Corsair Darkstar Wireless Gaming Mouse Review Discussion

[Sir Beregond]

 

Quote

Corsair is back with a brand new mouse offering, the Darkstar Wireless MOBA/MMO Gaming Mouse. The CORSAIR DARKSTAR gaming mouse boasts an arsenal of 15 programmable buttons, including a uniquely positioned six-button side cluster, so all your actions and abilities are within easy reach. Read the full article to see if this could be your next mouse.

Read the full review HERE

[ENTERPRISE]

Released

[Avacado]

Solid review @Sir Beregond. The pictures of the grip doomed this mouse for me. I didn't like the price point either.  Either way, well done!

[Sir Beregond]

44 minutes ago, Avacado said:

Solid review @Sir Beregond. The pictures of the grip doomed this mouse for me. I didn't like the price point either.  Either way, well done!

Thanks man. Yeah the grips killed the mouse for me too and the asking price is a lot.

[Mr. Fox]

Nice review, brother. Well done. Very thorough and professional.

 

It's unfortunate that you need iCUE installed and running to use features. Corsair should have kept it a simple RGB control software application. The inclusion of so many  features and gimmick like the bloated hardware monitoring really sucks. Sadly, the thought process behind the bloatfest isn't unique to Corsair. It seems to be a common form of dementia in the industry, with Armory Crate being the worst example of trash software known to man. At least iCUE is still a win32 app and not a UWP/Micro$lop Store piece of crap like Armory Crate. (At least that was true last time I checked,)

 

I can't imagine spending this much money on a mouse. I never have before and it is unlikely that I ever will. Nobody makes one durable enough to consider it and I find those in the < $50 price range the most intelligent for me. I usually get 1 to 2 years from a mouse before it needs to be taken apart and have new button switches soldered in and I just don't have the time or desire to deal with such nonsense. It's not hard, but it's just not worth the hassle.

[Fluxmaven]

As much as I'm not interested in a mouse like that, the review is great and told me everything I needed to know. I appreciate including the firmware update frustrations. It's nice to see an unbiased look at how the product performs. 

 

The tilt function is cool, but not new. Logitech has had that in several mice for a while.

 

At least it has a cool name 

[Sir Beregond]

1 hour ago, Mr. Fox said:

Nice review, brother. Well done. Very thorough and professional.

 

It's unfortunate that you need iCUE installed and running to use features. Corsair should have kept it a simple RGB control software application. The inclusion of so many  features and gimmick like the bloated hardware monitoring really sucks. Sadly, the thought process behind the bloatfest isn't unique to Corsair. It seems to be a common form of dementia in the industry, with Armory Crate being the worst example of trash software known to man. At least iCUE is still a win32 app and not a UWP/Micro$lop Store piece of crap like Armory Crate. (At least that was true last time I checked,)

 

I can't imagine spending this much money on a mouse. I never have before and it is unlikely that I ever will. Nobody makes one durable enough to consider it and I find those in the < $50 price range the most intelligent for me. I usually get 1 to 2 years from a mouse before it needs to be taken apart and have new button switches soldered in and I just don't have the time or desire to deal with such nonsense. It's not hard, but it's just not worth the hassle.

 

Thanks for reading! Yeah, it's expensive for sure. I've never spent north of $100 for a mouse. My current mouse was $60 I think and ergonomically it fits me much better. I also don't need to use iCUE with it as the side buttons have default values in hardware mode that are exactly what I want them to be.

 

57 minutes ago, Fluxmaven said:

As much as I'm not interested in a mouse like that, the review is great and told me everything I needed to know. I appreciate including the firmware update frustrations. It's nice to see an unbiased look at how the product performs. 

 

The tilt function is cool, but not new. Logitech has had that in several mice for a while.

 

At least it has a cool name 

This was a totally new feature for me. I didn't know Logitech was doing that too. Good to see. Would love for that to be a feature in more mainstream mice.

 

Yeah this is a weird one. I didn't outright dislike using the mouse. I thought it overall worked well, but yeah that side cluster of buttons needs work, as does the ergonomics. Large hands like mine that like palm gripping? Not ideal, which seemed weird considering the size of the mouse. Smaller hands, probably have to readjust a lot to reach some of the buttons. I think those with larger hands that prefer claw gripping will probably enjoy the mouse.

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited July 24, 2023 by Sir Beregond

[ENTERPRISE]

Great review @Sir Beregond. The tilt function certainly not a new thing. My Lexip mouse (Kickstarter) had all round tilt, it was essentially a mouse and joystick in one which was really cool but didn't use it much out of flight sims. 

 

I personally don't mind additional software accompanying hardware such as iCue and similar to enhance the feature set, and I feel most are of the same opinion. The real crux of the issue is that much of the time the accompanying software is not lightweight so far as system resources.  

[EHW Ai]

Great review, not sure if I missed it but what is the input lag? I also dont have rtings insider and haven't seen anything about the input lag on this mouse which for me is the #1 thing with mice especially for FPS games. 

[Sir Beregond]

28 minutes ago, TonyBombassolo said:

Great review, not sure if I missed it but what is the input lag? I also dont have rtings insider and haven't seen anything about the input lag on this mouse which for me is the #1 thing with mice especially for FPS games. 

Great question. I don't really play FPS games, but that's a good idea to test.

 

I don't actually know how to test input latency, let me look into that and perhaps I can update the review.

[Mr. Fox]

1 hour ago, ENTERPRISE said:

I personally don't mind additional software accompanying hardware such as iCue and similar to enhance the feature set, and I feel most are of the same opinion. The real crux of the issue is that much of the time the accompanying software is not lightweight so far as system resources.  

Indeed. That is the crux of the issue... far too much consumption of system resources. Also kind of useless to have replication of function. If they made it to where the end user could install only the part(s) of the software package that they plan to use, that would be ideal.

1 hour ago, Sir Beregond said:

Great question. I don't really play FPS games, but that's a good idea to test.

 

I don't actually know how to test input latency, let me look into that and perhaps I can update the review.

That would be good. I do not generally have enough spare time for gaming, but when I do it is almost exclusively FPS titles. It is rare that I buy or play any other type of game.