Category: Gaming Mouse
Manufacturer: Microsoft
Product: Habu™ Laser Gaming Mouse
Gallery: Click Here
Price: $51.99

Collaborations are not a common occurrence in the hardware world. Companies tend to keep to themselves when developing new products so they can take all the credit if those products succeed. Still, there have been some major products released in the past that have been accepted with varying results. Though many of these products have had a significant impact on the computing world and been relatively successful, chances are good that you have never really heard about them. However, I can name two products of these cooperative efforts that you should have some knowledge of: SED Technology (Hitachi, Canon), and the Cell microprocessor (IBM, Toshiba, Sony). Although hardware manufacturers may not be fond of the idea in general, when they actually do collaborate, some pretty impressive things tend to follow.

It is a product of the collaboration between two companies that finds itself on our workbench today. In 2003, Microsoft launched their IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0. Although the IME3.0 was not developed as a gaming mouse, nor targeted towards gamers, the gaming community was quick to adopt it for its reliability, solid performance, and perhaps most of all, its comfort. Since then Microsoft’s Hardware division has admittedly been out of the gaming scene. While their aging products still attracted the die-hard IntelliMouse-using gamers, companies like Logitech and Razer were releasing mice that were, technically at least, far superior. This is why sometime in either late 2005 or 2006 a representative from Microsoft Hardware contacted the president of Razer, Robert Krakoff, about the possibility of teaming up to release a revolutionary product.

To be called the Habu, this new mouse would incorporate design elements from Microsoft and technology from Razer, in addition to some never-before-seen features. When it hit the shelves in early November 2006, gamers were instantly reminded of the classic IME3.0 shape underneath the curvaceous Razer exterior. Initial reviews were mixed; the Habu seemed to suffer from the same skipping problems that countless gamers had been experiencing with Logitech’s G5 and Razer’s own Copperhead laser mice. It being February of the next year already, we have certainly had some time to develop our own opinions of the Habu.