This morning, Corsair revealed their latest round of gaming mice to the lucky folks attending CES 2019 down in Las Vegas. We weren’t able to attend but that didn’t stop us from getting an early look at these three premiere mice from one of the best-known vendors in the field. Join us as we break down the Harpoon RGB Wireless, M65 RGB Elite, and new Ironclaw RGB.
Since we just received all three mice last week, we haven’t had the chance to use each for long enough to offer a full review, nor did we receive a spec sheet, but we did want to share some early impressions in case you’re considering running out and picking them up. To keep things neat, let’s break them down one by one, shall we?
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Harpoon RGB Wireless
The headliner of the set is the new Harpoon RGB Wireless. We began seeing this last year, but 2019 is the year that should shore up all doubt: wireless peripherals are finally as good as wired. Corsair calls their 2.4GHz tech SLIPSTREAM wireless and offers performance that’s indistinguishable from their wired counterparts in our early tests. We’ve also had it for the better part of a week and haven’t seen a low battery indicator yet. If you’d rather take it on the go, the mouse also supports bluetooth.
The mouse features a 10K DPI optical sensor that tracks smoothly and, like all of the mice in this round-up, pixel by pixel. You can store up to five DPI profiles onboard that can be easily swapped and color-coded with the built-in lighting (which also acts as a battery and bluetooth pairing indicator).
This mouse is the smallest of the bunch and will work for claw, fingertip, and hybrid grips. Coming in at only 99g, it’s also the most lightweight, which makes it a perfect for first-person shooters. All told, there are six programmable buttons.
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M65 RGB Elite Tunable FPS Gaming Mouse
Moving onto the M65 RGB Elite, we find out second refresh of the bunch. The original M65 and M65 Pro mice were popular for their versatility in shooters. For its size, it’s remarkably light, weighing only 97g at its lightest. That means that anyone, whether they’re palm or fingertip users, could use this mouse without feeling encumbered. The design clearly lends itself to palm users, however, with the left contour guiding your thumb right onto that sweet, sweet sniper button.
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Coming from a smaller mouse, I personally found the M65 a bit too large for my taste, but there’s a lot to appreciate here. It has the most RGB of the bunch thanks to its rear spill-light, and a tunable weight system thanks to three screw out weights on the bottom. It also features a remarkably high 18K DPI, an aluminum frame, and the ability to take your sensitivity profiles on the go.
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Ironclaw RGB FPS/MOBA Gaming Mouse
Finally we come to the brand new entry in Corsair’s line-up. It’s big, easily the biggest of the bunch, and reminds me a lot of the Corsair Glaive I reviewed in June 2017. Like the M65, it’s remarkably light for its size at only 105g. It features the same optical sensor with a customizable range up to 18K DPI and onboard storage to take your profiles on the go.
This mouse is definitely designed for palm users - it says so on the box, and even though its light weight might allow it, it feels awkward to claw or fingertip a mouse this large. I definitely like the feel of it, though. The grips on either side are rubberized and cross-hatched to give you a solid grip and the side-buttons stand out enough where you won’t hit them by accident. Like all of Corsair’s recent products, it’s fully RGB customizable and programmable.
The only thing I wish that this mouse had were more buttons. For MOBAs, sure, but in every genre, an extra button or two on the thumb is always helpful.
Final Thoughts
So there we are, two quality refreshes and a brand new entry. I’ve been impressed with each of these mice. They each carry Corsair’s high quality build standards, have high-performance optical sensors, and, in the case of the Harpoon RGB Wireless, completely cut the cord and deliver wired-like performance. I would love to see Corsair push the envelope with future releases - this is a company that knows how to make solid products - and challenge convention. These mice play it safe but are great additions to their line-up nonetheless.
