It doesn’t look as flashy, but the gap makes it easier to distinguish between the two without looking, ideal if you need to change sensitivity in the heat of battle (if you’re zooming in with a sniper, say). The V2’s are wider and separated by a sliver of plastic. The Elite’s were essentially one long, thin button split in two. The up and down sensitivity buttons have been redesigned, too. In games of Fortnite and Escape from Tarkov my shots felt instant, and I never had to worry about firing accidentally.
While I can’t possibly tell how accurate that number is, they certainly felt as responsive as I could ever need, and I never misclicked. Razer reckons they’ll last 70 million clicks, rather than the 50 million for the Deathadder Elite. They’re optical, rather than mechanical (they use an infrared light beam to register clicks), which means they should deliver fewer misclicks, lower latency, and have a longer life. The left and right mouse buttons are more durable than the Elite, too. The V2’s wire is the most flexible I’ve tried on a gaming mouse, and ultimately that means it’s less likely to impact your mouse movement, even if you get lazy about wire management, like me. I’ve used a version of the Deathadder (the Expert) for years, and my one complaint is that the stiffer wire can sometimes pull the mouse to one side, depending on how it sits on my desk. The fact Razer is using a new wire (with an equally ridiculous name, "Speedflex Cable," also sounds insignificant, but turns out to be a big deal. It spins smoothly, but you can still feel every notch of the turn, so you won’t accidentally scroll too many times.
Razer has a ridiculous name for the new design, "Instinctive Scroll Wheel Tactility," but the results are perfect. I’ll go into it in a second, but I was more impressed by the more subtle changes Razer has made for the V2. The most obvious improvement is the Focus+ Optical Sensor, the same one used in the excellent Razer Viper Ultimate Wireless. But the question isn’t whether the V2 is the best version of the Deathadder (it is), the question is: is it worth buying, given that it's currently $35/£35 more than the Elite? Maybe.