Razer Orochi Review – Labelled as “Gaming on the Go” mouse, the Razer Orochi delivers high performance gaming at the size of a notebook mouse. With its 4000 dpi 3D Laser sensor, Razer Orochi gives hardcore mobile gamers what they’ve been longing to have from a compact mouse.
Although you can technically squeeze your Razer DeathAdder, Mamba, or any other gaming mouse in your laptop bag, lots of gamers would have preferred to have a compact size mouse without sacrificing a true gaming experience. Not to mention that the Orochi can connect via Bluetooth (in Wireless mode) for convenience or via USB connection (in Wired mode) for gaming.
Razer Orochi Review – Packaging
Razer Orochi packaging contains:
- The Razer Orochi Mouse
- USB cable
- A nice travel pouch to carry the mouse + the USB cable
- 2x AA Batteries
- Stickers, Guides, etc.
Razer Orochi Review – Features
- Razer Precision™ 3G Laser sensor
- Tracking up to 100 inches per second
- Ambidextrous design
- Razer Synapse™ On-board Memory (for PC only)
- On-The-Fly Sensitivity™ adjustment (for PC only)
- Zero-acoustic Ultraslick™ Teflon® feet
- Gold-plated USB connector
- A battery life of approximately 1-3 months under normal usage
- Bluetooth® 2.0 connectivity
Razer Orochi Review – Overview and Impressions
At the first glance, Razer Orochi looks like a Black Tiger’s paw. It’s menacing yet sleek and modern (just like any other Razer products). The mouse’s aesthetic look definitely gears for hardcore gamers and not for ladies looking for some cute pinky mouse. Rest assured that you’ll amaze your friends when you take out Razer Orochi out from its bag. Especially once the blue light comes off under the scrolling wheel.. “Oooohhh…”
PS: Just remember to turn this on using the software 
It was the first thing I did when I used the mouse for the first time.
Razer Orochi Review – Wired vs Wireless mode
Razer Orochi can be used wired or wireless. To get the ultimate gaming performance, you should go for the wired mode (plugging the USB cable to the mouse). It allows the mouse to deliver the highest precision, control, and accuracy.
Wireless: Razer Orochi delivers up to 2000DPI sensitivity and 125Hz polling/8ms response rate.
Wired: Razer Orochi delivers up to up to 4000DPI sensitivity and 1000Hz Ultrapolling™/1ms response!
In wireless mode, Razer Orochi uses Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity compared to a USB wireless receiver. At first I frowned at the idea of using a Bluetooth connection (maybe because I was so get used to using a USB wireless receiver to connect my wireless mouse/keyboard). In practice however, Razer didn’t make a mistake when they made this decision. It gives you a hassle free connection but more importantly, an extra USB slot (which normally comes rare in laptops!).
Razer Orochi Review - Battery Life
Although Razer’s specification stated that battery life will be around 1-3 months under normal usage, it’s a bit hard to justify. When you plug the USB cable to the Orochi, the mouse will automatically grab the power from the USB instead from the battery. When used wirelessly, there is also an option to turn the mouse off (power button underneath the mouse), extending the battery life even further.
Since there is no LCD indicator on the Orochi, you need to check the indicator on your Windows system tray if you want to check how much battery power it has left.
Razer Orochi Review – On the Fly DPI settings
Razer Orochi has 4 side buttons (2 on each side) which can be used to change the sensitivity of the mouse. These settings will be stored on the mouse’s memory (or the Razer Synapse™ On-board Memory). However, you need to connect the mouse to the USB first to “program” it. You can even choose to switch the cool blue light off from the mouse (Don’t! It’s so cool lookin’).
I would expect the mouse to remember the last DPI setting that I had before I turned it off, but apparently it didn’t. However, you can set the default sensitivity stage (out of the 5 stages) using the Orochi Configurator software. This way, whenever you turn the Orochi back on (or replug it), it will always be on the default stage that you already set.
