Corsair’s latest Saber V2 gaming mice are built like supercars

Unique materials. Comfortable shape. Lightweight and incredibly sturdy construction. Great aesthetic. Bluetooth and 2.4G connectivity with 8 kHz polling. Competitive pricing with all-plastic competitors.

Mechanical switches instead of optical. Plastic bottom on both versions. The internal plastic clips may break during disassembly.

Carbon fiber and Magnesium are generally relegated to the world of high-performance automotive engineering. Both are known for being incredibly lightweight while maintaining incredible stiffness and stiffness. While none of them have traditionally had a place in the world of computer peripherals, they have been slowly creeping into the space over the past few years.

Carbon fiber mice have been around for a while, although they’re usually only offered by smaller brands focused on competitive gaming. Magnesium, meanwhile, was also offered by Razer with its Viper Mini Signature Edition, which featured an all-magnesium shell and retailed for nearly $300.

Corsair has now entered the space with two new versions of the popular Saber V2. The two are almost identical, with the only real difference being the top shell (the carbon fiber version also includes a small carrying case). Both include the same accessories: a 2.4G dongle, a USB-C cable, and a set of larger mouse feet.

The magnesium version is half the price of Razer’s limited edition magnesium mouse, at $150, while the carbon fiber version costs $200. For this reason, both mice are surprisingly competitive with other brands’ flagship offerings. Should you be interested in a mouse made from cool materials now that it’s not twice as expensive? After testing both, I think you should.

Structurally sound

When I looked at the standard Ultralight Saber V2 ProI loved the weight, but I didn’t like the build quality. It was an incredibly light mouse, weighing only 36 grams, but because of that it felt fragile. The plastic flexed when squeezed and was so thin that, if I wanted, I could have crushed it with my bare hands. This was great if you wanted the lightest mouse possible, but it was far from ideal for anyone looking for something durable or premium quality.

With the two new versions of the Saber v2, this is not a problem at all. These mice are rigid. Magnesium and carbon fiber have been thoroughly tested in the world of motorsport and proven beyond doubt to withstand force far beyond that of the most powerful players. Even using all the strength of my grip, none of the shells would flex at all.

Opting for either mouse saves you around 20 grams in weight, with the carbon fiber and magnesium weighing 55 and 56 grams respectively. The result is a mouse that is stiffer than its competitors. The Razer Viper v3, weighing 55 grams, with an MSRP of $160, doesn’t have the same ruggedness. That said, the difference is absolutely marginal; The Viper v3 is still a solid mouse with similar build quality and feels great in the hand.

This somehow demonstrates the most important advantage And The biggest drawback of using these technical materials for a mouse: plastic has enough rigidity already (the only exception being what Corsair did before, making the mouse as thin as possible to make it as light as possible). Carbon fiber and magnesium are incredibly lightweight compared to steel and aluminum while maintaining comparable rigidity, which is useful in motorsports, but these materials are clearly overkill for a gaming mouse. What makes them special is that they’re appearing for the first time at this price point. If you can have carbon fiber, why not?

Form and function

The magnesium model is available in black and white. The white model I received has a subtle speckled texture on the metal surfaces. It feels smooth and cool to the touch, much like any other metal. The most controversial part is the massive cutouts in the hull, probably for that last bit of weight saving. The larger gaps mean that dead skin is less likely to build up around the edges of these holes, a problem I’ve encountered when using mice with hex-pattern cutouts for extended periods of time (like the Steelseries Aerox 3). The rests are positioned to support the hands well, but if you tend to rest the entire weight of your hand on your mouse, you will likely notice small indentations in your palm after prolonged use.

If you don’t want to deal with the skeletal remains of a mouse, carbon fiber might be the best option. With no weight-saving holes, the outer shell features an intricate curve that’s perfectly smooth and familiar. The woven carbon fiber pattern extends across the entire surface of the mouse, creating a dry texture and satin finish. Between the two, I found the carbon fiber slightly more comfortable for regular use.

When it comes to actual ergonomics, the two are virtually identical. They share the same bottom half, a slightly larger version of the original Saber v2’s underside that adds a DPI button and a Bluetooth option to the power slider. Both are the same height (38.7mm), width (59.5mm), and length (122.5mm), with identical placement for the side buttons and mouse wheel. This makes them very slightly smaller than the Viper V3 Pro and Logitech Superlight, but still suitable for medium and large hands and comfortable even for long-term use.

The shape is neutral and almost ambidextrous: the two halves of the mouse are identical, except for the buttons on the left side. Button placement feels natural for the palm, fingertip, and claw grips. The top of the bump is placed slightly behind the center of the mouse and the wheel placement is exactly where you’d expect, easy to reach with any grip style. Both sides taper slightly towards the bottom, allowing the mouse to be easily lifted and moved during use. In reality, there’s nothing revolutionary or particularly disappointing about the shapes of these mice. If you’re using another standard-shaped mouse, you probably won’t have any problems.

