Corsair M90
I love the look of the wire brushed Aluminum and blue lighting the M90 comes with. It's the same for all of Corsairs Vengeance line and it's a really rugged, weaponized look. I don't get to see as much of the aluminum as I want, since it's the base that the mouse is built upon. Also the Black Textured plastic is far more comfortable for my hands than Metal would have been.
The metal does lend itself to a good weight (150 grams) but not noticeably different compared to my old mouse (G9 @ 132 grams) which had 22 extra grams of weight added inside. To put 150 grams in prospective, that's the weight of an average Apple. No pun intended here iPhone users. There is no way to add or subtract weights to dial it in if you like it heavier or lighter. I prefer a heavier mouse so that's a bonus for users like me. I find it keeps my movements less twitchy.
Installing the Software:
At the time of this review the software is Beta version 2.12. I had no problem finding the software on the website and downloading it. There aren't any CDs in the box, but I don't normally use them since there's typically a better version out there on the manufacturers site (PC gamers know what I'm talking about). I also own a Corsair K90 Keyboard and it's nice to see they both share the same software. Less memory overhead is better for performance and sharing the same program helps lower that. I have to say there are LOADS of options here. It's enough to make your head spin, so I broke them down into sections.
It's a 1 millisecond polling rate mouse and it can be set to 2, 4 or 8ms. It defaults to 1 ms and that's good because that's the best for gaming. You will have a faster response time from the moment you click the mouse to the time it takes to fire in-game. If you have problems with the mouse lagging your system then raise it up, but it shouldn't need to be changed unless you have a really slow system (like your mom's laptop from 2002).
Lift Height: This is so you can manually set how far you can lift the mouse off the pad before the mouse stops sensing it. That's mainly for the folks who like to leave the mouse DPI settings really low and swipe across the mouse surface several times (lifting and resetting down). *Careful with this setting if you have a black/dark mouse surface. If you set it to the lowest setting it will not allow your mouse to register with the mouse pad properly. I had to plug in my old mouse and set it back to "mid-low" to resolve this.
Hardware Playback: You are going to need this setting ON for games like BF3, ToR & Skyrim. This allows the macros to be written directly to your mouse. It essentially fools games like the ones mentioned above into allowing you to create working MMO AFK & attack/healing macros.
Angle Snapping: This is used to help draw straight lines in Photoshop. I use Photoshop a lot so this is a really nice feature to find in my gaming mouse. It does this by tracking the direction you're moving the mouse and then making an approximation of the line you're following to project your movements into a straight line. One would think angle snapping comes in handy for an FPS firefight right? Theoretically you could be tracking an enemy's movement from left to right on your screen and keep a "steadier" bead on them. When I tested it I really couldn't see where my aim stopped and Angle Snapping started. I tried several games of Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Demo and never really felt a "snap-to" line start to aggress. To be fair Corsair never designed it for this, but I know as a gamer we all try things to push the limits of our hardware. *I review this feature further in the Photoshop section of this review.
Surface Quality: Have you ever wondered if that Junk-Wood desk you're using for a mouse surface isn't up to par? ' Well thanks to Corsair they've created a built in test to quantitatively tell you how your surface responds. My black Razer eXactMat shows up as a 4/5 (both for the speed & control sides). A white sheet of 8.5x11 paper shows up as 3/5. Kudos to Corsair for innovating here.
Independent X-Y DPI: This allows you to customize and separate left-right movement speed vs. up-down movement speed. This is to increase your left-right sweeping movements for FPS gaming. It can also be used to make up for wide screen monitors having a larger width if you are playing RTS. Testing proves it works as designed. I prefer keeping this setting at default, but it's nice to have the option.
DPI Settings: You get 3 DPI settings and a sniper button setting with selections going up/down in 100 DPI blocks. Each can be set to 100-5700 DPI, that's a lot and it's excessive. The Good news is it is high quality hardware that's able to register to 5700 DPI. I've never found a use for anything above 3000 DPI, but I do like getting a bargain. Higher DPI capability then my needs = good. These DPI settings are set in the software and then switched to your presets on the fly using the default buttons or you can remap them to different buttons.
