Another day, another Corsair product, they’ve been on the roll for the past year or two with product launches, and this one is one their latest – Corsair Nightsword RGB. Yes, of course, it’s RGB!!
This is their more high-tiered, premium gaming mouse, and its price of around $80 confirms that right off the bat. The design of it isn’t anything we haven’t seen before in terms of its general shape and form, although its sharp futuristic lines remind me a bit of Logitech’s G502 model, but despite that it has enough of its own details which Before all we have this cool looking sort of like honeycomb mesh areas on the bottom parts of the mouse, which are holding RGB LED’s. The levitating-like middle scroll wheel also carries some RGB lighting, as well as the Corsair logo on the back, and all in all, I think that the lighting was done very subtle and goes hand in hand in combination with the design of the mouse itself.
I also really like how they’ve put this texturized hard rubber surface across all major touchpoints of the mouse, so it makes it more grippy and a bit more comfortable. Unfortunately, they did use some glossy plastic parts besides the non-glossy one, but thankfully, there’s not that much of it, just some small areas are in question, so if you scratch it, and you will for sure, it probably won’t be noticeable. Overall, I had no major complains, everything felt well rounded when it comes to perceived build quality.
Corsair Nightsword RGB – button city
On the left part of the mouse, we have a lot of things going on. Before all here we have this protruded thumb rest surface are, which is also covered in rubber. Here you will find a set of three switches, two of them being that common front and back, and below them another nice chunky one which is by default set as the so-called sniper button. Right above them, together with the left mouse click in its left corner, we have another two switches which default purpose is for changing the preset DPI settings on the fly, which is accompanied by these three LED’s right below them, indicating on which DPI level you are. Behind the middle scroll you’ll find another two switches which are set for on the fly profile change of the mouse, so besides the standard left and right-click, that’s a total of seven buttons on Corsair’s Nightsword RGB model, plus the middle switch on the scroll wheel, all of which are completely programmable to your choice.
Turning the mouse onto its back we have a couple of smooth Teflon feet which surround this middle portion of its bottom that has this artsy looking pattern. That’s actually a cover, underneath which will a find a space with six spots for putting in a couple of hollow or solid weights which came in this separate little box. With them you can adjust weight and center of gravity of the mouse to your liking, although I would say that it doesn’t need it, to begin with, it’s pretty hefty as it is. How much exactly you ask? Just a shy of 120 grams.
In the middle of it all is this Pixart PWM3391 optical sensor which was also additionally customized. It resolution ranges from 100 to all the way up to 18.000 DPI, and it can be adjusted in a single 1 DPI increment, which will be more than enough even for the most demanding hardcore gamers out there. Lastly, in terms of the rest of its hardware parts, we have this nicely braided and pretty rigid 1,8 meter long USB cable with an almost USB memory stick like looking connection end.
Sharp as a… Nightsword?
As you’ve probably noticed, Corsair iCUE software utility is one of the crucial parts of this mouse and its whole experience, which is growing in its feature set every-time a try it out with some of their new products. It offers a wide range of customization for the Nightsword RGB, being it adjusting the DPI level, saving different profiles, choosing the lighting effects and lighting color, calibrating the sensors according to your surface and mouse pad, setting up switches for different function, customizing them as you please or setup a macro function on them, and you can even see how putting on the weights in it affects the it’s center of gravity.
So, how was this mouse when it comes to using it? The shape of it suited my palm just the right way, btw I have an average-sized hand, its size was almost perfect as well as the angle of the sloped back, the only complain I have is that the sniper button is a bit out of reach, you have to stretch in order to get to it, which is a problem when you have to react fast, while another solution to that problem is to place the palm a bit higher. Although I don’t have to mention that because it’s pretty obvious on a count of its shape, this mouse is not ambidextrous, but there, I just did it I mentioned. Nightsword uses Omron switches, the main left and right ones are firm and fast to respond, without any soft or mushy feel to them, while the top and side secondary ones are a bit firmer, especially the sniper one. The same can be said for the middle scroll wheel click, while move between each step is very distinct and locked in.
What’s the veredict for Nightsword RGB?
Obviously, the 18.000 DPI figure is too much for anyone and anything, maybe one day when we have 8K monitors0, and I was personally hanging more around the 4000 DPI value on my 21:9 screen. On the other hand, this PWM3391 optical sensor in combination with its 400 IPS tracking speed and 50G acceleration specification performed exactly as expected for this price point. The mouse is very precise, with excellent tracking performance and velocity, without any unwanted acceleration with fast moves, nor angle snapping, while the minimal lift of distance is next to none. All in all, I had zero bad remarks on its performance, it’s definitely at the top of its class.
Although it’s not a budget choice, when you draw the line it’s very easy to recommend this model, I could see it being my daily driver without a problem, especially since I prefer having a lot of switches on a gaming mouse for better productivity and I tend to play MOBA games more. The only problem I see it having is that the competition in this price point is really tough as this part of the market has grown over the last few years and the fighting for each and every user out there is going strong.
That’s it from me for this review, thank you for checking out this Corsair Nightsword RGB review, hope it helped you in making your final decision, and if you have any question feel free to hit me in the comments section of my YouTube video listed above, you can contact me via my social media channels!
