Razer pays tribute to the famous Koss Pro-4AA in design — an 1970’s headset, cute round-shaped shell, sponge earmuffs, dual-sided height adjustment rods, the position of the volume potentiometer and the wire connector are almost the same. This visual impact is similar to a colour-contrasting design, which is abrupt but harmonious, and also bringing a touch of elegance to the intensive Esports.

KOSS PRO-4AA

Razer Blackshark V2 X

The Package Appearance

Razer Blackshark V2 X Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-audio/razer-blackshark-v2-x

Package Front

Package Back

Package Sides

The headset main body and the accessories include:
User manual, Razer 7.1 surround sound activation card, sticker

Audio splitter cable and the collection bag

The main body of Razer Blackshark V2 X has an old fashion design on the outside.

The head beam angle cannot be twisted. The head beam part is made by a thick and single-layered form pad, which can fully stick to the head and provides comfortable pressure.

The material inside the earmuffs is officially described as breathable memory foam

The volume potentiometer

The Razer Hyperclear cardioid microphone

The microphone mute button

The headset comes with a 3.5mm combo header, an extension splitter cable also provided
The material of these cables are the standard rubber cable

The total weight of Razer Blackshark V2 X is 270g includes the extension cable (30g around)

The Product Disassembling

The Razer Blackshark V2 X has used a pair of 50mm 3 in 1 driver which has a 12 Hz – 28 kHz frequency response, 32Ω at 1 kHz impedance and Sensitivity at 1khz is 100 dB SPL/mW

The 50mm TriForce unit
This customised unit has integrated with three individual high, mid and low audio frequencies replications

The I/O connector boards

The earmuffs

The height adjustment rods

Software Analysis

The RAZER SYNAPSE software is not supported, we have to use the Razer 7.1 Surround Sound software to enable the full performance of this headset.

User should visit https://www.razer.com/71-surround-sound to download the software and use the activation code to unlock the features. It’s like an upgraded version of the previous Razer Surround software, but if the user wants to customise the position of the virtual speakers, a paid upgrade called ‘Razer THX SPATIAL AUDIO’ is also available. Unfortunately, this upgrade only supports under US and Singapore store

The Hearing Analysis

MUSIC MODE
7.1 Surround Sound MODE OFF
Turn off the 7.1 Surround Sound mode will keep the headset under stereo mode. However, this ‘tri-band’ unit is specially designed for playing games, the high-freq level is a bit sharp and crispy. The mid-freq is quite good but also been limited, the human voice will be pulled very thin, resonance and reverberation will be infinitely lowered to ensure the purity. Also, the low-freq is basically nothing.

7.1 Surround Sound MODE ON
Turn on the 7.1 Surround Sound mode will increase the sound field a little bit but not really improved a lot. It will bring the human voice to the back.

GAMING MODE
7.1 Surround Sound MODE OFF
Turn off the 7.1 Surround Sound mode will narrow the background music down for some AAA games, it’s not designed for enjoying the elaborated musical composition for full orchestra.

7.1 Surround Sound MODE ON
Under the virtual surround mode, this headset will exert its Esports power. Simple design, precise positioning and lightweight is the Blackshark V2 X’s designing language. When we playing CS:GO, this headset can quickly and accurately feedback the enemy’s footsteps and the volume of the distance, experienced players can judge the approximate location of the enemy on the map and the type of the guns they used through the echo of the gunshots in the distance.

MOBILE PHONE EXPERIENCE
Most of the MOBA or PUBG liked games on the mobile phone are not supporting 7.1 or virtual 7.1 channels headset, plus, the decent phones are getting rid of the headphone jack unless you using an adapter. However, playing FPS game on a phone with the Razer Blackshark V2 X headset, compared with the ordinary Bluetooth earbuds or wired earphone, the unique comfort of the headset, no delay without the wireless transmissions and the clear game sound effect brought by the large 50mm unit will get a larger sound field for precise positioning. Also, the noise reduction microphone will allow players to communicate with their teammates to enhance the gaming experience.

