I got this mouse to replace my Razer Naga 2014 after the left click broke. I think it’s a very good replacement; like the naga, it has 2 buttons on top in addition to the LMB, RMB and wheel / middle click, and 12 buttons on the side, by default corresponding to the number row. Though it’s missing a couple of minor features and the software can be harder to get to grips with at first, in some other respects I feel it is better than the Naga, and at a slightly cheaper price.

The mouse wheel can only scroll and middle click, whereas the Naga could have it ‘click’ side to side for another two inputs – I do miss this functionality, but it’s chiefly habit when the mouse already has 19 inputs for the player to work with. The wheel also has a textured surface making it comfortable to use, and textured grips for the ring finger and pinky on the right side for improved grip and comfort.

The 1-12 side panel does not have the intense ‘contouring’ on each individual key like the Naga, and I prefer it this way. It can also be, to a degree, horizontally and vertically adjusted for the best position for your own comfort. Every second ‘row’ of keys (so 4-6 and 10-12) is textured with a ridge on 5 like your keyboard has on F and J so you can intuit where you are. It feels a little sturdier, like I’m pressing buttons on a control panel rather than nudging flimsy parts on the side of the mouse itself.

Corsair’s peripheral management software is iCUE, and it takes some time to get to grips with it. Razer’s software, Synapse, is a bit more intuitive and user-friendly at first glance, but after overcoming the learning curve it suits my needs. It allows for button / input reassignment, colour management, DPI setup, and profile creation, including onboard profiles.

The stumbling block with iCUE vs Synapse is that Synapse will show you your mouse, and allow you to click the mouse button onscreen to change its properties. I click on a visual representation of, say, 4 on the naga, and then get a context menu to assign it to what I want. iCUE does the opposite – first, you create an ‘action’, like ‘remap to keystroke’ and then, with the action selected, assign to it to a mouse button by clicking on the representation of it. This has led to me wanting to assign a button to something, and starting by clicking on it as one would intuit, and ended up assigning it to whatever action I had selected by default in the sidebar. It’s a learning curve that has to be overcome.

The intended focus is likely on building a ‘library’ of inputs / remaps / actions, and then picking and choosing from that library when you create a profile. Power users will see the benefits in the long-term, as they get used to the method of reassignment and build their Actions Library. For less uber-hardcore users and people used to Razer interface, it’s less beneficial. If you are a power user, I strongly recommend building your actions library and renaming the actions (double click on the name) to help organise things for your comfort. It is worth noting that CUE does not support remapping for mouse wheel up or down, just middle click.

The actual options for creating actions are very powerful and robust and more intuitive, however. You can remap buttons to keystrokes, or to particular keyboard keys (e.g. G or shift-G or alt-G as a keystroke, or just G as a key), including the keypad, modifier and function keys, but can also record macros, paste text, control media or a timer, play a sound on input, launch an application, or change profile or DPI. There is also a suite of customisation options for each of these features and profile features. For example, I have a profile assigned to be active only when No Man’s Sky is the active window (and this was much easier to pull off than in Synapse), and in this profile, tapping one of my mouse buttons will make the game believe I am holding right square bracket, until I tap it again like a toggle. Synapse may have similar functions for all of these, but actually building the action here was easy.

Similar principles apply to RGB lighting – there’s a HUGE suite of RGB lighting options (albeit a lot of the more elaborate ones are more built for keyboard than mouse) with a LOT of space for customisation, and they are assigned in the same way as actions – create then assign (encouraging, again, building up a ‘lighting library’). The zones for lighting are a front panel which you will rarely see, the logo on the palm grip, the mouse wheel and the side buttons as a singular option (they will all be the same colour as one another and cannot be changed individually).

DPI is handled separately from actions and lighting, which I like. You can create any number of DPI profiles within a mouse profile, and each of these contains six sets of DPI settings which you can switch between or disable at your leisure. Each of these can have a separate X and Y dpi value, and their own customisable RGB setting on the side of the mouse to indicate what setting is currently in use. Again, a feature for the most dedicated gamers and power users, but getting a single, simple DPI setting is just as easy to do.

iCUE also supports some other features, such as temperature display for motherboard, CPU and GPU and fan speed display in a sidebar, logging of these stats, and Onscreen display for peripheral stats (but not for temp stats, sadly, so stick to MSI Afterburner) but there is no cloud saving for profiles.

The mouse has space for 3 onboard profiles, but modifying / assigning them was the buggiest part of CUE for me. Trying to overwrite or save profile to the mouse would result in nothing until a reinstall (thankfully, all your profiles are saved as roaming appdata), and I had to hard reset the mouse. I did managed to assign one of the three slots, but even then onboard profiles are of limited utility. They will only be active before iCUE boots, and as such is only useful for A: having your lighting / settings be consistent with your default profile in the seconds it takes between computer startup and iCUE starting (admittedly, I did this because I wanted the consistency instead of an abrupt snap to my default white), B: starting on a new computer until iCUE is installed and your appdata migrated, or C: if you go to an internet cafe or LAN regularly, bringing your corsair peripherals because there is no cloud service. Other than those circumstances, trying to change onboard storage via iCUE is more of a headache than it’s worth.

Overall, I’ve found the Scimitar to be a great replacement for my naga, but I cannot wholeheartedly recommend one over the other. The Scimitar is cheaper, feels a little better and its software may have more customisation depth, but the Naga has two more good buttons on top and more immediately intuitive software. For me, the decision kind of came down to no longer wishing to support Razer and I don’t regret it, but if you hold both companies in the same regard I would recommend seeing if you could try and hold the two mice before making your decision.