Razer Orochi Review – Conclusion
Razer Orochi delivers a gaming grade quality mouse despite of its compact size. It supports both wired and wireless but if you really are serious in gaming, always use Razer Orochi in wired mode when you game.
When I tested playing Left 4 Dead with my Dell XPS 13 laptop, Razer Orochi gave me a much better experience compared to my old wireless notebook mouse. My shots were more accurate and the aim was definitely smoother. Just remember to set the mouse pointer speed to the middle (in your Windows control panel) and turn the “Enhance pointer precision” off. This lets the Orochi to handle all the gliding and pointing bits natively.
Razer Orochi’s compact size is your best friend when you go mobile. It was my best friend when I went to Singapore for the Nuffnang’s Asia Pacific Blog Awards a few weeks ago. It shall still be my best friend whenever I travel with my laptop, until Razer Marachi (Mamba+Orochi?) comes along (don’t take the Marachi seriously and start Googling, it was just a joke).
Note: Razer Orochi review unit was provided by Razer.
Razer Orochi Review – Pros
- Sleek and menacing design.
- A gaming grade notebook mouse.
- Can be used wired or wireless.
- Bluetooth connectivity; saving you one extra USB slot (normally used for the wireless receiver).
- Can be turned off and on to save battery life.
- A nice compact pouch included to fit the mouse + the cable.
Razer Orochi Review – Cons
- Unrest feeling due to the compact size after a few hours of gaming.
- Didn’t remember the last DPI setting used when switched off.
- Need Bluetooth to go Wireless.
If you own Razer Orochi, feel free to add more discussions on this Razer Orochi review post’s comment form below.
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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the mouse is awesome. But, everything has its pro’s and con’s right? When it comes to gaming, a bigger mouse really is better than a compact mouse.
At one point I guess we have to choose between the size and comfort. At least with the Orochi, the performace is the same, so we have less to worry about
you say in the Pro’s it has bluetooth. You say in the review it has bluetooth. Then you say in the Con’s it NEEDS bluetooth. Maybe its just me but I think something is wrong there.
Hi there,
Because its connection is via Bluetooth, it doesn’t require an extra USB slot for the wireless dongle (so this is a plus because you can use the extra USB slot for something else)
But because its connection is via Bluetooth, your computer must have support for Bluetooth devices (not every computer has this although most notebook nowadays do)
hi there.. so did u mean that u cant adjust the dpi thingy when in wireless mode?
Depends on what you mean by adjusting..
You can set different DPI settings and store them on the mouse ONLY when you are connected with the USB.
But you CAN switch to the different DPIs (that you already set above) when you are in wireless mode using the buttons.
i’ve read elsewhere people are complaining about lag while in bluetooth mode and powering down after 3-4 sec of idle. Is the lag really that bad in bluetooth mode?
i dont plan on gaming with it in bluetooth mode, but if it has a 2-3 second lag every time i let the mouse idle it will be annoying. Can you tell me your experience with this mouse in bluetooth mode?
I know I’m late to the party, but I’ve discovered a way around this. The Bluetooth-induced sleep can be adjusted through various settings in both Windows 7 and Mac OS X. The key is to disable Power Safe Mode. Hope that helps.
Erik
The lag is mainly due to the feature of bluetooth and nothing to do with the mouse. You see, when not in use, the bluetooth goes into sleep mode and there is a lag when re-connection is established again but only when mouse is idle, when in use, it works fine without lag. As mentioned, this is a limitation for the bluetooth connection and not the actual mouse itself, so would be true for any other bluetooth mouse or device.
My mouse does not power down after 3-4 sec so cannot comment on this. I can constantly use the mouse even after several minutes of non use. I would say there may be a fault with the mouse or bluetooth connection issues if it powers down after only 3-4 secs.
If this is a issue for you, you can always use the wired mode. I like the fact both options are available, wired mode for gaming and the freedom of wireless for other tasks (my laptop comes with blu ray drive and hdmi port to connect to a external HDTV so wireless is a must for me to use mouse as a remote control).
