessed and out of position for my liking.

Buy Razer Lancehead Tournament Edition from Amazon AU

Equipped with an esports-grade optical sensor that has true 16,000 DPI and true tracking at 450 Inches Per Second, the Razer Lancehead Tournament Edition gives you the absolute advantage of having the fastest sensor in the world.

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The scroll wheel is a solid build, though I would have preferred a bit more resistance from it. Trace down from it and you have two DPI buttons that rest along the central spine of the unit. Fiddling with these will either increase or decrease your DPI (dot per inch) in real time and you're given an on-screen representation (in this case a vertical bar graph) that lets you fine-tune your adjustments from 800 all the way up to max.

Crank said DPI up and the optical sensor of the Razer Lancehead delivers an incredibly smooth and impressive experience. This is every bit an esports-grade sensor that has true 16,000 DPI and true tracking at 450 inches per second (IPS). We're talking about a resolution accuracy of 99.4% which, in the right hands, will result in mad, chicken-dinner-winning 360 no scope kills, or gnats being headshot from a postcode away.

For those of you who love to tinker, Razer's Synapse 3 software suite is on hand to let you tweak to your heart's content. Multiple profiles can be set up, macros loaded, button reassignment is a cinch, and switching between these configurations can be quickly achieved via a discreet and recessed under-side button. Four profiles can be stored, and Razer has gone the extra mile by offering onboard and cloud memory. This essentially means globe-trotting esports folk can plug the unit into a new rig and not have to frig around with downloading software. You can be ready to own in seconds.

Synapse is also the place to set up your own personal handheld disco party, thanks to the included chroma lights that run down the flanks of the Lancehead (and in the mouse wheel well too). If you're a showman you can dazzle your fans and enemies alike with preset effects like “breathing”, “static” or “wave”. OCD types can get right into the nitty-gritty and screw around with the eight-colour gradient, speed, width and direction of their technicolor pulses. Why you'd bother, I couldn't say. But hey, whatever flicks your switch (and clearly the lights are on and burning brightly for the masses).

All told, everything clicks with the Razer Lancehead. While it's not the best gaming mouse I've ever used, it's easily in the top tier in terms of comfort, reliability and delivering results under heavy fire. That said, should you already own a Deathadder Elite or similar unit, the improvements offered here don't really justify the upgrade. However, if you're a generation or so behind in mice, the Lancehead represents a solid leg-up investment, especially if you have to share your gear with a leftoid.

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