A new web application?

With a polling rate of 8,000 Hz, these mice are on par with virtually any other professional-grade gaming mouse available today, sending 8,000 messages every second. Both are set to a miserable 1000Hz by default, which is more than enough for almost any use case outside of top-tier competitive lobbies.

In my testing, these mice felt responsive and snappy, with the sensor handling just about everything and never missing inputs. The two main buttons may be a little light for some demanding gamers, but have a crisp “click” and short travel distance that is both responsive and enjoyable without being overstated.

Both of these mice come with two sets of feet: a smaller, factory-installed arc-shaped set and a larger, semi-circle-shaped set. As with the Saber v2 Pro, I have no idea why these mice come with smaller factory-installed feet when the larger ones seem more stable, smoother, and easier to control. I can only assume this was done to slightly reduce the published weight.

The other major improvement to these mice is the inclusion of Bluetooth connectivity. The original Saber v2 Pro was 2.4G only, a decision that was likely made to save a gram or two of weight and reduce complexity. Since these mice both focus less on weight reduction and more on usability and build quality, they can connect to your computer without needing the bulky USB-C dongle. This means these are both great options for a portable gaming mouse. This is especially true for the carbon fiber model, which includes a hard carrying case in the box.

Corsair has upgraded its iCue software to its new in-browser “Web Hub” software. I generally don’t like switching from locally installed software to web-based software because it poses risks to long-term support, but the lack of software running in the background and the theft of processing power is often worth it. When it comes to customization software, Corsair does a good job with its new Web Hub. Nothing is that great or revolutionary, but nothing is that bad either. Setup is simple, customization is seamless, and all settings are in logical locations (although I wish the polling rate setting was on the default page instead of just in the “Device Settings” context menu).

With Web Hub, the DPI button below the mouse can also be customized. The number of steps and the DPI of each can be adjusted, with up to five possible steps ranging from 100 DPI to 33,000. Each step is color coded, with the singular LED between the two mouse buttons illuminating to indicate which step is active.

Be careful when disassembling

These two mice share almost the same construction: a top half made of exotic material, a bottom half made of plastic, a primary motherboard attached to the bottom shell that houses the scroll wheel, mouse buttons, and battery, and a secondary board attached to the top shell that houses the two side buttons and the LED power indicator. The two halves are secured together using plastic clips around the edge of the shell, which are then screwed together in four places under the mouse feet.

While this assembly works well and allows the mouse to be incredibly light and stiff, I found some repairability concerns. With both hulls, there is a risk of repeated disassembly breaking the plastic clips. With the carbon fiber shell, there is Also a risk of tearing off the threads of the upper shell in the event of excessive tightening of the screws, aggravated by the fact that the screws used are self-tapping.

Typically anything made from carbon fiber or lightweight plastic uses metal inserts inside the material to prevent stripping, but that hasn’t been done with this mouse, probably also to save weight. For this reason, half of the screws on this mouse already had hardware stuck between the threads when I initially disassembled them, apparently having already been over-tightened by the factory. This doesn’t impact usability, since the mouse is primarily held together by the plastic clips, but it could cause problems later if the plastic clips fail.

I actually broke one of these plastic clips when disassembling the carbon fiber mouse. While I’m sure there is a way to take this apart that avoids most of the risks, it shows that this can easily happen, even to someone with a lot of experience dissecting mice. I was able to glue the broken section back together without any problems. When testing the mouse with a broken clip, I found it to be wobblier than before, and this wobble disappeared after the repair.

While repairability isn’t perfect, I don’t think it will cause many problems with these mice. They are extremely simple internally and don’t have much that can fail. Assuming you use one for a few years and the battery needs replacing, taking it apart once to replace the battery is unlikely to render it beyond repair.

Good value for money

These two mice are both priced competitively with current offerings from Logitech and Razer, while offering improved build quality and materials. They have almost identical weights, while being stiffer than their competitors and with a more premium look.

The only real downside to these mice is the internals: while they feature competitive specs, both still use standard mechanical switches compared to optical switches from Razer and Logitech. This probably won’t be a problem for the average user, since modern mechanical switches still offer exceptional performance and impressive longevity.

Overall, I definitely recommend either model. The original Saber v2 Pro Ultralight was a great mouse, but its lightness was a double-edged sword. By improving the materials, Corsair has both solved this problem and significantly improved the mouse, creating two models that are not only functional, but also impressive demonstrations of materials science that feel truly special.

Which model you choose ultimately depends on your preferences, but either of these mice will be usable in your gaming arsenal.