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Which is the Best Razer Viper Mini or SteelSeries Rival 3 Gaming Mouse? An In-Depth Comparison
Nov
Which is the best Razer Viper Mini or SteelSeries Rival 3 gaming mouse?
SteelSeries and Razer are both trying to capture…
…the dollars of budget-conscious gamers with their latest gaming mouse.
To see which comes out better, we put SteelSeries’ Rival 3…
…and Razer’s Viper Mini under the microscope and to the test.
A few words from Jason…
I just bought this Razer Viper Mini, which have a great shape, are light, and are perfect for gaming.
The laser system also ensures that the button’s tactility and response are perfect.
However, the sensor leaves a lot to be desired…
…particularly in terms of liftoff distance, something that needs to be addressed in a future update.
If there was a wireless version with a better sensor, it would be similar to the Hero sensor.
Now let’s jump right in!
Which is the Best Razer Viper Mini or SteelSeries Rival 3 Gaming Mouse?
Specs
As its name implies, Razer Viper Mini takes the formula found…
…in the company’s larger Viper gaming mice and miniaturizes it.
It sports an 8500 DPI sensor with 300 IPS tracking, 35G acceleration…
…and Razer’s own house-brand optical switches – which the company claims last up to fifty million clicks.
“Both sensors have more than enough DPI range of up to 8500 DPI. They felt equally precise and responsive. The only difference is the lift off distance. It isn’t great on either mouse with the Viper Mini having of a lift of distance of 7 playing cars and Rival 3 tracking up to a height of 8 playing cards.”
You might be surprised by the metric for durability.
It’s important to remember that it’s actually borderline absurd.
Even if you received 5000 clicks every day, it would take you 27 years to surpass that guarantee.
While these types of claims are ridiculous amounts of time…
…they do inspire an equally single-minded confidence.
While I am not willing to spend the next 27 years using the Viper Mini…
…to find out if it really does fall apart after 50 million clicks, I am also not expecting it to fail before then.
During the review, I used software to start tracking my average clicks per day…
…and ended up with an average of 12,000 to 17,000 per day.
The number isn’t comprehensive or entirely accurate.
Even though I spend half my workday on a laptop…
…I have been playing a lot of click-heavy MMORPGs and I work from home.
The number of mouse clicks I make each day is probably…
…going to be a little higher than what it normally would be.
I would have to use the Viper Mini for a further 9 years before the switches inside begin to fail.
I consider that pretty good for a mouse that costs less than $100.
Comparatively, the SteelSeries Rival 3 is also specced with 8500 DPI, 300 IPS tracking and 35G acceleration.
The SteelSeries Rival 3 is equipped with more traditional mechanical switches than the Razer Viper Mini.
In comparison, I found there really wasn’t that much of a difference in terms of tactility between the two.
While it may not be a fully mechanical mouse, the Viper Mini feels just as satisfying to click on…
…as its SteelSeries counterpart nor does the Rival 3 feel any less durable than its onyx-clad competitor.
Check Razer Viper Mini Price on Work Rift
Weight
Compared to the Razer Viper Mini, the Rival 3 only weighs 77g.
This is one of the few things that makes the Viper Mini stand out from the competition.
Although both of these mice are extremely light…
…the Viper Mini feels much more agile and pleasant to use at lower sensitivities…
…due to its 16g lighter weight. For that reason alone, the Viper Mini is my favorite.
Mouse Clicks
Clicks on both mice were good, taking the right amount of force…
…to press and having the right distance between clicks.
As far as primary mouse clicks go, I can’t tell which is better, so there isn’t a lot to say about them.
Buttons
The other buttons on the mice had a more distinct difference.
Each mouse has six programmable buttons: two primary mouse clicks…
…the scroll wheel click, a button to change dpi behind the scroll wheel, and two side buttons.
The thin, sharp buttons on the Rival 3 took a lot of force to press, as I described in my review.
Even though I got used to them somewhat…
…they are unquestionably inferior to the buttons on the Viper Mini.
Keep reading…
Design
The Viper Mini is a gaming mouse that’s designed with ambidextrous use in mind…
…like the rest of Razer’s Viper line. You can buy this mouse without worrying if you’re left-handed.