Overall

First of all, we think the Razer Blackshark V2 X is a good Esports headset. Putting aside some design flaws, the appearance is classic enough. Although there is no RGB effect, it is not a problem to attract a wave of fans.

At the same time, the only 240g overall weight and the comfortable wearing experience are also highlights that deserve recognition. And from the perspective of sound performance, the quality of the unit is also quite good. Although the gaming performance is not perfect at all, because it’s designed for Esports, there’s nothing more to be complaints about.

Finally, is this headset worth buying? In Australia, you can get it for only $99! and this will be the Razer’s most cost-effective gaming headset in the retail market. With the traditional analogue connection, players can use it on most of the gaming devices, mobile phones, PC and laptops etc. If you want to buy a cheap and practical Esports designed product, the Razer Blackshark V2 X is actually a perfect device to consider.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 93.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, DESIGN AWARD, BEST VALUE

Razer Blackshark V2 X OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Surprisingly, we thought that the WS65 would be a power-eating beast like MSI GT series, but the design of a 230W single power supply brought a touch of portability to this workstation.

So let’s dig in the details with the following benchmark.

Product Specification

WS65 9TM Tech Specs from Official Website
https://www.msi.com/Workstation/WS65-Mobile-Workstation/Specification

Product Unboxing

Package Appearance
The outer packaging is still packed with a yellow recycled carton

Different from the gaming series, the MSI workstation uses the same white packaging from PS series, elegant and professional

the main body is warped by a double-layered suit which has an anti-static layer and a black fabric layer

Product Analysis

Compared to the similar size GS65 Stealth, the WS65 9TM has the exact same chassis design

MSI GS65

MSI WS65

The main looking of WS65

The thin-bezel design

The total thickness is only 17.9 mm, and the bottom side is 13.29mm thick

The opening angel of this laptop is 180°

The numeric keypad has been removed. This is actually a relatively unsuccessful design, because for designers, more shortcut combinations needs it

The Keyboard backlight, bright but not too sharp

The touchpad size has been adjusted as the same as the GS75 with a fingerprint reader, which integrated a TPM v2 chip to enhance the security

The 720p camera on the top of the B cover is next to the built-in directional noise reduction microphone

The power supply is a single 230W design from Chicony, A17-230P1A

I/O Analysis

The laptop front side – only a battery indicator located on the right side of the front edge, very simple design

The laptop rear side – Has the same design as GS65, the irregular triangle cooling fence also brings modern feeling

The laptop right side – I/O are the Micro SD card readers, 1 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen2, 1 x Type-C (USB3.2 Gen2 / DP / Thunderbolt™3), 1 x mini DP, 1 x HDMI 2.0 (4K@60Hz) and the power jack

The laptop left side – I/O are the Kensington Lock, 1 x Gb LAN, 2 x USB3.2 Type-A Gen1, headphone port and microphone port

The laptop weight: 1.92KG

The laptop with power adapter package overall weight: 2.65KG

Screen Analysis

The screen panel is B173ZAN03.0, 17.3″, 16:9 60Hz 4K IPS IGZO, 100% Adobe RGB, manufactured by AUO

Screen Calibration
WS63 is using a 4K UHD Sharp LQ156D1JW42 IPS panel and it was pre-calibrated. The display is awesome with colours that appear and only a minor level of graininess despite the matte overlay. In the end, we decided not to perform a secondary calibration to prevent an interfere with the previously corrected data

Hardware & Software Introduction

MSI Workstation Logo

MSI Workstation Wallpaper

Windows 10 Desktop looking

Windows 10 Info page

HWiNFO64 System details

CPU-Z snapshots

GPU-Z snapshots

LAN chip – Qualcomm Atheros AR8171/8175 Gigabit LAN
WIFI Card – Intel Wireless-AC 9560 with Bluetooth v5

SSD – 1TB Samsung PM981

MSI Creator Center – Creator Mode, is allows user to turn on/off software acceloration

MSI Creator Center – System Monitoring, is allows user to check the machine details

