Razer Basilisk Ultimate review

With a price of $169/£169/AU$299, the Razer Basilisk Ultimate is a premium wireless mouse that sits in a price bracket considerably higher than that of our top picks for the best gaming mice list. It’s undoubtedly a great mouse, featuring almost all the bells and whistles you’ll be hard-pressed to find together in many of its rivals. Still, the question is, is it worth spending all that money on?

There are perhaps a couple of things we don’t like about it, yes. For example, much like the more affordable Razer Basilisk X Hyperspeed, the Razer Basilisk Ultimate has an angular design that seems to borrow a bit too much from the Logitech G502 design. Also, it requires customization that seems a bit over-involved for our liking

However, the Razer Basilisk Ultimate also has a lot of things going for it that makes it worth the price. It has a comfortable and fairly traditional form. Its side grips offer plenty of purchase, making it easy to use in intense gaming situations. At 107 grams, it’s weighty enough to feel substantial, but not too heavy you’d worry about dropping it. And, it has a whopping 14 brilliant RGB lighting zones, complete with neat effects you can control via the Chroma Studio module. Alongside all its other features, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth, if you can spare it.

The RGB lighting of the Basilisk Ultimate is contributing largely to the looks and price of the mouse. It has a whopping 14 lighting zones split between the Razer logo on the palm, the scroll wheel, and an LED strip running along the left side of the mouse. The LEDs are brilliant and have some neat effects, though nuanced control requires a separate Chroma Studio module, which is a bit more involved than we’d like to see. Setting up macros also requires a separate module.

It’s not just the mouse that has lights though. The Basilisk Ultimate has a wireless charging dock that also has its own LED strip. It has special effects as well, but we think the most handy is having the color indicate the mouse’s battery level.

The ability to charge by simply setting the mouse onto a stand is simple, making it easy to keep the battery topped up. But, even if we forget, the mouse can offer 100 hours of battery life with the lights turned off. We can even get through a pretty busy week of work with the lights left on.

The Basilisk is no slouch when it comes to other features. It has 11 programmable buttons, with two standard thumb buttons, a third thumb paddle that’s actually easy enough to reach, two buttons below the scroll wheel (their default is DPI Up and Down), as well as left and right scroll wheel clicks. The scroll wheel itself is interesting, with a dial underneath the mouse that lets us tune how pronounced and firm the notches are, making it easier to scroll through weapons in games. All the buttons feel consistent as well, with Razer Optical switches underneath offering a 70-million click lifespan.

The wireless connection is handled using a tiny USB dongle that can conveniently plug into the charging dock. There’s a small case for the dongle on the bottom of the mouse as well.

That wireless connection is all part of the Basilisk Ultimate’s excellent performance. It delivers a latency-free experience with a 1,000Hz polling rate. And, the Focus + Optical sensor can handle mouse movements up to 650 inches-per-second and 50 G of acceleration. The mouse stores 5 DPI settings from 100 to 20,000 in 50 DPI increments along with an option to set separate sensitivities for the X and Y axes. Lift-off distance tweaked can also be tweaked between 1mm and 3mm.

With all that, you’d have to expect Basilisk Ultimate to perform well, and it does. It performs on level with any of the best gaming mice we’ve tried. There’s no perceptible delay in actions over the wireless connection. In shooters (Titanfall 2 in this case), the tracking is spot-on. We can whip around on enemies, snapping our sites on them after jumping out of a wall run, dispatching them, and moving on with ease. We find that aiming prowess just as handy in Red Dead Redemption 2 Online, where the ability to quickly take out a few lawmen that came out of nowhere makes a big difference in completing a mission after our teammates got lost and left us stranded.

The Razer Basilisk Ultimate is a truly great mouse rounded out by a handy charging stand, but it comes at a price that makes it something most gamers will safely be able to forget about.

Buy it if...

Don’t buy it if…