Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
At first glance, the Corsair M65 RGB Ultra has a very ergonomic look to it. It looks like it is built for gaming, and the big red sniper button on the left side adds to this. The mouse has an asymmetrical shape, designed specifically for right-handed users. This is evident by the left side thumb rest. Both sides of the mouse have textured grips, making it relatively easy to hold. On a side note, the texture Corsair opted to use resembles the triangular pattern seen on the retail box. I enjoyed how this felt in my hand, as it made holding it very easy. The mouse shell is covered in a smooth black plastic with the Corsair logo located at the back and an M65 logo just barely visible on the top of the left primary button. The exterior also reveals an aluminum frame, which helps make the mouse feel more solid.
There are two buttons in the middle of the mouse to toggle the sensitivity up and down. There is a total of two RGB LED lighting zones on this mouse. These include the scroll wheel and the logo at the back. The RGB LED diffuser in between the sensitivity toggles will remain static and only change color when the sensitivity is toggled.
The Corsair M65 RGB Ultra has smaller physical dimensions compared to an average gaming mouse, coming in at 77mm in width, 117mm in length, and 39mm high. The M65 RGB Ultra has a minimum weight of 97g and a maximum weight of 115g. The weight can be adjusted, which we will discuss in further detail coming up. Like most mice today, the weight is balanced to the center, meaning it will feel balanced when you lift it up. When using the M65 RGB Ultra, I found that I was most comfortable using a claw or finger grip due to its small size. Being a person who prefers using a palm grip, I still found this mouse to be generally comfortable to hold for short to moderate periods of usage.
A braided cable is fed out from the center of the front end of the mouse, likewise to pretty much everything I have used in the past. Aside from looking nice, the braided cable also provides less friction than a regular rubber-coated cable, allowing for smoother mouse movement. The 1.8m length is industry-standard and does the job well if you like to keep your PC off your desk or somewhere at a reasonable distance. The mouse connects through a USB Type-A connector with the Corsair logo placed on the end. While adding gold plating would have looked nice, it would not affect performance. Not having a gold-plated connector makes sense in this case as it adds no benefit, but raises the cost. The cable is very flexible, making it easy to run through difficult areas when connecting it to a USB port.
The Corsair M65 RGB Ultra comes with common buttons you would expect on a standard gaming mouse, including the forward and back keys on the left side and the sensitivity increase/decrease buttons in the middle. The red sniper button is the stand-out one, which is located on the left side. This button in particular serves the function of temporarily setting the mouse at a certain sensitivity. The sniper button must be continuously pressed in order for the pre-set sensitivity to be activated. The primary buttons have Omron optical switches. The rated lifespan was not given by Corsair, but based on other mice with Omron switches, we can assume it is likely around 50 million clicks. Both mouse buttons feel very crisp when pressing them, although the left mouse button takes a little more pressure to press, which ultimately does not affect performance, but can be noticeable at times.
Aside from the sniper button DPI, the M65 RGB Ultra includes five sensitivity levels that can be adjusted and preset into the mouse using the iCUE software, which we will touch on shortly. There are two sensitivity adjustment buttons located behind the scroll wheel to increase and decrease sensitivity. I think this is a great addition, as many budget mice only have one sensitivity toggle button. Having increase/decrease buttons make reaching your desired sensitivity much easier as opposed to having only one toggle button, which requires you to cycle through each sensitivity before reaching your desired DPI. The LED diffuser strip between the two sensitivity adjustment buttons will also change color whenever the sensitivity is altered, which is a good visual cue. This LED diffuser strip will remain a static color and will only shift when the DPI is shifted, indicating the sensitivity level the mouse is at based on the color corresponding to the DPI level. The buttons are close enough to each other such that your fingers will not have to stretch much to reach them, but also far enough away from each other to avoid accidental clicks when using a claw or finger grip. When using a palm grip to hold this mouse, the sniper button does take a little more effort to reach. I also realize that this could be different for people with larger hand sizes. All the buttons feel very nice to click with good travel and response times.
Continuing on with the scroll wheel, I began to see a theme with Corsair's triangular pattern. The grip on the wheel was good, as I found no problem with the scrolling when I browsed the web. The scrolling performance was adequate and comparable to any other mouse I have used. As mentioned earlier, the scroll wheel of the mouse is one of the RGB LED lighting zones. The lighting comes with a variety of modes that can change the display of the light. I tried all the different color combinations through iCUE to see how it looked on the mouse wheel, and every color I tested looked accurately represented.
