Capsule Review: Corsair's Vengeance M60 and M90 Mice
by Dustin Sklavos on February 22, 2012 2:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Mouse
- Peripherals
- Corsair
- Input Devices
Conclusion: A Matter of Taste
Despite my criticisms I'll readily admit the Corsair Vengeance M60 and M90 are two of the better mice I've tested. While I prefer the feel of the body of the M90, the button arrangement of the M60 was more comfortable for me. Either way, these two mice are excellent at what they were fundamentally designed to do: they're fast, responsive, and precise. The benefit of gaming hardware is that oftentimes it's engineered with better precision and quality in mind, making the Vengeance mice a decent option for regular users who have no interest in gaming. The M90, for example, could certainly be very useful for someone who uses heavy duty CAD or video software and needs a lot of shortcuts on the mouse.
The problem you run into is that it's going to be a matter of taste and preference. Peripherals like these can be a very personal thing; while a friend of mine quite liked the Vengeance mice (and indeed preferred the M90), another found the mice to be too large and bulky and preferred to continue using a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 that fit her hand and her grip style better. Personally, I do find them both on the large-ish side and they feel like they were designed for hands bigger than mine. The special buttons never seemed to be in the right place for me the way the side buttons on the Logitech G500 are.
Thankfully, Corsair is getting pretty good market penetration and the prices for the M60 and M90 are reasonable, so it shouldn't be too hard for you to go out and actually see them for yourself in person as opposed to just taking my word for it. Quibbles about button placement (and even surface treatment of the body's plastic) can be very subjective, and what bothers me could very likely not bother you—or you might even like something I dislike.
That said, the software side of things still needs work. The interface honestly needs to be cleaned up a lot and made more intuitive, and just bout everything I brought up in the Vengeance keyboard review is applicable here. The DPI configuration screen is excellent, but the button assignment and macro programming remains baffling. I think Corsair erred on people being more apt to use the software to program macros than basic functions, but why shouldn't it be designed to cater to both?
When all is said and done, though, the software is the easiest thing to fix. If the hardware wasn't there the mice would be a lost cause, but for the most part the hardware is fine. I have personal issues with the layouts of the mice, but you may not share my complaints. If the M60 or M90 feel good in your hand, they're probably going to be right for you.
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Impulses - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
Suitable replacement... Damn swype. ;)Th-z - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
Similar with discontinued MX Revolution. To me its mouse wheel is the best for quickly scrolling long document/web page. They have made mice with hyper scrolling since, but they all require a switch, not the auto-shifting MX Revolution uses. What a shame.ckryan - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
I find that I leave hyperscrolling on all the time. The situations where I don't want to use it are quite rare.bji - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
Keyboards are just as much a matter of preference as are mice. There is no inherent superiority to mechanical switches when compared to other types of keyboards, it is entirely a matter of preference.mclazer - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
I've never heard of anyone who prefers the membrane over mechanical keys... I'm sure they exist but I think the majority of gamers/heavy keyboard users prefer mechanical.Either way, you can look at a keyboard's feature list and get a pretty accurate gauge on whether you would like that keyboard or not. Whether it has mechanical keys, ergonomical, wrist rests, lighted keys, macro buttons for gamers, whatever. If it has the stats you want, your probably going to like it.
With a mouse it's a lot more subjective. On paper two mice could be exactly the same down to the sensor, but you don't know which one feels "right" until you use it.
kyuu - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
Totally agree. Many people (myself included) don't like the long-travel, noise, and overly "clicky" feel of mechanical switches. I much prefer my Logitech keyboard with rubber-dome switches.Just because you prefer them does not make them objectively better, Mr. Sklavos.
exploderator - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
Scroll wheel : does it free wheel or does it ratchet?I have looked high and low, and yet have never found an answer to this critical question. Corsair hints about it being heavy, but still fails to say whether it can/does free-wheel.
This particular issue is a show stopper for me, and is the one reason why I can only use Logitech mice so far (eyeballing the G700 as a step up from my MX Revolution, more buttons is good). I cannot grind a ratchet all day with my middle finger when zooming in and out in CAD software. My seriously worn out MX (several years later) has saved me from suffering a repetitive stress injury that was just starting to happen when I bought it (one of the best $100 I have ever spent on computer hardware BTW).
I suppose I could probably butcher the ratchet mechanism out of one of these mice, depending on how it's implemented (ie not buried inside a tiny sealed rotary encoder), but it's a $70 gamble I would rather not take. And I admit that it's nice to be able to put my MX in clickety mode when playing FPS where it does your weapon selection, free wheel is a tad wild and unpredictable for that. To lose both the wireless and freewheel... that would be a $70 paper weight in my books. With bad drivers.
Revdarian - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
From experience, most new scroll wheels feel extremely hard and do cause discomfort. But after 1-2 months of regular use they become pretty normal. It also annoys me that it is that way but at least now i try to artificially wear it down until it becomes soft enough to be comfortable.exploderator - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
Unfortunately, no amount of wear-down can compensate for my requirement of a fully free-wheeling scroll wheel.The gesture is this: you give the wheel ONE very light flick in the intended direction, leaving your middle finger OFF the wheel, and touching back down to stop the free spin when the desired travel has been achieved. ONE FLICK vs. grind grind grind... it's a make or break difference. It's also the kind of gesture that is almost immediately fully automatic and intuitive, there is almost no learning curve, and it works immaculately well. It's one of those perfect natural solutions that our brains already understand. Expensive analog radio tuner dials used the same principle (albeit in a much less critical application). Good track balls do the same. There is no substitute.
Death666Angel - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
This doesn't make a lot of sense for gaming mice, considering that we gamers need distinct mouse wheel levels for weapon selection and the like.What you describe sounds like what the click middle mouse button/mouse wheel is for. Click it once to get a stead scrolling going, click it again to halt that scrolling.