Build Quality

Overall build quality is very solid. There is no rattle when shaking the mouse. When applying lateral pressure, no creaking or flexing of the shell can be observed. It's impossible to activate the side buttons by squeezing the sides. Lastly, no accidental clicks occur when slamming down the mouse.

Buttons

Main buttons on the Katar Pro XT are very good. There is some post-travel but pre-travel is low, and combined with the firm buttons and crisp click feel, overall button response is as snappy as it is pleasing. However, uniformity leaves something to be desired as the right button sounds significantly hollower. While the buttons are visually separated from the shell, lateral button movement is as low as physically possible. Button stiffness is medium. A set of Omron D2FC-F-K (50M) (China) switches is used.


Side buttons are very good. There is some pre-travel, but post-travel is fairly low, resulting in a pleasant click feel, and the pressure point is even across the entirety of these. Button placement is good as actuation is possible quite easily by rolling one's thumb across. A pair of Kailh switches (yellow plunger) is used here.

At the top of the mouse is a single button for cycling through the set CPI levels. Its click feel is good. A switch from Kailh (purple plunger) is used for this one.

Scroll Wheel

The scroll wheel is very good. Scrolling up produces quite a bit of noise, but the individual steps are nicely separated, resulting in above average tactility. The encoder comes from Kailh. The middle (scroll wheel) click requires high force for actuation. A seemingly unbranded tactile switch is used here.

Coating

The Katar Pro XT has a slightly grainy matte surface on the top and patterned plastic on the sides. Neither attract fingerprints, dirt, or the likes too much. They're easy to clean, and there are no signs of wear left after doing so. All in all, excellent materials.

Button Sound Test

Disassembly

Disassembling the Katar Pro XT is easy. First, remove the rear skate and the two screws beneath it. Corsair is using some next-level glue for their feet there, so getting them off might prove challenging. The top shell is clipped in at the front, but dislodging it merely requires some force. As for the internal design, I'm tempted to call it over-engineered. We have a fairly large main PCB which holds the main button switches, sensor, and MCU. An auxiliary PCB next to the scroll wheel and connected through a ribbon cable provides wheel illumination. Vertically mounted atop the main PCB, another PCB holds the side button and CPI switches. All PCBs are of moderate thickness, and three screws are used to affix the main PCB to the bottom shell. By doing without the secondary PCB alone, the weight could've been brought down to around 70 g. I also found a small tactile switch on the backside of the main PCB that is accessible through a small hole on the bottom of the mouse, but I have no idea what that one is for, or what it does. The MCU is an NXP LPC11U68J, whose datasheet can be found here.


As for the soldering and general quality of the PCB, I'm unable to find any noteworthy flaws.