Ever since its original release in 2006, the DeathAdder has been a staple in Razer's mouse line-up, with the shape remaining largely untouched, some minor modifications notwithstanding. With the DeathAdder V3 Pro, Razer for the first time attempts to thoroughly revise the shape. The result is closer to Razer's now-discontinued Mamba series, which in turn was a take on the DeathAdder. Most notably, the DeathAdder V3 Pro has a much slimmer front, there are ridges next to the main buttons now, the left side no longer curves in as much anymore, and the hump curvature has been adjusted slightly as well. In a sense, the DeathAdder V3 Pro goes back to its roots with these changes, as the shape now also approaches that of the vaunted Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0. This is somewhat ironic in that the original DeathAdder was an evolution of the Microsoft Habu, which was jointly developed together with Razer and in turn based on the IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0. In any case, re-imagining a shape as established as the DeathAdder's is a bold move, and while the DeathAdder V3 Pro still is easily identifiable as a DeathAdder, some of the uniqueness of the original design has been lost in the process. For those still fond of the original, both the DeathAdder V2 Pro and V2 X HyperSpeed are still available at least.

That said, the redesign has allowed Razer to improve other aspects of the mouse. The most prominent one are the main buttons, which now utilize a split-button design, along with the latest 3rd-generation Razer optical switches. On the DeathAdder V2 Pro, one of the main criticisms were the main buttons, as the optical switches simply didn't gel well with the unibody button design. The DeathAdder V3 Pro, on the other hand, is much improved in this regard, and while button uniformity between left and right clicks still leaves room for improvement, the overall experience is much more pleasing. Some pre and post-travel notwithstanding, the main buttons on the DeathAdder V3 Pro are firm and snappy, and lateral movement is kept to a minimum. The side buttons likewise have been revised and sit slightly higher now, and the excellent click feel of the DeathAdder V2 Pro has been retained. The scroll wheel is pleasantly low on noise, which is an improvement over previous DeathAdder iterations, though tactility is merely above average. The feet are unchanged compared to previous releases and still glide very well.

At 87 g, the DeathAdder V2 Pro wasn't particularly lightweight. The DeathAdder V3 Pro, on the other hand, weighs a whopping 25 g less, or 62 g in absolute numbers. Accordingly, the DeathAdder V3 Pro is one of the lightest mice without externally visible holes around, and arguably the lightest right-handed ergonomic mouse of its size and with a solid shell altogether. Most importantly, the shell is surprisingly rigid despite this massive weight reduction: On my sample, I'm not experiencing any rattle, there is no creaking of flexing of the shell when applying force, and activating the side buttons by squeezing the sides is impossible. From an engineering perspective, this is beyond impressive, even when considering the fact that RGB lighting had to go to reach this weight.

Much like the Viper V2 Pro, the DeathAdder V3 Pro features a 300 mAh battery, yet manages to squeeze roughly 90 hours of battery life out of it, which I've been able to corroborate. This applies to 2.4 GHz wireless, as unlike the V2 Pro, the DeathAdder V3 Pro does not have Bluetooth. While charging could be faster, the very long battery life renders this a non-issue in my book, and the charging cable is flexible enough to allow charging while playing without feeling overly restricted. Synapse also includes a battery life indicator, which is in fact reliable and accurate since unlike most competitors, the DeathAdder V3 Pro has a fuel gauge IC. Speaking of Synapse, I didn't experience any particular issues with it, aside from everything being more sluggish than on earlier versions, and resource usage going up further and further. Thankfully, on-board memory is present, so there is no real reason to keep Synapse installed after initial setup.

The only reason to keep it installed could be the HyperPolling Wireless Dongle, which the DeathAdder V3 Pro is compatible with. With the Dongle, the DeathAdder V3 Pro becomes capable of true 4000 Hz wireless polling, which elevates the already excellent performance to an even greater level. Without the Dongle, wireless click latency sits at an already highly competitive 1.3 ms, but the Dongle brings this down to 0.5 ms at 4000 Hz, which is lower than even some of the lowest-latency 1000 Hz wired mice. In general, the mouse performs better across the board with the Dongle, though this doesn't mean that performance without it isn't great already. CPI deviation is nonexistent, general tracking plain excellent owing to hardware MotionSync, polling stable aside from 500 Hz wired, and motion delay low across the board, with the isolated wireless motion delay sitting around 0.5 ms. The only issues I could find were the odd outlier in wired mode, along with slightly increased motion delay, and the same curious behavior already seen on the Viper V2 Pro, where wireless motion delay randomly increased by 1 ms beyond a certain point when using the included wireless dongle. Since I'm still not able to reproduce this consistently, and Razer hasn't been able to reproduce it at all, I cannot really rate this as a negative.

Overall, the DeathAdder V3 Pro is an excellent mouse, and the only thing holding it back is the pricing. At $149.99, the base mouse already is costly, and with the HyperPolling Wireless Dongle factored in, we're looking at $180 in total without any discounts. While this is no doubt substantial, the DeathAdder V3 Pro delivers performance that is virtually unrivaled in the current market, coupled with a great build, nice buttons, and impressively low weight. Accordingly, the DeathAdder V3 Pro earns our Editor's Choice.

When looking at the competition, there is absolutely no shortage. Razer's own DeathAdder V2 Pro weighs more, has worse main buttons, but performance is almost on par, and the shape is much closer to the original for those so inclined, for $129.99. The $119.99 ASUS ROG Gladius III Wireless scores with hot-swappable main button switches, great buttons in general, and a solid build, but performance is slightly worse and the weight significantly higher, and Armoury Crate is even worse than Synapse. The Cooler Master MM731 manages to be even lighter than the DeathAdder V3 Pro, albeit while being smaller, has very good buttons and a solid build, but performance is considerably worse, for $89.99. The Glorious Model D Wireless weighs a bit more while utilizing holes, has very good buttons, but performance too is considerably worse, for $79.99. Lastly, the Pulsar Xlite Wireless (V1/V2) weighs less but has holes and no traditional bottom plate, performance is worse, but the software considerably less resource-heavy, for $74.95 (V1) or $79.95 (V2).