MSI Creator Center – System Tuner, is allows user to change the performance profile and adjust the screen settings

MSI Creator Center – Battery Master, is allows user to check and switch the battery performance

MSI Creator Center – Tools & Help, is allows user to manage the warranty and help support and add more applications shortcuts

Run-time Benchmark Test

Before the test, we are enabled the Ultimate Power Performance setting in Win10

CPU-Z Benchmark – according to the result, there is nearly no difference compared with an i9-9900K on a desktop

AIDA64 Memory & Cache benchmark

Cinebench R15 Results – Single core & multi-core

Cinebench R20 Results – Single core & multi-core

SSD Benchmark – TxBENCH

PCMark10 Benchmark: 4,987
Results Link: https://www.3dmark.com/pcm10b/678000

3DMark Fire Strike : 16,035

3DMark Fire Strike Extreme : 8,576

3DMark Fire Strike Ultra : 4,449

3DMark Time Spy : 6,889

3DMark Time Spy Extreme : 3,097

3DMark Port Royal : 4,069

Workstation Benchmark
VRAY Benchmark

SPECviewperf 13 – The overall results

SPECviewperf 13 – Catia

SPECviewperf 13 – CREO

SPECviewperf 13 – Energy

SPECviewperf 13 – MAYA

SPECviewperf 13 – Medical

SPECviewperf 13 – Showcase

SPECviewperf 13 – SNX8

SPECviewperf 13 – Solid works

SPECviewperf 13 – 3DSMAX

Thermal Tests

We are pressure testing this workstation by using AIDA64 and Cinebench.
Test room temperature : 23℃±2℃
CPU Idle temperature : 37℃±2℃
GPU idle temperature : 48℃

Under AIDA64 Single FPU pressure test, this Intel i9-9880H is overheat and throtting down around 17%
The CPU package temperature is around 97℃±2℃

Under AIDA64 CPU & GPU pressure test, this Intel i9-9880H is overheat but not throtting down
The CPU package temperature is around 89℃±2℃

Under Cinebench R15 benchmarking, this Intel i9-9880H is overheat and throtting down around 17%
The CPU package temperature is around 96℃±3℃

The surface full load temperature : Top around 42℃, Buttom around 34℃

The surface full load temperature (Left part of the exhausting fence): Main tunnel around 47℃, Top case around 34℃

The surface full load temperature (Right part of the exhausting fence): Main tunnel around 45℃, Top case around 36℃, Buttom side LCD panel around 40℃

Disassembling analysis

It’s extremely easy to disassemble the backplate

The backplate

The laptop back looking and disassembling

Battery, 5280mAh manufactured by Getac, 80Wh

Samsung DDR4 2666 2 x 16GB Dual Channel : M471A2K43CB1 – CTD

SSD : Samsung PM981 1TB

WIFI & Bluetooth card : Intel 9560NGW, 2.4G/5G, 300Mbps + 1730Mbps 160MHz channels, Bluetooth v5

The CPU chipset and power supply Heatsink : 5 Pipes

The GPU chip from Nvidia, N19E-Q5-A1 which is the Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 with 16GB GDDR6

The INTEL i9-9880HK CPU

The back of CPU and GPU power supply

The PCH chipset

The SSD slots, both slot support m.2 NVMe SSD

The Motherboard model & version MS-16Q41 Ver 1.0

EC Chip

The heatsink fans from A-power BS5005HS-U3I DC 5V 0.5A and BS5005HS-U3J 5V 0.5A

SUMMARY

According to the benchmark result, with the high-performance Quadro card, the overall performance in the professional field from the SPECviewperf result is very competitive with other mobile workstations. And MSI is currently the only company that makes mobile workstations thin and light, abandoning the bulk design and pursuing fashion and beauty, while taking into account performance. At the same time, the high-frequency single-core speed of CPU also guarantees certain gaming performance, and the large-sized memory, NVMe SSD and rich expansion I/O ports promote this workstation also suitable for music production and film editing, 4K IPS level high-resolution and the pre-calibrated screen has excellent color reproduction for photography and graphic editing. However, the WS65 is not satisfactory in terms of heat dissipation. The casing and cooling system that used from their GS65 series cannot suppress the super-heating 8-core i9-9880H and the performance monster Quadro RTX5000 graphics card. The former inevitably hit the voltage wall when calling the AVX instruction set, resulting in overheating and throttling of nearly 20% of the performance, while the heat of GPU is significantly increased because they share the same cooling system. Therefore, it seems necessary to prepare a laptop cooler stand to give this heater a little help.

