Corsair Darkstar Wireless Gaming Mouse - Review

In a sea of competitive esports gaming mice - all of which provide a sleek construction, ultra lightweight body, and powerful gaming-grade sensors - an MMO gaming mouse are few and far between. As of now, the top choices for anyone wanting to dominate the MMO games would be the Razer Naga V2 Pro, or the Steelseries Aerox 9 Wireless, both of which offer a cluster of buttons on the side and infinite customization possibilities.

However, Corsair is throwing their hat into the ring as well with the Darkstar Wireless, and offers a slightly different take on an MMO gaming mouse. Instead of featuring the industry standard 10 or 12 side button cluster, the Darkstar Wireless instead offers a six button layout that surrounds a textured grip that Corsair says is to reduce “strain during long gaming sessions”. There are a total of 15 programmable buttons which includes a three-click tilt scroll wheel, the six-button side cluster, two DPI and profile switches each, and of course, the main Left and Right mouse buttons (as well as four tilt gestures). The mouse is also equipped with a 26K optical sensor, 2.4Ghz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, and an extremely stylish design.

It’s a featured-packed device, no doubt, but its asking price of $170 might be hard to digest, although it is still a little cheaper than the Naga V2 Pro. After using the Darkstar Wireless for a few days, it’s hard not to be impressed but it does have a steep learning curve that even core MMO mouse users might have to contend with.

Design and Features

The Darkstar Wireless is an undeniably handsome looking device. The semi-contoured right-handed shape, glossy accents, tastefully done RGB lighting, and small lettering of the product’s name on the body gives it a very premium look. The smooth, soft-touch matte black plastic only lends to the appeal.

It is a bit chunky, however (there needs to be some space to fit all the buttons, right?), and for someone who daily drove the Razer Viper V2 Pro before this, it took some time getting used to. It’s also heavier than the Viper V2 Pro at 98g (vs 69g), but to Corsair’s credit, the weight is extremely well distributed that I almost cannot tell the difference. Swinging the mouse around in shooters, or flicking it to perform the infrequent no-scope headshots that I manage to achieve in Halo Infinite was as easy and smooth as it was on the Viper V2 Pro.

The Darkstar Wireless has 15 programmable buttons - the Left and Right mouse buttons, the six-button side cluster, three-click scroll wheel, two DPI buttons located besides the Left clicker, and two profile switches below the scroll wheel. However, despite featuring so many buttons, the Darkstar Wireless felt quite comfortable to use, and that would primarily be due to the inclusion of the textured grip on the side.

MMO mice usually omit a thumb grip for more buttons, but the Darkstar Wireless subverts that to prioritise comfort over additional functionality. As such, when you first grip the device, you don’t necessarily feel that the mouse is designed for MMO games, and the six-button side cluster is well hidden and away from the thumb to ever interfere with your grip. This makes the Darkstar Wireless very easy to pick up, especially if you are a low DPI gamer, without accidentally triggering any of the buttons that may lay under your thumb.

However, the inclusion of the thumb grip also brings its own problems, primarily being that the extra side buttons require over extending your thumb further or backwards to properly activate them. This does interfere with your aim, but if you are using it for games like League of Legends, Dota 2, Diablo 4 and others where there are no immediate camera movements, this shouldn’t pose much of a problem. That said, activating those side buttons will require a little bit of practise and conscious decision making - something I still haven’t been quite used to after using it for over four days.

Besides the 15 programmable buttons, the Darkstar Wireless also has four tilt gestures. These gestures - forward, backward, right and left - can be customised like any other button on the mouse, and it works remarkably well. I programmed the right tilt to close tabs on my browser, and I only need to tilt the mouse a little for it to accurately execute the command. However, the tilt gestures are quite sensitive and might trigger if you are picking up the mouse to reposition it, but thankfully, you can adjust the degree of the tilt on the Corsair iCUE software to avoid any accidents.

The bottom of the mouse features two gigantic 100% PTFE mouse feet which, I have to admit, allows the mouse to glide across any surface like butter. I have tested and reviewed many gaming mice, but I have never had a mouse that moved so smoothly like the Darkstar Wireless. It’s just a supremely pleasurable experience to use the mouse because of it. Whether or not the feets will retain its smoothness over months and years of use remains to be seen.

