Razer Basilisk V3 Pro review: Heavyweight contender

The Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro is a lightweight dream, but the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro forges a different path. If you’re a gamer like me who likes some heft in their mice, the Basilisk V3 Pro is absolutely worth considering. While pricey to get it fully decked out, the base version can be nabbed for a bargain that should keep you in the game for years to come.

With a $289 RRP, the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro is reasonably priced compared to its peers, even if it is drifting closer to the $300 mark rather than the $250 the others sit nearer. That base price nets you a well-weighted gaming mouse that’s great for everyday use and a joy for shooters.

The costs go up, though, if you want to pimp out this mouse properly. It’s $327 RRP for the Basilisk V3 Pro with a wireless charging puck, or $418 RRP for the mouse, charging puck and the Razer Mouse Dock Pro. Razer sent me the latter combo for review and not only does the Razer Mouse Dock Pro offer a magnetic charging station for the Basilisk V3 Pro, it also ups the polling rate from a very respectable 1,000Hz to an overkill 4,000Hz.

I knew I was going to love the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro as soon as I unboxed it. As a big fan of online shooters, my go-to mouse for years was the Logitech G502 Lightspeed before migrating to the SteelSeries Rival 650 Wireless. Suffice it to say, after my initial testing, the Rival 650 Wireless has now officially been sent out to pasture.

One of my favourite parts of the G502 is the thumb rest that keeps one guiding digit off the mousepad and removes some of the gliding drag with my hybrid palm grip. That’s a very welcome part of the Basilisk V3 Pro, buttressed by an easy-to-reach sensitivity-modifying button and two effortless-to-activate mouse thumb buttons.

On top of the Basilisk V3 Pro are responsive primary mouse buttons and a scroll wheel. Tap the button below the scroll wheel for free scroll or tap the one below that button to adjust DPI settings. As a vocal opponent to the trend of Razer mice with DPI buttons tucked underneath, the small but accessible DPI button on the Basilisk V3 Pro is a very welcome feature.

All of these buttons are customisable in Razer Synapse software, which is great because the free-scroll button is a smidge too close to the DPI button for my tastes (but you can disable it). Like most modern mice, setup is a plug-and-play affair, plus there’s a braided USB-C to USB-A cable for recharging, a 2.4GHz USB-A dongle and a dock if you want to keep recharging and wireless play to a single computer port.

While the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro is heavier than the mice I tend to use for everyday computing, the extra weight is more of a minor adjustment than an overall negative. Scrolling, in particular, feels great, click speed and accuracy are incredible, and you benefit from the precise tracking accuracy that makes it such a great gaming mouse.

The two typical thumb buttons make easy shortcuts for moving forward and back in compatible software. I appreciate being able to tailor the number of DPI settings I want to switch between slower accuracy or faster movement speed across multiple monitors. But those pros are true of most mice.

Why you’d really consider the Basilisk V3 Pro is for gaming, and it’s an excellent wireless gaming mouse. If you run out of juice, hook it up to the braided and flexible USB cable. Leaving RGB on drains the battery faster than expected (about three days of use). But turning off the lights takes that to 10+ days according to my testing estimations. Regardless of lights on or off, the Basilisk V3 Pro is a speedy performer that doesn’t skip a beat and is highly customisable within Razer Synapse.

If you’re shifting from the Razer Basilisk Ultimate to the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro, don’t expect an overhaul to the overall design. That same impressive shape and comfort returns. What the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro does have, though, is USB-C and Bluetooth connectivity.

The sensor in the V3 Pro is the latest on offer from Razer, as are the third-gen optical mouse switches (compared to the first-gen in the Ultimate). This combo means the V3 Pro has better overfall max sensitivity, speed and acceleration, as well as a click lifespan that’s rated for 20 million more clicks.

If you want a future-proofed gaming mouse, the V3 Pro also pairs beautifully with the Razer Mouse Dock Pro, while the Ultimate is incompatible with the dock, which means it has a max polling rate of 1,000Hz (the default max value for the V3 Pro, too). As you might expect, you can grab the Razer Basilisk Ultimate for around $100 cheaper than the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro.

The main issue I had with the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro review unit was a finicky charging puck that needed to be reattached a few times for it to charge properly (and a firmware update potentially helped, too). Outside of that gripe, it was really only the fully decked-out price and RGB battery life that hold back the Basilisk V3 Pro from being the perfect fragging companion.