Microsoft Habu Gaming Mouse Review (ign.com)

- ign.com -

November 27, 2006 - After years of being publicly maligned for security vulnerabilities in Windows and a litany of viruses that target the holes, it seems like Microsoft may have finally decided to embrace the association between the house that Gates built and viral infection, at least when it comes to hardware. The past couple of months have seen the fruition of three rather hyped Microsoft viral marketing campaigns teasing new hardware. The first, projectorigami.com, produced the Ultra Mobile PC (UMCP) form factor of not-quite-PDA, not-quite-tablet computers, which have since fallen rather flat due to high cost, low power, and minimal battery life. The second, comingzune.com, led, or course, to the Zune mp3 player, which is currently being panned by the mainstream press but is relatively well liked by the tech world due to the strengths of the hardware and UI(our feature review).

Notfornoobs.com, the last of Microsoft's hardware teaser campaigns, is now about to blossom. While the site won't reveal its contents until December 1, which is the official release date of the product, since you're reading you know doubt already know the subject of the tease is the Microsoft Habu gaming mouse. While Microsoft has promoted its IntelliMouse line of peripherals for years, the company partnered with well known gaming mouse specialist Razer, maker of the Diamondback, Copperhead, and Krait mice as well as the Tarantula gaming keyboard, to engineer the Habu.

The Habu is very much the product of its mixed heritage. Inside, the Habu is running Razer's 2,000 DPI laser engine (adjustable on the fly to 400, 800, 1,600, and 2,000 DPI) and takes advantage of the company's 1,000Hz "Ultrapolling" technology, designed to allow for 1ms response time at more than 7,080 frames of measurement per second. The Habu also incorporates Razer's "Synapse" cache of 32KB of onboard memory, useful for saving customized profiles for specific games directly to the mouse for easy migration to other PCs without the hassle of downloading software a remapping a profile.

On the outside the Habu is still more Razer than Microsoft, which isn't a bad thing. The two main mouse buttons are oversize and flared in Razer style, and also have light rubberized coating familiar to Razer gaming mice. The Habu also sports Razer's trademark glowpipe of illuminated semi-transparent plastic. The Microsoft influence is found primarily in the Habu's rearward curves. Bluntly, the Habu has a fat ass, and it didn't come from the Razer side of the family. There's nothing wrong with that at all-plenty of people prefer something to hold on to, a little cushion for the (mouse) pushing, as it were.

While we've never accounted ourselves as members of this group (or at least not yours-truly), the Habu got us thinking twice about our preferred body parts. While Razer mice have traditionally been styled with a frontward flare narrowing to an ambidextrous and narrow tail, the Habu shuns the lefties and adds IntelliMouse 3.0 characteristic voluptuous curves. The result is a mouse that, in our hands, does indeed feel more comfortable than the characteristic Razer design, though we hail from a pre-professional lineage of Logitech mice, generally some of the most ergonomically contoured mice on the market. Besides the wider grip, we also like the fact that the Razer glowpipe is smoother than other Razer mice that generally made the somewhat sharp edge the key grip for thumb and pinky.

The Habu's most unique and innovative addition to the wide stable of gaming mice is without doubt its removable thumb buttons. Whereas most mice force gamers to accept the thumb button(s) stock placement, either far forward for the finger-tip players like Fatal1ty, or towards the rear for gamers who like to palm the mouse and move their whole hand, the Habu offers two interchangeable thumb-button sets to accommodate either style. It's a nice touch that isn't found in any other mice at the moment.

The Habu software has a good interface and allows for customizing game-specific profiles, up to five of which can be saved to the mouse itself. A nice touch is the fact that the on-the-fly DPI adjustment buttons can be remapped, useful for gamers who know their favorite setting and don't need to change while in game. The software includes pre-set commands for things like media controls and general Windows operation. Somewhat annoyingly, we were unable to find presets for forward/back operations for a web-browser, by far our favorite use for thumb buttons when not actually playing a game. Edit: For some reason the buttons have automatically started performing this action without any change in settings, whereas they did not do so while the review was being written. Odd, but we're happy in the end. Encoding macros of both keyboard and mouse buttons to a single button on the Habu is also possible.

In games the Habu performs just as adeptly as its Razer forefathers. The main mouse buttons have a slightly stiff movement, but because there's no dead-travel, any depression generates a connection, which overall gives the buttons a precise and accurate feel. The tracking at all DPI levels was free of stuttering or lag in our testing. The Habu's laser engine is an 'always on' model that does away with the lag after a spell of inactivity that used to enrage MMORPG and other gamers back in the day. The Habu's Teflon feet glide along nicely, though pretty much any gaming mouse these days can make that claim.

The Microsoft Habu is a fine gaming mouse. It's accurate, comfortable, and uniquely customizable, proving that bearing the Microsoft brand (which is becoming a lot cooler now than it used to be) did nothing to pollute the Razer genes that make the Habu tick.

IGN's Ratings for Microsoft Habu Gaming Mouse