Just when we thought every company had jumped into the peripherals market at some point and time Patriot showed off their new product line back in June. They introduced a gaming mouse, headset, and a mechanical keyboard, basically the staples. Well late last fall they sent over the headset and mouse but I was a little slow to get into my testing. That said I’ve been testing them both out for a while now and today I’m going to break down what both the Viper V560 Gaming mouse and Viper V360 7.1 Headset are all about and see how they perform. With the peripheral market having so much competition, especially from a few well establishes brands Patriot has an uphill battle, but let’s see how they do with their first try.


Product Names: Patriot Viper V360 7.1 Headset and Viper V560 Gaming Mouse

Review Sample Provided by: Patriot

Written by: Wes

Pictures by: Wes

Amazon Links: Viper V360 and Viper V560

 

Viper V560 Specifications
DPI Up to 8200
Programmable Buttons 9
Sensor Avago 9800 Laser
Width 8 cm
Height 4.7 cm
Length 12.8 cm
Weight 193 g
OS Windows® 10 and Mac® OS X, or higher
Certifications RoHS, FCC, CE, Class 1M Laser
Warranty 2 Years
 Viper V360 Specifications
Speakers 7.1
Connection USB
Earcup Design Over ear
Microphone Built in fold down microphone
Weight 335 g
Certifications RoHS, FCC, CE
OS Windows® 10 and Mac® OS X, or higher
Warranty 2 Years

 


Packaging

For the packaging on both the mouse and the headset Patriot went with the standard “gaming” product colors red and black. They have it fade from red down to black with a snake skill in the red. Both boxes have a photo of the product on the front as well as the Viper branding up in the corner but only the headset has a window visible all of the time. The V560 mouse does open up though to give us access to the mouse as well. You can not only see it but get an idea of its size as well. Also on the inside of the mouse packaging is a little more information. Here they show that the mouse can have multiple LED colors, the add in weights, replaceable size shapes, as well as the ceramic feet. Around on the back both devices again have photos. This time though they have lines highlighting different features and in the case of the V560 mouse there are pictures from two different angles to cover everything. The V360 headset has a list of specifications for both the speakers and the microphone, in fact this is more than you will find on the Patriot website.

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Inside the box for the V560 mouse you get a few documents. They give you a page on the viper lineup and then a one-page front and back quick start guide. Its weird not seeing stacks of papers for warranty information or a long user guide. Typically, you get a lot, or nothing at all. You also get two red with a transparent background Viper logo sticker. Along with the mouse, they also include a second replacement side panel for the right side of the mouse. There is also a small round container with weights packed into the formed plastic packaging that is a little bit of a pain to get out.

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Inside the V360 Headsets box, in addition to the headset itself you get a soft microfiber carrying bag with the Viper logo on it. Just like the V560, the V360 comes with two Viper stickers and documentation on the Viper line as well as a one page quick start guide to help you get going.

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Photos and Features

Both the Viper V360 Headset and the V560 Mouse have a heavy black and red theme going on. The mouse does this with a black casing and red on the buttons, scroll wheel, and the USB cord. The V360 mouse has an interesting shape that we can see a little in our overall photos where it is curvy with an odd angular tail. Normally I try to explain what mouse it is shaped like but the V360 doesn’t really fit the mold of the classic mice that I normally compare too. We will have to dig a little farther in to explain its shape.

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The left side of the V560 has a few things going on. For starters the soft finish that is on the rest of the mouse is replaced with a rubber section here on this side. We have two side buttons up along the top but along the bottom is a switch. The switch is where we can flip through different DPI settings. Most mice just use a button, I’m not sure if a switch will be better or worse but I will find out in testing. Also on the left up at the front is the DPI screen to show you what setting you are on. Over on the right side of the mouse (second picture) there isn’t anything going on. The default side panel has a curved in shape and the smooth finish like the top of the mouse.

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From the top we have a better look at the two profile switching buttons up top as well as the scroll wheel. The scroll wheel is red plastic but it does have a rubber grip on it to help get a little traction. The scroll wheel also does left and right clicks as seen by the arrows on each side of it.

