While this assembly works well and allows for the mouse to be incredibly lightweight and rigid, I found a few concerns with repairability. With both shells, there is a risk of repeated disassembly breaking the plastic clips. With the carbon fiber shell, there is also a risk of the threads in the upper shell becoming stripped if the screws are over-tightened, something that is made worse by the fact that the screws used are self-tapping.
Typically, anything made from carbon fiber or lightweight plastic would use metal inserts inside of the material to prevent stripping, but this has not been done with this mouse—presumably also for weight savings. Because of this, half of the screws in this mouse already had material lodged between the threads during my initial disassembly, seemingly 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 issues later down the line if the plastic clips fail.
I did actually break one of these plastic clips when disassembling the carbon fiber mouse. While I’m sure there is a way to disassemble this that avoids most risk, it does show that it can easily happen, even to someone with a lot of experience dissecting mice. I was able to superglue the broken section back together without any issue. When testing the mouse with a broken clip, I found it to feel more wobbly than before, and this wobbliness went away after the repair.
While repairability isn’t perfect, I don’t anticipate it causing many issues with these mice. They are dead simple internally, and don’t have much that can fail. Assuming you use one of these for a few years and the battery needs to be replaced, it’s unlikely that taking it apart once to replace the battery will render it irreparable.
Good Value
These two mice are both competitively priced with current offerings from Logitech and Razer, while offering improved build quality and materials. They have nearly identical weights, while feeling more rigid than their competitors and with a more premium look.
The only real downside of these mice is the internals: While they boast competitive specs, both still use standard mechanical switches compared to Razer and Logitech’s optical switches. This likely won’t be an issue for the average user, since modern mechanical switches still have exceptional performance and impressive longevity.
Overall, I really recommend either of these models. The original Sabre v2 Pro Ultralight was a great mouse, but its lightness was a double-edged sword. In upgrading the materials, Corsair has both addressed this problem and elevated the mouse significantly, making two models that are not only functional, but also impressive demonstrations of material science that truly feel special.
Which model you choose is ultimately down to preference, but either of these mice will be serviceable in your gaming arsenal.
