Published: February 5, 2020 | Source: Corsair | Author: Bryan Waters

Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite MOBA Mouse Review

Conclusion

Let’s get the elephant in the room spoken about before we move on. The Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite is not a mouse for everyone. If what you want from life is just a good quality, comfortable mouse then there are many other options out there, including the outstanding Corsair Dark Core Pro we’ve recently reviewed that you can either read about right now or soon, depending upon when these reviews are put live. The Scimitar caters to a very specific audience. Indeed even if you are in that audience there is a little bit of a learning curve to get over before the benefits can be reaped. With that out of the way, how does it compare to the other multi-button options on the market?

Firstly the simple things. The mouse itself is very comfortable to use. It’s a chunky monkey as it needs to be to have a dozen buttons stuffed on to the side of it, but not unwieldy in any stretch of the imagination. The materials used are very nice with a premium feel, and in particular the buttons, all of them, are crisp and responsive. Often the incredible quality of the Omron switches that form the LMB/RMB combo on mice make the other buttons seem flabby and indistinct, but all of the buttons on the Scimitar are crisp and responsive. The lighting is up to Corsair’s usual high standards, and whilst we would like to see the key 12 buttons have individual colour assignments we understand that it would be prohibitively expensive to implement and possibly require more hardware than can be comfortably fitted within the chassis.

The sensor is another excellent PixArt effort, here in the form of the 18000 DPI PMW3391. It’s amazing how quickly PixArt have come to dominate the market which, until recently, was a swathe of Avago sensors. The combination of the feel of an optical sensor and their outstanding tracking accuracy is what has brought that dominance to bear. It shows how far sensors have come in a short while that the instant response, smooth tracking, lack of hardware acceleration or forced angle snapping and granular DPI adjustments are so breathtaking that they make even high end mice of a few years ago seem sluggish and inaccurate in comparison. We can’t imagine how good they’ll be in a few years hence, but right now it’s a top drawer effort.

Of course the buttons are what you’re really here for. Getting your thumb to learn where all twelve are to the point that it can find the one you want in the heat of battle is always going to be a test of both your sense of touch and speed of learning new muscle memories, but Corsair deserve a lot of credit for how far they have come down the road to try and give us every opportunity to learn as swiftly as possible. The lighting of the buttons themselves is bright, without being distracting, but special credit needs to go to the front-mounted, rear-facing spotlight that helps you see each button at a glance. Of course you’ll eventually do it by touch, but it takes a bit of getting used to and to be able to clearly see them is a big tick in the box. When you do move towards doing it all just by feel there is assistance here too, with the first three buttons having a smooth texture, the next three with a heavy texture akin to the additional WASD keys on the K95 et al, whilst the next row and smooth and then the final row textured again. That first texture row – buttons 4, 5 and 6 – have a bump on the 5 key like that on your F and J keys that help you touch type. Lastly you can move them a little back and forth to ensure that the 5 key fits exactly where your thumb does, further assisting you getting up to speed. They have done everything possible to smooth your transition into having 12 commands at the touch of your thumb.

It’s comfortable, with an excellent sensor, good lighting and as much user-friendliness as could be realistically expected from such a complicated weapon, and if you need all that the Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite can provide then you’ll be very pleased indeed with your purchase and it wins our OC3D Gamers Choice Award.