In general, MSI WS65 9TM is an excellent mobile workstation. Compared to other brands like HP or DELL, which are relatively conservative design concepts of major manufacturers, MSI has always been a model of innovative business in the area. With the development of technology, stronger-performance and more power-efficient chips will have an inestimable impact on the field of mobile workstations, which means this kind of laptop can also be thinner and more stylish, designers will enjoy the benefits of a high-performance workstation in coffee bars. This is the inevitable result brought by innovation.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 91.5/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC EXTREME POWER & DESIGN AWARD

MSI WS65 9TM OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Package Appearance
The outside packaging
Razer has changed the packaging to reduce the size and weight of the outer box

The player on the package is Taco from the Counter-Strike e-sports team MIBR

The list of e-sports teams that are currently using Razer mouses

The inside packaging — The mouse and accessories

The instruction manual and Razer sticker

Product Analysis
Razer hasn’t used the integrated upper shell design like they have on their mid and high-level product line. Instead, Razer have adopted the Viper’s old design. The left, right and upper shells of the mouse were composed of three pieces of ABS plastic, with a symmetrical design.

The Razer Viper is frosted in all areas where it has direct hand contact, which has been done for slip resistance, and the non-slip rubber on both sides is different from the previous Razer mouse. Because of the need to keep weight under control, the rubber on both sides is relatively thin, but still providing a very good anti-slip ability. At the same time, Razer Viper may be the mouse with the lowest back curve in the past few years. After the low-back design of the Zowie FK series was welcomed by the FPS gaming market, it seems that Razer has also got the point and decide to lower the back curve of the mouse with a height of only 3.7cm

In FPS games that requires a right-clicking, the low-back design is more popular for gamers, and the new Viper with a short tail design, reduces the pressure on the palm when holding

Razer Speedflex cable
The Razer Viper uses a new braided wire called the “SpeedFlex Cable”, which is similar to an umbrella wire. The SpeedFlex cable is significantly lighter than the woven wire used on previous Razer mouses. It has a thicker wire diameter and soft filling material inside. Moreover, the SpeedFlex Cable does not have the deformation memory effect that is caused by excessive bending

In actual use, players will clearly feel the updated experience of the new SpeedFlex cable

There is a large area of adhesive tape on the bottom of the mouse to ensure smooth use

The default CPI switch button of this mouse is designed at the bottom. A total of 5 profiles can be set from 400, 800, 1800, 2400 and 3200

The weight of the mouse without the cable is only 68g

Software Analysis
New Razer products are now managed by Razer Synapse 3
Razer Synapse 3 Dashboard

Razer Viper buttons customise panel
Because the mouse has an asymmetrical design, it is easily mapped and fully customisable, the ‘Hypershift’ function also enables the ‘Shift’ function on the mouse to enable more combination keys

Razer Viper Performance control panel
The CPI of this mouse can be asynchronously customised for XY axes, up to 16000 cpi and Polling Rate up to 1000 Hz, CPI can be customised for 5 files with different triangle colour LED indicators

Razer Synapse Chroma RGB design panel

Performance Test
When a mouse has a lower weight, it’s easier to highlight player’s own skill when they are playing high-intensity e-sports games, because the lightweight design means more precise control under low CPI conditions, especially for snipers. And for pro e-sports players, a lighter mouse can reduce the strain on their wrist joints, the weight of 69g is a very big attraction.

