The Razer Mamba TE (Tournament Edition) is a streamlined, beautiful engine of PC gaming destruction, much like it’s wireless sibling the Razer Mamba. The Mamba TE shares the Mamba’s same (insane) 16,000 DPI sensor, but a more attractive price point.
Feature Highlights & specifications
Practically speaking, the Mamba TE is just an upgraded variant of the excellent Deathadder Chroma. It has a nearly identical shape to the Deathadder, but boasts 2 extra buttons, a tilt-scroll wheel (which essentially adds 2 more available buttons), and additional lighting (i.e. the colored LED waves along the sides).
Like the Deathadder, the Mamba TE’s 2 thumb buttons are very large and easy to use, and the sides of the Mamba feature textured rubber side grips. Functionally speaking, the extra buttons on the Mamba TE are almost enough justification alone for the Mamba TE’s $25 higher price than the Deathadder.
Additional features and specifications are below.
Razer Mamba TE features and specifications
- 16,000 DPI 5G laser sensor (configurable with 5 stages in 50DPI increments)
- Up to 210 inches per second / 50 G acceleration
- 1,000 Hz Ultrapolling / 1 ms response time
- On-The-Fly Sensitivity Adjustment
- Ergonomic right-handed design with textured rubber side grips
- Chroma lighting with true 16.8 million customizable color options
- Inter-device color synchronization
- Nine independently programmable buttons with tilt-click scroll wheel
- Razer Synapse enabled
- 2.1 m / 7 ft braided fiber USB cable
- Approximate size: 128 mm / 5 in (Length) x 70 mm / 2.76 in (Width) x 42.5 mm / 1.67 in (Height)
- Approximate weight: 133 g / 0.29 lbs (with cable)
Performance
Why mess with success? Razer is smart enough not to tamper with a successful design, and the Mamba TE reflects. The Mamba TE gets virtually everything right. Textured side grips enhance overall grip and comfort. Every button (including the scroll wheel) delivers a crisp, responsive ‘click’ when pressed. All of the buttons are well-placed and easy to reach in the heat of battle.
Granted, virtually no one needs a 16,000 DPI sensor (and playing a game with 16,000 DPI would not be a good experience), but Razer cal also claim to win the numbers game with it for now.
I rarely make use of tilt-scroll wheels because it’s just too easy to screw up using them while gaming, but the Mamba TE’s notched scroll wheel is both comfortable and precise. I frequently use thumb buttons as multi-keystroke macros for specific games, and prefer them to be very large and easy to switch between without being overly sensitive or easy to accidentally activate–and again, the Mamba TE’s design succeeds in this regard.
Razer’s Synapse software makes programming the mouse effects and changing mouse settings easy, and it stores all of them in the cloud (as long as you don’t mind creating a free login/account for Razer). On a side note, it would be nice if Razer enabled you to use an alternate ID such as your Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) so you don’t have to create (yet another) ID.
Another thing I’ve come to like about Razer’s software in general is the OSD (on screen display) that shows your mouse DPI when you change settings. It removes the guesswork, and more importantly the occasional ‘oops I just went to ludicrous speed in my FPS’ problem.
The Razer Mamba TE Chroma Configurator option in the software is arguably the only weak link in Razer’s software. It’s a bit cryptic to use at first. And I managed to ‘lock up’ my Mamba TE a couple times when I was playing around with the color settings. [UPDATE 10/13/2015: A new firmware release from Razer seems to have corrected this issue.]
Overall: Highly Recommended
The Razer Mamba TE boasts a solid design and arguably some of the best price-for-performance features in its price range. If the $90 asking price is a bit steep, however, consider Razer’s own Deathadder Chroma a suitable alternative at around $65.
PC & Video Gaming Examiner 
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