Sniper Button: D**mnit I love this button. It's well placed at the tip of my thumb and comes in really handy when you need to quickly take a precise shot. In the software you can dial it in to the perfect low-DPI setting of your choosing. It effectively lowers your dpi while the button is pressed, allowing you to slow down your movement to take a more accurate long range shot. Then letting go of this button forces you back to your previous DPI/movement speed. Here's the best part, if you don't really snipe or you want some defense while being stunned in Modern Warfare 3, there's a little trick people use. You can raise the Sniper Button DPI to a high resolution, let's say 3000. Then when you're stunned you could hold it down and gain immense speed to overcome the effect of being stunned. It's much easier than double clicking a DPI setting button up and then back down after the stun effect is gone. One button, one reaction.
I play FPS & MMO games. This mouse is great for both game types. I have buttons I can use for macro'ing skills and combining them. If there were a lot more buttons, I don't think I could keep up with the usage of them. I use Claw-Grip the majority of time, but I find I can comfortably use the mouse with normal hand placement as well. I don't have large hands and I fit perfectly on the grips of the mouse while resting my palm on the heel of the mouse. I also use a wrist pad as well and that helps immensely for comfort.
While testing this mouse I found that it's what I would expect from any high quality gaming mouse. It moves very quickly and precisely. Gaming does feel snappier and more responsive using the M90 vs. my old G9. The mouse is comfortable for hours of use at a time. It took a little getting used to with the sniper button since I had to adjust my hold of the mouse to line up my thumb over the button. After that it was smooth sailing.
While playing Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer, I found the sniping button quick and easy. The games fast pace makes it difficult to add one more step to a fast action fighting game with endless enemies. That didn't stop me from enjoying it and getting better with practice.
In The Old Republic I was able to make several macros to translate my most used skills over to my right hand. It's nice to free up my left hand with some skills on both now.
Macro Creation: When I take the time to make macros I want them to work in the most games possible. Using hardware playback maximizes that capability. Unfortunately the creation process is very long winded.
E.g. to create a macro for button 13 to emulate the # 2 button on the keyboard consists of:
Click MR (macro record) button
Click button 13
Push 2 on keyboard
Click MR Button (normally you're done here)
Click manage profiles,
Double click "......" (Area under LED column)
On the drop down labeled "1" - click & select Profile 1
Click "save to m90"
Wait till it says 100% then click ok.
The last 5 steps are necessary to upload the settings to the M90's onboard memory. Why should you do that? So that it will use the hardware playback setting and use the mouse for input instead of software. Without that you won't be able to use it in certain mainstream games. *I know this is beta software so this must not be the final build. I just hope they will take my suggestion to shorten this process.
Photoshop:
I tested this mouse in Photoshop to see how "Angle Snapping" works and to test its overall performance.
After installing the software I soon realized that there was a problem. The software wasn't importing the settings from the m90's onboard memory. This means after setting up any profiles on computer #1 you would over write them once you click "save to m90" on computer #2, effectively losing any macros currently on the M90. To avoid this I have to export them to an xml file on computer#1 and put them on computer #2 (via email, usb, burn to cd, etc). Making any changes on computer #2's Profiles would force you to export them again until both #1 & #2 computers have the same profiles. This is very cumbersome.
Aside from that, using the M90 in Photoshop feels very natural. The M90 shows it's a much better fit as compared to a standard infrared mouse. The higher DPI laser mouse was intended for gaming, but it works very well for small exact motions in Photoshop. The sniper button in particular was very useful when I wanted to make very small, very precise movements. Moving a guide to the perfect location or making very minute brush strokes in a small area. Sliding over and adjusting a shape/object to the right location.
Photoshop already has several ways to create angled straight lines.
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