We have tested the mouse on the most popular mouse pads: Fine coated pad, aluminum, soft silicone pad, fine fabric cloths thin pad and coarse fabric cloths thin pad.

The tests are based on the mouse’s start, Smoothness, Brake, and Transparency.

Fine coated pad
Start: Medium feeling on both Static friction and dynamic friction
Smoothness: Extremely smooth
Brake: Easy to brake and good positioning accuracy
Transparency: Very good contact, no heightened sense of passage that results in misalignment on the Z-axis

Aluminum pad
Start: Very low felling on both Static friction and dynamic friction
Smoothness: It is very smooth, but the maintenance is relatively difficult. The Teflon feet skates will be frayed quickly by the aluminum surface
Brake: Easy to brake and good positioning accuracy
Transparency: Very good contact, no heightened sense of passage that results in misalignment on the Z-axis

Soft silicone pad
Start: This textured pad makes the higher static and dynamic friction feeling
Smoothness: Medium smooth
Brake: Easy to brake and relatively accurate positioning
Transparency: a relatively thin thickness of the cushion, the material is quite solid and the permeability is good

Fine fabric cloths thin pad
Start: Low static friction and very high dynamic friction
Smoothness: Very smooth
Brake: Easy to brake, positioning is accurate, the resistance is light. Muscle memory is easier to form and more friendly for novices
Transparency: A thin pad with soft material and good permeability

Coarse fabric cloths thin pad
Start: Medium static friction, low dynamic friction
Smoothness: Extremely smooth
Brake: Easy to brake and relatively accurate positioning
Transparency: A thin pad with soft material and good permeability

IIn general, this mouse has a very adaptable feeling that directly related to light-weighted design. Similarly, this type of mouse is not suitable for a thick mouse pad. The high sensitivity of the sensor will cause Z-axis shaking and lead to unnecessary displacement.

In terms of the button touch feeling, according to the Razer official propaganda, the Razer’s exclusive purple-dot microswitch focuses on clicking life and no rebound delay, but in actual use, we believe that this unique feeling is the important point. It has a different click sound and feedback compared with Omron’s 50M series micro switch that implemented in mid and high range gaming mice. The overall feedback is more compact and the button sound is correspondingly lower, it is not the kind of crisp sound that Omron often has. In addition, compared to other same level mouses, Viper’s new optical microswitch has a significantly lower feedback delay, this is because the optical technology uses a light speed trigger which allows users to feel the fastest response time of about 0.2 milliseconds when playing games and also 3 times faster than the traditional mechanical microswitch.

There are also some huge changes to the scroll wheel design. Viper uses a hollow-carved design to reduce the weight and the scrolling feedback is quite clear. The wheel button has also been carefully tuned for moderate triggering force.

The side button position is properly arranged to prevent accidental pressing. Razer decided to arrange the side keys on both sides subtly in a position where you can easily reach them with your thumb raised slightly, and the other side’s button is not easy mistakenly pressed by the ring finger. These four buttons all have a very low-profile design, it is almost on the same plane of mouse top case, which will further reduce the frequency of mis-pressing keys.

In the actual gaming experience, for FPS games, the accuracy improvement led by light-weighted design that cannot be expressed in words. The force we use on the relatively heavy-weighted mouse that moves 1mm is totally different compared with the light-weighted mouse. This can be perfectly reflected on a smooth mouse pad, and the light-weighted mouse does not suffer from an excessive displacement caused by the instantaneous high static friction that often occurs with the mouse.

Razer is experienced in the adjustment of the PAW3390 sensor. There is no problem with the sensor during actual use, and the optical sensor is fully sufficient in performance for normal usage. Generally, in FPS gaming, the commonly used CPI segment is around 600 – 1000, and it’s a bit lower for snipers.

