Corsair MM700 & Corsair Katar Pro XT Review - Introduction

Corsair MM700 & Corsair Katar Pro XT Review

Today, we review a duo of products. Corsair’s new wired Katar Pro XT (Hilbert reviewed the wireless version back in July of 2020), and their MM700 extended RGB mouse mat.

The Katar, as it happens, is the first quality gaming mouse I ever bought, and it served me very well until I went with my current wireless keyboard and mouse setup. You could say, therefore, with some accuracy, that the Katar is a product relatively close to my heart. The MM700, however, is part of a product series that I have been a very dedicated fan of for the better part of 5 years, now. Extended mouse mats are, in my view, really essential for those with desks large enough to accommodate them. Naturally, given the RGB craze that seemed to take the gaming PC market by storm c. 2015/16, even the mouse mat was eventually given the rainbow treatment. I am unsure who did this first (Razer, perhaps?), but now people having RGB mouse mats as part of their PCMR setup is seen relatively often. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it ‘commonplace,’ however.

I am going to review the mouse first, primarily because – aside from the MM700’s integration with iCUE and the overall build quality and materials – there isn’t a whole lot one can actually review when looking at a mouse mat. It will be easy to tell, for most, if a mouse mat is objectively terrible with relative ease. If it’s too thick, it isn’t ideal. If the material surface tends to catch on the bottom of most commercially available mice, that is dire. Et cetera.

Shall we talk pricing?

The Katar Pro XT comes in at a very reasonable $29.99. This genuinely surprised me, as I assumed that great enemy – inflation – would have increased the price of Corsair’s entry-level gaming mouse into the mid 30’s by 2021, but no. The MM700, meanwhile, costs… well, I wasn’t able to get an official MSRP for the product, but UK pricing had the MM700 relatively consistently between £65-70. In the United States, I could reliably find the MM700 for sale at Microcenter for $69.99. As usual, therefore, you’re getting a notably better deal in the US than practically anywhere else where the MM700 may be available, but what’s new there?

The MM700, aside from being a mouse mat, does have some features worth a mention. It is, for starters, relatively big. The dimensions of 930mm x 400mm x 4mm means it outsizes (in terms of width) my ‘old’ Corsair extended mat, the venerable MM300. The 4mm thickness ensures the user only feels the pad itself and not whatever is below on the desk, which I am intensely grateful for. The MM700 also features a three-zone RGB light strip around the entire perimeter of the mouse pad. I am pleased to report, as well, that it is nottoo bright,’ and is subtle enough not to be entirely eye-capturing when sitting about 20-30cm away. It also has a two-port USB passthrough at the top right-hand edge of the pad. A nice touch, here, was that the backside connector is USB-C. This reduces bulk and gives the product a cleaner look. Finally, the surface is textile woven and, I have to say, feels wonderfully smooth to use, whether I was handling the new Katar Pro or my regular daily driver, the Logitech G305 Wireless.