Precision Gaming Mouse Round-Up: Tesoro, Corsair, Logitech

The M65 Pro RGB is a mouse that stands out. Available in two color schemes; the first pairs the black aluminium unibody frame with a smooth and glossy white top while the model we have today instead pairs with a soft touch carbon black top. The sides are roughly textured to improve grip without getting sweaty. It is lit in three zones: under the scroll wheel, under your palm and between the DPI buttons to serve as an indicator.

The aluminum unibody is really the standout feature though and it ain't no beer can. The aluminum here is very solid and dense, but not heavy. It simply feels substantive. In the rear, the rear chassis is perforated in a way that reminds me of a bug's thorax and allows the RGB lighting to shine through onto your mousepad.

The mouse is short and wide with a moderately low profile, conical in shape with the thickest point just behind your first knuckle. The M65's buttons also employ Omron switches but these have a shorter travel and a lighter click than the Sagitta. I would have preferred to see either larger back and forward buttons or else have them positioned closer to my thumb, however. You have to reposition your thumb to hit them which means removing your thumb from the sniper button. This takes time if you have an action bound to them in the middle of a firefight and introduces a slight loss of control if you aren't using a palm grip.

The bottom of the mouse features five PTFE glide pads to cut resistance. Between the pads and forming a triangle around the sensor we find the weight tuning system. It is comprised of three wide headed disc-like screws, each of which is paired with a small weight. This provides for 20.5g of total weight adjustment which can be arranged to suit your preferences. I like the weight along my index finger so I kept the front right (bottom view) weight in, took the weight out of the rear position and removed the screw and weight entirely from the front left. Be sure to keep any removed components in a safe place.

I found it to be most comfortable while gaming with a fingertip grip. I've actually not found a better mouse to use with a fingertip grip because the lack of a real palm rest grants more space to move the mouse forward and back without adjusting your arm. While web-browsing with my lazy palm grip, however, I found my middle fingertip would extend beyond the right mouse button unless I shifted my hand back to a less natural position. Claw gripping I would describe as good, but was the only case where the sniper button didn't sit under my thumb; instead I found I had to press it more with the inside of my knuckle or else curl my thumb significantly.

Corsair's Utility Engine Software is both a blessing and a curse. It provides an unparalleled wealth of options to configure, even going so far as to define how your lighting fades, blinks, and transitions. The catch is any settings beyond the surface are a bit obtuse to figure out and implement.

The program itself consists of four tabs: Profiles, Actions, Lighting, and Settings. The Lighting tab is a bit misleading because that is only where you can define lighting patterns, but not apply them. Instead, you apply default and previously defined patterns in the Profiles submenu also labeled Lighting. Thankfully, button assignments and DPI adjustments are intuitive enough. One nice touch is the ability to assign X and Y sensitivities independently, if desired.

There's a lot in this software we don't have space to cover, but the last place we want to draw your attention to is the settings tab. This is where you will update both the firmware and software itself which we needed to do to gain access to the full 16.8M color RGB lighting features. Also hiding under the Device submenu is a Surface Calibration option to further hone your tracking if you are noticing issues.

If you are a FPS gamer you need to take a good look at this mouse. Let's start with tracking. Without calibration we noticed no real issues tracking on any of the four surfaces we tested.

As we've alluded to above, there's more to this mouse than the sniper button, that makes it a great mouse for shooters. Any mouse can bind a key to shift DPI after all. While this mouse isn't particularly heavy, it is dense. Moving it takes a little bit of effort to get the mass going but then once moving it responds in a way that makes movements smooth and natural. It's especially easy to transition between course and fine movements with a fingertip grip because its smaller size affords a good deal of travel.

MOBA and RTS games don't quite see the same benefit from it, however, in our opinion. Instead of feeling fluid as it does in FPS games it feels clunky here. Such games require a bit more friction to be able to stop for precise clicks so at the very least we would probably use a cloth mousepad with it instead of a high speed gaming mat.