Patriot Viper V570 Blackout Edition RGB Mouse Review

A Closer Look and Performance

First up,  let’s take a quick nosy at their new RGB mouse mat. The first thing that stands out is just how slim it is, with many rivals like Corsair and Razer having much thicker units. I think thinner is good by the way, that’s not a criticism.

It ditches the need for software too and is the first mouse mat with RGB lighting I’ve seen which relies on a cable controller system. You can flick through colours and effect modes with ease!

There’s a micro-USB port at the back, simple as that. What’s unique is that one, the cable is removable, and two, there’s no big bump for the port housing. Corsair, Razer, and others, all have a lump on the back of the mat… well, now we know it can be done without one.

It features multiple lighting zones around the entire edge of the mat, as well as an RGB lit Viper logo on the top side. Right, that’s about as much mouse mat as we need, for now, let’s get the mouse out of the box!

Viper V570 RGB

The mouse comes hard-wired with a long USB cable. It features a durable braiding, as well as a gold-plated connector, giving it a nice premium quality looks and feel.

The mouse features a customisable weight system too. There’s a small storage tin, which houses seven small weights that you can add to the mouse to increase the weight and feel of it.

Blackout Edition

The previous model of this mouse featured a lot of garish red buttons and plastic, but that’s all changed now. The mouse is, you guessed it, blacked out. The new all-black design looks significantly better. Of course, this will clash less with the RGB lighting system too. Having blue lights and red plastics… urgh, no thanks.

The mouse features a 13 programmable button design, which is a freaking lot for any gaming mouse. Down the left side alone, you’ve got five side switches, as well as a sniper mode button. However, every switch is fully programmable, so how you configure all of this is up to you. For gaming, it’s a huge benefit to have your macros and shortcuts within easy reach. The sniper thumb button is excellent though. If you program it to drop the DPI while held down, it can give you one heck of a performance edge for those scoped in headshots in FPS titles.

Right Handed Only

The mouse has a beautiful ergonomic design, albeit for right-handed gamers only. You can dig your thumb into the left side, while the right provides comfortable curves to have it fit the palm of your hand like a glove. Every hand is different, and people do play differently too. However, I found it works well for both palm rest and fingertip grips, so you don’t feel limited by design.

So Much Control!

The crazy ergonomics continue up top too, with the mouse sloping off heavily to one side. Again, this mimics the more comfortable and natural angle of your hand and wrist, so it has benefits for those long gaming sessions. There’s a massive and weighted scroll wheel too. The wheel is nice and grippy, with a light but tactile “bump” when turned, and a good click when pressed, making it easy to navigate with. There’s are two more programmable buttons behind it, which are DPI up and down by default, but you can set them to anything you like. If that’s not enough, there are two more wing buttons next to the LMB. I find these work great as copy and paste shortcuts. However, you can set them to melee/block for some games, and that works well.

The top of the mouse uses separate mounts for both the LMB and RMB, giving them a more defined click and added control.

One of the best features, however, is the weight tuning system. I love a heavier mouse for fluid movement. However, leave the weights out, and it’s super light and nimble, which is excellent for twitchy shooters. The weights are placed over the top of the mouse too, helping you get better weight distribution.

Glide Free!

Teflon is common for slipmats, but what about ceramic? Well, it does take some getting used to, as the mouse acts like it’s on ice. This is a good thing though, and for smooth and nimble control, it cannot be beaten. If anything, it moves too quickly, but again, this is more of a benefit once you get used to it.

Unleash the RGB

Straight away, you can see how the Blackout model looks so much better with the RGB lighting. The focus is now the lights, not like the old red plastic buttons. There’s edge lighting on both sides of the mouse, as well as on the scroll wheel, and the Viper logo. You can configure the whole thing through the mouse software with ease too. It really pairs up nicely with the Viper mouse mat too. However, mouse mats are subjective in what kind of surface you like, and this one is quite hard. With Ceramic feet and the hard mat, the mouse glides like it’s on ice, which is pretty fun.

The lighting on both devices is excellent, with vivid and bright colours, and multiple lighting zones that allow for some smooth transitional effects and ambient light.

When it comes to gaming, the V570 is a nimble beast. For some, it may have more buttons than you want or need. However, for MMO and MOBA game types, having a few cheeky macros at your disposal is no bad thing. A sniper button is a powerful tool for FPS gaming too. However, the mouse is just as reliable to use in the office.

The 12000 DPI sensor is pretty extreme at the top end, but for ultra-high-resolution displays, it’s great for fast navigation of large maps in RTS gaming. Of course, with so many programmable buttons, you can quickly change the DPI on the fly too.

Overall, I can’t fault this mouse. With so many buttons and options at your disposal, it’s adept at any game type you throw at it, making it great value for money.