Tom's Hardware Verdict
Corsair’s Glaive RGB Pro is a strong addition to any gaming setup, as long as you’re big into your palm grips, and don’t mind forking out the cash.
Reasons to buy
- +
Ergonomic righty design
- +
Advanced software suite
- +
Swappable sidegrips add variety
- +
Incredible PixArt PMW3391 optical sensor
Reasons to avoid
- -
Doesn’t cater to all grips
- -
RGBs can get hot
- -
Expensive price tag
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Over the years, Corsair has developed a reputation for designing some absolutely incredible mice. The Glaive RGB Pro proves itself worthy of this tradition, with a comfortable ergonomic design, hot-swappable side grips and a fantastic custom sensor that gives you a ton of DPI options. At $70 / £70, this wired gaming mouse doesn’t come cheap, and steps very much on the toes of the likes of the Roccat Kone AIMO, and a multitude of already well established mice.
Design and Comfort
Corsair is pitching the Glaive RGB Pro as a MOBA and FPS oriented gaming mouse. From the outset, its ergonomic design of the thing makes the mouse look far more suitable for those who favor a palm style of grip, rather than a claw. For this reviewer’s average digits, it’s definitely the former. The mouse measures around 13 cm (5.1 inches) long by 8 cm (3.1 inches) across and 5 cm (2 inches) tall at its peak.
As for build materials, there’s a lightweight aluminum subframe with a large swathe of rubberized matte black plastic on top, providing you with the base of the mouse. It’s a single piece up top, with plenty of translucent laser etched RGB LED windows, all resting on top of twin Omron designed mechanical left and right click switches.
Both sides of the mouse have a diamond rubber textured grip to help keep your pinky and thumb in place during those frantic bouts of clicking, with the left rubberized grip being hot-swappable with two included additional grips included in the box, both of which add an extra dimension to this thing, although more on that later.
In its stock configuration this gaming mouse comes in at a fairly sizable 115 g (4.1 ounces), the Corsair Glaive RGB Pro is not a mouse that screams high-end esports, but it’s perfectly fine for regular gamers.
The Glaive uses a custom PMW3391 optical sensor. According to Corsair, this sensor was commissioned for the Glaive from the foundries of PixArt, and it’s capable of driving DPIs all the way up to 18,000, in steps as granular as 1 DPI. There’s also no indication as to whether that high DPI is achieved naturally or with additional hardware or software acceleration. With that in mind, though, this thing should be capable of up to 50 Gs worth of acceleration before it conks out.
Specifications
| Sensor Type | Optical |
| Sensor Model | PixArt PMW3391 |
| Sensitivity | 1 - 18,000 DPI |
| Polling Rates | 1000 Hz |
| Lift-off Distance | Not Disclosed |
| Programmable Buttons | 6 |
| LED Zones and Colors | 3 Zones, 16.8 Million |
| Cable Length | 1.8 M / 6 Ft |
Gaming Performance
In game, this thing is a beast. It’s quick, nimble and smooth; throwing it around healer frames in World of Warcraft was fast and responsive. There was no delay and the sensor felt sharp. In the Witcher 3, it was more than fit for purpose, and the same could be said for Total War: Warhammer II.
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The big differences for the Glaive RGB Pro come down to just how you configure it. By default, you don’t get a lot of options, at least not in the physical realm. There’s no added weights to insert here, no additional cables to swap in and out and no sensors to replace. However, you do get a bank of grips to swap in and out on the left hand side of this mouse. As standard, the Glaive comes with three, each of which attaches thanks to two magnetic slots on the body of the mouse.
The first grip, which is attached to the Glaive RGB Pro out of the box, is a subtle number that scoops itself into the body of the mouse, carefully lining itself up with the front of the device and the rear. There’s no obtuse angles or wings attached to it. It’s a simple design that works well in games that demand high movement, because it allows your thumb to rotate and push the mouse forward and backwards without moving your wrist. It’s easier to shoot faster and select things quicker this way than moving your entire hand. Although it’s the fastest of the solutions available, it’s not exactly the most comfortable of the three.
