A couple of years too late!
After all the bad experience with Razer rubber surface ranted here, I still ended up getting a Razer. After looking out for other brands like Roccat, CM Storm and Steel series, none of the aesthetic suits my preference. And of course Mass Effect 3 is an 2012 affair. But this special edition is heavily discounted at 50% off, making it as cheap as an Abyssus and the older version of Imperator.
To begin, this is an 2012 version of Imperator, therefore possess the 6400DPI double sensors I can't fathom myself utilizing. But I just get it anyway, due to the attractive price. It comes in typical Razer packaging with Mass Effect gracing the background. Immediately from the see through window, you will notice the wire is made of fabric, which is a welcomed change as seen below.
Design wise, I find ME3 version of Imperator superior to its original clone. Forgoing Razer brand image, it is replaced with a non luminous N7 logo used by Commander Shepard. The usual boring rubber top surface is replace with texture similar to Mass Effect universe's armor. In fact, I find this product as one of the better tie-ups with blockbuster gaming release that utilize their art style and IP to great artistic effect. Most of them are lazy "stick a name and wallpaper" products, with the most recent Battlefield 4 editions coming to my mind (EWW!).
The rubber seems to be similar to the one found on Abyssus, which is pretty bad from my personal experience. Any manufacturing improvement made by Razer remains to be seen, but considering the popularity of my mouse cleaning post, I doubt so. I also doubt the armor decal will be resistant to wear and tear, which going to be a shame since I'm really fond of it.
Quality control is pretty bad as the left side button tactile effect is different from the right. It may be minor but noticeable for me to feel pretty annoyed. Upon further identification, clicking different part of the left side button result in very different tactile effect. Unfortunately, the strange tactile effect is in the middle of the left button which is most comfortable to rest your pointer finger on.
I mean seriously, other than the sensor, the next most important thing on a gaming mouse is the left and right mouse click buttons. And if a 10 SGD budget mouse that comes bundled with your system for free can give you uniform tactile effect, a gaming peripheral company couldn't get it right? SHAME ON YOU, RAZER.
What Hyperesponse buttons? Can I have normal ones please. Gosh!
The top 2 mouse button below the scroll allows you to adjust DPI on the fly. You can have the maxium of 5 levels that can be tweaked and saved using the driver. The additional 2 button at the left side can be customized as usual. What's cool is the inclusion of a switch that allows you to adjust the 2 side button position. The scrolling wheel is really smooth and enjoyable to use, without the usual clicking effect and resistance when scrolled.
The dual sensors are used for surface calibration to increase accuracy. I can't comment on this feature as I do not have tracking issue on my Roccat Taito with both my Abyssus nor Imperator without calibration. 6400DPI isn't the highest end in their offering right now, but seriously, I never felt that chasing these numbers are absolutely necessary. In fact, I'm using 3000DPI for DOTA2 at the moment. Any more than that is simply beyond a normal mortal like me to control comfortably.
A new feature not included in my Abyssus is Synapse 2.0. This innovative feature allows settings to be saved into a storage within the mouse or cloud. This allows you to bring the mouse settings on different machines and OS upgrades.
This review is written in the assumption you are able to purchase it 50% off at 69.90 SGD. At such price for top of the range product,even from an overhyped company, is still a good deal. Personally, I found ME3 edition to be extremely attractive and the red LED is a great match with my CM Storm casing. Any change in rubber quality will be feed backed after prolong use in the future and not part of today's evaluation, penalty in the quality sub section is for the disappointing left click button, which I FIRMLY believe is unacceptable for a gaming mouse.
Overall: 8/10 (Not an average)
Features: 9/10 (wish for changeable LED color)
Performance: 10/10 (More than I can utilize)
Aesthetic: 10/10 (Subjective but I love it!)
Quality: 5/10 (Un-uniform tactile effect on gaming mouse main buttons, u kidding me?!)
Price: 10/10 (69.9 SGD? What you waiting for?!)
Update: Others seems to have the same issue that I have been experiencing with my left button as uploaded here. Another user here,is complaining about different tactile effect on the buttons but did not describe explicitly enough. For me, you can feel a secondary vibration not caused by the switch when you press down. As you release, the vibration would manifest again, furthermore these secondary vibration produce a low but noticeable sound. Since my right button isn't suffering from this issue, making the right button defect feels extremely noticeable and annoying.
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