I find the design to be very elegant.  It is nearly identical to the DeathAdder that I'm dear to (and never thought I'd replace).  Here it's sitting in the charging base/receiver.  It has two main buttons on the side, and a nice mousewheel.


The left side.  The sides have a shiny piano black finish, but also sculpted cutouts, which have, along with the buttons and top, a grippy, rubber-like coating.  The coating on the buttons and sides seems grippier than the top, which is very similar to the DeathAdder.


The right side.  Sorry southpaws, this mouse is for righties only.


The bottom side of the Mamba is much busier than most mice... there's an on/off switch, a sync button, a cable latch, a battery port, and a pair of gold-plated contacts for charging.



Here are a couple of pics of the Mamba compared to the DeathAdder.  As you can see, they're almost identical except for the sculpted cutouts and extra buttons for the sensitivity adjustment.  Note: the cord on the DeathAdder is not stock (it's actually from a G5).


You can see that there's just the smallest difference in the shape of the mice... the Mamba is slightly wider at the top.


Here is the charging station/receiver.  It has a pair of gold-plated contacts to match the ones on the bottom of the mouse.


This beauty is the USB cord.  This one cord plugs into either the mouse or the base station, making the mouse wired and allowing it to charge at the same time as you use it.  Razer has finally gotten with the game and covered the cord in Techflex.  It, like the charging prongs, has gold-plated contacts.



Here is the Mamba impersonating a "normal" mouse.  A quick glance and you'd mistake it for my FrankenAdder 


The base station lights up... pretty slick.


And here the Mamba is resting on the base.


I normally don't care how stuff is packaged, since you only see the packaging for 2 minutes and forget there ever was any in the first place.  For the most part, computer and gadget companies are pretty wasteful when it comes to packaging... but I couldn't help but include a picture of this:  I think it'd be capable of displaying the Crown Jewels in safety.

Coming from the DeathAdder, the transition to this mouse has been smoother than any of my previous switches.  Although the electronics in it are completely different (it's laser instead of optical), it has a similar feel.  The default middle sensitivity is 1800, so that further aids the transition.  The chizeled sides make it easier to rack the mouse (pick it up, reposition), although it is very sensitive to sensor height: the mouse has to be completely flat on the mousepad for it to track correctly.  At first, I was pinching the mouse a little too firmly and that was causing it to track oddly.  Once you get used to it, though, it's nice to have the extra grip the cutouts provide.  It's definitely heavier than most mice... probably about the same as a G5 with 3-4 of the 4.5g weights... it's almost exactly the same as my modded DeathAdder, though a little more backheavy.  It's extremely sensitive... I've never gamed with a mouse over 2000 dpi, but even at the lower resolutions, the Mamba seems to pick up the tiniest movement.  I'm reserving judgment on the wireless performance until I can get the proper drivers installed but initially, I'm impressed.

All in all, I think it's the small touches that make this mouse... the dual-use (wired and wireless), the Techflex cord, the sculpted sides and rubber coating, the look and feel.  If nothing else, this is the coolest mouse I have ever seen.

On a side note, I may be getting another Mamba for free, since they had a problem with the mice coming off the pedestal in the packaging... I got an email with this in it right after I got the mouse hooked up: