Corsair Katar Pro XT Mouse and MM700 RGB Mouse Mat review

The Corsair Katar Pro XT is the latest entrant into the mouse market and it's aimed squarely at the budget segment of gamers. Weighing in at 73 grams officially - 78 grams on our scales -  it seems to be well-aimed at the gaming market looking for the lightest mouse possible. 

Designed with a relatively small and "low-down" shape as is the norm nowadays, it fits into the hand nicely, and no matter the grip I use it feels like I have a lot of control. Katar Pro XT uses a custom PixArt PMW3391optical sensor capable of between 100 and 18,000 DPI customisable in 1 DPI increments which although nice, I'd love to see footage of someone using 18,000 DPI for any legitimate use-case. The main mouse buttons use Omron switches guaranteed for 50-million clicks which should outlast the provided two-year warranty. They also use the Corsair "Quickstrike" buttons which claim to leave zero space between the plastic button and the switch. It's unclear if it's down to this technology as it feels about the same as the G500 in the office but the click-to-action speed is practically instant. The outer casing is made of grippy but not rough plastic and doesn't seem to pick up fingerprints, which is a nice plus. The cable features a high-quality braid that is very flexible and doesn't impact the movement at all. 

There's one RGB zone on the scroll which is set to cycling by default so will be the effect you have without iCUE installed or on Linux where iCUE isn't available. With iCUE, it can be customised with the full suite from Corsair's software. This is a backwards step from the the light-up logo you get on the majority of the Corsair mouse line-up, but as a budget offering it's fully understandable, and after all that sails logo would be under your hand during use anyway.

The on-board DPI changer button can be used to switch between three profiles or three customisable ones set within iCUE. It's very small so doesn't interfere with normal usage of the mouse but is there if needed. The two side buttons on the left-hand side are at the top, above a lightly-textured piece of plastic that provides plenty of grip. They seem to have enough resistance that resting on them for grip won't activate them but are still light enough to easily press when needed.

Overall, though, this is a solid entrant to the budget mouse market, showing no obvious weaknesses during a week of gaming and office-based work. For these reasons we're happy to give it a recommended award.