Corsair Katar Elite Wireless:: One-minute review
The Corsair Katar Elite Wireless is more than just another entry in the lightweight gaming mouse competition. It’s a more inclusive one, suiting both righties and lefties with its ambidextrous design. Already, that sets it apart from the rest, which does seem crucial considering the number of feather-light rivals on the market.
But, does it do enough to compel gamers to choose it over the Razer Deathadder V3 Pro and the SteelSeries Aerox 3? Especially when those two wireless gaming mice are lighter and deliver great gaming performance?
Well, it might just ultimately boil down to preference here. The Corsair Katar Elite Wireless is slightly smaller, which is nice for small hands but not necessarily the most supportive. It also has a faster polling rate of 2,000Hz, though that doesn’t matter as much to most gamers.
Corsair Katar Elite Wireless: Price and availability
- How much does it cost? $79 (£79, about AU$120)
- Where is it available? Available now
- Where can you get it? Available in the US, the UK, and Australia
Corsair Katar Elite Wireless: SPECS
Interface: 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth, USB-C
Ergonomics: Ambidextrous
Buttons: Six
DPI: 26,000
Switches: Omron optical
Weight: 2.43oz (69g)
Another advantage the Corsair Katar Elite Wireless has over its rivals is its price. Though not in the budget range, it is still more affordable than other wireless mice released around the same time. It’ll set you back $79 (£79, about AU$120).
That makes it $20/£20 more affordable than the SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless, which only has 18,000 DPI and a 1,000Hz polling rate, and half the price of the Razer Deathadder V3 Pro, which only has a 90-hour battery life and a 1,000Hz polling rate unless you have Razer’s Hyperpolling wireless dongle.
The Corsair Katar Elite Wireless is certainly a great option for gamers who want to save some money and still want amazing value. Sure, there are more inexpensive options on the shelves, but the cheaper you go, the crappier the quality you end up with.
Corsair Katar Elite Wireless: Design
- Smaller, ambidextrous body
- Shape is better for gamers with a claw grip
- All buttons remappable
The Corsair Katar Elite Wireless might not be the lightest “lightweight” mouse on the market, but it is still extremely lightweight at 69g. It also manages to be a bit more compact than the other two mice from Razer and SteelSeries, with a tapered design around the palm rest area and textured sides for better grippage, making it ideal for claw grip gamers.
If you’ve got a palm grip or a combination of both types, you might miss that palm support just below your pinkie finger. It’s a good thing that there’s still enough of it around the middle to put your palm’s weight on. The ambidextrous ergonomics make it a lot more inclusive though, by having that, it also sacrifices a little of that perfect fit-in-your-hand comfort.
We appreciate the highly accessible DPI button – there are six buttons in all, all fully programmable – placed just under the scroll wheel, as you can quickly press it on the fly; as we do the positioning of the two side buttons since your thumb need not try too hard to reach them.
The sides may be textured, but the rest of the Corsair Katar Elite Wireless has a soft-to-touch matte finish, which we like. Unfortunately, that also makes it more prone to fingerprints, and if you’ve got oily hands, it might look a little gross after a session.
There’s minimal RGB lighting, but if you’re not lighting-obsessed, the lit-up Corsair logo and the small DPI / power on light indicator should more than suffice. That’s especially since you can customize it as well as sync it with other iCue devices via the Corsair iCue software. This is the same software you can use to assign macros to or remap the buttons.
Corsair Katar Elite Wireless: Performance
- Sensor is fast and on point
- Scroll wheel and side buttons have a bit more resistance
- PTFE feet aren’t for all surfaces
Not that it matters a lot to most non-professional gamers, but the Corsair Katar Elite Wireless sports some impressive specs. The 26,000 DPI optical sensor combined with its 2,000Hz hyper-polling and 50g acceleration means that it’s going to be an extremely fast and responsive gaming mouse that can handle rapid movements without breaking a sweat.
And, we’ve proven that it does in practice. In gaming, whether we’re moving quickly around to battle demons in Control, trying to score a goal in Rocket League, or using a sniper button (we remapped one of the side buttons) in other shooters, it has zero problems keeping up. We have not experienced any noticeable lags at all.
The left and right buttons are just as quick and responsive – not to mention, very satisfying to click, thanks to the Omron switches Corsair utilized. We only wish that the scroll wheel has a little less resistance when spinning. Not that we need a free spin feature, but it feels harder to spin than the competition because it does have a bit more tension.
The side buttons, which as we mentioned are very accessible location-wise, also have a bit more resistance than the left and right buttons. Although this might boil down to personal preference, our intuition tells us that having a little less tension here would match better with their placement.
The Corsair Katar Elite Wireless has 100% PTFE feet (glide pads), and they offer incredibly low-friction glide performance that only enhances this mouse’s speed. You’ll want to stick to using this with a mouse pad or mat, however. Those pads aren’t for all surfaces and sound a little grating on bare wooden desks.
Finally, there’s the battery life, which gives you a whopping 110-hour playtime before you need to charge again. It falls short of the SteelSeries Aerox 3’s 200-hour rating but is better than the Razer Deathadder V3 Pro’s 90-hour one. We haven’t needed to recharge this mouse once during our week of testing.
Should I buy the Corsair Katar Elite Wireless?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Also consider
Corsair Katar Elite Wireless: Report card
| Value | The Corsair Katar Elite Wireless is more affordable than the competition but with higher specs, making it a great value. | 4.5 / 5 |
| Design | It has an ambidextrous design that’s great for claw-grip gamers. And, it’s RGB lighting is subtle but effective. | 4 / 5 |
| Performance | It’s fast. It’s responsive. And, it can more than keep up. We only wish the feet were better. | 4 / 5 |
| Total | The Corsair Katar Elite Wireless is great, ambidextrous wireless gaming mouse. It’s not perfect, but its flaws to not get in the way of its performance. | 4.2 / 5 |
- First reviewed October 2022
How we test
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained – regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it’s on our radar.
