Last week we had the pleasure of reviewing CORSAIR’s brand new flagship keyboard, but this week we return to a somewhat more nuts and bolts member of their peripheral portfolio. The KATAR WIRELESS PRO mouse is certainly an important member of the range, but for very different reasons.

As a more utilitarian construct - even as a gaming mouse - the KATAR bares the design down to crunch to a <100g weight limit while maintaining reasonable battery life. That's clearest in two aspects: no superficial RGB lighting, and equipping the mouse with only one AA battery rather than two - but remains a factor throughout.

Its chief competition is Razer’s Atheris and the Logitech M510, fitting slap bang in the middle of the two in terms of price. The overall feature set is comparable with the Atheris (exceeding the M510 thanks to Bluetooth compatibility), but 30% lighter due to the use of only one AA battery. On the face of it the KATAR WIRELESS PRO should have this won hands down.

Unfortunately there is one critical aspect where the mouse falls down: build quality. Not throughout, nor even in the vast majority; the core issue is play in the removable palmrest/shell. It can shift from right to left with a little bit of pressure, and if not all the way right it fouls on the ‘Back’ mouse button.

At that point the back button feels, frankly, awful to use. Mushy, very much unlike the ‘Forward’ and other buttons, and prone to a double-click effect. With the shell slid over to the right it’s not bad per se, but still not great.

Which is a great shame because in almost all other aspects the mouse does impressively well. It’s travel-sized but with high performance credentials, has satisfying and responsive main mouse buttons and wheel, great profile integration with other iCUE-compatible peripherals and a high quality optical sensor. Dual wireless still isn’t common at this price point, particularly with low-latency modes and excellent range in the 2.4GHz mode. Even the iCUE software adds value to the bundle thanks to some great customisation and configuration features. With those facts presented anyone would be tempted.



We hope that the issue outlined above is specific to our review sample, but assuming that it’s not we have to knock off a few marks in our assessment; it misses out on the Vortez Approved Award by a hairs breadth. However the total package as a set of features and functionality is impossible to ignore, garnering the KATAR WIRELESS PRO an Amazing Value award. If you’re willing to deal with the side button issue through some judicious manipulation of the shell section then you could do far worse than to pick it up.

The KATAR WIRELESS PRO is the latest in a flurry of new peripheral products from CORSAIR this quarter, offering lightweight wireless mousing for gaming at a very assertive price. Well worth considering if you need a performance mouse while travelling, particularly to pair with a Bluetooth-enabled laptop or Tablet, it has all the features you should expect without superficial additions.



Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.

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