Patriot Viper V570 Full RGB Laser Gaming Mouse Review

Whether you’re a gamer, in the office, a writer and anything using a PC, Mac and even some tablets, chances are you are using a mouse and there are many variations of these input devices.  There are the incredibly expensive type that have tons of features, buttons and gadgets and then the basic affordable ones, but then there are the ones in between that offer everything at a budget price.  With that in mind, I bring you today my review of the Patriot Viper V570 Full RGB Laser Gaming Mouse.

Before I get into the review, let’s go over some of the features and functions of this mouse.

Features and Specifications

• 12,000 DPI
• Avago 9800 Laser Sensor
• OMRON Micro Switches
• Scroll Wheel
• Trigger Button
• Rubberized Anti-Slip Coating
• Ceramic Foot pads
• Adjustable Weight up to 34.2 grams
• 1000Hz Poling Rate / 1ms Response Time
• 7-Zone RGB backlit Color LED
  • 4-Stage DPI LED Indicator
  • 7 Different lighting adjustable effects
• 13 Programmable Buttons
• Gold Plated USB Plug
• Cable length of 1.8meters/6 Foot
• Braided Cable
• 2 Year Warranty

A nice set of features and specs, so now let’s take a look at the mouse itself in an unboxing.

Before we focus solely on the mouse, let’s go over the other pieces in the box.

First off, we have this nice red envelope, but what’s inside?

First thing inside we find is this set of stickers.  We have 2 Viper stickers, you can stick these anywhere you like, make your case a Viper case if you like.

Also included is a Quick Start Guide… they are not kidding when they say “Quick”.

On the flipside, you will also find “Package Contents”, “System Requirements” an “Overview” section, “Setup”, “Software Installation and Configuration” and “Troubleshooting” procedure section.  Very quick guide, but it is a mouse,… you can’t get really complicated with these things.

Finally, you have the medicine storage, I mean the weights.  You can fit up to 6 weights in the mouse, though there are 7, the extra one is just that, an extra one.  Each weight separately is 5.7g plus or minus .2grams.  6 weights in the mouse equal up to 34.2grams.  The 7^th is there just in case you lose one, you got a spare.  That’s very thoughtful of them.

Then we have the mouse itself of which we will focus on the next page.

[nextpage title=”Up Close and Personal”]

This is the Patriot Viper V570 Full RGB Laser Gaming Mouse, let’s start from the USB connection and work our way up the cable to the mouse.

Here we have the gold-plated USB connection, we can see both sides, nothing major but it is a detail I need to mention.

Coming up from the connection, we have a black and red, very nicely braided cable.  The braid does help in the wire kinking and tangling, though of course it does not 100% stop it from happening.  That’s with any braided cable, not just this one.

Coming up a little more, we find the ferrite bead or choke.  Like with most powered devices, the choke helps reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio-frequency interference (RFI).  This keeps the “noise” the mouse signals create quiet stopping them from interfering with other devices or other devices from interfering with them.

At the end of the cable, we find the mouse.  The 2 white rectangles are 1 of the 7 lighting zones.  I say one because even though there are 2 lights there, they are both controlled as a single source by the Viper software.  I will get into that a little later in the review.  Here we also find the left and right mouse buttons, the standard buttons which are backed by OMRON micro switches.

The OMRON micro switches help to increase the longevity of those 2 buttons as well as aid in the performance of them.  I am sure we have all had mice that after a period of time, the left/right or both of those just didn’t come back after a click, this helps to prevent that.  These 2 buttons are 2 of 13 buttons on this mouse.

We can also see the beginning of the scroll wheel.

Along the left side of the mouse, we can find the rubberized siding.  You can see rectangular (it seems there is a rectangular theme here) groves that help keep your thumb from slipping, I find my thumb rests there mostly.  Right ahead of where our thumb would rest, you find the sniper button.

The sniper button, while not original is a nice idea.  By default, this drops down the DPI to an X/Y axis of 400, you can of course increase or decrease this value and even change the function of this button on the Viper software.  This is the 6^th of 13 buttons.

As a sniper button, this helps you in games where you have to be incredibly precise, while pressed slowing down the mouse movement to close to a pixel’s pace so that you can be as exact as you need to be.  I have used it a few times, but I feel like it might be a little far forward, though I don’t have huge hands, so it might be better for those of you with larger hands.

