Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro Review

There are few mice that are as legendary as the Razer DeathAdder. This mouse has been around since late 2006 and has graced the desk of millions of gamers over the past 14 years. Of course a mouse from 2006 wouldn’t be up to par in today’s market so Razer periodically releases a refresh of their popular model. Not all of them are equally well received but lately the Singaporean–American company has been hitting all the right marks.

The DeathAdder V2 was one such product. Our reviewer loved it, but he did end his review with a brief statement saying that he ‘couldn’t wait for the wireless DeathAdder’. That’s now here in the form of this DeathAdder V2 Pro so naturally we sent one over to our excited mouse reviewer to give it a good spin and see if this meets expectations.

Read our full review to find out everything you want to know about the mouse!

At A Glance

Razer Deathadder V2 Pro

Used by 7 players (Apr, 2024)

• Ceice
  

Staff’s Choice

Pro’s Choice

The Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro is pretty much everything I expected it to be. It’s a wireless version of a mouse that I already really liked and that mouse made the jump to the wireless world without any hiccups.

Lars

4 of 5

Read review (06/2023)

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Pros

• Flawless wireless connection
• Good build quality

Cons

• Optical switches don’t feel as satisfying as mechanical ones
• Scroll wheel feels inconsistent when clicking

Specs

Sensor	Focus+
Polling Rate	125 / 500 / 1000 Hz
Button Switches	Razer Optical
Connection	Wireless
Shape	Ergonomic
Length	12.3cm
Height	4.04cm
Weight	87g
Width	6.26cm

First Impressions

Let me start off this review by saying that I’ve been looking forward to this mouse for a while. Well, not to this mouse specifically, but rather a new up to date high quality wireless ergonomic mouse from one of the big players. I know that creating a reliable wireless mouse isn’t easy but I couldn’t help but feel like the current market had very few options for fans of ergonomic shapes so this DeathAdder V2 Pro is a welcome addition to the wireless gaming mouse landscape if you’re asking me.

What we get here is basically the DeathAdder V2 without a cable attached to it, so if you know what to expect from that mouse you pretty much know what to expect from this one, minus the cable of course. Something that I noticed almost immediately is that the Pro version is remarkably light considering the size and wireless aspect. Coming in at 87 grams on my scale it’s just a bit heavier than what the wired version manages to achieve (~80 grams) and in my opinion this is a commendable weight for such a big wireless mouse.

One other thing that catches your eye immediately if you’re acquainted with the wired V2 version is that the mouse feet are now different. That’s done to accommodate the charging cable and to make room for the Razer dock connectors, but more on the feet later on.

As you may or may not know the DeathAdder is very much a mouse that’s proudly in the ‘large’ category. There is a Razer DeathAdder V2 Mini but that hasn’t gotten the wireless treatment so if you’ve got smaller hands you may want to sit this one out.

One interesting addition to Razer’s recent Pro mice (the ‘Pro’ name replaces the ‘Ultimate’ in case you’re confused, so the Razer Viper Ultimate would be called Razer Viper Pro if it were released today) is that you can also connect the mouse via Bluetooth. That’s not recommended for gaming but if you’re taking a break from fragging and you want to save some battery while you’re working on that report this is a nice option to have.

Aside from the wireless aspect there haven’t been any noticeable changes from the regular V2 so if you like that one you’ll probably love this one.

All in all I’ve got to say that I was extremely impressed with this mouse when I first took it out of its box. This looks and feels like a premium gaming mouse on all fronts and you never get the feeling that any corners have been cut in order to add the wireless component.

Packaging

Whereas the ‘Ultimate’ versions of Razer’s mice came with a Razer mouse dock (at least the two Ultimate mice I reviewed) these recent Pro editions do not. There is the option to purchase that dock separately, but the dock does not come with the Pro mice by default. Something to be aware of.

