Mad Catz R.A.T.9 Gaming Mouse for PC and Mac

I purchased the Cyborg RAT 9 about 3 weeks ago, and must say, its pretty damn good. I've no complaints. For a wireless mouse, its response is terrific, no lag, and I play a lot of FPS. The ability to customise its shape/dimensions is great, really lets you find the most comfortable size to suit. Battery life is fine, and as it comes with a spare battery, when it starts flashing, it is less than 5 seconds to pull out the battery, plug it in to charge and replace with the fresh battery. Some reviews said it was difficult removing the battery - not so, it clicks in, and pulls out very easily. It came with a number of weights which you can add into an internal chamber, I gave that a go but didn't see the point, so removed them all. As a result, the mouse is nice and light and very responsive. Some of the other reviews said that the base of the mouse was metal, which made me a little apprehensive. It is; however the pads the mouse makes contact with your mouse pad elevate it, so its not like you're dragging a metal base all over your desk. The ability to change the sensitivity cannot be underestimated - a quick click - located just below the scroll wheel - and you can up/down the sensitivity very easily. Similarly the 'headshot' button, which on depression temporarily slows the mouse, is great. Located by your thumb, its very accessible and a great feature. Build quality is very good, it feels well made and very robust.Highly recommended.

The Good-----------The R.A.T 9 is well built and aesthetically pleasing. It feels solid and looks as if it could stand up to heavy use. The customisation options are fun, easy and pretty damn awesome. As you probably know you can change the palm rests, pinky rests amongst other things.The red aiming button which lowers the DPI while pressed is fantastic. It really does help with precision when sniping.The Bad-----------Where to begin....Batteries Life - The R.A.T 9 has a very short battery life. Under heavy use a battery lasts 6 to 8 hours. Under light use the battery last 8 to 10 hours. When you spend £80 on a gaming mouse you do not expect it to die in the middle of a gaming session. The new Logitech mouse I bought lasts 48 hours on a single charge.Changing Batteries - The battery itself is hard to change. At times it feels like you need pliers to pry it out. If your battery dies during a game you can forget about a quick change.Battery Quality - The first two batteries I received only charged to 70%-80% from the first time I charged them. I ended up getting two replacement batteries, one of them charged to 90% and the other to 100%. The batteries are defective, another review on here also mentions this issue.Tracking - Sometimes the Y axis stops tracking while the X axis tracks perfectly and vice versa. There is also a lot of stutter at times. I was using the mouse on a professional gaming mouse pad so it should have tracked flawlessly.Wake up time - The mouse goes into a sleep state after 20 minutes of no use. It sometimes takes as much as 30 seconds for the mouse to wake up. This may seem like nothing but it can actually get very annoying. Most of us are accustomed to our mice responding as soon as they are moved. With the R.A.T 9 be prepared for a very long and annoying wake up time.Software - The mouse control software is buggy and it makes the mouse unusable. For me and many others the profile editor window of the software was completely blank. Just Google "r.a.t profile editor blank" and you will see how many people suffer from this issue. Saitek claim that the software has been fixed but it hasn't for me and many other people.Saitek Support - I called for support on the software issue above. To be fair the lady I spoke to was very nice. She told me that she would email me a beta version of the software that should work. What I was emailed was old software for the R.A.T 3... I thought this may have been a mistake so I called again but I was told it wasn't a mistake. The support team seems to be working on very outdated information.Saitek Blog and Forum - Saitek wrote a blog post about the infamous blank profile editor. I left several comments on the blog post claiming I was suffering from the issue and needed support. The comments were always removed. I think it is extremely dishonest to remove a users comments. The support forum itself is shut down to new users so you wont get any support there. You can see this yourself by googling "saitek forum" and trying to register. They delete comments from their blog and they shut down the support forum...... I will leave you to draw your own conclusions.

So i built myself i great pc, and got this to go with it, and this mouse is absolutely fantastic.Ive had several other mice in the past including the razer ouroboros, naga and mamba, but this is the best by far.The fact that you can change every little detail to fit your hand and playstyle means its extremely comfortable.The software that comes with it also makes macro programming easy, and changing DPI settings.The dpi switcher is really handy, and i find myself using it a lot.the control+ button on the side is great for FPS games like CoD and Battlefield, as it lets me make quick accurate shots with ease.One thing i dont really get is the sideways scroll wheel, which ive never used. It has a normal scroll wheel like any other mouse but it also has a sideways one, which doesnt work in any of my browsers, and ive found no use for it in any game, but it doesnt get in the way and still looks cool :PMy only gripe would be the battery life, i play games for a few hours each day, and i have to change the battery each day, which is kinda annoying, but because it comes with rechargeable and easily switchable batteries, it only takes 5-6 seconds to change it.Overall 10/10, a lot of people said they have had issues with it breaking after a while, but ive had it for 6 months now, and its still working like a charm