Corsair Raptor M45 Review

Corsair Raptor M45 Review - Introduction and Features

Manufacturer: Corsair
UK Price: £44.99
US Price: $59.99

The Corsair Raptor M45 is an upgrade to the Corsair Raptor M40, with an improved 5,000dpi sensor. It could also be considered a cut-price variant of the company’s Vengeance M65 model that uses an optical rather than laser sensor. However, while cheaper than that model it still boasts plenty of other features that mark it out from entry level models – this is still a true gaming peripheral.


When we say this is a low cost version of the M65 we really mean it. The M45 sports essentially exactly the same physical design as that model but rather than the metal base of the M65 here it’s all plastic. This doesn’t detract at all from the mouse’s overall look or feel though. On the desk you’d be hard pushed to tell it apart from its more luxurious sibling and all the surfaces of the mouse that you touch feel solid and have nice finishes. The top has a soft-touch coating while the sides have a textured moulded finish to them, which theoretically aids grip and reduces overall sweaty finger-syndrome.


Another nice addition is the aluminium scroll wheel. The metal construction doesn’t serve a purpose in terms of adding extra weight for inertial scrolling but it looks the part. The edge is finished with a nice thick and grippy rubber band and the scrolling action has an accurate lightweight feel – perfect for precise weapon selection in FPS games for instance.

Another key feature of this mouse is that it includes a weights system. Three screw-off metal bolts on the underside reveal three tiny metal discs. Each of the bolts weighs 3g and the weights weigh 4g, making for a total possible extra weight of 21g.


We aren’t generally fans of weights in mice as we tend to find the lighter the better. As such we ended up removing both the weights and the bolts. However one area where we did see some benefit was in photoshop work where the extra stability provided by the higher weight made tracing round fine objects a little easier. Also, some people like extra weight generally and as far as weight systems go this one seems to do the trick nicely.

One area where the M45 actually trumps the M65 is that it has more lights! As well as the indicator bars for the DPI setting, which sit below the scroll wheel in between the two DPI adjusting buttons, the Corsair logo is also backlit. The lighting is single colour but good quality and we like the choice of red and black – it’s the perfect partner to the matching Corsair Raptor K40 keyboard at the very least.


An interesting little quirk of this mouse is that the cable comes from the left side of the front edge, rather than the middle. This doesn’t seem to serve any purpose for the user but simply is a result of the design and construction of the mouse. The cable itself is 1.2m long, which is plenty, and is fully braided, terminating in a matching red USB plug.


The base of the Corsair Raptor M45 has five very large PTFE glide pads which provide a wonderfully smooth mousing action. It glided effortlessly over every conventional mousing surface we tried and the sheer area of padding means the pads should last a while. A nice touch too is that each pad has a little notch next to it for easy insertion of a screwdriver or such for prizing off and replacing the pads. How easy it will be to get hold of replacements is a different matter, of course.