Mad Catz made a very strange choice when it made the M.O.U.S. 9 wireless mouse. It pitched the mouse as a powerful, everyday, non-gaming mouse. Despite its name being M.O.U.S. 9, its design coming from Mad Catz' R.A.T. gaming mice series, and its $129.99 (direct) price and wireless-mouse-with-nano-dongle-and-carrying-pouch status matching the company's R.A.T. M gaming mouse. Indeed, if you were to compare the two mice at a glance, you'd be hard pressed to see the difference. The M.O.U.S. 9 is more focused on its software-powered productivity features and Mad Catz is hesitant to describe its specific sensitivity compared to the R.A.T. M (but the M.O.U.S. 9 does use a laser sensor that can function on glass and most other surfaces), but as a gaming mouse it fares very well. More importantly, it's simply more comfortable than the R.A.T. M, with a larger design you won't notice packed in your bag but you will notice under your hand. The mouse is available in red, white, and matte and glossy black versions, and while Mad Catz doesn't promote it as a gaming mouse, it gets the job done very well.

Design

The M.O.U.S. 9 is a full-sized Mad Catz mouse, dwarfing the company's similarly equipped R.A.T. M mouse by a few comfortable fractions of an inch. Its palm rest can extend by pressing a button under it, letting you adjust the mouse to fit the size of your hand. It also locks in to place once you stop pressing the button, making it much more secure than the R.A.T. M's palm rest. It's very angular and tech-themed, like other Mad Catz R.A.T. mice, with stark, geometric edges interrupting the smooth mouse's lines. Besides the two main buttons and the mouse wheel, the M.O.U.S. 9 has an additional button to the left of the index finger, a large thumb button and two smaller forward/backward buttons on the thumb rest, a thumb wheel below the left mouse button, and a sensitivity toggle below the mouse wheel. All of these buttons can be configured and programmed with Mad Catz's free PC and Mac software.