Razer Basilisk V2 review

Two minute review

The Razer Basilisk V2 appears to have been built specifically for gamers looking for the kind of gaming mouse that can effortlessly hop from game to game with minimal fuss. It has 11 programmable buttons, including a thumb paddle that acts as both a sensitivity clutch as well as any secondary action you assign. With the Razer Synapse 3 program, re-mapping these buttons is a breeze. You can assign either mouse or keyboard inputs to each button, making it so much easier to access inventory items, crouch, run, or aim.

With a price point sitting at $79.99 (£79.99 AU$159), the Razer Basilisk V2 is the king of mid-tier gaming mice, a market occupied with mice like the SteelSeries Sensei Ten at $70 (£54, AU$103). So whether you're looking to upgrade your current peripherals or are building a dedicated gaming rig, you won't have to dig too deep in your pockets for a solid mouse.

The Basilisk V2 also features a tactile scroll wheel with a tension dial underneath the mouse. The dial allows you to adjust how "clicky" the scroll wheel feels as you move it up and down. A more pronounced "click" makes it easy to select weapons, spells, or abilities; a smoother scroll action is ideal for zooming in with a sniper rifle or on a map. The scroll wheel also has a left and right click ability that's great for assigning a reload or quick-equip action for adaptation on-the-fly when combat gets intense. 

Along with button mapping, the Razer Synapse 3 application allows you to customize up to five different sensitivity levels - each level can be set between 100 and 20,000 DPI, and you can set different sensitivities for X and Y axis movements. The sensitivity selector buttons are located under the scroll wheel and sit flush with the body of the mouse. This means that you won't accidentally change sensitivities with your palm or finger in the heat of the moment. The thumb paddle acts as a DPI clutch when held down, allowing you to select a lower sensitivity to make precise aiming adjustments when using sniper rifles or other long-range weapons.

In Dead by Daylight, the side mouse buttons and thumb paddle are ideal for toggling crouching and running, allowing freer movement and camera control. Assigning the QTE response, pallet drop, and hook struggle buttons was a little awkward no matter where they were placed on the mouse. However this is a minor complaint and comes down to a matter of preference. In Stardew Valley, having so many mappable buttons made it so much easier to select items and tools from the hotbar, which allows us to switch between mining for stone and gems to slashing slimes and cave bees more easily.  

If you're planning on adding RGB lighting elements to your gaming rig, the Basilisk V2 has two lighting zones between the logo and scroll wheel. With the Synapse 3 application, you can customize everything from brightness to color. You can choose between five different quick effects including: spectrum cycling, static color, breathing, reactive and audio meter.

There is also a settings menu to allow you to turn off the lighting altogether when your display is turned off or when the mouse is idle for a certain period of time. If you want more control over the lighting customization, you have to download a separate Chroma Studio module. We honestly can't recommend this to anyone who isn't willing to sink a ton of time into changing around light and color schemes, since the Chroma Studio program is a lot deeper than it needs to be for a mouse with only two lighting zones.

The Basilisk V2 has on-board memory to store up to five different layout profiles. These can be set up for different users or just different controls for your favorite games. You can actually tie specific games to each profile, allowing the mouse to automatically use a specific control and lighting scheme as soon as the game launches.

The limit to five profiles can be a bit of a hindrance if you want to set up custom control schemes for every game in your library. You can dedicate a single profile to a "generic" layout to cover a wide variety of genres and individual games, but that sort of defeats the purpose of having a custom profile. This can be especially frustrating for streamers who may be forced to pare down their game rotation or buy a secondary mouse for more profiles. 

But if you're an ordinary person who has just a few games in heavy rotation, the Basilisk V2 is an excellent choice. The price point may be a bit steep for some, but it's a good investment if you're looking for a mouse that has a ton of button mapping and lighting options as well as a design that is comfortable in the hand for long play sessions. 

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...