Corsair 2020 began with the re-release of a very particular product, Corsair SCIMITAR RGB ELITE, a gaming mouse designed for a rather specific user. Its peculiarity is immediately understood: 12 programmable keys arranged in a numeric keypad style on the left side of the mouse. But the surprises don’t end there!
Corsair SCIMITAR RGB ELITE 2020 Review
We start, however, as usual from ergonomics and construction details. The mouse boasts a matte surface pleasant to the touch that offers, among other things, a more than moderate grip. You can immediately appreciate the rubberized and knurled recess on the right side where there is space for the little finger, even if users with smaller than average hands could find themselves with the little finger on the right mouse button. Still in relation to a user with medium / small hands, you may find Corsair’s Scimitar slightly large. The particular shape however conveys a feeling of familiarity. Usually when we change mice, we always have that annoyance deriving from the change of an object to which we are accustomed and we must admit that we have not had the same problem with this model.
To underline the gaming nature of the brand and of the product itself, we find a lot of LEDs to illuminate everything: the logo on the back, the wheel, a front and two side LEDs, one that we need to distinguish the DPI profiles, the other to illuminate the numeric keypad. The left side has a real hollow with a silver background that houses this particular push-button panel designed for various types of MOBA and MMO. But why dedicate more space to it than necessary? Simple: Corsair thought of making the push button panel mobile! With a special screwdriver that you find in the package, you can loosen or tighten a screw located on the back of the mouse. By loosening it, you can move the entire keypad forward or backward, so as to adapt it to your needs and, above all, to your hands.
The keypad is composed as mentioned above by 12 buttons numbered from 1 to 12. To distinguish them from each other Corsair has alternated smooth columns with knurled columns. Good feedback from the keys. Obviously, a single key is not that big and it will take a bit of training, but we will be back shortly. The two central mouse buttons, the most important ones, have classic OMRON switches guaranteed for 50 million clicks. The plastic wheel has a rubberized and knurled central part that guarantees sufficient grip on the finger. Not bad the rotation of the same, characterized by classic shots sufficiently precise. Also the feedback of the button integrated in the wheel is good. Immediately below are two buttons. Corsair has thought of a slightly different solution from the usual one: the upper one is used to switch from one hardware profile to the other, the one below instead to switch between the different default DPI configurations or set by you via software.
Since we haven’t specified it yet, it’s a classic wired mouse. The cable is 1.8 m long (more than enough then) and is covered in fabric. The sensor is one of the novelties of this 2020 version of the Scimitar. It is a PixArt PMW3391 that reaches 18,000 DPI, even these more than enough to satisfy virtually anyone. Regarding the precision of the sensor, we have to go a little more in detail and also bring up iCUE, Corsair’s software.
- Sensor: Pixart PMW3391 – from 100 to 18,000 DPI
- Switch: Omron, guaranteed for 50 million clicks
- Polling Rate: 1.000 Hz
- 16 programmable buttons
- Internal memory (3 profiles)
- Dimensions: 120 x 78 x 42mm
- Weight: 122 g
- Cable: 1.8m
The sensor, and consequently the mouse, is in itself very precise. The polling rate is from a high-end device (1,000 Hz) and iCUE takes care of further increasing performance. From here, it is possible, for example, to activate or deactivate the Angel Snapping, or a feature that allows the device to try to predict the player’s movements making the movement from a point A to a point B more fluid, ignoring some micro-movements that we could give accidentally. A feature, attention, which does not lend itself to all games, much less to all players. It is also for this reason that Corsair offers the possibility to activate or deactivate it at will. Another useful feature to improve the precision of the mouse is the Surface calibration, which adapts the mouse movements to the surface you are moving it on. The software will make you perform a specific movement to autonomously provide the correct calibration.
As we said then, there is only one button to switch between DPI configurations. Instead of disturbing you with screen overlays, the Scimitar has an LED placed near the numeric keypad that, with its color, indicates which configuration you are currently using. From iCUE you can also disable them all and keep only one active. The other key is used to cycle between the different profiles. The Scimitar is in fact equipped with an internal memory that has the ability to accommodate three different profiles, all obviously achievable through iCUE. This means that even carrying the mouse away, for use on PCs other than your own, you can always count on your personalizations.
Let’s go back to the numeric keypad again. Does it make sense to equip a mouse with so many programmable keys and, above all, to condense them in a pad with such a contained surface? The answer, as you might guess, is “it depends”. Corsair itself recommends the mouse for two distinct categories of games: MOBA and MMO. These are types of games that often require a large number of buttons. In this case, therefore, having extra buttons, even to divide the workload between the two hands, does not hurt at all. In League of Legendsfor example, you could assign the skill buttons to the mouse button, leaving the management of the abilities deriving from objects and consumables to the left hand plus the two extra skills or the exact opposite, if you prefer. For MMOs even, better in this sense, since often the keys to be pressed increase significantly.
If you are afraid of not being able to distinguish the keys, it is, as already said, all a matter of training and habit. The knurling of the columns helps, ditto for the possibility of moving the pad and adapting it to your thumb. It is true that the last column is undoubtedly the most difficult to reach, that you move the pad closer or further away. By the way, you can assign much more than just buttons to the keypad buttons. iCUE allows you to create macros of all kinds, with an editor that also allows you to remove any pauses between pressing one button and the other, or even to assign application launches, timers, multimedia content management and much more. It goes without saying that without installing iCUE “you can only enjoy it halfway”. However, a criticism of software must necessarily be made. The interface should be largely revised. We ourselves, as well as many users complain about problems in finding even the most trivial features. Nothing transcendental, of course, but a little more intuitiveness wouldn’t hurt.
Final judgement
Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite is without a doubt a niche product. With its 17 programmable keys and with the particular lateral numeric keypad, it is mainly designed for MOBA and MMO players. There are some really good goodies: the self-propelled keypad, the internal memory, a lot of customization from the iCUE software. With a little exercise, you may be able to successfully divide the workload between your right and left hands, optimizing many sensitive operations involved. On the other hand, Scimitar, as it is structured, is not designed for left-handed users. Furthermore, the final column of the keypad requires some effort to be reached with the thumb. iCUE, however powerful, would need a slight simplification. The price, as well as the mouse itself.
PROS
- Precise and highly configurable
- The numeric keypad can be moved
- Comfortable and intuitive
- Internal memory for 3 profiles
CONS
- For right-handed people only
- Software not always intuitive
- Last column of keys is not easy to reach