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On the bottom there were a few things that stood out. The biggest for me was that the V560 doesn’t use traditional gliders. They replaced the normal Teflon gliders with five rounded ceramic pads. I’m not sure just how well it will work but as someone who hates the gunk that can collect around Teflon gliders due to the adhesive used to attach them I’m happy to see someone trying something new again. Years ago Microsoft used replicable feet that snapped in and looked similar to this, hopefully they work just as well. Bother the gliders there is also the big red button right on the bottom of the mouse. Pushing this unlocks the side panel of the mouse. Then of course we can’t talk about the bottom of a mouse without mentioning the sensor as well. The V560 uses a Avago 9800 Laser sensor and it is located a little off to the right side on the bottom.

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Once we push the big red button on the bottom of the mouse we can pop off the side panel and see what is going on. Basically here we can get access to the weight tray to add or remove weights. In addition, we can actually swap between the two different side panel shapes that Patriot provided. The default shape curves in a lot like the old Logitech G5 did on the side. The second shape is the opposite and has two groves for both your ring and pinky finger. The second shape is a lot like the older Moinix mice.

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Last but not least there is also the USB cord. The V560’s cord is about 6 feet long and it has a red and black sleeving over it. It is very flexible, more than I’m used too in a mouse cable. They also included a Velcro cord tie to wrap it up with when you aren’t]’t using it or to tie up any extra length.

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Moving on to the V360 Headset, Patriot stuck with the red and black them. The headset doesn’t have as many red touches as the mouse but there is red inside of the earcups and the red logos on the outside of the earcups. The top band is a suspension design with two rounded bars holding everything together similar to the Siberia v2. The headset is fairly light weight due to the suspension design.

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The idea behind a suspension design is that with the suspended band it will form to the shape of your head rather than push on some areas like a normal band. Most headsets with a normal design get around that with additional padding but I’m sure if you have worn your headset for an extended period of time you will have had it pushing on your head painfully. The V360 uses two rounded metal rods to help the headset keep its shape and to push in on the earcups on your ears. This keeps the headset in place. From there the band hooks to the top of the earcups. Patriot did add a little more padding to the band than I have seen in the past as well.

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The earcups for the V360 are an over the ear design meaning they should fit around not on your ears. The shape is a little odd with it being a lot like a D shape with the shorter end facing forward. The cup pads are a mesh and now that we are looking closer we can also see that the inside lining that covers the speakers is actually red polka dots.

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The earcups have a few things going on, mostly over on the left ear. The left ear is where the USB cord comes in and in addition to that it is also where all of the controls are. Like the V560 mouse the controls are all bright red. You have a switch down at the bottom that turns the LED lighting on and off. Then in the middle is a volume knob. Then up top is what they call the UBR switch aka the ultra bass response switch. The controls are basically what you need and they are fitting of the price point of this headset meaning they aren’t of the best quality, but they get the job done. The outside of the earcups has an almost V shaped grill that is backlight red and then of course the Viper logo in the middle.

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The USB cord for the V360 is almost exactly like the V560 mouse. It is sleeved and has a red and black sleeving but it is a little darker than the cord on the mouse for whatever reason. It comes with a Velcro strap attached so you can rewrap up our cord when needed or wrap up any extra length. Speaking of that you get enough cord to reach the back of your PC so that shouldn’t be an issue as well.

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You can’t very well have a headset without the microphone, it would just be a pair of headphones at that point. The V360 has a flip down design that is completely made of plastic. That means the boom flips down but doesn’t have any adjustment to get closer or farther away from your mouth.

