Is This The Best Mouse For Small Hands?

Razer has literally answered my prayers for a smaller mouse. The Viper Mini, a smaller version of the Viper, which together with the Viper Ultimate, are among the best gaming mice to come out in 2019. Razer says explicitly that the Viper Mini is designed for those with hands measuring under 17cm, which means that it’s targeted at a very specific subset of people. Me. 

The Viper Mini comes with two large feet at the top and bottom, which glide smoothly right out of the box. In fact, I find them a bit smoother than the Corepad feet I installed on my Ultralight 2.

At 61g, the Mini isn’t quite as light as the Cooler Master MM710, Glorious Model O-, or even the Ultralight 2 itself. However, I don’t think it makes much of a difference, and I was able to jump straight in with the Viper Mini with no adjustments whatsoever.

The Mini reminds me more of the Ultralight 2, with a very similar shape. The main difference is that the Ultralight 2 is flatter, measuring around 35.8mm at its tallest point to the Viper Mini’s 38.3mm. The Viper Mini fills out your hand a little more, so it’s better suited to the palm grip than the Ultralight 2, although it still works great for the fingertip and claw grips. 

While the Viper Mini retains an ambidextrous design, there are now only side buttons on the left, favouring right-handers. 

I use the fingertip grip, and it’s short enough so I can still make micro-adjustments with my fingers and pull the mouse down without it coming up short against my palm.

One of the complaints I had with the Viper and Viper Ultimate was how the side buttons were very nearly flush with the sides, which made them hard to press. Razer fixed this on the Viper Mini; the side buttons stick out more and feel far crisper than before. It ditches the ambidextrous side buttons on the right side though, catering specifically to right-handers this time. 

Razer says mouse 1 and 2 buttons have also been improved to better mimic the feel of mechanical switches. These are still optical switches but differ from the ones used on previous Viper mice. For one, they’re rated for 50 million clicks instead of 70 million. As for the upgraded click feel, the difference is extremely minuscule. I’m honestly not sure I’d have thought this worth mentioning if Razer didn’t point this out.

Build quality is excellent; there’s no flexing when pushing on the sides or top of the mouse. The mouse 1 and 2 buttons show minimum wobble, and they’re separate from the mouse shell. The scroll wheel has just the right amount of resistance, offering clearly defined steps while still being pretty quiet. The DPI button has been moved to sit just below the scroll wheel, a tiny square that doesn’t get in your way.

Compared to the Viper, the Viper Mini does get some extra RGB LEDs in the form of a cool underglow strip.

Finally, Razer put in a new 8,500DPI optical sensor on the Viper Mini, that’s rated for up to 300 inches-per-second (IPS) and 35G of acceleration. There’s no indication whether this is based on any particular PixArt sensor or Razer’s own design, but I didn’t notice any issues with it after several hours of Modern Warfare over a couple of days. I’m a pretty low-sensitivity player and require around 43cm to make a full 360° turn, but I had no issues with the mouse spinning out. As far as I can tell, tracking is flawless, with no prediction or acceleration either.  

The Viper Mini is a underglow LED strip, but it isn’t an independent lighting zone from the Razer logo. 

The Viper Mini is very much a product of the times, hewing closely to the prevailing trends in gaming mouse design. It may not be the lightest mouse around, but when you’re in 60g territory, it hardly makes much of a difference. What’s more, a mouse with a solid shell feels and looks better than one that is shot through with holes.

My one gripe would be the lower-rated optical switches and a different sensor. To be fair, these things aren’t something you’d notice day-to-day, and these decisions have allowed Razer to price the mouse at an extremely attractive $63.90, but it’d have been nice to see an all-out premium mouse for tiny hands. 

CONCLUSION

If you’re on the hunt for a small mouse like the Ultralight 2, it doesn’t get much better than the Viper Mini 

AT A GLANCE

SENSOR 8,500 DPI optical sensor / 300 IPS / 35G max. acceleration

SWITCHES Razer Optical (50 million clicks)

SIZE 118.3 mm (Length) x 53.5mm (Grip Width) x 38.3 mm (Height)

WEIGHT  61g PRICE  $63.90 

PICTURES RAZER, 123RF