Anyways, there is also a power switch for toggling between Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz wireless, as well as a slot for storing the USB wireless dongle. The mouse also comes with a 1.8m USB-C to USB-A cable, but it’s not the cloth-based, flexible kind you would find on other gaming mice. It’s braided and quite hard, which won’t allow for much freedom of movement, and as such, the cable can be used for charging but not for serious gaming. For $170, this is a bit of a bummer. I understand that Corsair wants us to use the mouse wirelessly - especially when its Slipstream tech provides little to no latency and up to 2,000Hz polling rate - but hey, sometimes we forget to charge our devices and that’s no excuse to halt our gaming sessions, eh?

Software and Performance

Like all Corsair products, the Darkstar Wireless uses the iCUE companion software for customization. However, at the time of writing, the official website only serves up iCUE v5.2, which is not compatible with the mouse (it just won’t detect it). You will require the iCUE v5.3 and upwards in order to make it work (I had to source the updated software from my press representative). I am hoping that by the time the mouse goes on sale in the Middle East region, the new updated version of the software will be available to download.

You don’t require the software to make the mouse operational, of course, but it would be kind of pointless to not avail all of its features, which is really the meat and potatoes of the Darkstar Wireless. In the iCUE software, you have your standard set of features where you can customise the buttons, RGB lighting, DPI levels, as well as set the Angle Snapping, Lift Height and Button Response Optimization features. In addition to that, you also have two “hardware” level settings for key assignments and RGB lighting, which saves those settings on the mouse itself in case you don’t want to keep the iCUE software installed (although you will lose the gesture controls as a result).

The iCUE software is rather oddly set up and can be confusing to use for first time users. First of all, why is there a need for software and hardware-level profiles when the mouse can store up to 5 profiles anyway? And to make things even more confusing, you can swap between different profiles using the buttons on the mouse, but which profile is it switching - the software, or the hardware? Each profile switch is denoted by the three LED lights besides the six-button cluster but I have yet to figure out which color is assigned to which profile. And to make things even more confusing, on top of the profiles you create, there are also separate software and hardware level profiles for the DPI section? What?

I am not sure why Corsair has made the iCUE software so obtuse to use. If they could get rid of the software and hardware level profiles, and just store each setting onto the mouse by default, the software would be far more simpler to operate.

Anyways, coming to the performance side of things, the Darkstar Wireless is excellent. The Corsair Marksman 26K optical sensor, which has a maximum sensitivity of 26,000 DPI, 650 IPS speed, and 50G of acceleration, performed extremely well in all kinds of games that I tried it with. From online shooters like Overwatch 2 and Halo Infinite, to slower paced games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Uncharted, and to action-RPGs like Diablo 4, the sensor kept up with my erratic movements and twitchy playstyle with ease. I am not much of a MMO or MOBA player myself, but I tried to use the extra buttons as much as possible. As I said before, I still haven’t quite gotten used to the placements of them just yet, but it’s a learning curve that most users will have to overcome.

The Left and Right mouse buttons use the Omron optical switches. They are whisper quiet and buttery smooth to operate, which again lends to how premium the mouse feels. However, despite their silent operation, they are quite snappy so there is some tactile feedback to go off of.

The scroll wheel is a bit hard to press, which almost always causes my aim to waver. However, it does have a very tactile and readable ‘steps’ which could aid players who rely on it to sort through inventory.

Battery Life

Corsair rates the Darkstar Wireless at 65 hours with 2.4Ghz wireless, and 80 hours with Bluetooth, but that’s if you turn off the RGB lighting entirely. With RGB lighting turned on - even at its lowest brightness - you can expect around 20-25 hours of battery life, which is far from exceptional. Comparatively, the Razer Naga V2 Pro offers up to 150 hours of battery life on wireless, and up to 300 hours on Bluetooth which is much more in line with what flagship gaming mice offer these days.

As such, unless you prefer charging the mouse every few days, turning off the RGB lighting is advised. It doesn’t add much to the appeal though. The front facing RGB zones will most probably be covered by your palm anyways, and the LEDs below the two main buttons are hardly visible - even at the highest brightness setting.