Corsair Nightsword RGB gaming mouse review

When you're shopping for a gaming mouse online, it's hard to predict what'll feel good in person, but let me tell you that the Corsair Nightsword RGB is one of the most comfortable gaming mice I've tested. For $79, you can get its comfortable chassis along with its smooth performance and fine-tunable weight. However, the mouse isn't perfect, as its buttons are stiff, the scroll wheel is out of a comfortable reach and Corsair’s software is hard to navigate, which keeps the Nightsword from being one of the best gaming mice. But overall, Corsair Nightsword RGB is a solid wired gaming mouse, especially for those looking for something a little on the thick side. 

Corsair Nightsword RGB design

The Corsair Nightsword RGB sports a thick black shell that's dazzled with four-zone honeycomb RGB lighting. At 5.1 x 3.4 x 1.7 inches and 4.2 ounces, the Corsair Nightsword RGB is pretty big, but it felt great in the palm of my hands.

There's an RGB-lit Corsair logo at the palm rest surrounded by a smooth rubber plate with snowflake-shaped patterns carved into it. Just above the U-shaped plate are matte plastic left and right buttons, and sitting snugly between them is an RGB backlit scroll wheel and two profile buttons. On the left click button, there's a small cutout for another two buttons dedicated to DPI up and down.

The right side of the Corsair Nightsword RGB holds a grippable panel for your ring finger and pinkie, while the left has a panel that curves down and outward just for your thumb. The left side also features three additional buttons: the forward and backward buttons as well as a Sniper button (lowers your DPI while it's depressed), which is useful for first-person shooters. Next to the Sniper button are three LED indicators that'll let you know when Sniper mode is depressed, which profile you’re using and what stage of DPI your mouse is set.

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Surrounding the Corsair Nightsword RGB are two RGB lighting zones, one on the rear and one on the front that are behind a neat honeycomb pattern. It looks neat, in a retro sort of way.

The underside of the Corsair Nightsword RGB features a removable backplate that'll give you access to six slots where you can place the three 4.5-gram and three 2.8g weight blocks. Those numbers may not seem like a lot, but they make a noticeable difference — I just wish it was better implemented. The Logitech G502 Hero features the same ability, except the panel is magnetic and easily removable, whereas the Nightsword's panel awkwardly clips in. Besides that, the G502 Hero's weights are labeled with how much each one weighs, unlike the Nightsword's ballasts.

The Corsair Nightsword RGB is super-comfortable to hold, as the smooth rubber palm rest gently contours to my hand. The way that my fingers rested on each of the grips felt so natural. However, apart from the left and right buttons, the rest felt unsatisfying to press, as they provided stiff, dull clicks instead of smooth, sharp ones. It was more pronounced when I clicked on the Sniper button, as it was difficult to keep depressed. The scroll wheel also felt just slightly out of reach, so my finger couldn't comfortably rest on it. Overall, the Corsair Nightsword RGB's shape felt great, but I wish the buttons and scroll wheel felt more natural to use.

Corsair Nightsword RGB features

You can configure the Corsair Nightsword RGB via Corsair's iCUE software, which you can download on the company's site.

There are 10 programmable buttons on the Corsair Nightsword RGB, and you set macros to each button via the Actions tab in the iCUE app. In the lighting tab, you can customize the color and speed of the four lighting zones. If you want to set the DPI for your three stages and Sniper mode, you can do that in the tab with the same name. And you have up to 18,000 DPI to work with. 

In the performance tab, you can enable angle snapping, enhance pointer precision and change the color of the profile indicator. The app also lets you calibrate the sensor for the specific type of surface the mouse is on by simply dragging an icon around at a certain speed. There's also a weight-tuning section, which helps you keep track of the weights in your mouse. You can also assign custom mouse profiles to games you're playing, which is very useful. However, since the app is a little hard to navigate, it might take a bit to find what you're looking for.

The Corsair Nightsword RGB is not wireless, so you have to rely on the 1.8-meter braided-fiber cable, which was more than enough room to loop over to my PC. The left and right mouse buttons are rated for 50 million clicks, but if they give out before that, Corsair includes a two-year limited warranty on the Nightsword.

Corsair Nightsword RGB performance

Gaming on the Corsair Nightsword RGB felt incredibly precise, and the weights were helpful to have, but I grimaced everytime I clicked a button that wasn't a left and right click.

In Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, I booted up a Team Deathmatch on House, waited at one of the overpasses, aimed down the sights of my M4, and as soon as someone came into my vision I depressed the Sniper button and unloaded half a clip into their face. I saw my accuracy stabilize, but holding down the Sniper button was a bit annoying because of its stiffness. I did notice the mouse was a little too heavy, so I took out the weights to give me a faster turnaround time.

When I played Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, I was less focused on precision and more focused on how smooth my camera movement was, so I cranked up the DPI and bolted through Dathomir. I was surrounded by baddies at one point, but thanks to the Corsair Nightsword RGB, I was able to swiftly counter and dodge my way to victory.

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I booted up Divinity: Original Sin, and even in a semi-calm setting of just pointing and clicking through areas, or simply scrolling through dialogue choices, the mouse accurately followed my movements.

Bottom Line

The Corsair Nightsword RGB gaming mouse impressed me with its extremely comfortable grips as well as its smooth performance. And thanks to its weight-adjustment feature, I can fine-tune how I game. However, I can't get over the stiff buttons, awkward scroll wheel and somewhat confusing software.

If you're looking for a gaming mouse with similar weight adjustments but more comfortable buttons and an adjustable scroll wheel, then I can't think of anything better than the Logitech G502 Proteus Core.

But overall, the Corsair Nightsword RGB is a solid gaming mouse, and great for those with bigger hands.