Corsair Glaive RGB

Corsair is one of the first brands that come to mind when it comes to gaming keyboards, RAM, power supplies, cooling and PC cases. When it comes to gaming mice, though, the company has struggled to make an iconic product. The gaming hardware maker’s latest attempt is the Glaive RGB, which comes priced at $69 (about £50, AU$90) as a direct competitor to the $69 (£69, AU$119) Razer DeathAdder Elite.

It’s pricer than other wired gaming mice, like the $49 or £69 (about AU$65) Logitech G Pro. However, this mouse has a few unique features including one of the most sensitive optical sensors on the market and interchangeable thumb grips. Unfortunately, in some ways the Glaive fails to step out from under the shadow of Corsair’s past gaming mice like the M65 Pro RGB.

• Check out our list of the best gaming mice

Design

The Corsair Glaive RGB is a big mouse. Measuring 3.6 x 4.95 x 1.75 inches (W x L x H), this is a mouse no one should complain about being too small unless they have truly gigantic hands. Thanks to its large size, your hand will naturally fall into a palm grip.

Corsair spent a lot of time getting the ergonomics just right on the Glaive, and it shows. The contoured shape of the peripheral feels perfectly designed for comfort.

Almost the entire surface is coated in soft touch paint, giving it a tactile and grippable surface for you to hold on to. Although the mouse isn’t wide enough for your ring finger and pinky to rest on, there’s a textured pad on the right side of the mouse to grip against.

The side buttons are also differently sized and shaped just enough for you to confidently use them in the heat of the battle without looking. Likewise, the DPI (dots per inch) status lights are cleverly placed on the left face of the mouse, making it easy to check your sensitivity setting at a glance. 

The Glaive also comes with interchangeable magnetic thumb grips to further augment the ergonomics. Initially, the mouse comes with a simple, soft touch-coated attachment that blends with the rest of the mouse. From there, you could attach an enlarged and textured thumb grip or another one that includes an extended thumb rest.

As masters of RGB lighting, Corsair mostly got things right, giving the entire mouse a three-zone backlighting system that’s soft and diffused. We say “mostly” because there’s a tiny crack of light leakage just above the side buttons.

In reality, it’s a small issue you have to go looking for – otherwise, it doesn’t bother us while playing.

While we like the meaty size and comfortable shape of the Glaive, there’s an inescapable feeling that this is an entry-level product – not high-end like its price implies. Upon first picking it up, we thought it would be priced under 40 bucks rather than as a premium gaming mouse. 

Of course, there are other elements that factor into the price, but the materials on their own are disappointing. It also seems like a perplexing stepback considering the Corsair’s last first-person shooter (FPS) mouse was the largely-metal M65 Pro RGB, which launched at an initial $59 (£69, AU$89) price.  

Performance

The Corsair Glave RGB’s biggest standout feature is its Pixart 3367 sensor, one of the latest optical sensors with maximum DPI of 16,000. At the highest sensitivity, you could make a 1,440-degree turn and whip through four game worlds by just moving the mouse an inch. 

OK, that’s an exaggeration – but you can basically achieve pixel-perfect precision with this gaming mouse. If you’re without a mousepad, you can rest easy because the Glaive comes with a tunable sensor, so you can calibrate and optimize tracking on any surface.

It’s also worth noting that Corsair partnered with Pixart to make the sensor, so you’ll only find them in the company’s peripherals.

What’s even more impressive than the pinpoint focus are the Omron switches, which click with just the slightest press and reset faster than you can blink. When you’re hitting left click over 1,000 times per MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) match, fatigue is a huge problem, so we appreciate how Corsair has minimized the resistance on the mouse buttons.

Final verdict

The Corsair Glaive RGB is a solid FPS and MOBA mouse, particularly for gamers with larger mitts. It’s one of the most comfortable and responsive mice we’ve used for gaming while offering a sensor and interchangeable thumb grips you won’t find on the Razer DeathAdder or its other competitors. 

That said, we can’t forgive the disappointingly plasticky body especially when Corsair offers the M65 Pro RGB, a metal-clad and weighted mouse, for less. Ultimately, there are more things we like about the Glaive RGB than we hate. It also offers better ergonomics and an updated, higher-sensitivity sensor that make it well worth looking at.

First reviewed May 2017.