Corsair M55 RGB Pro review: "Chic, ambidextrous, and user-friendly"

Ambidextrous mice like the Corsair M55 RGB Pro face an uphill battle; they’ve got to serve two masters at once with very different needs. The M55 may just pull it off, though. 

While Corsair’s latest isn’t the best gaming mouse you can get your hands on, it offers good value at a low cost nonetheless ($40 / £45, to be precise). Chic and user-friendly in spite of a few design hiccups, the Corsair M55 RGB Pro is arguably better than most alternatives vying for your cash. It'll make a great companion to the best gaming keyboard, too.

Features

Weighing in at just 3oz (86g), the M55 backs up that speed with a middle-of-the-road 12,400 DPI sensor. However, the real headline is obviously asymmetric control. Corsair handles this balancing act with ease; swapping from left to right-handed grips is as easy as holding down the two programmable buttons. 

Once you’ve done this, those extra buttons on the other side will be disabled to make sure you don’t hit them by accident. It's a smart feature I'd love to see replicated elsewhere - on the generally excellent but much more expensive Razer Viper 8KHz, for example.

Design

Even though Corsair had a go at asymmetric mice with the Katar back in 2015, this is an aesthetic u-turn - and a welcome one at that. Rather than bulky grey plastic and sports-car grills (the kind you see even now on the likes of the Corsair Nightsword RGB), the M55 opts for a tear-drop shape that’s both sleek and understated.

Besides modest RGB, it also provides four programmable buttons (two on each side), a singular DPI button on the top, and a rough, grippy surface that improves control. It's sleek and understated, but well designed to be user friendly. In some ways, it's second only to the pricier Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro.

Performance

Even though it’ll feel weird at first if you’re not used to asymmetric mice, the Corsair M55 RGB Pro is comfortable for both left and right-handed users. The case’s texture also makes it feel very secure underhand. In fact, the only design choice I wasn’t a big fan of would be the rubber side grips. While these do the job, they also give the impression of cheap plastic.

Unfortunately, things aren’t so rosy when it comes to performance. I wasn’t mad-keen on the M55’s click action, and those Omron switches are a little more resistant than I’m happy with (a colleague called them “spongey”). The scroll wheel was hard to reach with my fingertip grip, too. 

Still, it’s not all bad. The M55 boasts a fantastically smooth glide, and it doesn’t cost much. This isn’t the fastest mouse on the market by any means, but you can’t really complain at that price.

Overall - should you buy it?

Because there aren’t many ambidextrous pointers to speak of, I’m more willing to overlook the Corsair M55 RGB Pro’s flaws. And realistically? These aren’t issues that’ll ruin your enjoyment all that much. It's more affordable than rivals such as the ASUS ROG Pugio II or the SteelSeries Sensei Ten as well. That definitely helps take the sting out of any drawbacks.

Sure, Corsair’s ambidextrous mouse isn’t going to blow your socks off by any means. But it’ll serve you well even so.