Testing
While it can be said that the forums here at GotFrag Hardware are saturated with post after post of identical subject matter and often nonsensical discussion, the tremendous value that the opinions in various threads cannot be denied. When writing peripheral reviews, we often do a quick search of the forums to see what issues, if any, members of the community have had or are having with the product we are reviewing.

After performing a search for “habu”, we found several threads asking which mouse they should get between the Habu and an alternative, usually the new IME3.0. In these threads, it was common to see someone reply with problems they have had with the Habu. Of those problems, the most common was that it skips at low sensitivity and fast movements. After reading this, the basis for my testing was formed. I would try to replicate this skipping by setting the dpi of the mouse to 2000, dropping the Windows sensitivity down to the lowest, and setting my Counter-Strike in-game sensitivity to 1.0.

With the original 1.00 driver version, I tested the mouse using fast, long, sweeping movements across the Razer Mantis Control mousepad and an engineered wood desk. I was able to replicate the skipping problem that the community complained about in the forums with pretty good consistency. However, most laser mice seem to exhibit this problem out of the box, but several of them have firmware updates available that claim to fix it. With that, I updated the Habu’s firmware to the latest version 2.01 and repeated the test. The skipping problems, while diminished, were still present. Instead of skipping nearly every time I moved the mouse across the pad, the mouse skipped one out of 10 times. This test was certainly repeatable and performing it over and over again yielded the same results.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions
Coming into this review, we had high hopes for the Microsoft Habu. This was a mouse that was taking everything we loved about the IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 and infusing it with the latest technology and drivers from Razer, a company that has long been known for making 100% gamer-oriented products. We were pretty excited after opening the mouse and having a good look at it, and we were particularly impressed with the hot-swappable side button panels. The two main buttons on the mouse were well designed as well, sporting the trademark Razer contour and texture. The mouse feet on the bottom of the mouse, also characteristic Razer developments, performed admirably.

However, after checking our forums for issues with the mouse and trying to replicate these issues in testing, the fallbacks of the Habu became more and more apparent. First of all, the Habu driver is not without its flaws. The driver would not recognize the mouse under the latest version, and I had to revert to the original 1.00 driver in order to get everything working correctly. Also, the driver is port specific, meaning you need to have the Habu plugged into the same port you had it plugged into when you installed the driver, or else it will not detect the mouse at all. The next problem with the Habu seems to be the same problem that is encountered with virtually every laser mouse on the market: skipping at low sensitivity, high speed scenarios. The problem was reduced significantly after updating the firmware to the latest version, but still prevalent nonetheless.

However, the mouse performs perfectly under all other conditions. For gamers that use normal sensitivities and do not make extremely fast movements across their mousepad, the Habu is certainly a viable choice. If you are a fan of the IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 and are looking for something a bit more technologically advanced, the Habu might be a perfect choice for you. However, there are two final issues I would like to address before finishing this review. First, Razer currently has a new mouse out called the DeathAdder. The DeathAdder is similar to the Habu in that it shares the IME3.0 shape, but that is pretty much it. The DeathAdder uses the most advanced mousing engine to date, based on tried and true optical technology, and seems to be free of the skipping issues exhibited with the Habu. Secondly, the Habu is a relatively expensive mouse. Whereas the new IME3.0 is going for as low as $28 USD, the lowest price I can find on the Habu is $52 USD. The Habu is a great mouse and everything, but I can’t imagine buying one when I could pay four dollars more and get two IME3.0s.

Pros
+ Nice looking mouse
+ Razer mouse feet
+ IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 shape
+ Interchangeable side-panel buttons
+ Drivers function well when correctly installed
Cons
- Tracking problems inherent to laser mice?
- Expensive
- Razer drivers are very picky
Rating
7.9 out of 10