Unboxing & Review: Corsair Gaming Sabre Laser RGB Gaming Mouse

Corsair's attempt to create a separated brand for its own gaming peripheral few months ago has been a central issue among the die hard fans of Corsair. Some were upset by its new logo design, as they claimed that the original sail logo looks more authentic compared to the dual pirate sword logo. 

Instead of reviewing the logo itself, we have the Corsair Gaming Sabre Laser RGB Gaming Mouse here today, courtesy of Corsair Malaysia and Cudo Technologies (M) Sdn. Bhd. The Sabre RGB Laser is retailed at RM239 and we must say that's a pretty decent price for a laser sensor mouse from Corsair - the price is right now and all's left now is its performance, which we'll be finding that out in this review!

Specifications

Overview

The packaging is very identical to the Sabre Optical RGB we've previously reviewed, except for the brief description which stated 8200 dpi laser sensor, etc. 

At the back of the box you'll find diagrams with all the buttons, LED with its function labelled.

Opens up the lid and you'll find more features of the mouse described on the inner lid, here we can see the customizable backlighting briefly described.

Aside of the essential user's guide and the mouse itself, there's no traces of other accessories included with the Sabre Laser RGB.

Since the gold plated USB connector doesn't really serves any purpose aside of aesthetics, Corsair has ditched it and focuses more on quality USB connectors - bright color, unique and easily distinguishable connectors so you won't be unplugging the wrong device.

Braided sleeves gives extra strength and protection to the cable itself, while the velcro strap helps to keep those lengthy cables tied up well for the easy of transport, especially for those who travels a lot with their preferred gaming peripherals. 

Right hand ergonomic design does provide better and comfortable grip compared to traditional mouse design, but we find the Sabre Laser RGB a little small for those with large palm. 

The rear end of the mouse is the illuminated Corsair Gaming logo which can be customized with the CUE (Corsair Utility Engine).

There's a tons of color and few modes you can choose from the software.

The front of the mouse you'll find the scroll wheel that gives a pretty solid click and pleasant scroll, macro button in the middle with no function by default, 5 level DPI toggle buttons right next to the left click. 

As a FPS gamer ourselves, we find the location of the DPI toggle button very useful as we can gain faster access to DPI adjustments for different aiming purposes compared to the traditional middle DPI toggle button design. 

The scroll wheel can be customized as well with your preferred lighting mode and color, so does the LEDs which located just below the left click.

Side buttons has been very common nowadays, the click does feels pretty good despite of its smaller size.

A minor downside we find here - Although we're seeing a RGB LED used on the DPI toggling buttons, the software doesn't seems to allows us to do any changes to it.

Here's last but not least, the bottom of the mouse. We're seeing 3 pieces of mouse glides here which we believe is made of teflon material and it glides pretty well on both cloth mat and hard mat.

Software
Since there's no drivers CD that came along with the box, you will have to download it from here.

Profiles: Assignment

Starting with the first tab, profiles. Here you'll be able to create a new profile which you can include few modes within. A brief idea to clear things up for profile an modes, we have a profile for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare with few modes which we preferred when we're playing the game.

There are a total of 8 buttons on the mouse itself which can be customized.

You can assign macros, text output, keystrokes, shortcuts to execute programs etc, DPI modes, timer, basic function of a mouse incase if you accidentally messed up the buttons, media controls for media playback controls. 

You can even assign a button that act as a mode toggle to allows switching between designated modes, a very useful feature for FPS gamers who plays multiple roles in the team.

Works well with the mode toggling, the profile switching allows you to toggle between profiles when you're switching to other games/tasks with only one click. You can pair this feature with the mode toggling to what suits you best.

You can even map a keyboard key to the designated button according to your needs.

Profiles:Lighting

The lighting tab is pretty much self-explanatory, you can assign customized lighting modes to all LED (except for DPI indicator LED) from the list of lighting effects that you've created or imported with a simple drag and drop action.

