 The M45 is both an uncomplicated product and yet one that I feel deserves its fair share of attention. Corsair hasn't actually altered much from its predecessor the M40, but that's why I feel like if I don't cover it, it might get overlooked. With its factory tuning and data center DNA, an Intel 730 series SSD is an amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts. The M40 is an excellent optical gaming mouse and at the time of its release, even though Corsair had higher-end products, I felt like it was actually the strongest offering in their lineup for FPS gamers from both a value perspective and even just overall. It's a Vago 3090 sensor, is extremely accurate and doesn't suffer from the acceleration issues that plague modern laser sensors. The M45 picks up where the M40 left off. It has an upgraded Pixart PMW3310 optical sensor that is widely regarded as a solid evolutionary improvement over the 3090 and in spite of the branding change is actually made by the same folks. Like its older brother, the M45 lacks some of the features of higher-end mice like customizable lighting colors. It's got two settings, red and off. And I'm sure there's other stuff, but I can't remember any of it right now, so obviously there's nothing missing that I personally care about. Some more buttons would be nice, I guess, but this is not an MMO mouse, so I guess the layout makes sense. Let's get into the important stuff, the things I care about that it does have. Seven completely programmable buttons, excellent ergonomics that allow for users with small hands to palm and users with bigger hands to claw very comfortably, an adjustable weight system that lets the M40 go from about 98 grams to about a hundred and sixteen grams, making it very light at the low end of that range. Omron switches, a high-mass scroll wheel that due to its metal construction really does have a more satisfying feel, and finally, the really nice textured finish of the mouse with soft touch on the top and then a fine sandpaper feeling plastic on the sides that is both durable and facilitates easy lifts without being uncomfortable to the touch. DPI goes from 50 all the way to 5,000 in increments of 50, giving you pretty much as wide a range as most gamers will desire until we get to like 8k displays or something, and it's got three selectable profiles controlled by default with the top buttons here, so you can change your DPI settings on the fly. Speaking of default key mappings, Corsair software has come a long way since the launch of the M60 and M90, and I'm slowing down to emphasize that. You can create and save as many profiles as you'd like and store your favorite one on the mouse's onboard memory. Lift height has five settings from low to high. The polling rate can be adjusted, although just set this to a thousand hertz or one millisecond and then you're pretty much good to go, and angle snapping can be turned on or off, but lacks more granular control. Acceleration and the number of scrolling lines for the wheel options are not included, but those can of course be adjusted in Windows, so I guess the one thing that really felt absent to me was the ability to remap or bind macros to the scroll up and scroll down functionality. This is especially conspicuous due to Corsair's actually really solid and easy to use implementation of button remapping that allows you to assign macros, keyboard keys, and even some cool canned Windows functions like copy paste, close current window, etc. Now as of today, the M45's pricing puts it right up against the SteelSeries Rival and the Logitech G400S, and ten dollars cheaper than the Razer DeathAdder 2013, making it very competitive. The G400S will be the obvious choice for gamers who prefer that classic Logitech shape, and the only thing I feel that it lacks at this price point is a braided cable. M45's got that. Compared to the Rival, I prefer the textured sides versus the rubber finish on the sides of the Rival, and for compared to the DeathAdder 2013, I find that the increased resistance of the left and right click on the top is preferable to the hair trigger ones on the DeathAdder, but your mileage may vary, and that is why all of these mice get to exist. So personal taste, I really like a lot of things about this one, but there are definitely pros to the others. Guys, like and share this video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, and leave a nasty comment on the Linus Tech Tips forum, linked in the video description if you'd like to discuss my failings and what a terrible father and product reviewer I am, and if you have any constructive criticism for the rest of my team, then go for it too. 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