Just in front of the sniper button are those groves again, I guess they are there for aesthetics because there is no reason for them.

Just above the sniper button are these gems, the 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, 10^th and 11^th of 13 buttons, we are almost there.  I think these buttons are perfectly sized and spaced to be effective.  They are not just flat buttons, they kind of start off at a base and pyramid up.

Some extra lighting shows you what I mean.  This provides you with good axis to these buttons with your thumb to help not fat fingering a button by mistake, you hit what you want to hit here.

Now we get to the 13^th and 14^th buttons.  This to the left of the main 2 buttons.  By default, these are the Forward and Backward buttons.  Most are used to have these buttons as thumb buttons, so I found them a bit awkward at first here, but they work, they work well here.

They are right there, but not in the way.  It’s easy to click on these when you want them and not by mistake either.  I like them here.

Just to give you a better idea of how far off to the side they are.

Pulling back a bit to get a wider view of the mouse, aside from the spots of lighting you see, there a little bit of a hidden feature.  The Viper logo is not just a logo, it’s a bit of a theme here, there’s a secret behind that slickly slithered piece stemming from the right mouse button.

Removing that piece, you can see 6 little holes, but what are they for?

That’s where the “Gaming Weight Box” comes into play.

These weights slip into each of those holes to weigh down the mouse, allowing for even high precision or just more comfort.  Let me show you how they work.

A nice little addition to this mouse, they are individually pretty heavy, for little pieces of course.

Once the 6 are in, you hide them, just by placing the cover over as I showed you in the video.  The Gaming Weight Box included with the V570 does bring 7 weights but only 6 fit in this mouse as I mention in the video.  They include the 7^th just in case you lose one, I think that is awesome.  Whereas other companies would have included the exact amount of weights and either not had replacements or sold you replacements at a pretty high price, Patriot just gives it to you.

So, we have gone over in detail on the physical aspects of the top of the mouse, there is a little more on the bottom.

The bottom we can see has 5 pads which are a little out of the ordinary.  Most of these pads are made out of a certain type of foam or plastic, but these are made out of ceramic.  When you put this mouse on a smooth surface, you can see why the ceramic is so great, it really helps the mouse glide a little easier.  It also has a little wave effect which serves no purpose but I thought I’d mention it.

The sticker, shows the Viper logo as well as the power specifications, model number and certifications.  One of the certifications worth mentioning is the RoHS certification.  The acronym RoHS stands for Restriction of Hazardous Substances and restricts the use of specific hazardous materials found in many electrical and electronic products.  The certification allows this mouse to be sold in the European Union that has strict policies which is great.  We can also see the cut out for the laser, don’t look directly into the light.

Here we have gone over the physical aspects of the mouse, but there is still more to this mouse.  On the next page, we will go over the Patriot Viper Mouse software and its features.

[nextpage title=”Patriot Viper Mouse Software and Features”]

The Patriot Viper Mouse Software controls the Patriot Viper V570 Laser Gaming Mouse and while it is not needed to be installed to use the mouse, it does have many features that we will go over here.  Another thing to mention, the software does not come in the box, you need to download it separately form Patriot’s website, http://www.patriotmemory.com/

BUTTONS

When you start off the software, you will be on the “Buttons” tab and “Profile 1”.  Profile 1 by default provides each button with a specific function, except 6 of them.  There are the 5 you can see above that say “No Function” but then just below the button labelled “DPI loop”, there is one that has no label what so ever.

That button allows you to change in between Profiles, on the fly switching while you are gaming.  The no function buttons and really any button can be reprogrammed however you would prefer.  When you click on the “No Function” label, it will bring you to the “Advanced Functions” menu.

In the Advanced Functions section, you can either leave it with No function, to be a worthless button or you can give it some meaning.

ADVANCED FUNCTIONS

“Launch drive menu”, allows you to open up the “Patriot Viper Mouse” software if it is not already open.

“Adjust lift – off”, allows you to change the distance the laser tracks the surface after the mouse is lifted.

“Adjust DPI”, allows you to adjust the DPI settings.

“Lock Y – axis”, allows you to lock the Y axis, the Y axis is Up or Down.

“Lock X – axis”, allows you to lock the X axis, the X axis is Left and Right.

“Sniper function”, allows you to set the Sniper function.  The Sniper function by default and when pressed and held, lowers the X/Y axis dpi settings down to 400DPI for better accuracy.

“Angle snapping on / off”, allows you to enable/disable the angle snapping feature.  Angle Snapping, allows you to reduce jittering of the mouse when you are scrolling, perfect for video demonstrations where you want your mouse movements to seem so jittery.

“Virtual touch”, allows you to simulate a virtual touch on a touch screen.

Since we are in this menu, I will go over the other tabs in this menu.

MOUSE FUNCTIONS

I will skip many of these function as they are self-explanatory, but there are a few I will go over.

“Tilt left/Tilt right”, This mouse does not have the ability to tilt the scroll wheel left or right, so with this you can set one of those functions to act as a tilt left/right function.

“Fire button” acts as pushing the mouse forwards while pressing the left mouse button. This is useful for games where you just have to run and gun, holding this button down you will continue to go forward and fire.

By clicking change when selecting this button, you can change the duration of that action from 10 milliseconds to 2500 milliseconds.

“On – to – go fire”, like the “Fire button” acts as pushing the mouse forwards while pressing the left and right mouse button. This is handy for games where you can dual wield and control each gun individually, or maybe cast a spell and reload mana, just throwing ideas out there.

KEYBOARDS FUNCTIONS

Keyboard functions, allows you to select an individual keyboard key, even down to a multi-media key for a mouse click.  This is a very handy feature for FPS’ and MMO’s alike, really any type of game where you can select a weapon (of many), spell, defense allowing you not have to reach out as much to your keyboard.

MACROS

Allows you to create different types of macro and macro combinations and assign them to the selected keys.

Within the “MACROS’ tab, we find the sub tab “MACRO EDITOR”.  From here we can create macro with such great detail, better than explaining each button, I decided to label them for you as they show up.

Very fine detail here, and you can even give these macros to friends and receive them as well and make your own modifications.

At the bottom of the menu, you can “Create New macro”s and “Record delays”, if you don’t want to record delays, just uncheck the box.

The left of the MACRO EDITOR, allows you select between saved macros to either use or make modifications to.  It also shows you how much space you have left under “Mouse memory” to make more macros.

KEY CYCLE

This is an odd feature, that I guess can be beneficial to some.  In the example above, with “Cycle” selected, I set the 3^rd key on the mouse so that when I click it, the letter E gets entered, if I click it again, then the letter G gets entered and if I click it again the letter H gets enter.  After that, if I click it again, it starts back up with the letter E.

If I select “Reverse Cycle”, does the same thing I mentioned above, just backwards.  “Current position”, depending on which position you are on the “Key Cycle” will continue hitting that key.  For example, if I hit the button 3 times and was left with H, with current position, it would continue to hit H.

So backing out of the sub functions, let’s go back to the front facing portion of the software.

Switching over to “Profile 2” allows me to show you that when you do switch a profile, you can also select the color of the profile which also reflects on the mouse itself.

SENSOR

Under the “SENSOR” tab, we can select each DPI setting for the 4 different DPI modes.  By default, when we slide the notch up and down, the X and Y axis will go up together.

Click on the “X / Y axis independent” radio button on the bottom allows up to select the X and Y axis independently here.

Clicking the “Auto Speed” radio button, allows up to set the High and Low DPI selection per profile.

We’ve already discussed the “MACRO EDITOR” so we will now move on to the “SETTINGS” tab.

The “SETTINGS” tab allows us to see “GENERAL OPTIONS”

From here we can select the USB POLLING RATE down from 125Hz all the way up to 1000Hz.  USB Polling is how often the mouse reports to the computer its position.  At 125Hz, it will report to the computer its position 125 times, at 1000Hz, it will report to the computer 1000 times per second.  The higher the polling rate, there will be a decrease lag between your movements and what shows up on the screen.

From here, we can also toggle the “Angle snapping” feature as well as “Enable DPI / profile OSD”.

When you click the DPI button on the mouse, you will see this on the top left-hand corner of your screen, really tiny to make sure it’s out of the way.

When you click on the Profile selector button on the mouse, you will see what profile you have moved into.  Like the DPI OSD, it appears on the top left-hand corner of the screen very tiny and out of the way.

