Summary
TheRazer Firefly V2 Prodelivers pizzaz with customizable edge-to-edge RGB backlighting. Of course, no matter how fancy the mousepad is, if it doesn’t also provide optimal mouse tracking and control, it’s a useless decoration. Fortunately, the Firefly V2 Pro is more than just a fancy light show.
Razer Firefly V2 Pro
The Razer Firefly V2 Pro is the world’s first LED backlit gaming mouse mat.
Price and Availability
The Razer Firefly V2 Pro is available now in black fromAmazonor black or white colors fromRazer. The mousepad retails for $99.99 in each color. In the box, you get the mousepad and a USB-C to USB-A cable.
Set Up and Software
At the top rear of the Firefly V2 Pro is a USB-C port, as well as a USB-A port. You plug the included USB-C to USB-A cable into the USB-C port on the back of the mousepad and then the USB-A port into your Windows 10 or 11 computer. The integrated USB-A 2.0 port on the mousepad can then be used to plug in a mouse or keyboard, wired or wireless. In my case, I plugged in the USB dongle from myLogitech G915 Mechanical Gaming Keyboardand noted no performance issues.
The Firefly V2 Pro is part of Razer’sGamer Roomline, which includes other accessories and lights that all use the sameRazer Synapse 3software for control. As noted in my review of theRazer Aether Monitor Light Bar, the app provides easy control over the RGB LEDs, which can be set to a specific brightness, various preset effects, and programmable advanced effects.
Although you don’t have quite as many options as you get with some of the other Gamer Room products, you can set the Firefly V2 Pro to react to audio, breathing colors, match a portion of the display, color cycle, color wave, or stay at a single color. You can also use the Chroma Studio option within Razer Synapse to design your own effects.
Personally, I prefer keeping a 100% brightness static red color, which I also set my keyboard and some other lights to, which illuminate without affecting the rods in my eyes, allowing me to see the screen and environmental details without being distracting. Similarly, the mouse pad can be set to turn its lights off when the display is off, such as when your computer goes to sleep, and then wakes up as soon as the display goes back on.
As with other Gamer Room products, the Firefly V2 Pro can react to events in specific games. While thegame listisn’t particularly long, when a game is supported, the effects can be quite fun to experience. For instance, in “Baldur’s Gate 3,” among other effects, the mousepad’s colors will change depending upon the success or failure of a dice roll. Since the lighting is literally on your desktop and by your hand, it’s not as noticeable as something like the Aether Monitor Light Bar orAether Lamp Pro, but it’s still a nice option to have and does work well in concert with those other devices.
Performance
Whether soft, such as cloth, or hard, such as glass, there are a wide variety of mouse pad surfaces available. Although not glass, the polycarbonate surface on the Firefly V2 Pro reminds me a lot of myGcsyo Glass Gaming Mousepad, just not as cool to the touch. The Firefly V2 Pro’s surface has a slight grit to it, both allowing for excellent tracking and for my mouse’s PTFE feet to glide smoothly. Although it may be a tight fit on some desktops, its generous 14.17- by 10.95-inch dimensions mean you have plenty of surface to mouse around on.
In terms of lighting, I found it to be bright and even. The ring outside the surrounding surface is naturally the brightest and similar to the lower-endFirefly Hard V2 mouse pad, but the big differentiator is that, thanks to its 15-zone lighting, the colors go across the entirety of the darkened mouse pad surface. While it doesn’t look quite as impressive in a bright room, and certain colors, such as green, pop better than others, Razer has done a fantastic job balancing the surface quality with the lighting effects.
Should You Buy the Razer Firefly V2 Pro?
Not everyone will want to invest $100 on a mouse pad like this, but for the gamer or RGB lighting enthusiast who can afford it, this makes a great addition to your gaming station. While it would have been nice for theRazer Firefly V2 Proto offer wireless charging amongst its features at this price point, the fact that it duplicates the USB-A port that it takes up means it has a low impact on your available ports.