Inside the box you find the usual stuff: some documentation, the Speedflex charging cable, and a little attachment to place the wireless receiver closer to your mousepad. I want to pay a bit of attention to Razer’s new packaging, though. The way this mouse is packed on the inside has changed slightly (you now get regular brown cardboard materials to hold everything in place, for example) and Razer’s packaging now has the FSC label, meaning that the packaging comes from responsibly managed forests. This doesn’t have anything to do with the mouse or its performance but it’s nice to see so it deserves a shoutout in my opinion.

Shape, Coating, and Mouse Feet

The DeathAdder is a large ergonomic mouse with (if your hands are large enough) a fairly safe design. There are no elements present here that force your fingers to sit in a certain position, and every design decision, from the little overhang on the front end of the mouse to aid with picking up to the pronounced comfort grooves in the buttons feels comfortable to me.

The hump of this mouse is focused more towards the middle instead of the end and the curve at the back is very gradual so if you like to grab your mice at the back and expect a palm-filling feeling then this probably won’t suit your needs but I don’t think that this shape will be actively disliked by anyone who likes big ergo mice. Being one of the most popular and successful gaming mice on the planet it should be pretty easy to grab hold of one in real life in case you’re not quite sure whether you’ll like it or not.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a huge fan of the coating that’s been on recent Razer mice and the V2 Pro is another hit on that front. This matte black coating coating almost feels as if it has some sort of micro texturing on it sometimes but it’s super comfy to hold and doesn’t have any problem with sweat or oil stains.

Most Razer mice that I test utilize rubber elements on the ‘lift’ portions (i.e. the sides) of the mouse and that’s the same here with both sides of the DeathAdder V2 Pro being made out of a rubberized material. I’m always a fan of that and the way that it’s implemented here is stellar. These rubbers don’t feel as if they’re tacked on afterwards; they’re not mushy in the slightest and don’t feel as if they could fall off at some point in the future, what you get here is a grippy subtly textured material that I honestly really like. If you absolutely hate rubberized sides you’ll probably not fall in love here but for me this is a hit.

Both side buttons are quite big (take note of this if you place your thumb higher on your mouse) and are easy to distinguish during gameplay so that’s all good, and on the bottom you now find four (if you count the ring around the sensor) PTFE mouse feet. These have been redesigned in order to fit the mouse dock cutout as well as the charging cable but the glide here is every bit as smooth as what you find on the wired edition. This isn’t the slickest and fastest glide but that’s also in part due to the size and weight of the mouse so if you expect that you should probably look at another mouse entirely.

Recommended Grip Types

If you’re a fingertip gripper I would probably skip this mouse unless you’ve got absolutely huge hands, but for other grip types the DeathAdder shape should be fine. Again: it’s a large mouse so if you have smaller hands you’ll want to double check the size charts before committing but aside from that this is a relatively safe and natural shape so if you’re into large ergo mice you should be happy here.

As usual I’ll end this brief section with a disclaimer: no one knows what you like except for you yourself. Reviewers like myself can only give you guidelines but every human is unique so what works for one person might not work for you even though you have the same hand size and grip style. That said: always feel free to reach out to me in the comments, I answer all comments.

Buttons and Scroll Wheel

Ever since Razer switched to their own Optical mouse switches they’ve been received with differing levels of enthusiasm. I must admit that I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the feeling of these switches back when they first made their debut but Razer has clearly been working very hard to improve the feeling of their in-house switches. That was already clear with some of their other releases so it’s not a huge surprise that the clicks on this DeathAdder V2 Pro feel a whole lot better than what the very first Razer Opticals brought to the table so you shouldn’t write these switches off if you’ve had a bad experience with an early implementation of these.

Compared to top of the line click sets they still sound more hollow and feel a bit less tactile but unless you’re super sensitive to that kind of thing I highly doubt there’s going to be a problem with the way these clicks feel. That’s also because the main buttons are great. There’s pretty much no side travel, nor is there any pre or post travel to speak of. If I would be an extreme nitpicker I’d say that there is some post travel but the reality is that, unless you pound on your buttons like a jackhammer, you won’t feel that at all in normal use. On my copy the right click feels slightly less crispy and a bit more hollow than the left one so that’s a bit of a disappointment, though it’s not noticeable to the point where it becomes annoying.

The side buttons both feel great. There’s a slight amount of post travel on both of them but certainly not enough to make them feel mushy so I don’t really have any reason to complain about either side button.

The 24 step scroll wheel (which doesn’t have an RGB strip embedded in it like the wired version does) is on the silent side with just the right amount of tactility between steps but I do wish there was a bit more tangible feedback when clicking the wheel. This one’s pretty easy to actuate and that combined with the fact that it feels like it activates almost instantly led to a couple of accidental scrolls on my side at first. This is something I got used to though so it’s not a huge problem.

Build Quality and Cable

If you hold your ear really close to the mouse and shake it up and down you can vaguely hear a bit of scroll wheel rattle but apart from that the DeathAdder V2 Pro sounds solid as a rock. The shell tells the same story: there is no creaking or bending anywhere. That’s of course what you’d expect from a mouse that’s on the heavier side but as we all know expectations often don’t match reality so I do always check for build quality concerns.

As you’ve no doubt noticed there isn’t a cable attached to this mouse, but should you run out of juice unexpectedly you can rest assured that you can charge it using Razer’s Speedflex cable. That’s a paracord-like type of cable that won’t bother you at all in case you have to use the mouse while charging so it’s cool to see that Razer has thought of those scenarios as well instead of adding some run-of-the-mill thick rubber cable, for example. It’s the little things that count.

Sensor and Everyday Performance

All of Razer’s flagship mice have been using the Focus+ Optical for a while now and that is a flawless sensor. It would be a horrible embarrassment for a mouse from a major manufacturer to have tracking issues in 2020 so luckily the implementation is done perfectly here too: no jittering, smoothing, or other nonsense here.

In Razer’s Synapse you can change the DPI, polling rate, and LOD, as well as record a bunch of mouse macros and mess with the RGB lighting. Most of Razer’s new mouse models have built in storage (this one can store up to 5 profiles) so if you don’t like the idea of having software installed for a mouse you can just download it once, save your settings to the mouse, and be done with it.

If you use the mouse with Razer’s HyperSpeed wireless you should be able to squeeze out around 70 hours of battery life, use the Bluetooth connection and that number goes up to 120. I do suspect most readers of this review will be using the mouse in HyperSpeed mode though, so that number is the most important one. An interesting little fact is that Razer decided to put ’70 hours of battery life’ on the box instead of ‘120 hours of battery life’. Both would technically be correct but since most people will be using this to game with it’s cool to see that they went with the most relevant number for their packaging.

I didn’t do a precise battery life test but I never found myself running out of battery during testing and it’s not like I left it on the charging cable for hours on end so this all seems satisfactory.

Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro Review – Conclusion

The Razer DeathAdder V2 Pro is pretty much everything I expected it to be. It’s a wireless version of a mouse that I already really liked and that mouse made the jump to the wireless world without any hiccups.

This truly is the definitive 2020/2021 version of Razer’s iconic DeathAdder if you’re asking me. Weighing just 8 grams more than its wired counterpart and not making any compromises anywhere this is an extremely successful modern iteration of a mouse that’s been around for over a decade.

It’s not all perfect: the clicks, while very decent, still don’t feel as satisfying as some of the better mechanical buttons in the industry, and the scroll wheel feels a bit inconsistent when clicking on it if you’re asking me. I also would’ve loved to see the inclusion of the mouse dock like they did with the Ultimate editions but of course that last part doesn’t have anything to do with the mouse itself.

What you get here is a lag-free and lossless wireless version of Razer’s DeathAdder V2. In my opinion this is definitely the one to go for if you’re interested in the DeathAdder. There’s no feeling quite like playing wirelessly, and the DeathAdder line has made the jump to wireless without any hiccups.

4 of 5

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Lars

Reviews, Community, FPS

Former semi-pro gamer turned writer, product reviewer, and community manager.