Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series review: a tournament-ready gaming mouse

To cut to the chase of this Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series review, it's a mid-range gaming mouse to be taken seriously, easily standing up against the competition as one of the best lightweight rodents you can buy. 

No stranger to T3’s guide of the best gaming mice, gaming keyboards and even best gaming headsets, Corsair is renowned for its gaming peripherals. 

As the name suggests Corsair’s Champion Series was designed and tested by eSports professionals. Aiming to deliver a comfortable, fast mouse suitable for any type of grip, it was ultimately created for first-person shooter and multiplayer online battle arena games - it has an ergonomic, lightweight design, spring-loaded buttons, Omron switches, 18K DPI and a flexible cable. 

• Check out the best gaming laptops on the market

Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series review: price

You can pick up the Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series gaming mouse for $59.99 in the US, £49.99 in the UK and AU$89 in Australia. It’s available from the Corsair website, as well as from other retailers like Amazon. Take a look at the widgets for more recent pricing. 

If you want to spend a little less and you aren’t bothered about having RGB lighting, you can also buy the Corsair Sabre Pro Champion Series for $54.99 in the US and £44.99 in the UK.

Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series review: design and setup

Before you plug it in, the Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series looks like an average black wired mouse. Like a trip back to the early 2000s, it has a grainy matte coating and the typical computer mouse shape.

When I first picked it up, I was surprised at how light it was. Weighing 74g, you can buy lighter gaming mice yet it feels barely there gliding across the mouse mat. Longer and deeper than other mice (129mm x 43mm), it’ll be suitable for both palm and claw grips, though I suspect that those with larger hands will get along best with its size and shape. 

Despite being a right-handed mouse, Corsair chose not to include deep indents to rest your fingers in, opting for almost completely straight sides instead. It will really come down to personal preference, but this shape does mean you won’t bend your wrist using it, which could make it more comfortable over long periods. One minor critique of the chassis was that it was a little creaky, most will soon get used to that though.

Lighting up the mouse is a series of RGBs, placed behind the logo, on the scroll wheel and there are three small light strips on the side of the mouse as well. These tiny bars of light show you which DPI profile the mouse is currently set to, a handy feature that’s often overlooked.

The Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series has six buttons in total and a pretty standard layout by default, you can change the button assignment using the desktop software. To change DPI profiles, the switch is located below the scroll wheel on the central divider. Then, there are two side buttons on the left of the mouse that are defaulted to forward and back controls. In comparison to where your thumb sits, I found they were placed quite high up, it would have felt more natural for them to be slightly lower down. 

Another design element worth pointing out is the 2.1m black, braided, drag-reducing cable with USB-A type connectivity. All I can say is that it was seriously light and seriously flexible. You can’t get much better.

Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series review: performance 

You can tell the Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series is focused on eSports by its impressive specs. The PixArt PMW3392 optical sensor can reach 18,000 DPI with 450 IPS tracking at up to 50G acceleration. The result? It felt really sharp and accurate. Even if I can’t imagine many people would need to make use of the full DPI capabilities, it’s nice to know they’re there. 

On the underside, the skates were silky smooth, almost floating across the mouse pad. That may make you question how it would cope with fast movements, but having the grainy coating gives the mouse a really good grip. 

Quickstrike Omron switches made the left and right clicks feel springy, speedy and reliable. There's no gap between the outside button and the interior switch giving you immediate responses from your presses. You won’t have to worry about their longevity as they’ll last up to 50 million clicks as well. 

During gameplay, the Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series never missed a click. It will be worth knowing that because of the small gap between the switches and the buttons, they could sometimes be prone to accidental clicks if you slam the mouse onto your desk during play. Next up, the scroll wheel, which wasn’t too jolty, nor was it too smooth- no problems at all to note there. 

Simple, intuitive Corsair iCue desktop software gives you customisation over the button assignment, RGB lighting, your DPI profiles, surface calibration and device settings. It may not be as complex and in-depth as others, however, that also means that you don’t need to learn how to use it. The best part about the Corsair iCue software, aside from how easy it is, is that you can use it to customise all of your Corsair RGB gaming gear in one place. Creating a perfectly synchronised setup, you can design your own personalised light show. 

Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series review: verdict  

For an accurate, ergonomic gaming mouse, the Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series ticks every box. Particularly well-suited to first-person shooter games, this feels like direct competition to some of the most popular lightweight names in the industry like the Glorious Model O or the Roccat Burst Pro. Not only does it roughly match up to them in size, shape and performance but it sits at a similar mid-range price too. 

If you already own Corsair RGB gaming peripherals, then the Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Champion Series is a no-brainer. Even if you don’t, this particular mouse will be perfect for anyone interested in competitive gaming. The simple software, high DPI, tactile switches and flexible cable are sure to be massive draws of this gaming mouse. 

• Check out the best gaming monitors