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Software

For me, even with a good product it’s the software that typically makes or breaks a good product these days. It isn’t because I love software, frankly if I had my way I would rather plug my devices in and go, but it is normally what sets apart good products from great products. Being the first mouse that Patriot has sold I didn’t exactly have high hopes with the software on the V560. So when I opened it up and found a fairly mature product I was very surprised. It doesn’t have any of the integrations we look for from people like Logitech and Razer where you can control all of their products using one program. But It also doesn’t feel weird, clunky, or slow. The overlay is clean and everything is broken down into a few pages. The first page has all of the different profiles and a photo of the mouse with lines pointing to each of the buttons. From there you can click on any box and change what that button does with all of the normal options including macros. To do that they have photos where most only use a drop down menu with little to no explanation what each does. We can also click on each profile and set the LED lighting color, it’s not an infinite number of color combinations but it should be enough to get very close to what you are looking for.

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The sensor page is right to the point as well. Here you can see all of the DPI profiles and you can set the X and Y axis DPI together or independently depending on your preference. They also have an option called auto that seems to basically add acceleration depending on how you move the mouse, most gamers won’t like that though because it is harder to know exactly how the mouse will react.

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Then there is a macro tab where you can record and edit macros to pull up back on the buttons page when programing what each of the mouse buttons does. You can record with and without delays and dig in and change the delays yourself as well.

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Last but not least is the settings page. Here we can get to the polling rate, turn angle snapping off, and backup and restore profiles.

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The software for the V360 headset however is the exact opposite as the V560 mouse. It has the same theme but there are basically no controls at all. We can adjust the same settings that windows lets us get at. Even without really any useable functions the software still feels clunky, I wouldn’t even bother installing it as the headset works just fine without the software all together.

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Performance

To test the mouse, I swapped it with my main mouse in the office and used it day to day while working and also when I stay up all night like I have been all this week playing video games. That covered detailed work like in photoshop as well as gaming and just general web browsing. This gave me time to get a feel for the unique shape of the V560. Initially when I first used it I was completely thrown off. With the smaller of the two side panels on the mouse felt very weird and didn’t fit my hand at all. It was extremely skinny on both sides. I swapped out to the larger side panel but even with that it wasn’t big enough for my hand. Its length was fine but the sides were just too close together. Over time I did get used to it but it did cause me a little extra discomfort in extended gaming sessions.

I was however very happy with the placement of the mouse buttons. I could reach them both when a lot of times one is harder to get at than the other. It also worked well while gaming. The toggle switch for the DPI wasn’t in the way as well. The two buttons up top that switch through the profiles were mostly out of the way as well, this is good because I really don’t want to be changing my DPI or button layout in the middle of a game.

Patriot went with the Avago 9800 laser sensor, something that I haven’t been seeing getting used as much recently. It is the same sensor that has been really popular with manufactures for the past few years including the Sensei and the M65. Being laser it has more DPI than ever could be needed just so they can add it on to the packaging, but overall I’m normally happy with the 9800. You will see some acceleration, especially if using a soft mouse pad so keep that in mind but most will never notice it.

Beyond that they did slip in a few other features. For one the V560 has RGB lighting for the front and back “underglows”. There wasn’t a big selection in the software as I mentioned in the software section but its enough to be able to tell what profile you are on or to match your keyboard or PC. The mouse also has a hidden weight compartment. I personally don’t see the need for adding weights to a mouse, if anything I want it to be lighter, but for those who do like a heavy mouse the option is there.

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For testing on the headset I have spent the last few weeks using it as my main headset. While I typically run my music, movies, and TV shows through my desktop speakers I ran most of that through the V360 as well as voice coms while gaming as well. This gave me multiple extended gaming and work sessions to test the comfort of the V360 headset as well audio performance. For me, comfort is by far the most important aspect of a headset, if they are uncomfortable it can lead to pains when gaming for long periods of time.

So how did the V360 do? Well it has a few big things going for it right out of the hole but it’s far from perfect. Basically the earcups were slightly smaller than I would like but they were big enough to get around my ears, I just had to adjust them a little to get them to sit correctly. The mesh pads are far from soft, I would actually describe them as scratchy. The pads are hard and unforgiving as well. You would think all of that together would be a deal breaker but the suspension design on top is great, normally my ears heat up when wearing a headset and the top of nearly every headset leads to a little discomfort up on the top band area but I didn’t have any issues with the V360. The other thing it has going for it is a light fit. What I mean by that is there isn’t very much pressure from the sides. I would consider that to be a downside for some headsets but in this case it helps because I would hate life if the V360 was pushing the hard and scratchy earcups into the side of my head. This gives the headset a light touch but it might mean the headset is a little loose on people with a smaller head as well.