The second grip is more obtuse. At the end closest to the front of the mouse, this one wades out to the left, and sticks abruptly aghast from the sleek design we mentioned earlier. Although it does look a little extreme in that angle, for a palm gripper, it is a far more comfortable position to hold your thumb against. With this grip you can still rotate the mouse and move it back and forth using your thumb, however the distance for which you can do this is far less dramatic than before and it does require you to move your wrist more during play because of it.
The final and most dramatic grip is the winged grip. This big beauty is the epitome of comfort with a flared wing lunging out and sliding down to the left hand side, it slinks up to the main body of the mouse in a very similar way that the stock grip does, aligning perfectly with the front and rear portions of the mouse. The only difference is, with the support now facing all the way down, it’s far more difficult to maneuver the mouse just by using your thumb. Not impossible, but physically uncomfortable to do so.
Ultimately, I found the chunkier middle grip to be the best balance for this pixel pointer, providing you with just enough comfort during those long internet browsing sessions, but still enough balance to lunge your crosshair around the battlefield too.
Features and Software
The Glaive Pro RGB uses Corsair’s popular iCue software for all customization and lighting control. In iCue, you can add macros and custom commands to each of the Glaive Pro RGB’s six programmable buttons (but not the left click), and you can even tell the mouse how often to run the macro per click, and how long to wait in between macro actions.
You can create and adjust as many DPI profiles as you want to (I stopped at 59 profiles before writing this), and enable how many DPI settings each profile has. Have a game where you only need two DPIs? One for general play, and one for sniping? Sure. Need a game with four DPI levels? You can do that too. You can even change the color of the DPI indicator to show you exactly which profile you’re in, outside of Corsair’s iCUE software, or adjust the X and Y DPI values separately if you’re a sadist.
The only downside to the profiles here is the lack of automation. For instance, you can’t say, set a profile to load on a specific game launch or anything along those lines, so you have to do this manually in the software before going into that latest AAA title.
There’s a ton of performance options too, including angle snapping, enhanced pointer precision, pointer speed (for software calibration enthusiasts), adjustments to polling rates, and the ability to clear your device’s onboard memory or update the firmware. There’s even a neat surface calibration tool, although in our testing we couldn’t notice the difference between before and after.
It almost goes without saying that there’s a myriad of RGB effects and synchronization available. too. And you might be better off with a brilliant color than plain white. In our testing we found the Corsair logo, at least when running a white LED color got noticeably hot. It wasn’t entirely unusable, but it was definitely there, especially after playing for longer than an hour or so with a heavy palm grip. Change the LED to a red or rainbow effect and the heat subsides as assumedly less light is being emitted from the three diodes. This could potentially be a defect with our particular sample, Corsair are investigating, but it’s worth mentioning if you are a fan of pure white light with your peripheral setup, it could get a bit toasty.
Bottom Line
Corsair’s Glaive RGB Pro is an intriguing proposition to those mouse enthusiasts out there. Regardless of what you think of the overall design, there’s no denying that the PMW3391 sensor is extraordinary. It’s quick and sharp, and there’s no noticeable input lag. The overall design of the Glaive is refreshing, not too dissimilar from the standard Glaive, but with enough added features to make it worth the refresh. It’s a nice change of pace and one we’re keen to see Corsair continue on. The lighting is subtle, the material use appropriate, and the wide variety of custom grips included are a solid addition to what would’ve otherwise been a very specific style of boring gripped mouse.
Image Credits: Tom's Hardware
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As Associate Editor of Tom's Hardware's prestigous British division, Zak specializes in system building, case reviews and peripherals, and has a particular penchant for liquid-cooling. He's also a lover of all things Viking/Scandinavian (thus the poor attempt at a beard).