Manufacturer's link:- http://www.corsair.com/en/gaming-peripherals/gaming-mice/corsair-raptor-lm2-gaming-mouse.html
Usually, when computer peripheral manufactures not primarily known for input devices decide to foray into the area, the results are Luke-warm and tend to just provide an opportunity to brand/advertise the company or test waters for a little additional revenue. Arctic cooling, for example, makes excellent cooling solutions but their foray into the gaming mouse world was atrociously bad (the Arctic M571, which looks good on and unfortunately only on paper). Gigabyte is by any measure a top tier motherboard manufacturer but the first mouse they introduced in India, the M6800, while decent for the price, had some serious reliability problems. Mine went dead a few months after use and sending it for RMA revealed that a completely different service centre was responsible for these, who informed the dealer that they no longer deal with gigabyte and are now in the industrial chemical business! Just to put things into perspective, this mouse was advertised with a 3 year warranty. There have been since many keyboard/mouse iterations from them but they all seem… awkward.
Corsair is a company that's a little different though. From their memory, to power supplies, to cases and cooling solutions, they seem to strike gold near anything they touch. Well, almost. Their input devices/headset line does not quite have the same air of quality as the rest of the stuff they make, while not competitively priced enough to shake up the lower side of the market. The Vengeance mice, while very respectable on paper, aren't quite as sexy as the stuff from Razer/Steelseries, the price bracket they compete in, while the reliability isn't better by as much as one would hope. Corsair has usually been very good at scaling down to different price points while keeping all the good stuff intact (Their cases are an excellent example of this, The original Obsidian formula trickled down to some very down to earth prices without losing its essence) , but that hasn't really happened.
Usually, when computer peripheral manufactures not primarily known for input devices decide to foray into the area, the results are Luke-warm and tend to just provide an opportunity to brand/advertise the company or test waters for a little additional revenue. Arctic cooling, for example, makes excellent cooling solutions but their foray into the gaming mouse world was atrociously bad (the Arctic M571, which looks good on and unfortunately only on paper). Gigabyte is by any measure a top tier motherboard manufacturer but the first mouse they introduced in India, the M6800, while decent for the price, had some serious reliability problems. Mine went dead a few months after use and sending it for RMA revealed that a completely different service centre was responsible for these, who informed the dealer that they no longer deal with gigabyte and are now in the industrial chemical business! Just to put things into perspective, this mouse was advertised with a 3 year warranty. There have been since many keyboard/mouse iterations from them but they all seem… awkward.
Corsair is a company that's a little different though. From their memory, to power supplies, to cases and cooling solutions, they seem to strike gold near anything they touch. Well, almost. Their input devices/headset line does not quite have the same air of quality as the rest of the stuff they make, while not competitively priced enough to shake up the lower side of the market. The Vengeance mice, while very respectable on paper, aren't quite as sexy as the stuff from Razer/Steelseries, the price bracket they compete in, while the reliability isn't better by as much as one would hope. Corsair has usually been very good at scaling down to different price points while keeping all the good stuff intact (Their cases are an excellent example of this, The original Obsidian formula trickled down to some very down to earth prices without losing its essence) , but that hasn't really happened.
Fast forward, Corsair has acquired German gaming company Raptor Gaming. The acquired line is meant to run parallel to Corsair's own mice with a good portion of it focusing on the under 2000 INR market, currently dominated by Logitech.
Second from the bottom of this line-up, is the Raptor LM2 mouse, which is priced at around 1200 INR. In all honesty I expected it to be absolutely rubbish. After an hour of use, I stood corrected. I then gave it about a month of use to make sure it didn't die like the Gigabyte mouse and it didn't.
First things first, as the name suggests, this is a claw-grip mouse. If you favour the palm grip, this mouse will almost certainly be too small for you. Here's a picture to give some perspective on size, next to a Logitech M100:-
While the size/design is small, it will not be a problem unless you have really large hands. The mouse is the ergonomic kind, for right hand use. The contoured sides have soft rubber grips and all the grey areas have a soft-touch surface, though not actually rubbery like a Deathadder for example. Its not a heavy mouse by any means but thankfully it isn't too light as well. Overall its not bad looking except that the red side buttons look a little cheap, which is unfortunate although understandable considering the asking price.
Initial impressions aside, all the buttons seem to do their job well and the actuation force required to press is spot on (something that cannot be said for Vengeance mice I've tried which have buttons that are harder to press than they should be). That said, the scroll wheel offers a bit more resistance than one might expect but hopefully this means that it won't fall out any time soon. There are 5 buttons in total, 6 if you count the DPI one just behind the scroll wheel which lets you select between 500, 1000 and 2000 DPI on the fly. There's a small transparent bead behind this button which glows red brighter the higher the setting you select. This DPI button is harder to press than the others to make sure you don't toggle it by mistake. The cord is sufficiently long and the quality is good, albeit a bit thin and not braided.
Business end of the mouse
Tracking remained good and accurate across all the modes although I personally prefer the lower DPI setting. There was no jitter or skipping while playing games and I could draw circles in paint fairly accurately. There is an adequate level of prediction, drawing diagonal, horizontal/vertical lines was no problem. Angle and speed error is controlled
Overall this mouse is a pleasant surprise and a good alternative to mice like, say, the Logitech G100/100S. It reminds me a lot of the old MX518 which is high praise indeed. Corsair covers this mouse with a 2 year warranty. While its a year less than Logitech’s (they move a LOT of mice), it should be adequate as long as Corsair backs it with the same support that has come to be expected from its other products. Value conscious gamers or those avoiding mid-range mice that have good performance but questionable reliability should really have more choice and there isn't anyone better than Corsair to shake things up. This mouse has made me curious to try other products from the Raptor range.
Pros:-
*Costs a little over 1k INR
*Additional buttons/3 DPI modes
*Good performance
*Good build quality
Cons:-
*Side-button quality could be slightly better even at this price point
*Right-hand only
Last edited: