Corsair Katar Pro

The Corsair Katar Pro is one of the most budget offerings from Corsair. Corsair is a very premium brand and they make some of the most expensive hardware in the market. The Katar is an exception from the Corsair formula. However, that doesn’t make it a bad mouse. It is one of the best offerings in the sub-50$ range. Although there are some caveats as compared to other competitors like the Logitech G102 Lightsync or the MSI Clutch GM11, this mouse nails several factors. The Katar Pro comes in both wired and wireless form factors.

The Katar Pro is an ultra-light gaming mouse. It weighs just 69 grams without the wire. With the wire, it weighs 74g. However, Corsair did not compromise with the build quality on this thing. It is sturdily built with a black matte finish. Corsair also adds a spill of RGB in the scroll wheel. The best part of the RGB is that it is fully customizable through the Corsair iCUE software. And, the iCUE software is a piece of art. There are thousands of possible effects that you can assign to the RGB LED. However, the presence of a single LED does limit customization options.

The design language of the Katar Pro is on-point. It is a symmetrical device with 6 buttons. There is a dedicated DPI switch button that will help you to switch your DPI on the fly. The best thing about the DPI button is that you can fully customize the DPI you want to switch to with the press of the button. The mouse goes from 600 to 12,400 DPI. Although that upper limit is nonsense, and no one will use their mice in such crazy high DPI. The 1600 DPI seems to be the sweet spot for daily browsing and productivity purposes. And, the 3,400 DPI mark seems to be the sweet spot for FPS games.

However, Corsair messed up the Katar Pro with their creativity. The Katar Pro is based on the PMW 3327 sensor from Pixart. However, Corsair modified this sensor to go up to 12,400 DPI. That is a feature that no one cares about or uses. It is just a solid marketing term. But, the worst aspect of this modification is that the Lift-Off Distance becomes terrible. It tracks even above the 4 DVD (>4.8mm) mark, which is not acceptable. However, the mouse stops tracking at the 5 DVD (6mm mark). That means the Lift-Off Distance is somewhere between 4.8mm and 6mm. That creates real-life problems as the mouse keeps tracking even after it has been raised from the surface.

Corsair focused on making a mouse that claw grip users will love. However, palm grip users will have a bad time with this device. This device is tapering towards the end. This creates even more problems in grip. However, it has a textured thumb rest. But, the thumb buttons feel loose, and the build quality is extremely compromised here. It definitely could have been better. The scroll button feels sturdy, however, with use, it starts to make a screeching sound at times. The single RGB on the scroll button does not heat the mouse at all. Thus, that is a plus point of having fewer RGB LEDs.

Overall, the Katar Pro is a very decent offering at its price point. It has obvious caveats, just like its competitors. However, you won’t notice them in real-life use-case scenarios. I would not easily recommend this mouse to someone. The MSI Clutch GM11 does a better job at a few more bucks. Also, the RGB customization through the iCUE software is proprietary and you can’t sync the mouse up with other LEDs in your system. This mouse can be a recommendation only if you are very tight on budget.