Corsair MM700 & Corsair Katar Pro XT Review - Unboxing and Visual Overview

Unboxing and Visual Overview

I’ll say immediately that I really do like Corsair’s new direction with their new ‘clean’ aesthetic. That in combination with the very gaudy yellow really brings your attention to the packaging, though it is used sparingly so as not to be too ‘in your face’. The almost clip art style lettering adorning the black areas of their packaging appeals to me, as well.

On opening the mouse, we find it packaged simply, but effectively. A plastic ‘cocoon’ protects the mouse proper, and the plastic protective cover is itself support by some cardboard. Simple, but effective, and when designing a product to be sold at $29.99, you haven’t got a lot of room to make things fancier.

The MM700 is packaged much the same. Plastic film protects the outside and there is a cardboard cylinder to ensure the pad keeps its shape during shipping. The separate USB cable for the MM700 is braided, as one would expect for a $70 product, and features a rubber tidy. As it happens, the cable for the Katar (nearly 2m long) is also braided, though it is slightly rougher. All in all, though, the products were presented well and – whilst I would have liked to have seen the same braid used on the Katar’s cable as the USB for the MM700 – it’s not a big deal. I didn’t notice any snags caused by the rougher braid of Katar’s cable during testing, either.

One area I have absolutely zero complaints with is build quality. The MM700 has an exceptionally smooth surface, looks excellent with Corsair’s clean design (and this coming from a true RGB mouse mat skeptic), isn’t too gaudy or over the top. Corsair has also done a great job at letting you know the product is theirs without shoving that fact down your throat. There is the small, illuminated vessel that we know so well on the USB connector, and their brand name features on the pad’s bottom-left edge.

The RGB lighting on the MM700 is its party piece. iCUE allows three-zone customization using different effects and colors, though note that an effect applied will apply to all zones. Additionally, ‘three-zone, here, actually means two zones for the RGB strip and a separate zone for the Corsair logo. Limitations of RGB strips and software aside, the visual effect provided by the MM700 is really good. I would thoroughly dislike it if the effect were to be so bright as to be distracting, but I should point out that you cannot adjust the brightness in iCUE (not that I have seen, anyway). If the hardware allows for it, I’d suggest to Corsair that this is something worth implementing.

The Katar’s build quality, though, is where I was truly impressed. For $29.99 you get a high spec gaming mouse that, to my eye, has zero issues in terms of how solidly it has been put together. There is no flex whatsoever on the mouse body, and the left/right buttons have little play in them in terms of left to right movement. If I paid nearly thirty dollars/pounds for this, I’d be delighted at first glance and feel.