Hands-On Testing of the DeathTaker
As I said earlier, the DeathTaker is a mid-sized mouse which will appeal to most gamers, but will be hard to use for players with longer then average fingers. I have large palms, but can achieve palm grip the mouse with no problem. Palm grip, however, does make it almost impossible to push the “M” macro button on the right side. Those of you who use claw grip and are looking for a mouse, need to look no further. The DeathTaker is one of the more comfortable claw grip mice on the market.
As ironic as it sounds, out of the box, the DeathTaker is a little sensitive. I’m not talking about the DPI here, but rather I am commenting on the smoothness of the mouse feet. Since the feet are abnormally large, they provide a slickness that is unparalleled by its competitors. Currently I am using the Alumic mousepad by Roccat, which has a smooth side and a textured side. Even on the textured side that is supposed to cause more friction between the pad and the mouse, the DeathTaker glided effortlessly. Minimal friction is a good thing to have in a mouse, but I do recommend that you set your DPI a little lower than what you use on other mice to compensate for high quality mouse feet.
As I played various FPSs and RPGs, the precision of the laser was spectacular. The mouse has a good feel to it as you glide it across the mouse pad. The buttons didn’t perform quite as well. They click easily enough, and are perfectly responsive, but I found that 3 of them were particularly hard to reach with large hands and palm grip style. I don’t count this has a huge downfall though, because the button placement will be fine for a majority of gamers. The macro feature seemed to work with any game at all.
Overall, the DeathTaker is a solid mouse that is sure to please a majority of gamers. The unique weight tray is by far my favorite feature, though I was disappointed that Genius did not include some sort of case for your unused weight. Other than that, I think that Genius’ has a winner on their hands, and for about $80, the DeathTaker can be in your hand too.
