Razer mouse can use either Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz wireless to connect.
A switch under the mouse allows the user to select either mode. To enable the fast Hyperspeed mode, the “2.4” has to be selected. This allows for faster operation – ideal for applications like gaming.
Here’s a quick snapshot of the differences between Hyperspeed and Bluetooth.
| Hyperspeed | Bluetooth | |
| Receiver dongle | Required | Not required |
| Battery Life in hours | 285 | 450 |
| Latency milliseconds (ms) | 1 | 10-20 |
| RF Interference Avoidance | Detect before transmission (faster) | Frequency Hopping (slower) |
Receiver Dongle
Razer provides a USB dongle with Hyperspeed products. To use this fast technology the dongle has to be plugged in.
Battery Life
Razer uses a non-rechargeable AA battery. Hyperspeed technology uses a significant amount of signal processing relative to Bluetooth for Interference avoidance and fast polling rates of 1000 Hz.
The battery life using hyperspeed is therefore quite a bit shorter than when using Bluetooth.
Latency
Latency is a measure of the response time of the mouse or keyboard. The lower the latency the faster and more responsive the peripheral.
Hyperspeed boasts a latency of less than 1 millisecond. Bluetooth on the other hand has a latency in the range of 10 to 20 milliseconds. A significant difference!
RF Interference
All wireless mice operate at a frequency of 2.4 GHz. This frequency band is shared by other devices such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Microwave ovens and more. Unfortunately this sharing causes RF interference and the mouse can experience jitter or lag.
Newer wireless devices like Bluetooth and Hyperspeed use techniques to avoid this interference.
Razer Hyperspeed technology utilizes improved Adaptive Frequency Technology, which scans available and interference-free channels every millisecond. You can think of this as a tiny spectrum analyzer in every mouse that is able to perform a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) quickly and analyze the best channel to communicate over.
With this knowledge the internal radio knows which frequencies to avoid and which to use. It can quickly switch to the fastest and cleanest channel one and prevent lag or stutter. This ensures a low latency connection.
So if there are multiple devices (such as Wi-Fi) using a region of frequency, Hyperspeed technology makes sure that your mouse avoids it and uses a quieter region.
Bluetooth by comparison hops over a range of frequencies at a rate of 1600 hops per second. It implements a similar adaptive scheme but depending on implementation, at a lower speed than the Hyperspeed technology does. The lower processing rate is one reason why the battery life when using Bluetooth is 50% longer than when using Hyperspeed.
Summary
In this post we have summarized the differences between Hyperspeed and Bluetooth technology. There’s a big difference in performance between the two in terms of speed, battery life, RF interference mitigation and latency.
