[Meatex]

Cyborg R.A.T 7

Of all mice I have seen the Cyborg R.A.T series easily stands out and causes many heads to turn. It certainly has a unique style to it - looking more like something from a transformers movie than a simple mouse and the reality kind of sits somewhere in the middle.

features

Like all good gaming mice the R.A.T 7 comes with adjustable dpi button above the mouse wheel and some extra buttons on the side. It also comes with the ability to make 3 profiles covering everything from sensitivity and remapped controls etc which can be swapped on the fly with a simple button press.
But again, thats something not uncommon on many gaming mice so lets have a look at a couple of things that this mouse has that is fairly unique.
You have the thumbscroll button and what they call the precision aim key. The latter basically just lowering the dpi while you hold down the button. In terms of gaming I have found that neither the precision aim or the thumbscroll has been very useful. The precision aim, I feel, has little practical use in game especially seeing how far away it is. Additionally the few games I have felt inclined to use the thumbscroll have not detected the input - meaning I would need to make a profile mapping keys to thumbscroll up and down.
Though I will say for 3d art, map making and video editing I have found precision aim tool to be somewhat useful ^^
Granted for some people both these aspect may be more accessible depending on how you have the mouse set up - which brings me to the BIG selling point of the R.A.T 7: customisation

Pic is of the R.A.T 9 - wireless version of R.A.T 7. The two sticks bottom right and the wireless mount are not part of the R.A.T 7

You have an amazing number of customization options with the R.A.T 7 as you can see, almost to a fault. Adjustable thumbrest, pinky rest, interchangeable and adjustable palm rests and weights. This is really the only mouse that you can almost guarantee will fit your grip style and be comfortable.
I use a half claw style grip and have found no mouse that really felt right until the R.A.T 7. But like I hinted at before, with so many options its hard to find or settle on "the best" set up. I spent 2~3 hours swapping out parts and trying different things till I settled on the set up I wanted. And further tweaked it down the line.
They do say that perhaps there is such thing as too much of a good thing

Build

The R.A.T 7 feels solid - I mean really solid. Unlike most mice a good portion of the R.A.T 7 is built from steel meaning even with all the weights removed its a heavy mouse but this means it feels really sturdy. Generally the build quality is higher than anything I have tried with mice (sorry razer fans). Buttons feel strong and give a nice click - even the 2 side buttons feel really nice and sturdy despite the size and positioning. The mouse wheel and thumb wheel both feel great and solid. My first R.A.T 7 did develop a problem with double clicking on a single click that cropped up at times but replacement has had no such problems and from reading support sites its a problem about as common as other mice.
You get a nice braided cord as well - everything about the mouse feels tough and well made.
But if you were starting to think like this was a paid review or something dodgy you may notice I haven't mentioned the optics.
If you like the sound of what you've read before you should be weary that the R.A.T 7 uses an optical system that has a few minor problems. If you use a small mouse pad and like to lift n shift your mouse a lot then you will notice the cursor will jitter a little and act weird - even just a few degrees off the mousepad and you will have problems. Sometimes I am unable to have the mouse register upward or downward movement briefly. This - I have read - is a problem with the optics engine used being very picky about staying flat and the type of surface you're using and is common to all mice with the same system. It isn't a very common occurance but it happens enough to prevent this mouse from being THE mouse.

verdict
Despite the problems I have with the optics - not everyone has this as noted; it depends on surface it seems - I still like this mouse a great deal. Most people have no problems and even in my case its twice a day at maximum with average of 6~8 hours of use per day. I could just be unlucky TT Had I know about the problems with optics I may have done a little more research on a mouse pad or waiting for the albino R.A.T 7 which has better optics but I just didn't like the white style as much :P
At roughly $100 Aus its not cheap - even as gaming mice go but worth it especially if you don't like the flimsy feel of other mice and want to make the mouse your own I'd highly recommend this mouse.