Razer's Essential line consists of cheaper alternatives to already available "flagship" products, although with some quality reductions. The DeathAdder Essential features the same community-renown classic shape as its predecessors, but with modifications on the materials and elements inside. This is a medium-large mouse mainly built for palm gripping, but based on hand size and personal preferences, it can of course be used however you want—I personally wouldn't recommend using it with hands smaller than 17 cm, though. Weight is great on this model. At 94 grams, it is one of the lightest DeathAdders around (however, it could be even lighter for today's eSports-level standards, but this is mainly up to personal preference).

As for materials, the mouse doesn't feature any rubberization (except for the scroll wheel). Instead, there are textured plastic side panels and a simple matte coating. Build quality would be fantastic on this product, but unfortunately, the sensor lens can rattle around a lot in its slot. I have not heard of this issue from other users yet, so only a small percentage of these mice might be affected, though based on design, that is highly unlikely. If you get one with a rattling sensor, you can naturally fire up an RMA process as it does affect sensor performance.

Moving on to the sensor, it's the PAW3328, a decent optical model from PixArt. It's most likely a Razer-only sensor as I couldn't find it outside of Razer products. It has a high maximum acceleration and perfect control speed, and I couldn't make it spin out or exhibit any anomalies (after I fixed the lens, of course). The lift-off distance is a tad high, but it too can be fixed at the cost of some reduced PCS. There isn't any input lag or smoothing I could measure below 6000 CPI, but it reaches about 2-3 ms on the 6400 CPI step, so I would highly suggest staying on a more reasonable resolution.

Just as on most other DeathAdders, buttons are great on the Essential. The main buttons are nice and light with a lot of tactility, but the switches are cheap, with a nominal lifespan of only 10 million clicks, and they tend to die sooner than that, unfortunately. Scrolling doesn't have too much tactility or resistance to it, so it will mostly be ideal for browsing and heavy scrolling, not high precision. Other buttons on the mouse feel fine too; the side buttons are light with some minimal unnecessary travel, and the middle click is slightly stiffer than on the main buttons.

Both the mouse feet and the cable are straight-up fantastic. The skates hardly have any friction and provide a smooth, fast glide. Including at least one set of replacement feet would have been essential if you ask me, especially with a near-$50 price tag. The cable is light and very flexible, one of the best factory-stock models I have tried. Of course, it still is not on par with custom Paracord cables, or those on the DM1 FPS, Ultralight Phantom, or upcoming Ninox Astrum and Glorious Model O.

Software-wise, it's safe to say that the Razer Synapse could be a fantastic option, but as of right now, I cannot say so. It's very heavyweight, eats a lot of resources, and you always need to be logged into its cloud in order to be able to use the program. On the bright side, it's sleek, fast, and looks great. There is no RGB lighting on this mouse, only G, which stands for green. Two modes are available; you can either set it to static lighting or a breathing effect, and you can of course turn the lights off as well if you would like to.

At $49.99, with these specs and a chance of QC failure on the sensor lens, I wouldn't personally recommend the DeathAdder Essential. If you can get it on sale, it can be a great choice, but you shouldn't expect a high lifespan, especially from the main switches. There are many alternatives in this price range that could be better, and if we consider second-hand products, there are alternatives aplenty.