Cyborg R.A.T & F.L.Y Review!

Ever wanted to just pull apart a mouse just for fun, or maybe adjust it ever so slightly just to make it sit a bit more comfortable on your hand? Well, apparently the guys at Cyborg thought some gamers might, so they’ve gone and made a brand new line-up of their R.A.T series gaming mice.

The R.A.T comes in a few flavours and as a bonus we’ve got ourselves the F.L.Y:

Cyborg R.A.T 9 Wirelesss
Cyborg R.A.T 7
Cyborg R.A.T 5
Cyborg F.L.Y 5 Joystick

I’ll be taking a closer look at the R.A.T 7, which is considered the standard flagship model. In fact the only difference between the 7 and 9 is the added functionality of wireless to the 9.

Features:

• DPI range – 25-6400dpi (in 25dpi steps)
• Acceleration - 50G
• Polling Rate -Dynamic up to 1000Hz
• Tracking Speed - Up to 6m/sec
• Always On
• PTFE "Slick" Feet
• Gold plated connector
• Braided USB cable

The packaging comes in a nice triangulated jigsaw like mix of plastic and cardboard. Once you take out the main unit you’ll find a nice little velour padded box containing replaceable parts of the mouse. Quite a nifty little box I must say with each part featuring its own carefully moulded firm foaming.

Once I had the unit in my hand, the first thing I wanted to do was pull this bad boy apart as much as I can. Once you remove the carefully inserted screw driver like tool from the rear of the unit you are able to remove the pinky finger rest, loosen up the angle of the thumb rest and adjust the position of the thumb rest. So it does allow for interesting customization. The rear palm rest area is also removable and features a replacement with rubber padding for extra grip. The rear also allows you to adjust how far you would like to extend it towards the end.

First thing I noticed when using it, was that it was not designed for me. I like to claw my mice and this just was not setup to be used in that way. Even when I extended out the rear all it did was raise the back of my hand too much. This made it feel not so ergonomic. Some others in the office however found that using it with a full palm was actually quite good and comfortable. So you have the information of both types of users!

Apart from the strange feeling when gaming with it, it is actually quite a cool little mouse. Not only does it look cool but allows you to customize it ever so much to fit as closely as it can to your hands natural curvature. It is on the a bit pricey side (especially the wireless), however for the workmanship that’s gone into it, it is priced accordingly.

sahin.s@centrecom.com.au