I honestly was hoping I wouldn’t have to write another poor review on a Razer product but unfortunately I feel I have to. I’ve had my Razer Onza Tournament Edition for exactly one month now. I had been looking forward to it since it was announced at 2010’s CES. I pre-ordered it the second it was made available in January, so you can say I was definitely excited for it.
I got used to the controller fairly quick but the first issue that arose from the controller: Serious feedback from any mic being used with it. I tried it out with a pair of Astro A40s, Tritton AX 720s and then just the official Xbox 360 headset. Two of the three had severe feedback–it was bad enough that the feedback would output to people in my XBL party. The Xbox 360 feedback was only audible [to myself] when people were talking. It would pop/crackle when someone started talking and hiss/pop once they stopped talking. It was passive enough that I just did my best to ignore it. It sucked having to stop using headsets I dropped insane money on because of feedback.
That issue started the minute I used the controller unfortunately. If that was the only problem with it, I’d be content and deal with it. But it wasn’t. Two weeks ago both of the analog sticks started to have response issues. I should note that I had absolutely no slowturn issues at all. I ran the test and it passed 100 across the board. The issue I had was that the analog stick would just stop sending out a signal that it was still in use. While I was playing Modern Warfare 2 MP, a perk I often run with is marathon pro. That gives me endless sprint. So all I need to do is push/use the left analog stick and I’m running non-stop. Well, that definitely didn’t happen. I would constantly stop as if some invisible wall was spawned in front of me.
Then when I’d try to sprint again I would only be able to move what can be construed as 2-3 steps before I’d have to let go of the analog stick and then push it forward. This is frustrating because despite unplugging the controller (and eventually restarting my 360 Slim) the issue was still present. So not even 20 minutes later, I started to have issues with the right analog stick. It had the seem lack of response–it would stop accepting that I was moving the analog around and stick to the last position it was in.
Knowing all of the frustration I went through with my Razer Lycosa, I knew that I was not going to live with it and deal with it. I want a controller that works! I love the Onza TE, especially being able to map the buttons AND change the tension for the analog sticks is a GODSEND! The controller is slick, light-weight and response time with the buttons is amazing. I just am not going to use it with the analog stick issues. Whether or not it’s a bad controller or the entire batch, I’m hoping I can get an exchange for the Onza TE as soon as possible.
Going from the Onza TE to my old Xbox wireless controller is brutal!