Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite Review

The Scimitar is built to excel in very particular games, and it does exactly that. It has the performance and customizability that MMO players need, and it's comfortable enough to keep you from feeling fatigued during long raiding sessions. However, most gamers are not one-trick ponies. While the Scimitar earns our top pick among MMO mice, we had to put it through our full gauntlet of tests to see how it stacks up to the competition in the eyes of the average gamer.

Comfort

The Scimitar is a very big mouse that feels quite comfortable for those with medium or large hands. If you have small hands, you might struggle to reach all of the extra side buttons. Using it with your left hand is completely out of the question, which further narrows down the number of people who will be able to make full use of this feature-packed product. For our tester with large hands, it was one of the most comfortable gaming mice in our lineup.

The tall and wide shape of this mouse invites your hand to fall into a natural full-palm grip. “If your hand is big enough, you can get a really nice claw grip,” one tester also reported. The claw grip feels particularly conducive to maneuvering the thumb across the mouse's number pad. The same could be said of a fingertip grip, but the weight of the mouse can make this method fatiguing for the wrist.

Depending on how you position your fingers, either your ring or pinky finger will land nicely in a textured rubber groove along the right side of the mouse. This adds some nice grippiness, though it can feel awkward if you insist on trying a fingertip grip. The left-click button requires about 50% more force to actuate compared to the right-click, but it still feels light and crisp. As a final comfort consideration, the cord can be a bit stiff and impeding, so we'd recommend using a mouse bungee to minimize wire frustrations.

Weight and Balance

One glance at the Corsair Scimitar is enough to tell you that it's an absolute behemoth. It's big, bulky, and heavy, but these are the costs of accommodating the adjustable number pad that makes it such a versatile MMO mouse. Even so, heft is a factor that contributes to slower response times, lack of precision, and exhaustion over the course of long gaming sessions.

However, we can give glowing praise to the Scimitar for its immaculate balance. Despite its bulk and asymmetric shape, it is not noticeably heavier toward the front or back. This means that you will not experience any unpredictable movements even if you make wide-sweeping gestures or choose a grip that's further back on the mouse. Of course, this will vary slightly depending on how far forward or backward you choose to place the slideable number pad.

Ultimately, though, even the most casual gamers are likely to notice how slow and sluggish this heavy mouse feels compared to a more standard model. It requires considerable startup force and remains relatively difficult to maneuver while in motion. You get incredible stopping power, though, which is great for navigating detailed menus or clicking on tiny HUD elements on a crowded MMO screen.

Scroll Wheel

The best way to describe the Scimitar's scroll wheel is “average.” It provides a level of resistance you naturally expect, and pressing on it feels satisfying. The scrolling sound is on the loud side, and it's a bit rattly when scrolling up, but not so much so as to be obnoxious. While it's nothing impressive, the scroll wheel isn't going to turn you away from this mouse.

Our lead tester noted that the scroll wheel is likely to be the first part of the Scimitar to fail after many, many hours of use. There's an easy fix that involves opening up the mouse and applying lube. “I did that and it worked like a dream until the buttons started to wear out and get soft,” our tester explained.

Sensor Performance

The PixArt PMW3391 sensor is flawless, and we were very pleased with what it added to the Scimitar experience. It has a polling rate of 1,000Hz, which is perfectly responsive for any gaming genre, and it never once dipped below that figure during any of our tests. Suffice it to say, neither precision nor consistency is a concern if you choose to use this mouse.

Should You Buy the Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite?

The Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite is not the only dedicated MMO mouse on the market, but it is the one that impressed us the most on every front. With an intuitively comfortable shape, an adjustable number pad, and a deep system for lighting customization and button configuration, it's the one that should be at the top of your list if you're seeking an advantage in MMOs or MOBAs. For just about any other genre, though, its plethora of buttons and unwieldy bulk may make it more of a hindrance than a benefit.

What Other Gaming Mice Should You Consider?

It's easy to look at the Scimitar's price tag and assume that it might be the best gaming mouse for under $100, but it's important to keep in mind that it serves a very specific type of gamer. For a capable mouse with wider appeal, but at a similar price, we highly recommend the Razer Basilisk V3 35K. As a great budget alternative, we also love the Redragon M612 Predator RGB — it's a heavy and precise mouse that will work great for MMOs, just be ready to map your skills to your keyboard the old-fashioned way.