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Another arrival to the RGB range that Corsair has described as both high performance and affordable. Let’s see if it sounds too good to be true.
Corsair has forever been designing and manufacturing gaming mice for the masses and with their new RGB range comes the Corsair Sabre. In the past Corsair have designed their mice with a specific user or game style in mind. With the Sabre, however, they’ve taken a step in the opposite direction and have designed this one with every game style in mind. The Sabre not only comes equipped with all the latest gaming tech but has a very affordable price tag as well which drops Corsair’s new mouse into the realm of Razer’s Abyssus V2 and Roccat’s Kone Pure Owl-Eye.
Overall, I found the Sabre to be a pleasant mouse with some nice perks and features. The Sensor was ultimately the stand out feature of the mouse but it also had some nicely placed buttons which are exactly what every gamer needs. However, the texture and width are both negatives as they have a huge impact on how this mouse performs. The whole thing seems a little confusing to me, Corsair seemed to have designed a mouse that does a lot of things ok but nothing amazingly well.
Pros
Cons
Corsair, as you would expect, have kept the same theme as the rest of their peripheral range with it’s black and yellow casing. The front has a little door so you can view your product which is housed in a light plastic shell. Upon unboxing you will discover more plastic and cardboard which feels solid and durable. The mouse is housed inside with its cable bundled behind in a tight coil. Lastly, you will find your user manual and a welcome note.
Corsair for me have always designed slightly odd-looking mice and the Sabre is no different. To look at it from distance you would think it was as wide as it was long which for me seems fairly unusual. Upon closer inspection, you will discover that this is almost the case, 12.4 cm x 8 cm. However, Corsair is standing by their ergonomic design which is meant to support your entire hand ultimately removing any finger/mat drag points. Interesting. The weight comes in at 100g on the nose but doesn’t really feel it as the skates seem to glide so smoothly on my ROG Sheath which we will touch on later. I can see how the weight and footprint of this mouse would work together to increase accuracy but we will have to wait until the performance test to find out if this is true.
When I first looked at the Sabre my first impression was how peculiar the mouse looked, it almost resembles a square when looking at it from a bird’s eye view perspective. Notoriously, mice have been designed with the classic 2/1 ratio in mind(length/width) but Corsair has gone in the other direction almost boasting a 1/1 ratio. I understand there’s a market for wider mice though and this has obviously been designed with that consumer in mind. It sits at 3.8 cm high which fits nicely into my palm and the 2 wings do actually support my resting fingers quite well. My first finger and middle finger sit nicely on the shell and are positioned in the perfect spot to utilize both DPI buttons and scroll wheel. So overall not actually a bad feeling in the hand. However, the texture can not boast the same description. They have designed the Sabre with a soft-touch finish which has turned out fairly slippy and hard to grip. I feel they have tried to achieve that tacky feel you get with shiny mice (Zowie EC2-b) but have got it all wrong. My hand was literally all over the mouse when using it and it would fail to sit comfortably whilst gaming. The whole mouse has been finished with the same texture which means grip is fairly limited. A little disappointing.
On a more positive note, the mouse buttons do feel very nice and tactile especially the primary buttons. The 2 main mouse buttons have been equipped with quality Omron switches so you won’t be worried about durability. The Sabre has been kitted out with 8 well thought out buttons which are brilliant for RTS and MOBA. The 2 thumb buttons seem to be well placed and I have yet to experience any accidental clicking or misuse. They do feel a little spongy but have a great reaction feel when using them so that isn’t too off-putting. The DPI buttons are situated on the top left-hand side of M1 and are really well placed to promote usage literally sitting right next to my first finger. They again feel very solid and tactile. Corsair decided that 7 buttons weren’t enough so they popped an extra one where you would usually find the DPI button just underneath the scroll wheel. I bound this in CS: GO and it worked out really well. Finally, we have the scroll wheel which feels quality in itself, a little more difficult to press than the other buttons but we usually come to expect that with most quality built mice. It has a solid step resistance when both single-stepping or powering through them. Overall really pleased with how Corsair has built and positioned the buttons.
