Corsair Katar Elite Wireless gaming mouse review: ultra-lightweight gamer gives you the slip

The Corsair Katar Elite Wireless is the famous gaming gear maker's latest entry into the competitive field of ultra-lightweight gaming mice, and like a perennial Premier League powerhouse (to abuse a sporting analogy), even a middling result by their standards is better than most others' best effort. Thankfully for Corsair and their high standards, the Katar Elite Wireless is more than middling, but it might not be a big crossover hit for people who desire a creative double-click (sorry) out of their mouse.

We've got some excellent mice for those looking for the best mouse for Mac, or the best USB-C mouse (both wired and wireless), but will the Katar Elite Wireless crack it with the best ones for creatives out there? Or is it too singularly gaming-focused? 

Corsair Katar Elite Wireless review: Design and build

The Katar Elite Wireless is light. Very light. It weighs in at a minuscule 69 grams and is very compact too. I have relatively small hands, and with my palm laid across the palm rest, my index finger is almost at the very tip of the left main button, which feels comfortable for me, but might spell trouble for anyone with much larger hands than mine. Corsair says the design is made for a claw grip

The inward-sloping sides of the plastic casing are textured with little triangles for increased grip and the mouse slides effortlessly on a table or mouse mat, with the 26,000 DPI optical sensor working hard to eliminate any lag underneath. The USB-C charging and data cable plugs in at the front, but unlike some similarly priced mice, it isn't fabric-covered, with Corsair instead opting for the more workmanlike rubber type. 

On the left-hand side are two programmable buttons, on the underside is a switch to  change between the mouse's wired, Bluetooth and WiFi settings, and on top, behind the scroll wheel, is a hexagonal sixth programmable button, which by default toggles between cursor-speed presets.

To achieve this lightness, the casing is made of very light and thin plastic, and unfortunately with that it does feel a little 'canny', which isn't a feeling I expected to have when handling a mouse that retails at almost 70 quid.

Corsair Katar Elite Wireless review: Features

The Katar Elite Wireless' main feature and selling point is its lightness and fast response times, and it certainly features both. The optical sensor's claimed DPI range is up to 26,000, for extremely smooth cursor movement and precise aim in action games, for example. All the buttons are programmable, too, and the RGB lighting in the logo is programmable as well, via Corsair's own iCUE application. 

The buttons are Omron type with a stated lifetime of 60 million clicks per button, which should give you plenty of time to wear it out in FPS and Battle Royale games. 

This extreme lightness made me a little apprehensive, though, as I prefer a little resistance to give any actions on a mouse or keyboard more weight, but then I've never been any good at FPS games, so there may be a correlation there. However, what we also want to find out is how those features transfer over to creative work. 

Corsair Katar Elite Wireless review: Performance

As I was afraid of, the Katar Elite Wireless feels a little too light and resistance-free when doing creative work such as photo-editing. While the cursor lag is non-existent, which definitely helps in gaming scenarios, that's less of a concern when doing slower-paced work like masking, outlining and other photo-editing and manipulation work. 

And with the light weight of the mouse, I found it hard to fine-control and temper movement, even with the customisable cursor speed tuned down, maybe because I'm used to heavier ergonomic mice for that sort of work. Also, the small casing made for a claw or fingertip grip contributes to a lack of fine-movement control, which is essential if you're using your mouse for precision work. The need to bend your fingers so much for full button control also means they'll tire out much faster than on an ergonomic mouse. Even when pitted against a recent gaming mouse we reviewed, the Endgame Gear XM1r, it feels slighter and less reliable by comparison.

It is bottom-weighted ever so slightly, but if you're as demanding a creative person as you are a gamer, only one of these two demands will be fully met. 

In addition, the buttons feel less sturdy and precise than, for example, Logitech's Quiet Click tech on their MX Master 3s mouse, and I kept having an issue where the mouse would 'jump' or 'slip' when I intended to click on something. I don't know if this is down to my preferred grip not matching up with the mouse, or inherently because the DPI sensitivity is so high that any minuscule movement would trigger a cursor jump as I move my finger to click, but this quickly became a source of great annoyance, especially when doing masking work in Photoshop, or double-clicking on words when writing and editing (including for this review). 

This was also an issue playing some mouse-led videogames, such as Civilization, where I had the mouse repeatedly jump away from what I wanted to select. Again, this might be because it's so singularly focused on the claw-grip design that any other preference leads to this issue. And again, this didn't happen nearly as often with some previous gaming mice in the Katar Elite's price bracket, or even cheaper ones like the Endgame Gear XM1r. And speaking of price...

Corsair Katar Elite Wireless review: Price

The Katar Elite Wireless' RRP is £69.99. This is considerably more than the Katar Pro, and double the price of many equivalent gaming mice. Of course, it will fit right into your setup if you want to fill out a complete Corsair ecosystem, as it is supported by iCUE and aesthetically matches Corsair's keyboards and computers. It's a lot of money for a mouse with a fairly narrow functional specialism, though.

Should you buy the Corsair Katar Elite Wireless gaming mouse?

If you are an FPS gamer, especially in an esports capacity, who wants to have a full Corsair ecosystem for your gaming, the Katar Elite Wireless should be on your shortlist. If you're brand-agnostic, however, and especially if you want a mouse that has good crossover appeal between gaming, work and creative endeavours, there are some clears drawbacks here that should give you pause. The optical sensor is fast, but Corsair has sacrificed resistance-based control for extreme lightness, and the compact claw/fingertip-grip design isn't ideal for creative pros either. For gaming, you can get cheaper Katar mice from Corsair, and for creative work/hobbies, you can find more suitable mice for the same money or less.