Build Quality

Here are the inner workings of the mouse, showing the PCBs. The sensor is not visible here as it sits under the small PCB on top of the basic one. That small PCB has the encoder for the back wheel, which can be configured to different things; it could, for example, act as a volume wheel or a CPI switch.

Buttons

Here, you can see the switch used for the main mouse buttons.


These are the switches for the side buttons. I don't know what kind of switches these are, but they (or variations thereof) are used for all buttons except the main and wheel buttons.


Click latency is ok, but could be better. This is a comparison to the Logitech G Pro, where you can see that on average, the Mad Catz RAT 8 is around 7 ms slower. Overall, the buttons feel nice enough; even those with tiny switches do.

Scroll Wheel

The wheel uses a Kailh mechanical encoder which gives very nice feedback. I like the scroll wheel of the RAT 8.


The switch for the scroll wheel is right next to the main mouse-button switch. It's not an Omron, but feels alright.

Cable

The cable is braided and relatively stiff. Considering how it is routed, it would also be tough to swap out for another. But in this case, the high weight of the mouse made it so that I did not notice the drag of the cable too much.

Mouse Feet

As you can see, the feet are relatively small; they are also very thin. Fortunately for me, there are no screws under them, or I would have probably run into problems with using the mouse after dis- and reassembly. I would also be afraid of using the mouse on plastic pads with a slightly abrasive surface because I don't know of any aftermarket skates that would fit.

Still, the glide of the stock skates was quite good, and if you use the mouse on a soft pad, it should not be an issue.

Surface

Each button feels like it has a soft-touch rubber surface, and like all the grip parts, it is nice to the touch; I could get a good grip on all available shell options. So in terms of surface, this mouse gets a thumbs up from me.