K90 + M90 Review w/pics!

Alrighty, I am going to give my thoughts on the M90 and K90. I have some pics to illustrate some of my points, and hopefully it will help some of you in making your buying decision. Pics are huge, that's why I didn't embed them.

 

Let me also preface with this: The software is total garbage. This is Corsair's first effort, however, and software can easily be fixed. I wont hold any of the software flaws against them. This is purely a review of the hardware.

 

For the sake of full disclosure, let me also say that I have large hands. Palm a basketball large. This will be important once we get to the M90 and what I have to say about it.

 

Let's move on. Here are the somewhat happy couple.

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/403/img0210zp.jpg/

 

I saw the K90 and M90 announced The K90 looked lie it could be cool, but the real draw for me was the M90. The buttons looked thoughtfully laid out, I loved that aluminum, and like most boys I am a sucker for blue. Who knew we would wait so long since it was announced?

 

The K90 actually arrived first, so I had a few more days to play with it than the M90. The build quality is outstanding. Heavy. The (mechanical) keys are amazing, and the more I use it, the more they are growing on me. Which only makes the dome keys on the G keys and F keys all the more noticeable.

 

I am primarily an MMO gamer, and so as such I use my F keys constantly. I bind attacks to those keys, so hit them just as regularly as any other key.

 

So switching from the mechanical to the dome keys is a pretty jarring feeling. That being said, I think I will keep the board anyway. The macro keys will come in handy for a few other games I play, and I am used to making peripheral trade offs.

 

Let me also say that the Cherry Red's may be far too easy to actuate. I have big hands, like I said, and I more or less turn caps lock on with my pinky every time I hit A for anything. I think Cherry blacks may have been a better choice here. I pound the hell out of my keys when I am playing games, and the reds make the keys feel wimpy.

 

The offset height of the G keys is very, very nice. I am not used to having keys on the other side of the main board, my pinky used to rest on the board's lip. Now it rests on the G keys, but it doesn't actuate them. So plus on the two level design, that was certainly the right choice.

 

All and all, I think the K90 is the best board you can buy right now, if you want its feature set: macro buttons, back light, media keys, etc. If any of those features are irrelevant to you, then you can certainly find better boards. 8 out of 10 stars for the board. Nothing scores 10's, its a moving target, you can always improve.

 

Now for the M90. Let me get the positives up front.

 

1. I love the build quality. It feels substantial. The buttons click with satisfying feedback.

 

2. It is perfectly weighted. This ties into #1 some, I hate super light mouses that I can barely tell I am holding. They feel cheap and flimsy. This mouse feels like it was made to be gamed with, not coddled.

 

3. With the sensor set at the default 2400dpi, I loved it. It tracked well, and I never had problems with lift detection, etc.

 

4. I find the mouse wheel to be perfect.

 

Now for the bad stuff.

 

1. Man this mouse is small. I had no idea based on the pictures it would be as small as it is. I pretty much consider the G400 (my current stand by) the "default" gamers mouse. It's smaller than the G400. I was shocked:

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/717/img0212ag.jpg/

 

That's next to the G400.

 

I have it here sandwiched between the VX nano, and the G400 you can see how compact this mouse is:

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/341/img0224wt.jpg/

 

Here is my normal mouse grip

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/526/img0220mm.jpg/

 

All I did was turn my wrist over, and you can see how badly my middle, ring, and pinky hang off the side:

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/502/img0221br.jpg/

 

The wee laddy held up for the camera:

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/215/img0218sd.jpg/

 

2. If this were a car, I would dock this under "fit and finish" the PTBE or Teflon feet or whatever they are called. They are sharp edged, with right angles, rather than round and smooth. I could feel the corners of the feet catching on my mouse pad. The mouse mauled my war pad. I can feel places where the fabric is torn. Hard to see in that pic, but I tried.

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/833/img0216cm.jpg/

 

I think this was just an oversight? But I would hate for someone else to have a $40 mouse pad mauled by a mouse with sloppily thought out feet. 6/10 For a mouse that could have been so much more than it is.

 

So just be aware of this, depending on what sort of surface you mouse on.

 

So closing this rambling post up.

 

I am going to keep the K90, overall I like it, it really surprised me.

 

The M90 is going back to Amazon. =( What I was really looking forward to the most, let me down the most. I thought I had found the perfect mouse, but with its tiny size, and the fact it maimed my mouse pad, it's got to go back. Real shame, too, since I really wanted to like it.

 

My search for the perfect mouse continues!

You have abnormally large hands dude, you can't dock points on it for that. In my hands the mouse is arguably too large, who's right and who's wrong? How does a Naga fit in your hand?