Hands-on review: Corsair Katar Elite wireless mouse
Corsair sent over one of its Katar Elite wireless mice to test out. They also sent out a massive Corsair MM700 gaming mat to try the mouse with.
It's a really unassuming mouse in black with an RGB Corsair logo. It has a classic design with two buttons on the left side, the standard three-button/scroller on the top with a DPI toggle button in the middle. Both sides have a textured grip. The mouse is also asymmetrical and suitable for left-handed use, although the two buttons on the side may be hard to use.
The front has a USB Type-C socket for charging or for use as a wired mouse. The bottom of the mouse has a switch for turning the mouse off or selecting from using the Slipstream wireless dongle or regular Bluetooth. The underside of the mouse also has a little compartment for storing the wireless dongle, which is very handy, especially if you are on the go.
The first thing I noticed was just how light the mouse is- it's only 69g. It's nice to have a lightweight mouse that it's not full of holes to keep the weight down (as cool as that looks), as the insides can get a bit dusty and grubby with use. With the Katar Elite, we are back to a traditional, classic mouse design but even lighter than ever.
The mouse can be used wired when charging or if wired is your preference. I'd say it's too lightweight to use wired as the included USB cable is a bit too stiff, giving the mouse a mind of its own and just feeling restricted.
Wirelessly, the mouse glided effortlessly across the gaming mat. With up to 26,000 DPI and a selectable polling rate from 125Hz to 2000Hz, it's perfect for competitive gaming as well as everyday use.
The mouse fits nicely in your hand, but I did find it ever so slightly too small. I've not huge hands, but I felt it didn't quite give my palm the support that my regular mouse does. It's my only gripe with the device, suggesting that it's likely better suited to those with smaller hands.
When fully charged, Corsair states that you'll get up to 60 hours used with the 2.4 GHz Slipstream wireless dongle and up to 110 hours using Bluetooth. Connectivity issues have put me off from using wireless input devices in the past. But even using Bluetooth, I had no connectivity issues with the Katar Elite mouse. The Slipstream dongle makes not only wireless connectivity painless but also provides tournament-level performance. Slipstream is Corsair's proprietary wireless technology available across all of the company's high-performance wireless gaming products.
The MM700 RGB gaming mat is an impressive beast at 930mm x 400mm, taking up most of my available desk space. Indeed, I had to place the front feet of my monitor on the back of the mat for it to fit.
Around the outside of the mat is a fibre optic cable sewn onto the edge with nylon thread. It's a fit scratchy, so you need it close to the front of the desk to avoid grazed elbows.
Contrary to the images on the box, I found the RGB lighting to not be powerful enough to illuminate the far side of the mat, even via a powered USB hub. The gaming mat has a handy USB Type-A socket for your mouse, keyboard, or gamepad.
Like the MM700 RGB gaming mat, the Katar Elite wireless mouse integrates with the Corsair iCUE ecosystem. The easy-to-use Corsair iCUE software allows all your Corsair kit to be adjusted and monitored in one place. With iCUE, the Katar Elite joined my Corsair H150i Elite LCD AIO CPU cooler, MSY Z690 Carbon motherboard, and Corsair MM700 RGB gaming mat. From here, the RGB was automatically synched with the other RGB devices and prompted for a firmware update.
The Corsair Katar Elite is a lightweight wireless mouse suitable for everyone. It's a classic mouse design that hides a superb and reliable wireless gaming mouse and won't look out of place in a corporate environment. Paired with the massive MM700 RGB gaming mat gives you an epic set-up.
