INTRODUCTION

   DreamHack was concluded last week in Sweden and although unlike CES, CeBIT and Computex it's not a place where you will get to check out emerging technologies and new products it's still a great place for gaming peripherals manufacturers (not to mention gamers obviously) to promote all their latest models from mice, keyboards and headsets up to chairs, PC cases and LCD screens. We didn't actually attend DreamHack this year but judging from the sheer amount of gaming peripherals we've received lately compared to what we had at the same time last year things must have been quite more interesting for all the people that did. Corsair has also released quite a few gaming peripherals lately including the GLAIVE RGB Gaming Mouse which we've been using for roughly 2 weeks now.

   Founded in 1994, CORSAIR supplies high-performance products purchased primarily by PC gaming enthusiasts who build their own PCs or buy pre-assembled customized systems. The company's award-winning products include DDR3 and DDR4 memory upgrades, computer cases, PC cooling products, gaming headsets, gaming keyboards, gaming mice, power supply units, USB flash drives, solid-state drives and system monitoring and control devices.

   For the brand new Glaive RGB Gaming Mouse Corsair decided to use their custom PMW3367 optical sensor which they have developed in close cooperation with PixArt and was also used with their Scimitar PRO RGB MOBA/MMO Gaming Mouse (review here). This optical sensor has a maximum native resolution of up to 16.000DPI (dots per inch) adjustable in single DPI increments, has a maximum refresh rate of 1000Hz and can be calibrated for ultra-accurate and high-speed tracking on any mousepad. Other features of the Glaive include a total of 6 programmable buttons, OMRON switches for the primary buttons (up to 50 million clicks), Kailh white switch for the DPI selection button (also acts as a sniper button just like in the case of the Schimitar Pro), three-zone dynamic RGB color customization (16.8 million color selection), 5 DPI presets, 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 processor with 128kB of onboard memory and 3 interchangeable magnetic thumb grips.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The main product features along with a large product picture and the company logo are all placed at the front of the box.

Both the package contents and system requirements are printed on the left side in 6 languages.

On the opposite side we see the 3 main product features listed again in 3 languages and right over another product picture.

The main product features are showcased at the rear of the box with the help of two product pictures.

As usual the front of the box opens up to reveal the bundled mouse (you can also test its shape) and its interchangeable thumb grips feature.

Along with the Glaive gaming mouse contained inside the box are also its two extra interchangeable thumb grips, carrying/storage pouch, warranty guides and the user guide.

THE GLAIVE RGB

The 122g heavy rubber coated exterior housing of the Glaive (currently available with either black polished plastic or aluminum front corners as seen in our sample) measures 125.8mm in length, 91.5mm in width and 44.6mm in height.

As expected the Glaive has a total of two programmable buttons on its left side.

Right over these two buttons we find one of the three dynamic RGB zones and the DPI selection LEDs.

Corsair has once again placed their logo on the lower rear end of the mouse.

The DPI selection switch is typically placed right over the scroll wheel.

Most of the left side of the mouse is textured and also has part of the second dynamic RGB zone.

The clickable scroll wheel is rubber coated and quite thicker compared to most gaming mice out there.

Beneath the scroll wheel we see two more RGB LEDs.

Aside the PMW3367 optical sensor at the base of the Glaive we also see 4 medium sized PTFE feet.

The 1.8 meter long braided cable ends up on a regular USB plug (not gold plated).

The interchangeable grips are magnetic so in order to swap the stock one with the two bundled ones (to fit your grip style) you just need to pull it outwards as seen above.

As you can see the three-zone dynamic RGB system looks very nice although it's not as impressive as some others we've seen lately.

Of course the front LEDs do look great but you will not be seeing them much while using the mouse.

CORSAIR UTILITY ENGINE SOFTWARE

The Corsair Utility Engine (CUE) software is unified so if you happen to have the K95 keyboard, VOID headset or MM800 mouse pad you can control their functions from here too.

Just like with past gaming mice by Corsair you can configure all of the available keys from the Actions tab also with Macro commands.

From within the lighting effects tab you can configure the 3 zones of the RGB illumination system (in terms of available effects there's static, gradient and solid).

Of course you can choose your very own colors for each of the 3 zones as seen above.

Adjusting the 5 available DPI presets and the Sniper preset is very easy from within the DPI tab.

More demanding gamers can enable angle snapping and enhanced pointer precision from the Performance tab.

Corsair offers a nice surface calibration tool which at the end unfortunately doesn't tell you just how good your mousepad is.

The CUE software also allows you to update the firmware, adjust the polling rate of the mouse, set the brightness of the RGB illumination and even clear all available profiles from the onboard storage.

Here we used green for the front RGB illumination zone, blue for the middle and red for the rear.

CONCLUSION

   Whenever we receive a gaming peripheral one thing is clear to us and so we know very well that in order to “rank” it we must all spend as much time with it as possible. Sometimes we can’t really do that due to some review guidelines but for the most part we spend at least one full week with the sample at hand. With the Glaive we were lucky enough to have it for two full weeks on our desks and we have only good things to say about it. First of all the PMW3367 optical sensor is as fast and accurate as it was with the Scimitar Pro but this time over thanks to the slightly more ergonomic design of the Glaive it feels even better at higher speeds (although again 16k is a bit overkill and certainly not something we were able to use during our tests). Gliding is also excellent but for people with small hands the Glaive may feel a bit large and heavy so we do suggest at least checking out its shape from the front of the box just to be on the safe side. Providing gamers with 2 extra magnetic thumb grips is a nice move by Corsair although we did end up spending more time with the default grip. The three-zone dynamic RGB illumination of the Glaive could be slightly better but that’s not really a bad thing since at night without any lights turned on we didn’t get distracted by it. Now we would like to see a second DPI selection switch since having just one means spending slightly more time rotating through the 5 available presets (6 with the sniper function) but I guess we just can’t have it all.

   Corsair launched the Glaive RGB Gaming Mouse on the 4^th of May and it currently carries a price tag of USD59.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 79Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) which once again is a bit higher than it should here. That being said there aren’t that many gaming mice that can measure up to the Glaive RGB and we think that says everything about it. Sure it’s not the perfect gaming mouse but just like the Scimitar Pro it does get really close to that and that’s why it deserves our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Grip (3 Interchangeable Thumb Grips)
- PMW3367 Optical Sensor (16000 DPI / Excellent Tracking)
- OMRON Switches (Primary Buttons / 50 million clicks)
- 3 Zone RGB Illumination System
- CUE Software

CONS

- Single DPI Selection Button
- EU Price (For Some)