Software

The Viper Mini is compatible with Razer's staple software suite, Synapse 3. Synapse has quite the reputation, and although I feel that some criticism is warranted, it is merely a piece of software after all. Synapse is embedded into an overarching software suite called Razer Central. From there, it is possible to install additional optional modules, such as Chroma Connect, Chroma Studio, or the macro editor. For the Viper Mini itself, all settings are accessible through four tabs. "Customize" houses button remapping, which also includes a HyperShift function, allowing one to enable a second set of button maps that can be accessed upon pressing a dedicated shift button. "Performance" enables one to adjust the CPI for up to five levels, at a range of 200–8500 CPI and in increments of 100. Additionally, polling rate can be set to 125, 500, or 1000 Hz. "Lighting" is detailed below. "Calibration" allows setting one of several pre-configured surface calibrations for Razer mousepads in order to keep LOD to a minimum while ensuring flawless tracking. Lastly, profile management is available too.

On my system, the software had a RAM footprint of 430 MB on average, which is quite massive. Irritatingly, even after exiting the whole software suite in the taskbar, no less than four processes with a RAM footprint of 110 MB in total kept running. In fact, even when setting Synapse to not launch on start-up, four processes with a RAM footprint of 95 MB were running regardless. Using Synapse to its fullest extent still requires registering with Razer, which is free of charge. However, it is possible to use Synapse with a "guest" account if one does not want to create a Razer ID. All of the options outlined above are accessible to "guest" account users as well, with the exception of profile cloud-syncing, which requires a Razer ID. Of course, it is also possible not to use Synapse at all, or to set up the Viper Mini once and uninstall Synapse afterwards. All of the settings mentioned above, including the power settings, will be saved to the on-board memory.

Lighting

The Viper has two zones for RGB lighting, which are the logo and the underside LED stripe. Through the software, it is possible to customize these zones using pre-defined lighting effects or custom ones. The former include Audio Meter (lighting reacts to audio playback), Breathing, Reactive (lighting reacts to button inputs), Spectrum Cycling, and Static. Additionally, the lighting can be configured to switch off in idle. Of course, it is also possible to disable the lighting altogether by setting the brightness to zero.

Color accuracy and vibrancy are excellent throughout. Here's a short demonstration video of the "Audio Meter" and "Spectrum Cycling" lighting effects: