Razer Imperator 2012

The Razer Imperator 2012 gaming mouse—set to launch in 2011, despite its name—is a new and improved version of the original Imperator mouse. It boasts 6400 dpi sensitivity (instead of 5600 dpi), a '4G' dual sensor system, 50 g acceleration and is apparently guaranteed to support moves as fast as 5 metres per second. With tech specs like that, the Imperator is clearly aiming high, but can this gaming mouse live up to expectations?

First of all, a word about this mouse's design. For a mouse that's aimed at gamers, the Imperator is actually pretty understated. It has a nice matte finish and the scroll wheel and logo backlighting can be switched off using the driver.


The mouse is very pleasant to use. For starters, the new gliders slide across surfaces smoothly. Second, your hand is held nice and high on the mouse's arched back, which should keep hand and wrist pain to a minimum ... so long as you make sure you lay your hand across the mouse's 12.3 cm long back instead of controlling it with the palm of your hand on your desk. The Imperator is a bit shorter than the Logitech G500 (13 cm), but it's also lighter, weighing 100 g compared with 110 g for the G500 without the stand or additional weights. One great feature of the Imperator's design is that the thumb buttons on the side of the mouse can be moved forwards or backwards on a sliding mechanical system into the position you find most comfortable.


The braided cable feels nice and sturdy. But beware—although braided cables are great for the first few years, as they start to age the cable covering can begin to wear away, which first of all creates bends in the wire. Then, if the covering cracks and falls away, differences in level occur in the parts of the cable still covered in a fabric coating and those exposed to air.


Seven programmable buttons mean you can customise the mouse to suit your needs and preferences. There's also a handy and easy-to-use macro programming function in the driver. We just think it's a shame there aren't any options for the scroll wheel, as this can't be set to free-wheel or scroll round in notches as desired, like in some Logitech mice. Razer says this is a conscious decision on its part and that it's nothing to do with patent issues—apparently Razer's customers don't need this kind of function. Even if some people don't find it useful, we'd still rather have the choice, as although in some games the click-round steps are very useful, certain users find a free wheel much more practical in office applications!

Like all 1000 Hz mice, there's barely any movement-response lag with Imperator 2012 when it's set to 1000 Hz mode. In fact, it responds very quickly to every move you make. However, it does make excessive use of the CPU, using 50% of resources on average in fast-action games, and with frequent peaks at 90% at the beginning of a move. Switching down to 500 Hz reduces processor use considerably without affecting accuracy all that much—the lag goes from 1 to 2 ms, both of which are very low.

We were, however, slightly disappointed with our test model, as while Razer ensures that the Imperator 2012 sensor can keep up with movements of 5 metres per second, we found it dropped out at speeds of just over half that. Our Imperator couldn't handle anything faster than 2.8 metres per second—which is still a good score, but it's not the best we've ever seen.