For audio performance I didn’t really have high expectations. Let’s be frank, gaming headsets aren’t exactly known for high end audio and at the price point of the V360’s they aren’t exactly high end even for a gaming headset. So how did they perform? Well for their place in the market they aren’t too bad. Music and movies are clear and a lot of people are going to like just how much bass they have. The bass seems to be good at covering up the quality not being the best so they do have that going. Game performance was good, like in the music testing the quality wasn’t amazing but the extra bass did sound good in game. They did have decent directionality as well.

Beyond the big two, are there anything other things to consider with the V360? Well when I went over the headsets features I did mention the controls being cheap but functional and after testing the headset I can say for sure that cheap but functional is the best way to explain them. The switches are hard to flip, the edges are a little sharp and I would be concerned with breaking them if I used the controls to much, but they did get the job done in my testing without any real issues. There is also the red LED lighting on the earcups. If you like red, it does look good and Patriot did include a switch right on the headset to turn the lighting off as well. Then there is the microphone. I wasn’t a huge fan of not being able to adjust the position of the microphone other than flipping it down, but it did get the job done. Audio quality on the microphone was good enough for voice coms, like most headsets. They kept the microphone short so it doesn’t get in the way if you drink or anything with the headset on.

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Overall and Final Verdict

So today I’ve dug through the features and performance of both the Patriot Viper V360 7.1 headset and the Viper V560 mouse. It’s surprising to see Patriot jumping into an already saturated market like the peripheral market but it’s also good to see that they are working hard to expand out past the SSD and RAM market that has basically become a commodities market that relies on chip pricing and thin margins.

The V360 7.1 headset impressed me with the amount of bass they had. I’m also a big fan of the suspension design of the top band that helps keep the pressure off the top of my head. They were far from perfect though. The software for example was basically pointless, only giving you access to basic controls that are already available in windows. I also felt that the overall audio quality was mediocre though the added bass did help cover it up so someone who isn’t worried about amazing audio performance should still be happy. I also think they could improve the design a lot just by softening up the earcups with softer padding and dropping the scratchy mesh. The controls on the headset were cheap but functional as well but honestly they are fitting for the price point that the headset is being sold for but I will get into that in a minute.

With the V560 gaming mouse my experience was a little more positive. I was extremely impressed with the software. It was very polished and wasn’t overly styled like most “gaming” mice. The mouse actually has RGB lighting for the underglow lights where the headset only had red available. I was also happy with the sensor picked as well. You don’t see many 9800’s at the price point of the V560. Patriot went with ceramic gliders on the bottom of the mouse and I thought that was a good decision as well. Not only will it hold up better but they also don’t have adhesive around the edges picking up dust and cat hair like most other mice. That said I did have a big problem with the shape of the V560. It was just too thin, especially when running the original side panel.

Given the sudden jump into the market I wasn’t really surprised when I found out that both the V360 and V560 are actually rebranded OEM products. You can find both under the Sentey brand as well. Being a non-exclusive device isn’t really that big of a deal though. It just means you have to make sure you shop around if you go to pick up the V360 or V560. It is very possible that you might be able to get the same product for a better price. Currently the Sentey mouse is a little cheaper on Amazon for example. That said even at the current prices I think these are a good pickup. I would still recommend shopping around if you are looking for something long term, but if you need a cheap headset or gaming mouse for your kid, a backup, or for an extra PC both the V360 and the V560 will fit the bill. They both perform better than similar products at the same price point.

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Live Pricing: Viper V360 and Viper V560

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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garfi3ld replied the topic: #37689 22 Feb 2016 16:00
Today I check out a headset and gaming mouse from Patriot, hope everyone had a nice weekend

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