A few days ago I got Razer's newest product release, the Abyssus. The simplest way to introduce this mouse is to say it is an upgrade from their last ambidextrous, 3-buttoned mouse, the Salmosa. The Salmosa was a good mouse but had some major things wrong with it, the Abyssus maintains all of it's strengths while correcting most of the errors that Razer made when releasing that product. Both the Salmosa and the Abyssus are great for claw/fingertip grips with the buttons extending towards the back allowing you to choke up as little or as much as you want. I'll now go over what problems the Salmosa had and how most have been improved in the Abyssus and the few problems it still has.
1. The first problem was that the sensor Razer used in the Salmosa had mouse prediction which could not be turned off. What mouse prediction does is "correct" your mouse movement to move in a perfectly horizontal line when you are actually moving it a few degrees up or down. Here's a picture to illustrate what I mean:
The reason this is bad should be obvious but suffice it to say you never want to be moving your mouse and have your cursor not move. (It is even worse for FPS games because if your enemies head is say 100 pixels right and 4 pixels down you literally can not aim there via a straight diagonal line) The Salmosa is not the only "gaming" mouse with mouse prediction but the designers at Razer have realized this is not something gamers want and I don't expect them to release another mouse with prediction on and no way to turn it off. (Note: Prediction is also known as "correction")
2. The second problem was button tension. The buttons on the Salmosa require too much pressure to be pushed down and when the pressure goes through the mouse and on to the mousepad it will affect your mouse movement. This may seem minor but I consider it very important that a mouse not have buttons that take too much pressure to be pushed down. Razer has really turned this one around, I love the buttons on the Abyssus. They are similar to the Logitech Mini Optical, very easy and satisfying to push and I consider this one of the main reasons the LMO is used by most Korean progamers.
3. The shape of the corners on the Abyssus are an improvement over that of the Salmosa. It's just a flat diagonal ramp but it does feel a lot better than the curve that the Salmosa has.
4. In addition to the abscense of prediction, the new sensor allows you have to have 450/1800/3500 DPI instead of the 800/1800 on the Salmosa.. you don't need 3500 but it doesn't hurt.
I think those are all the comparisons I wanted to make between the two mice. When you add these all up I think this is a HUGE improvement and I definitely suggest upgrading if you are currently using a Salmosa.
The one gripe I have about this mouse is the surface texture they used on both the top and and sides of the mouse.
The top of the mouse is a rubber LOOKING surface, but it's not, when you first get this mouse, despite the top looking grippy, the surface is actually more slippery than regular plastic, by a lot. However, since I've been using this mouse I think it's gotten a little less slippery and hopefully will continue to do so. This isn't a huge problem but I have no idea why they don't just use an actual gripping surface texture.
The sides of the mouse are the same as the Salmosa was, some of the most slippery, fingerprinty, moisture retentiony, slippery, slippery plastic you will ever encounter.
WHY?
I have no idea.
However this isn't a big deal, just go to a sports store and buy thin baseball bat grip and put it on the sides of the mouse where your fingers are when you are using it and problem solved.
On January 23 2010 13:45 404.Delirium wrote: I'm with YPang 100 percent on this one :D
I second this
No reason to squander money on such an expensive and basically useless mouse, which doesn't do anything for your skills. Just get the microsoft one.
I don't think that the argument is that better equipment makes you more skilled. I think the argument is that a player with more skill can do more with better equipment.
To use a golf analogy, a stiffer club is going to be harder to hit with for a beginner but a pro can hit further with it then a club with more flex.
If that analogy is wrong golf fans then whatever sports analogy works
I got this mouse a month ago and I love it. The size and shape is perfect.
The only thing I dislike about the mouse is that when I turn my computer off the light on the mouse remains on. I have to put a shirt over my mouse when I'm trying to sleep. lol
On January 23 2010 13:45 404.Delirium wrote: I'm with YPang 100 percent on this one :D
I second this
No reason to squander money on such an expensive and basically useless mouse, which doesn't do anything for your skills. Just get the microsoft one.
I don't think that the argument is that better equipment makes you more skilled. I think the argument is that a player with more skill can do more with better equipment.
To use a golf analogy, a stiffer club is going to be harder to hit with for a beginner but a pro can hit further with it then a club with more flex.
If that analogy is wrong golf fans then whatever sports analogy works
Explain why progamers don't use these types of mice then.
As a side note, I've always thought Razer stuff was overpriced and overrated but TL has a lot of Razer fanboys imo with Razer TSL (and Fakesteve LOL). I definitely did not expect the responses above although I agree with them 100%
Looks like it's exactly the same size except that the Abyssus has a maximum height 3 mm higher.
Hmm, I guess it's just the fit and the fact that you can keep your hand further back on the mouse without having your fingers too far back on the buttons to cause problems
On January 23 2010 14:10 chrisSquire wrote: how big is this mouse compared to salmosa?
It's a bit smaller, also the ramped corners rather than rounded makes fitting your hand around it a bit easier.
Smaller than the Salmosa? I love small mice :D and I'm using Salmosa right now. I think I have the Asian or Chinese version or w/e that's slightly smaller than the original?
How long have you had it for? My one complaint right now with Razer stuff is I've owned 2 mice and tried 3 and all of them had durability problems (Had problems after 6-12 months, whereas my MX300 lasted 10 years). Mind if I bump this again in a month or two? Will you still be using it then?
Any noticeable transition in feel while playing BW? I usually think of mice as more important in some FPS, but I'm still curious about your overall impression if you went straight from a Salmosa to Abyssus.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.tech-mania.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Razer-abyssus.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2009/11/razer-abyssus.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3480/predictionz.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://www.dansdata.com/images/moremouses/wmo440.jpg)
Will you still be using it then?
