Oh Corsair, not you too.
When Razer announced it was putting out an RGB mousepad last year, I scoffed. I mocked it. But ultimately I thought, “Well, it’s Razer. This is sort of what they do.”
Today Corsair announced the MM800 Polaris mousepad though, and that’s it. Game over. Corsair is a serious company, which means the RGB-enabled mousepad is officially “a thing” now and we have to take it seriously. We’re going to have to compare features on two of the most gaudy, useless peripherals ever built.
Damn it.
Anyway, the MM800 is essentially a note-for-note clone of Razer’s Firefly. It’s a big ol’ textured mousepad with a channel of RGB LEDs running around the facing edge, plus a massive hump at the top where the USB plugs in. Given the problems I had with that hump in our Firefly review I would’ve expected Corsair to try and minimize it, but judging by pictures the MM800’s USB connection is even taller and more ridiculous.
Oh, and it’ll run you $60, same as the Firefly. Yes, sixty of your American dollars, drenched in blood, sweat, and a copious amount of tears, for a mousepad.
Corsair’s also releasing a new version of its Corsair Utility Engine software alongside its latest RGB devices (RGB fans were announced too), and while we haven’t gotten any hands-on time with it yet I’ll say that the one screenshot they sent me looks quite a bit simpler to use than the previous iteration. Time will tell.
Please, not you too Logitech. You’re our last hope. You can kill this stupid trend.