Disassembling Analysis
The Backplate has 4 screws that hidden under the mouse feet’s

The inside of the mouse

The upper cover of the mouse has a very simple design due to the weight reduction, the side keypad and the RGB light guide are embedded inside

The mouse bottom side part

Microswitch
The two main buttons are using the Razer Optical Mouse Switch which has a superfast 0.2 milliseconds response. Since the electrical signal can be transmitted without mechanical contact, the Razer optical mouse micro switch is difficult to wear under heavy usage. As a result, this microswitch has a durability of up to 70 million clicks, which has a 40% better than the most durable microswitches in the market.

The side button board
The four red-dots microswitches used by the side buttons are from Changfeng, the model is ‘kw10-01WR’, 1 million button life and 70 ± 25 gf

The mouse wheel part and the top button board

The roller encoder comes from Kailh’s EN7236 series, 10 – 25 gf.cm, 100,000 lifespan

The mainboard for this mouse

The bottom side of the main board

The sensor is PAW3390 from PixArt, which has the same 16000 cpi, 450 IPS and 50 G acceleration of Mamba Elite. Compared to the TM3 engine from Steelseries, they are both high-end and have the same performance instability.

The controller chip is LPC51U68 from NXP

The optical sensor and cover

Usability Analysis
To test the line correction, frame loss, and the smoothness, we are using the mousetest from Areson

This mouse doesn’t have the line correction function

The Frame loss control and the smoothness control are also quite good

We also tested this mouse by using Enotus Mouse Test

Finally, we are using the powerful MouseTester v1.5
By using its powerful plot function, we are tested several mouse performances

xCounts vs Time
While the average line is smoother, which means it’s more liner on the mouse track movement; while the points of the counts are much closer to the line, which means the jitter of the engine is lower. As the graph shows, the result of this performance is quite good in different CPIs

1800 cpi is under a normal use level, jitter is not large and relatively stable

800 cpi, jitter is a bit low

1800 cpi, jitter starts to be unstable

2400 cpi, jitter is under a usable level

3200 cpi, jitter is still under a usable level

6400 cpi, jitter is significantly increased, but still can be used, top level of the range

12800 cpi, jitter becomes larger and unstable, and the usability begins to decrease

16000 cpi, jitter is basically kept the same level as the 12800 cpi, and the usability is not under a usable level

yCounts vs Time
If there is a straight-line correction/angle function, the y-axis offset will remain at 0 for a long time. As the graph shows, the result of this performance is very good

X vs Y
This function is to detect mouse frame loss, As the graph shows, the result of this performance is quite good

xyVelocity vs Time
The unit of velocity is m/s. This test is mainly to look at the acceleration of the mouse. As the graph shows, the point of Razer Viper is better for curve fitting, that means the jumped-like rapid acceleration rarely appears, The line of fit is coherent and also has a dense distribution

If there is a good device that allows the mouse to move at a constant speed, in this case, the speed line is a straight line, if the engine has acceleration, it will fluctuate, so this is the most ideal test method. The result of this performance is quite good

Summary
Razer highlighted a new concept ‘Absolute Control’ on this new Viper, whether the light-weighted design, the SpeedFlex cable, the re-customised microswitch or the deeper matte finishes, they all born from the concept of ‘Absolute Control’.

The professional player needs a weapon that responds quickly, sensitively and can fight for a long time. These elements are present as features in the Viper. It can be said that Razer Viper is a special super rifle tailored for professional-grade FPS players, which will perfectly restore the true skill for them.

The new Razer Viper is a signal that Razer is ready to enter the professional FPS field. There is not much redundant function, only for the ultimate ‘absolute control’. The light-weighted 68g plus the overall feel adjustment brings the mouse a completely new feel that is totally different from the previous Razer mouse. Like the old Viper 15 years ago, the new Viper is also the founder of a new era, this mouse is expected to appear in the hands of professional CSGO players in the future, in more event scenes, and on more players’ desktops.

In terms of price, it’s only AU$134.95. If you’re tired of the high pricing of other light-weighted mice or the homogenous design of holes, be sure to try the new Razer Viper, because it’s really a gaming mouse for e-sports.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED & DESIGN AWARD

RAZER VIPER GAMING MOUSE OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www2.razer.com/au-en/gaming-mice/razer-viper