At the bottom of the mouse, the feet and sensor can be seen. The pads are made of PTFE, commonly known as Teflon. This is fairly standard across mice in general, so you know what it is. The two Teflon pads allow the mouse to glide smoothly when being dragged across any flat surface. The Corsair M65 RGB Ultra uses a Corsair Marksman sensor, which is designed in conjunction with PixArt. This sensor can sense up to a whopping 26,000 DPI along with being capable of tracking speeds of 650 IPS with an acceleration of 50g. This are impressive specifications, but we will see how this sensor actually performs in our subjective performance tests. When adjusting your sensitivity, you are able to adjust the DPI by intervals of 1, which is as precise as it gets. The M65 RGB Ultra runs at an impressive maximum polling rate of up to 8000 Hz, which can be adjusted at six other settings of 125 Hz, 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, and 4000 Hz. Corsair recommends a recent generation Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 CPU when running the M65 RGB Ultra at 8000Hz.
As mentioned earlier, the weight of the Corsair M65 RGB Ultra can be tuned by the weighted screws and plastic rings that can be attached at the bottom. If the screws are screwed in all the way, the M65 RGB Ultra weighs in at 115g, which is fairly heavy for a wired mouse in 2022. Users can loosen the screws to let the mouse weigh less or take out the screws completely, which puts the mouse at its minimum weight of 97g.
The Corsair M65 RGB Ultra is compatible with the company's iCUE software, which can be downloaded from Corsair's website with a file size of 795MB as of the time of writing. iCUE works with all Corsair products to adjust performance settings, customize features, and synchronize RGB LED lighting effects. As seen in the image above, the left side displays a tab where various configuration tabs can be accessed to change the lighting and performance of the mouse. The right side will display a preview of the mouse, while the customization options are found near the bottom.
The Key Assignments tab allows users to change the function of the mouse buttons and even tilt directions. Only the left and right tilt angles can be edited here. Either way, the tilt direction mapping is incredibly unique as you can change media functions such as increasing or decreasing volume just by tilting the mouse. Further actions include macros, text, launch application, timer, disable, and profile switching. Users can save configurations they might find themselves coming back to in the Assignments Library, which is a sub-tab found directly under the Key Assignments tab. The Hardware Key Assignments tab serves the same function, except with the option of adjusting tilt directions. The Lighting Effects tab, as the name implies, allows users to adjust the RGB LED lighting on the mouse. In the case of the Corsair M65 RGB Ultra, you will only see the lighting change on the scroll wheel and the logo at the back of the mouse. There is a large selection of lighting effects to choose from under the three sub-tabs; those being predefined, custom, and lighting link. Users can save a lighting effect in the Hardware Lighting tab for when iCUE is not running, with the option to select a rainbow or static lighting effect.
The Gestures tab allows users to adjust the tilt angles of the mouse, which I found very neat. Users can adjust the tilt angles for the front and back tilt along with left and right tilt. The DPI tab gives users the flexibility to adjust the sensitivity settings on their mouse at 1 DPI increments. Furthermore, there are six different sensitivity presets that users can save, although the sixth setting will only be tied to the sniper button. These presets can be activated by clicking the two sensitivity adjustment buttons on the mouse, with the top increasing sensitivity and the bottom decreasing sensitivity. The Surface Calibration tab allows users to calibrate the mouse for their surface of choice. This is done through a test where users drag their mouse pointer across the screen for a set period at a constant speed, which will calibrate the sensor to that surface for the best performance. Finally, we have device settings, where users can adjust the pointer speed of their mouse along with an option to enhance the pointer precision. This is also the tab where the polling rate can be adjusted, up to the maximum rate of 8000Hz. On top of all that, one onboard profile is available on the Corsair M65 RGB Ultra, which can save DPI stage color, DPI settings, and RGB LED backlighting effects on the mouse itself.
Overall, the iCUE software is a very effective tool that gives users the freedom to customize their Corsair products with ease. The updated user interface is quite clean with appealing graphics that make for an engaging customization experience.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware and Software
3. Subjective Performance Tests
4. Conclusion