I actually dont have the mouse,i was just commenting based on other review’s i had read. thanks for this info!very helpful.
Thank you for stopping by and giving such a great reply, Phantom
I have to disagree, the fact that this mouse powers down after 3 seconds cannot be explained simply by shoving the problem on the bluetooth stack for a simple reason – there are bluetooth mice that don’t behave this way, an excellent example is the Apple Mighty Mouse, which, while clearly being a miserable excuse of a mouse, shows no lag whatsoever (it’s bluetooth of course). Simply put, there are various implementations of the bluetooth protocol and I guess Razer chose the wrong one.
I’m sending my Orochi back to Amazon, the lag in the beginning is only an annoyance, unfortunately it quickly becomes disruptive.
To anyone considering it my suggestion – don’t waste your money – until Razer presents a solution this mouse is a no go.
I got the first release of this mouse with 1.0 driver/firmware. It did not have any kind of sleep mode at all in wireless. It is a brilliant mouse and I use it only in wireless mode. However, I stupidly upgraded the firmware/driver and now it has a sleep mode. Apparently Razer must have gotten some complaints on this mouse’s power management issues. I didn’t mind changing the batteries every few days since I use rechargeables. I’d rather do that than now experience this ridiculous ‘sleep’ setting. After a few seconds of idle it naps and has a second delay. Let the mouse sit for a minute or two (like the time it takes you to type a paragraph) and it goes into a coma. It literally takes 16 – 22 seconds of non-stop moving/clicking to wake the critter up. Its turned a great mouse into a terribly useless one. I don’t think the average pc user is moving their mouse non-stop at all times, but continuously breaks to type or read something. I know it is not a bluetooth issue since I used it for 5 months before the upgrade and it started immediately afterwards. Plus I’ve got about 5 other bt mice and they do not sleep ever. Im going to have to recommend against the Orochi for anyone who actually plans to use it wireless until they change the firmware again and remove the screwed up sleep setting.
Is there any new firmware release for the orochi problems? i mean the sleep annoyance? i really need a gaming wireless mice, and therese only 2 opt for me now, its orochi and roccat pyra, pyra on some reviews are pretty bad, i mean Pyra build quality is not live up to its price.. which is similar to orochi’s..
orochi on the oher hand, have “comma” problem.. and while i still haven’t touch the orochi, i do think its gonna be annoying.
btw if im using rechargable battery, can i recharge the battery by using the wired mode in orochi? if that is so, i can just turn off the power save mode.. wait, can i turn off the power save mode so that mouse wont ever in a comma state?
thanks.
I just bought this great mouse last Saturday at Funan DigitaLife Mall, Singapore (South Asia Computers) for S$122. I immediately updated the firmware to 1.06 and I can truly say that this is a Great mouse! I’m not experiencing any lag (tested on 2 laptops). the light turns off when not in use and immediately usable when I move/click or use the scroll. I think the problem of the other users are their bluetooth transceivers or the mouse firmware.
I normally use the wireless mode but I switch to wired mode when I play Bad Company 2.
I’m totally satisfied with my purchase even if it’s too much pricey for a mouse (on a non gamer perspective)! This is like the iPhone of mouses.. hehe.. whenever my friends sees it for the first time, they are truly amazed!
Cons:
It does not charge the rechargeable battery in wired mode.
