Performance
Even if you previously used the old Naga, moving to the new model is going to take a little adjustment time for you. If you are like me and came from a completely different mouse all together its going to take even more time than that to adjust. On the plus side of things, everyone has a phone and is fairly used to the number layout on the side of the Naga. Once you figure out where to keep your thumb getting to the key you need isn’t too bad. Compared to the old Naga this is even easier with a few side buttons having different angles to help set them apart from the others. On top of that the side buttons were positioned better on this design, on the old Naga I had a hard time reaching every button on the side. Even once I was used to everything, I did still accidentally bump buttons on the side a few times. I think this was related to how I sometimes lift my mice when gaming, I may have put a little too much pressure. This is why I normally prefer a design that gives you a place to keep your thumb without having to worry about bumping buttons. Another improvement from the old Naga to the new model on the side buttons is the switching behind them. The new Naga uses mechanical switches behind each side grid button giving them more of a defined feeling, this is the same design that the Naga Hex had.
The tracking and overall performance of the Naga wasn’t all that bad, but I did run into a few issues where it flipped out over a small cat hair or two. The original Naga as well as the 2012 version both had the Phillips Twin Eye sensor that I was never a fan of. The new Naga uses what Razer called the 8200dpi 4G laser sensor, I originally thought that this would be a standard A9800 sensor. But after experiencing some Z axis tracking issues and taking a closer look at the sensor itself I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t a new Twin Eye model. I contacted Razer and waited for a response but as of the time of this review I don’t have an answer from them. My overall experience was still better than the past Naga models, but I am curious to find out if my suspicions are true.
*edit* After talking with razer fairly in depth about the sensor. I can confirm that this is a sensor exclusive to them. I couldn't get details on who the manufacture is but considering that this looks a lot like an old twin eye I can speculate.
One addition to the Naga 2014 that I really enjoyed is the tilt scroll wheel. For a lot of gamers this isn’t a big deal because frankly most mice haven’t had it for so long we have gotten used to not having it. But when you do have it it’s a nice option to be able to bind things to it in game for quick access. In my case, I found it easier to bind my push to talk to all three scroll wheel clicks, I would typically use a thumb button for push to talk but with the Naga the buttons I wanted to put it on fell right into the 1-6 buttons that I would use in LoL for items. For those of you who don’t want a tilt scroll wheel you of course still have the option of turning it off. Assuming the quality is there, I don’t really see a downside with this addition.
I mentioned it on the last few Razer reviews we have had but I would love to see them open up the possibility to run other colors for their backlighting. Green works for some people but for others it would be great if they use RGB lighting to let people select their own colors in the software.
