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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stimpack99 - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
... are currently poorly designed by most manufacturers, even logitechs new ambidextrous mouse sucks. The button placement is all wrong.I swear the people designing these things aren't gamers. I'd really like a good dpad on the side of the mouse below the "web browser" forward/backward buttons. Either that or scrap the browser buttons entirely and put good quality gamepad like buttons on it oriented like you would have on a gamepad. It drives me insane that so-called gaming mice are just marketing labels for crappy mice.
cigar3tte - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
I can't understand why all the mice have the thumb buttons laid out horizontally. Vertical buttons seems so much easier to hit both.moriz - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
the idea with the horizontal placement is that you place your thumb over both, and rock back and forth on the second joint to press the buttons. this is way faster than repositioning your entire thumb up and down.Omega215D - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
The MS Sidewinder line of mice had the vertical thumb button placement (save the X3 which has one on each side as it's ambi). They were pretty unique and the buttons functioned well. Their designs were ok but I would rather have the Logitech MX518/ G400 or CM Storm Spawn/ Xornet style bodies.MS should make a new Sidewinder mouse that's like the IME with 2 vertical thumb buttons or 3 horizontal thumb buttons (like Logitech's G500 as I'm always in need of a 3rd thumb button).
realjetavenger - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
I agree that verticle placement of the thumb buttons makes more sense. But on the sidewinder mice I found the bottom thumb button placed too low. I always had a problem hitting that button since my thumb would be hitting the desktop moreso than the button itself and it just wasn't comfortable, for me. But this is another great example of how personal the feel of any mouse is. Again, love the idea of verticle placement, but in this case it just didn't fit my hand very well.mclazer - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
You are a perfect example to highlight the truth of the first paragraph of the article.Sounds like you are not satisfied with the feel/button placement of any gaming mice and are attributing it to cheapness/marketing labels.
I can empathize however. Since you never know if you will like a mouse until you have it in your hands it almost forces you to buy a whole crap ton of mice to get the one you want. I'm pretty picky also and went through almost 20 mice until I found the Roccat Kova+.. thats the one for me :D
sking.tech - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
Exactly! My God, have I gone through a crap-ton of mice!!! I still haven't found one that feels like the perfect fit. I wanted to love the cyborg mice as they look fantastic but, so far they leave a lot to be desired, same for razer, same for most logitech's - I'm using the m705 marathon currently - not a great gaming mouse but, not too bad - but, it's pretty comfortable as far as grip and long use time.The M60 here looks pretty good, hoping to get my hands on one soon!
Sabresiberian - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
One of the "problems" with mice with a lot of buttons is that you have to be willing to figure out how to use them for your app(s) and then spend time adapting to the mouse. No matter how well the buttons are placed (and some of them aren't placed well at all on every one I've seen) you are just going to have to learn how to use it right - especially for gaming when you have to do things fast without thinking about it.It's pretty much like learning how to type again - well, simpler than that, but that kind of thing. Before you buy one you should consider whether or not you have the aptitude to go through all that. I think it's worth it in the end, but it isn't an instant-gratification thing.
;)
ckryan - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
The Logitech MX1100 is more my speed, which is unfortunate, since they've not made that mouse for some time.Impulses - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - link
Same here, I'm hoping mine holds up for a few more years since I haven't found a siecle wireless replacement. I was intrigued by the R.A.T. for a while but kept hearing about too many QC issues.