Corsair Vengeance M95 MMO and RTS Gaming Mouse

When we first looked at the Corsair Vengeance M90 over a year ago, we mentioned how it was an excellent mouse with plenty of expansion via extra buttons to go with really avid gamers. Fast-forward a year or so and Corsair has decided to refresh their initial peripheral line, upgrading them if you will as noted by the name changes. The new Corsair Vengeance M95 still bears all that was good about the Vengeance M90 with some new enhancements: it bears an upgraded laser sensor with automatic surface grading, a softer set of side keys for easy actuation and an improved configuration software. We’ll put the Vengeance M95 through its paces in our gaming station and see for ourselves what’s new with Corsair.

[section label=”Features”]

Features

• Optimized for MMO and RTS gaming - Vengeance M95 is designed for the complex demands of massively multiplayer and real-time strategy games. It offers easy programming, 15 intelligently positioned buttons, and onboard storage for unique button setups for each game.
• Highly accurate tracking - The advanced 8,200 DPI laser sensor is designed to give great performance, even on not-so-great surfaces.
• Comfortable for hours of play - The lightweight aluminum frame is wrapped in soft-touch materials, so you can focus on your game, not on the gear. 15 intelligently positioned buttons, including nine macro keys. They’re arranged and tuned for intuitive operation without compromising your grip, so you get almost effortless access to your frequently-used abilities, macros, button combinations, and spells.
• 8200 DPI laser sensor - Ultra-high sensitivity for precise tracking and control.
• Aluminum unibody design - The aluminum frame combines high rigidity with low weight, and provides optimal mass distribution.
• Selectable response time - You can tune the performance for your desktop surface and playing style by choosing between four response time: 1000Hz, 500Hz, 250Hz, or 125Hz (1ms, 2ms, 4ms or 8ms).
• Onboard profile storage - Once you’ve set up your button configuration and other parameters for each of your favorite games, you can quickly toggle between profiles directly from the M95. Since they’re stored on the M95 itself, you don’t need to repeat the setup process on each PC you play on.
• High-mass scroll wheel - The solid metal, rubberized scroll wheel doesn’t just feel great — it gives you the precision you need when selecting weapons. Precise tactile feedback and accuracy help make sure that you select the right weapon every time.
• Switches rated for 20 million clicks - They provide the durability you need for the long run. You probably won’t click them 20 million times… but you could if you wanted to.
• Soft-touch materials - Surfaces are textured and have just the right amount of give for outstanding comfort.
• PTFE glide pads - M95 is designed with low-friction contact points for swift, precise movement with minimal effort.
• Automatic surface quality detection - The laser sensor automatically grades the reflective quality of your playing surface and adjusts its operation accordingly.
• Corsair Vengeance: Designed for performance gaming
• The gear that brings your gaming to the highest performance - Incredible responsiveness. Precise accuracy. Customizable, reliable controls. Intelligent design. The smallest details and the highly crafted refinements that make all the difference. Vengeance gaming peripherals aren’t typical gaming devices, but elite mice, keyboards and headsets that allow you to perform at your highest level. Brought to you by Corsair — people enthusiastic about performance gaming.
• The Corsair Advantage - With a long history of building enthusiast-grade memory and components, we’ve earned a reputation for quality, compatibility, and performance. Need help? We’re available by phone call, email or web forum.

Official product page

[section label=”Closer Look”]

Closer Look

Together with Corsair’s upgrade of their Vengeance Gaming peripherals comes new packaging. The new Corsair Vengeance mice packaging features an angular box with a large window where the mouse sits, protected by blister packaging to let the user see the actual product in the store shelves. The back of the box also shows a see through cut-out of the mouse base.

Included in the M95 package is a simple warranty card. Corsair Vengeance mice have 2-year warranty.

Six (6) feet of braided cable trail the Vengeance gaming mouse capped by a bright blue USB plug.

The Corsair Vengeance M95 features a large, ergonomic design similar to other MMO-oriented gaming mice. The top body is coated with a matte black finish which has a really rubbery, dry feel to it which improves grip. The unibody metal base features 4 Teflon feet for smooth gliding. Notable here is the lack of a weight-adjustment system which the M95 sadly does not have.

The Vengeance M95 has a distinct ergonomic profile on all angles except for the thumb area where 9 extra keys. Arranged in a certain way, Corsair states these as intuitively placed although we beg to disagree. We’ll talk more about that later.

[section label=”User Experience & Conclusion”]

User Experience & Conclusion

Coming from a Roccat Kone XTD and Razer Taipan, adjusting to the Vengeance M95 is easy as the Kone XTD features a similarly large body. The main difference is the wider thumb area where most of the extra buttons are. Having used the Naga Molten and Naga HEX before, we’ve already been accustomed to thumb buttons and noting the harder-to-press buttons of the Vengeance M90, the Vengeance M95 is surely an improvement in this respect. The side buttons are now lighter and easier to press, requiring less effort even when reaching for the furthest buttons. That said though, the design still hasn’t changed and the distance of the furthest buttons from the palm base is still the same which is quite far off for small- and medium-sized hands. Whilst its really unlikely that you’ll use all these buttons, we recommended sticking to the ones nearer the thumb base but should you go all out, remember that  need to “reach” a bit if you have smaller hands.

In terms of performance though, the Vengeance M95 is butter smooth. Despite its metallic base, the mouse is smooth and has the right heft for precision control. While it may lack a weight-adjustment system, it more than makes up for it in terms of programmability and customization with the configuration software. A rich assortment of adjustment options are present and you can save your profiles in the M95 itself to bring your profiles along with your mouse so you don’t need to setup when moving systems.

Priced at $79, the Corsair Vengeance M95 competes directly with the Razer Naga and Logitech G600, both of which arrive at the same price point of $79.99. This is really tough competition as Razer prides itself in its performance while Logitech with its astounding quality and extensive software customization. The Corsair Vengeance M95 shines through those with its more mature design, sturdy build quality and superior customer support. We’ve had first-hand experience with a reader experiencing problems with their Vengeance M95 and Corsair support readily offered a brand new replacement, free of charge. That is way beyond our experience with Razer although Logitech has never given us any issues to speak of.

Wrapping things up, Corsair has definitely shown their strength as a company that listen to their customers. With the improvements over the M90, Vengeance M95 is an excellent choice for anyone proficient and dexterous enough to manipulate all the extra buttons the M95 features.

Corsair backs the Vengeance M95 with a 2-year warranty. We give it our B2G Silver Award for its excellent build quality and performance.