Razer Basilisk V3 Gaming Mouse Review

Image: HGG / Cody Campbell

Human Made

Penned by Cody D. Campbell

Cody has been a gamer ever since his family got a Sega Genesis when he was five-years-old. In addition to his love of narrative-focused RPGs and ho... Read more

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Wireless mice might be getting more popular now, but you still can’t beat the speed and reliability of a wired connection. With a solid USB cable, you never need to worry about interference, lag or your battery dying in a heated Valorant match. But even if you know you want a wired mouse, choosing the right one can be tricky. Today we’re going to look at the Razer Basilisk V3 gaming mouse.

Razer is easily one of the best-known gaming peripheral brands in the world. They aimed at giving players a solid, ergonomic option that was comfortable and easy to use with original Razer Basilisk and the Basilisk V2 improved on that formula even more. Now, Razer has released The Basilisk V3 which promises to be their most intuitive design yet. They sent us one so that we could give it a fair and unbiased review. Here’s what we found.

Unboxing and Build Quality

Inside the box, you’ll find the QuickStart guide, warranty information, some stickers and the mouse itself. The Basilisk V3 is all black just like its predecessors, with textured plates on the palm and buttons as well as rubberized grips on either side. This texture is also on the scroll wheel.

There are 11 programmable buttons: three on the thumb-side, three on the scroll wheel, two on the top, the right and left click buttons and then a Profile button on the bottom.

The cable is braided in a light, soft fabric that moves easily and offers little resistance. Overall, the mouse is comfortable to hold and easy to grip, even if your palms start to get sweaty during an intense match. The weight is on the lighter side, but it isn’t so light as to not give tactile feedback to the user.

Gaming Performance

We tested the Razer Basilisk V3 by playing some Halo Infinite.

The mouse was comfortable and responsive, even over long periods of time. The DPI can be adjusted anywhere from 100-26,000, giving it an amazing range of motion control that should be more than adequate for competitive gamers. The mouse glides easily and there was no notable cursor stuttering.

The Razer Gen 2 optical switches are clicky and feel good to use. The extra buttons on the thumb-side feel a bit mushier, however, particularly the DPI shift button near the tip of the thumb. They still function perfectly fine, but they feel like a weak point in an otherwise near-flawless design.

RGB and Razer Synapse Software

The Razer Basilisk V3 has an RGB strip that runs along the bottom rim of the mouse, creating an underlight effect on the mouse pad. The Razer symbol on the palm and scroll wheel light up as well. All of these can be controlled through the Chroma Studio in the Razer Synapse software.

There are 11 custom effects to choose from: Ambient Awareness, Audio Meter, Breathing, Fire, Reactive, Ripple, Spectrum Cycling, Starlight, Static, Wave, and Wheel.

Each of these have color, speed, and direction adjustment. They can also be applied to targeted areas on the mouse and even layered with other effect. It’s easily one of the of the more dynamic RGB software options on the market.

There are also a ton of more practical options available through the software. Users can control button mapping, set DPI stages, polling rate and even calibrate the mouses sensor to whatever kind of mouse pad you’re currently using. This is also where users can adjust the mouse’s smart scroll wheel.

There is an optional scroll acceleration feature that makes the mouse scroll faster the longer you scroll and the scrolling mode can be switch between tactile and free-spin. There is even a “Smart-Reel” function that switches between the two, moving from tactile to free-spin when you quickly flick the scroll wheel.

Is the Razer Basilisk V3 Worth the Money?

Unfortunately, the Razer Basilisk V3 is definitely on the expensive side, coming in at a whopping $69.99. That’s about the price that the last generation of gaming mice launched at too, but now most of its competition is going for much cheaper. The Logitech G502 Hero and Razor’s own Basilisk V2 can currently be found for between $35-40.

While it definitely feels like Razer has made some improvements in this newest iteration, (such as the increased DPI and Smart-Reel,) most gamers probably won’t find these features to be worth double the price. Only those who are willing to pay extra for the most cutting-edge peripherals on the market will be likely to find the value proposition worthwhile.

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