We can also toggle “Disable mouse acceleration(OS)”.

Then we can also see “INFORMATION”, which gives us the Model number, Driver version and Firmware version the mouse currently has.

We can also BACKUP our current settings, RESTORE our previous settings and RESET the settings back to default.

I go over a lot of the settings on this video as well

I go over the lighting options in the video, and I will here too.  On the top right-hand corner of the VIPER software, we see a color wheel that when hovered over reads “Light effect”, let’s check that out.

When you click on that, it shows you the mouse and its 7 lighting Zones, of which you can individually select.

Here you can boringly select one of the already selected colors, or you can go on the chart above and granularity select colors

In the example above, I clicked on the gradient somewhere inside of where I have circled.  Selecting that, shows me how much RED, GREEN and BLUE is in my selection and then I can click OK to finalize my selection.  By default, the colors are breathing, slowly pulsing on and off but you can select it as “Always ON” if you prefer.

You can also select the “Wave”, “Wave(invert), “Random 1” and “Random 2” settings.  Rather than explaining those, since the software provides a visual, I will show you how it works.

Works pretty nicely I think and is very customization, I am referring to the entire VIPER software, not just the LED Lighting effects which are also very customization.

Here we can see the mouse wheel lit blue, as well as the DPI/Profile indicator lights.

The front 2 lights and the mouse wheel light.

The lighting along the inner side of the mouse.

Then we have the VIPER logo along the back of the mouse.  Now I want to go over a very difficult thing to convey, comfort.

Comfort is a very difficult thing to get right because everyone has their own comfort level but this mouse brings a little more to the table in what comfort means, at least to me so it will get its own page.

[nextpage title=”Comfort”]

As I mentioned previously, comfort is a very difficult thing to convey because it is different to everyone.  I take time to mention it because I have tried a few “MMO” mice and while they worked well, did not feel as comfortable to me as more traditional mice because of the myriad of buttons and their placement.  This mouse gets it right, even if you don’t use the buttons.

As regular mouse, if is very comfortable.  The grove where my thumb in the picture above lays is meant for your thumb, not an afterthought.  I think it is meant for your thumb because of the sniper button.  It’s a little further than I am comfortable with, but not horribly.

Just a little extra push up and you can get to it.  The 5 upper buttons are not that bad either, the worst one though would of course be the 5^th, all the way in the back.

Then we have the 2 in the front, the forward and back buttons, one of the ones I use the most, aside from the left and mouse button.

I reached for the furthest, the forward button by default and it still is pretty easy to get to.

One of the most forgotten sides is the right side of the mouse, where your ring finger and pinky sit.  Patriot took a bit of notice here as well.  Here, you can see a bit of a groove where your ring finger lays and then your pinky falls beneath, it leads the fingers there.  Maybe a better shot to get my point across.

You see how they can just slide right into place?

Then we have the most common buttons, the left and right mouse buttons.  They are natural, as we have always used, nothing great or bad about them, they just work.

So that is about it, a ton of features and options.  On the next page, I gather and present to you my final thoughts and conclusion.

[nextpage title=”Final Thoughts and Conclusion”]

This mouse has tons of features and comfort to give it some flair, but let’s check out the pros and cons.

Pros

• Very long cable
• Braided USB cable
• Rubberized Anti-Slip Coating
• LED-Lighted
• 7 LED Lighted Zones
• 13 Programmable Keys that are not in the way
• Strong build Quality
• Very Comfortable feel
• Very customizable and functional software
• HIGH DPI Resolution
• Great weight system

• • Thoughtful in including an extra weight in case you lose one.

• VERY Affordable

Cons

• No Apple Support

It was hard to find a con but it is important for our Apple friends out there.  While the software will not work for a Mac, surely the mouse itself will work.  I have reviewed a ton of mice, each with their own special feature, curve, color and more and some have been decent and some have been pretty great.  This one I thought would not do so well because of how odd the curves are, and not being a fan of a mouse with a billion buttons, but this just works and it works well.

Everything on this mouse is in a perfect spot, the performance is amazing and the lighting effects are beautiful.  The cable is very nicely braided and it has every button you could ever need on a mouse, and because of this all, including the price I have to give this mouse a Dragonbloggers Editor’s choice.  Great job Patriot.