It is also incredibly light – and weighs just 61g compared to SteelSeries Rival 3.
However, this weight does not contribute to its performance.
The matte finish on the mouse’s outside gives it a very cheap plastic feel…
…that does not work well with the Viper Mini’s featherweight design.
Apart from those details, the Razer Viper Mini looks and feels like any other Razer mouse.
All of its parts are black. Where your palm sits, there’s a backlit, moody logo.
On the top of the thing is a tactile scroll wheel and a quick-shift DPI toggle…
…flanked by two programmable buttons on the side.
The last but not least is Razer’s SpeedFlex cable.
The 1.8m long fabric tether connecting the Viper Mini…
…to your PC is one of the best features of this mouse over the more traditional Rival 3.
Viper Mini’s speedflex cable is basically the same as the SpeedFlex cable found…
…in Razer mice costing double or even triple the price of Viper Mini.
As someone with larger hands, the Viper Mini wasn’t always as comfortable to use…
…as I would have liked. Performance-wise, it met expectations…
…based on its specifications but, all the same, I wasn’t long in looking forward…
…to using something a little larger. You may experience different results.
Razer’s Viper Mini is focused on its smaller and lighter form factor…
…while SteelSeries’ Rival 3 is devoted to bringing pricier aesthetics to budget-conscious gamers.
To this end, the Rival 3 incorporates high-performance polymers…
…and materials that are highly durable.
This approach saved me a lot of time and energy.
On the whole, the Rival 3 is not much different from most of the SteelSeries lineup…
…but it feels far less generic and cheap than the Viper Mini.
Check Razer Viper Mini Price on Work Rift
Go on…
Customisation and RGB Lighting
It is surprisingly quiet when it comes to RGB Lighting on the Razer VIper Mini.
In addition to corporate branding, the mouse has a single lighting zone…
…which is all too often hidden by your hands when you use it.
As you’d expect, it does play well with Razer’s Chroma ecosystem.
If you own any other Razer hardware, this is a significant benefit.
Even if it’s not, it’s a good beginning, and we’ll likely hear more about RGB interoperability in the near future.
Razer’s Synapse software also integrates with the Viper Mini…
…so you can reprogram the mouse’s buttons and play around with the peripheral’s memory profiles.
With Rival 3, the story is similar. SteelSeries latest engine software…
…integrates seamlessly with Rival 3. By doing so, you can customize the buttons…
…and on-board memory profiles on the mouse.
All of this is standard stuff at this point, but seeing it is always better than not seeing it.
There is a slightly smaller RGB lighting strip on the SteelSeries Rival 3 than on the Viper Mini…
…but it stretches around more of the mouse overall.
In my opinion, this resulted in a better – or at least more noticeable – visual effect.
Last but not least…
Lights and Software
There are three RGB zones on the Rival 3 instead of just one resulting in much brighter lights.
There are a variety of cool effects you can create.
Razer Viper Mini, on the other hand, has a single RGB zone and is absolutely plain and boring.
It’s just a matter of considering the importance lighting has to you…
…since for most people the performance is more important than anything else.
I will mention the software quickly; both were easy to use and I wouldn’t say either was better than the other.
Each offers plenty of control and customisation, and both are easy to use.
Check Razer Viper Mini Price on Work Rift
Sum Up!
The only difference in performance between the mice is the weight…
…which is extremely similar. In my opinion, the Viper Mini’s lower weight…
…gives it a clear advantage over the Rival 3.
Conclusion
The Viper Mini is $10 more, so obviously you need to consider that.
Even though $30 isn’t a huge difference, depending on your budget…
…it might be the upper limit of what you are willing to spend.
In this case, the Rival 3 is still a very good mouse and worth its price tag.
People who grip with their palms should consider other mice…
…as neither of these mice are designed for that type of grip.
Since they are quite similar, users of claws and fingertips will probably not notice which method they use.
The Rival 3 is obviously the better looking mouse because of its superior RGB…
…but depending on how much you value looks, it might make a big difference to you.
However, I think most people are more concerned with performance than looks.
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