Performance & DPI tab allows you to customize not only the DPI of each levels (total of 5), but also the DPI for sniper mode, pointer speed. Angle snapping has been a widely debated to enable or not to enable feature among the gamers. We've came across many gaming mouse with this feature and we did find noticeable improvement in horizontal movement, but at the same time we noticed issue with non-straight line movement which somewhat affected our spontaneous aiming movement. 

Lighting

Although there's a total of 4 lighting modes available here, we've noticed that the only usable lighting modes here is the solid and gradient mode after numerous failed attempt to assign both ripple and wave mode to any of the LEDs on the Sabre Laser RGB.

Solid mode's color switching : instant color change without any dimming or fading effect.

Gradient mode : color switching that fades and switch to the next color.

Settings: Device

Disable device lighting, polling rate adjustment and firmware update can be done here.

Software update, OSD settings, macro recording and media player support can be done here.

If you have any doubts or trouble dealing with the mouse, you can get both technical support and online support here.

Testing

Game Test

For game test, we've tested the Sabre Laser RGB for hours with Far Cry 4. 

• Glide: The Sabre Laser RGB glides well on both cloth mat and hard mat, a very enjoyable gaming session without any stutters.
• Grip: The right hand ergonomics design is pretty good, we're able to grip firmly to the mouse with minimal mistakes during very tensed scene with requires very fast mouse movement. The only issue here is the resting area for both pinky and ring finger is a little short for our large palm.
• DPI Buttons: Personally we find that the DPI toggle button is very well placed because it's easily reachable with minimal movement on the index finger (double thumbs up for this)
• Weight: The weight is a little light to our preference, but the difference is hardly noticeable when you're too busy with multiple enemies that tries to kill you.

Lighting

We're surprised by the non-functional wave and ripple mode, really. We've spend quite an amount of time trying to customize both wave and ripple mode but ended up with disappointment after knowing that both modes is not available on the Sabre Laser RGB. Instead of disabling (greying out) the selection in assignment tab, the option for ripple and wave in lighting customization should be disabled as well - since it's not available, why bother having it enabled?

Instead of different color combinations or fading colors, we've decided to have fun with something else. It's not a legit result as the LED doesn't actually blinks to the music, but rather to the bpm that we've planned.

Verdict

In terms of aesthetic aspects, Corsair has pretty much nailed it with the Sabre Laser RGB. It's already a good looking mouse even without the customizable RGB lighting, having it is an additional point for it.

Build quality is good in overall, except for the now common rubberized surface wears out pretty fast in the hands of those who sweat a lot on the palm. Extra care has to be taken if you do not wish to ended up with a sticky Sabre Laser RGB in short term. Personally we would prefer matte plastic surface that gives a reasonable grip and last longer compared to soft rubberized surface that wears out / turns sticky overtime.

Performance wise, the laser sensor of the Sabre Laser RGB is capable of up to 8200 dpi in which given users a wider range of selection in terms of DPI preferences. The DPI toggle buttons is something worth to highlight, as by far we hasn't came across any gaming mouse with DPI toggle buttons which can be easily reachable like the Sabre Laser RGB. To make it short, the Sabre Laser RGB is indeed specially tailored for FPS gamers, but it'll be better if we can have adjustable weight on it.

Corsair Utility Engine may be an awesome feature-rich software to have but it's definitely not the best when it comes to user friendliness. While a lot of things can be done with it, users who isn't familiar with gaming peripherals software used to setting up macros will have major issue in exploring the software due to its complexity. 

Having both pros and cons measured, we would say the Sabre Laser RGB a worthy mouse to own if one would take the time to explore the Corsair Utility Engine thoroughly, not only as a gaming mouse but also a casual mouse for daily usage to make your life easier in some ways.

Pros

• Reasonable price for what it has to offer
• Wide range of DPI
• Tracks well on both cloth and hard mat
• Comfortable even after long periods
• Rich featured software (CUE)

Cons

• Limited lighting feature
• You will find ring finger and pinky to have limited rest area if you have large palm  

Personal thoughts

It'll be great if variable weight, matte plastic surface can be considered