Reviewing the M60

Since Microcenter finally got the M60 the other day and got the K60/K90 in, I've had a chance to handle either product, and the M90 should be in stock sometime soon. I'm currently running the M60 through the paces in Battlefield 3 and Team Fortress 2.

The build quality is very high. The braided cord is great and I enjoy the brushed aluminum looks. Aesthetically, some may not like it, but it helps distinguish the brand visually. It would be harder to tell it apart from other gaming mouse brands if not for that, in my opinion.

I think the brushed aluminum helps to shear some of the weight off the mouse and I find it light and responsive. I find it well balanced. This is one of the lighter mice I've used recently but if you come from full plastic models, it may feel heavy in comparison. Your mileage may vary, I'm coming from an Ikari which is slightly less when the M60 is empty. Though it's not listed in the specs, but the weights are slightly magnetized. I love this. Even when you remove the screws upside down, the weights usually stay attached to the screws. I might further magnetize them later. I cannot find a single mention of this anywhere, but it's a good feature and should stay. Extra heavier weight selection might be great for those who prefer a heavier mouse. I think heavier mice are generally less squirrely and help sniping.

I deliberately haven't played with the software too much because I wanted a much more vanilla reaction. Out of the box, messing with the DPI goes from low (800), to "High and usable (2400)," to "People seriously play at this DPI?" (5700). I keep it at 2400.

The sniper button is the sole reason I got this mouse, as I'm sure many others will, because the only other mouse I can think of that does on-the-fly DPI toggle is the RAT series. I find it tremendously useful. However, the sniper button drops the DPI to 800 by default, but if you use the lowest DPI setting, it's already at 800. A choice between percentile of the current DPI or between set DPI would be great. I think the mouse tracks very well overall. Thank you for using an Avago ADNS-9500 sensor. I would have not tried this mouse had it used a Philips Twin Eye sensor, period. Playing through BF3 and TF2, the sniper button definitely helps ironsighting.

What I noticed about the design:

The sniper button definitely needs to be moved back towards the wrist under the mouse4/5 buttons. I can only get a good grip on it when I'm "palming" the mouse and it's my only major performance complaint. I would also push the mouse4/5 buttons farther out as it's hard to distinguish them from the housing and deepen the cleft between the two slightly so it's easier to differentiate between the two buttons.

Even with my smallish hands, it feels like the mouse is short: my fingers overhang the mouse buttons if I "palm" the mouse. I suspect this mouse is geared more towards "claw" grip, but even then you would have a hard time pressing the sniper button. Grip styles feel like I'm compromising between palming with a sniper button but feeling short, and clawing and having no sniper button. A pinky rest would have been preferred, because if you palm it, you drag your pinky along the surface you're using, especially since this mouse slopes towards the outside of the wrist. Since I'm ambidextrous, the overall arch of the mouse feels more natural when I'm using it left handed. The LEDs for the DPI indicator simply can't be seen during normal play as they're covered by your middle finger. Moving them between the forefinger and the thumb would be great since you could tell what the DPI is on-the-go. Even having the DPI adjust somewhere below the thumb would be great.

Overall, I would give this mouse 8/10. Corsair holds some promise for making gaming mice. Performance-wise it's very good, even with the sniper button in a little far. Aesthetically it differentiates between itself and competition with the aluminum. Price-wise, it's $30 less MSRP than the RAT series and the sensor is better, making it a pretty persuasive FPS performance mouse.