Finally, we reach the cable which has obviously been designed with longevity in mind as it’s one of the thicker braided cables you will find these days. When you unbox the mouse you will notice the cable will hold its shape quite well, even after trying to unkink it. A lot of companies are moving away from the braided cable these days as you get fairly loud cable/mat resistance and this was definitely the case here. However, when using a mouse bungee properly the mouse almost acts as wireless which is why we at GV always recommend one. Also, don’t be worried about the thick cable fitting into your bungee, we tested it on a number of different bungees and all could accommodate the Sabres girth which was reassuring. It’s 1.8m long as has your standard USB2.0 for connectivity.
Let’s get into the meat of this gaming mouse, first I want to touch on the sensor which is a 3988 similar to that of the Deathadder Chroma which many find to be one of the most responsive sensors available. It has up to 10,000 DPI, 1000hz polling rate and has extremely good responsiveness. The sensor performed really well when playing FPS such as CS: GO and PubG, it’s always nice to know you aren’t being restricted by the quality of your sensor and that is again not the case here. Responsiveness was extremely good, we compared it to the DC and it was almost identical, maybe a fraction slower but fantastic nevertheless. I also experienced no jittering, smoothing or acceleration which is what you would expect from a quality sensor by today’s standards. The moderate weight paired with the wide grip and large footprint do help with increasing accuracy when in-game and I found long-range battles and sniping much easier than when I was using something a little lighter like Razer’s Abyssus V2. I do however use a fairly low sensitivity and found quick swiping is slightly less convenient with such a wide mouse. The skates were fantastic though as far as stock feet go and the mouse glided across my mat seamlessly, definitely one of the smoother mice out there. The LOD when the default was between 1 and 2 CD’s depending on what surface you use but is totally customizable in the ICUE software which we will touch on shortly. Choose from low to Very high sensitivity for your specific needs.
My only issue with the performance side of this mouse has to be the texture of the shell and how it lacks grip, something I’d of thought was a priority when creating a high-quality gaming mouse. The ergonomic design, however, was on the plus side, I enjoyed total comfort for both short and long sessions up to around 6-7 hours. The buttons are also up there with the best feature of this mouse, all feeling very tactile and well built. The switches are Omron developed with a lifespan of 20 million clicks which by today’s standards is considered slightly low but solid. I ended up binding all the buttons for FPS to various grenade and in-game controls which made life much simpler.
The Sabre, as with all Corsair products, makes use of ICUE – Corsairs user-friendly and intuitive product software. The good thing about the Sabre is you can technically use it as a plug-and-play mouse without haven’t to install ICUE at all. However, if you want to fully customize and use the Sabre to its maximum potential then you are going to have to use it. ICUE is one of the better software apps available at the moment and is very easy to use. As you’re probably aware, the Sabre is part of Corsair’s new RGB range and has been equipped with 4 light zones that boast 16.8million colour variations and a number of different themes to suit any and all moods. 1 for the logo, the scroll wheel, the DPI indicator and front grill section which can all be customized via ICUE. It actually looks really nice when optimized which, if you’re into that kind of thing, will be a huge bonus. Further to this, button mapping, binding, saving macros and more are all available via specific customary tools.
So, our final thoughts on the Corsair Sabre are a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side, Corsair has equipped the Sabre with a fantastic sensor that performs at a very high level. The design and shape feel very comfortable for both long and short periods, not forgetting the Sabre’s excellent build quality. You also get all this for a very affordable price tag, £40/$40. However, on the flip side, the texture leaves something to be desired with its slippy finish that is a minefield for oil and particle build-up. Not to mention the overall width of the mouse which feels terrible for FPS. So ultimately, in a time where every brand has a mouse for around £50, I have the feeling that Corsair’s plan to cater this mouse to all users will actually only impress the die-hard Corsair fans out there.