If you have the money and don’t mind a bigger mouse, get the Mamba
I’m reviewing it right now and it’s like the mother of all wireless gaming mouse out there
Sir, please kindly answer. Is the lag issue really exist or not?
um just to say i have had the razer orichi for a long time now and the little blue light on top make suur u also turn that on because…… it is the “missing” battry indicator. and mine always rembers exactly as it was when i turned it off so dont know if ur issue was a common probolem or not. i have to say i nearly always use it in wired mode now as my present pc is having some blutooth issues unrelated to the mouse just time for me to buy a new pc but when i did use it in wirless mode i had no lag on wakeup as apparently it goes to sleep after 5 seconds or something but it was no probolem for me i think its a great mouse and have actually began to use it on my desktop now as my laptop is getting old and i haved brought a replacment for the crappy stock acer mouce yet. so all in all i love the orichi ive had no issues so far appart from the software on windows 7 for me wouldnt work but then i whent to the razer websit and there was a win z driver w8ing for me so i cant really say ive had any problems with this mouse and i reckon ive had it a year and a bit now. so in responce to adhi as far as imconcerened no lag exsists but im sure if u where not happy with it you could return it ive always found razer customer support to be very good
I live in Indonesia, here we can’t return Razer product since theres no Razer official store. I just want a honest answer since Orochi is very expensive. I think Razer gets a lots of complaint, they stop the production of Orochi now. Btw, I’m really appreciate your answer, I think I better buy Logitech Anywhere MX
sorry forgot to say in my last post
gr8 review and sorry for my spelling lol
I noticed lag after it would idle, the blue status light would switch off, and when moving the mouse after this it would jerk across the screen for a second or two. This is via bluetooth on my ASUS U20A laptop with the Orochi on Firmware 1.03 when using Debian Sid and Linux 2.6.35.5. I tried disabling USB autosuspend for the bluetooth controller but it didn’t help. Then I changed the link policy settings with hcicontrol to only RSWITCH from RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK, that didn’t help either. Finally I updated the firmware using a windows machine (from 1.03 out of the box) to version 1.06 and the problem is gone. I also switched back the autosuspend and link policy settings, which seem to have made no difference in this case.
Just a correction — After upgrading the firmware I notice it less, but do seem to need to run:
sudo hciconfig hci0 lp RSWITCH
and then reconnect the mouse in order for it to not lag at all.
Did you mean that your Orochi doesn’t lag anymore after updating firmware?
It lags less with the newer firmware, but I still had a problem until I tweaked the bluetooth properties.
The lag isn’t so bad, it’s just that when you leave it for a few seconds and then go back to move it, it sort of jumps across the screen in a jagged way, then becomes smooth again within a second or two. I don’t have this problem at all after tweaking the bluetooth settings in Linux.
thanks for the hint.
i must say that firmware 1.06 reduced the problem for me too. other bluetooth mice and 1.03 made the pointer lag for a well over half a second after waking it up.
no idea how to disable bluetooth power management on mac os x though. the only thing i can set is the idle timeout, which doesn’t affect the ‘light’ sleep mode after 3s.
Guys, whats your opinion about razer regular mice? Especially Naga. Maybe I should pick Naga instead of Orochi since their price are identical and Naga seems more comfortable
you might be better off with a naga, as it’s larger and has those “mmog” buttons (if you need them).
a closer cousin to the orochi would be the mamba, but it uses proprietary wireless technology and thus requires its own receiver.
i specifally wanted a bluetooth mouse, so i bought the orochi.
the mamba has one considerable advantage though: there’s a battery charger built in. i sent an enquiry to razer support, and they told me the orochi can’t charge over usb. too bad, but at least i got a good bluetooth mouse.
the mouse is extremely comfortable to use, and the numberpad is fairly easy to navigate. I still have trouble differentiating the 789 row from the 10-11-12 row, but luckily the mouse comes with rubber stickers that can help you feel out where your thumb is. I was hoping the two buttons on the side of the left mouse button would also be WoW programmable, but as far as the addon goes, they aren’t. They CAN be programmed with the normal mouse driver, though.
The MS mouse would lag behind my movements. Really bad when using my bluetooth headset on Skype or MS communicator.
Thx for people answering my question, I appreciate it
Btw I bought Steelseries XAI few weeks after I posted my question. It’s so unique with built-in LCD, a rare quality I guess
this mouse blows crap. Every month of constant usage the battery dies and is very heavy as well.