Oh God, the puns. Razer, ever the company to throw subtlety out the window, is trying to make you nostalgic for one of the oddest gaming mice it ever devised. The PC gaming brand is marketing its $1,337 mouse (yes, that’s meant to spell “L33T”) with the kind of “leetspeak” we abandoned to the dumpster bin of internet parlance two decades ago.
The limited edition Razer Boomslang 20th Anniversary Edition isn’t the kind of mouse that’s made to be used. Its price would make you think the snake tongue-shaped ambidextrous mouse is lined with 24K gold or that its components are built with the expert precision of an indentured Oompa Loompa (and since it’s Razer, they would likely be colored green rather than orange). Instead, the mouse includes a PU leather left- and right-click button. That material also wraps around the backside just above a tasteful eight-zone strip of RGB lighting along the bottom edge. The translucent sickly green plastic finish of the original Boomslang has been replaced with a deeper emerald green.
The original mouse was crafted back in 1999 by PC peripheral pioneers like Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff back when the company was owned by Kärna. Krakoff died in 2022 at the age of 81, though current Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan also contributed to the Boomslang’s design. Of course, with that pedigree, the company would give their age-old mouse a big party. That doesn’t mean the price is any easier to swallow. Razer announced this mouse back in December last year, so it’s technically a little off from the exact 20-year anniversary. Either way, it’s the thought that counts.
This Boomslang is a leather-clad DeathAdder mouse
This iteration of the Boomslang is a modern mouse in most ways except for the shell. The new Boomslang takes many of the same guts from the company’s latest DeathAdder V4 Pro—a high-end gaming mouse with an optical sensor (gone is the original’s mechanical ball tracking) and a leading 45,000 DPI. Compare that to the original Boomslang, which maxed out at 2,000 DPI, which is insufficient for professional gaming today, but it did lead the competition back in 1999. Razer’s limited edition mouse also sports the same 8,000Hz polling rate as the DeathAdder V4 Pro, which is a blisteringly fast speed for communicating mouse position with your PC.
Just like the DeathAdder V4 Pro, the 20th anniversary Boomslang uses Razer’s modern optical switches. I’ve enjoyed these Gen 4 switches on the V4 Pro well enough to know they’ll feel fine on this $1,337 mouse. There are another eight customizable controls on the mouse, including two buttons on either side of the wheel and the port and starboard of the mouse itself. Unlike the original Boomslang, the new model comes with a stand that acts as a wireless charging dock as well as the 2.4GHz connection to your PC.
Razer told Gizmodo that the new Boomslang costs as much as it does not just because of the meme, but because it’s indeed limited. The company is making only 1,337 of these. It will come in its own special PU leather case to help it serve as a centerpiece item for PC gaming collectors. Here’s the rub: this mouse is not meant to be your daily driver, nor your elite gaming mouse you pull out when you want to wreck face. Not only does it eschew the ergonomic mouse innovations of the last 20 years, but its faux leather material also isn’t built to facilitate your Cheeto fingers for hours on end.
The company said that if users take care of it and wash it down after use, it should last them for a while. Still, it’s better to think of the new Boomslang as a centerpiece model for your gaming setup, perhaps to fill you with fond memories for when you would use “L33T” unironically. Preorders are set to begin Feb. 10 at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT.
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