Want your MOBA gaming experience to run on steroids? We pit two gaming mice against each other to help you decide.
Your mouse certainly determines whether you’re going to have a pleasant gaming experience or a frustrating one. This experience depends on several physical aspects such as your hand size and preferred grip style, and hardware aspects such as sensor accuracy and shape of the mouse. If you’re a competitive gamer, the genre of game you’re playing also becomes a factor before you pick a mouse to play games. FPS games demand sensor accuracy whereas you can do away with MOBA games using mice with average sensors. Extra buttons act as an advantage when playing MOBA games, allowing gamers to assign macros and binds to them. This genre requires a lot of repetitive steps, hence converting them into macros makes things easier by giving the players an advantage to quickly execute them. FPS games also have binds that can serve as an advantage but for competitive gamers, the generally low sensor accuracy on such mice is a deal breaker.
We’ve received very few MOBA-centric mice and among them, we are comparing two of the best. The Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB has a wonderful build quality and a staggering number pad of 10 buttons. On the other hand, we have the SteelSeries Rival 500 which has a great ergonomic design and vibration motor inside to shake during in-game events.
Testing rig
A standard process is maintained while testing mice in our labs with the software running on only one system. Any changes in the workflow results in minor anomalies in sensor tracking. To avoid errors from other devices, the test rig only consists of two input devices connected including the mouse and a keyboard (polling rate at 1ms).
Motherboard: AsRock Z77 Extreme4
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K
Display: MSI RX470 Gaming X 4G
Memory: HyperX Fury 8GB DDR3
SSD: SanDisk Extreme II 240GB
HDD: WD Red 2TB
Cabinet: Thermaltake Core V51
Power supply: Silver Power SP-SS650
OS: Windows 10 64-bit Professional
Features
Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB
The mouse has 10 buttons on the numpad, excluding the right and left click, scroll wheel and two CPI buttons. RGB lighting zones are distributed over four zones including the extra buttons, Corsair logo, scroll wheel and DPI level indicator. All the lighting effects and mouse settings can changed using the Corsair Utility Engine (CUE) software. The CPI levels can be switched using the two buttons at the middle. Using the software, they can be reassigned to change profiles. One helpful feature is the adjustable position of the extra buttons that can be changed using a hex key. The PMW3367 optical sensor on the mouse can achieve a maximum of 16,000 CPI. You can scroll through five CPI levels using the CPI switches. The mouse can store three different profiles that can be edited and uploaded from the software.
SteelSeries Rival 500
The Rival 500 has 9 extra buttons other than the right and left click, scroll wheel (which has tilt clicks as well), and the single CPI button. Those extra buttons consist of two flick buttons at the bottom edge on the left side of the mouse which are quite convenient. They can be easily locked down to prevent accidental clicks. The scroll wheel and SteelSeries logo on the palm area light up in RGB. You can change the lighting effects, define macros, change key assignments, and much more using the SteelSeries Engine 3 software. The PMW3360 optical sensor on the mouse is capable of reaching 16,000 CPI. Sadly, there are only two CPI levels and the mouse can store one profile. The best feature of the mouse has to be the vibration sensor onboard that shakes according to in-game events such as health status, headshots and low ammo, which is rarely seen on gaming mice.
Build quality
Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB
The Scimitar Pro RGB has a premium feel to it with its matte plastic coating covering most of the mouse’s body. The 10 extra buttons are coated with a textured and matte finish that gives better grip for your thumb. Accidental presses shouldn’t be a problem here since the buttons offer good tactile feedback. There’s a textured rubber coating on the right side of the mouse, for your ring and little finger. The scroll wheel is also covered with a textured rubber coating. Although not that distinct but the scroll steps are distinguishable from one another. The right and left clicks are using Omron D2FC-F-7N switches which have a durability of 20 million clicks. The Scimitar Pro RGB weighs 147 g.
SteelSeries Rival 500
The Rival 500 is well built with a matte coating on most of the outer body and rubberised zones on the left and right side. The buttons have a rough plastic texture to avoid slipping while the scroll wheel has a rubber coating. The right and left clicks are using SteelSeries’ own microswitches rated at 30 million clicks. On the inside, the components are divided across three PCBs. One includes the main board, the other houses the LED on the bottom of the mouse, and the third one connects most of the buttons on the top. The build quality on the inside is better on this mouse. It weighs around 129 g.
Design
Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB
The Scimitar Pro RGB can’t boast of having the best ergonomic design as it sits between a palm and claw grip. A prominent bump present on the top of the mouse ensures the index finger’s knuckle sits right above it. Gamers who have a medium to large sized hands (more than 19 cm in length and 9.5 cm in width), will be able to play with the mouse in the hybrid grip mentioned above. Gamers with smaller hands will find a claw grip more comfortable. This is because of the steep slope and tapering edge at the bottom of the mouse. Because of these sharp curves, it’s more uncomfortable for gamers with longer or bigger hands.
SteelSeries Rival 500
Compared to the Scimitar Pro RGB, the Rival 500 has a more ergonomic design. The buttons on the left side have been placed keeping in mind how your thumb rests over it. There are six buttons in that area and you will be able to reach all the buttons with minimal movement of your thumb. It has a slight curve on the right side for your ring and little finger, making it more comfortable. It’s almost the same size as the Scimitar Pro RGB, hence it’s suited for medium to large sized hands. A claw grip is more favourable for the mouse because of the high bump at the top, which is why a palm grip feels incomplete.
Performance
Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB
We found the accuracy to be decent and didn’t come across bad response times. When the mouse was swiped too quickly, it would lose tracking. The polling rate seemed to be inconsistent as we observed anomalies in the smoothness tracking. In real world testing, we couldn’t spot any inconsistency and were able to comfortably aim in FPS games as well. The best results from the benchmarks were obtained in the 800 and 1600 CPI levels. The graphs weren’t as clean and smooth as seen on better sensors obviously, but they were consistent through all the CPI levels at the median curves. The software is easy to use and defining macros is a breeze. Since you can store three profiles on the mouse, you can define macros for three different games and toggle between them.
SteelSeries Rival 500
On comparing the real world testing on both the mouse, it’s really difficult to spot any difference. When it comes to our synthetic benchmarks using the sensor tracking software, the Scimitar Pro RGB was slightly better which is almost negligible. There’s no acceleration or deceleration issues with the sensor on the Rival 500, but on higher CPI levels we noticed angle snapping slightly. The wide teflon feet on the bottom surely helps in giving a smoother experience while flicking the mouse. Coming to the tactile feedback engine, although it’s another sensory feedback for in-game, we didn’t find any advantage to it. The SteelSeries Engine 3 software is easy to use as well and defining macros or remapping keys doesn’t require much effort.
Conclusion
The Corsair Scimitar Pro RGB and SteelSeries Rival 500 are great mice to play MOBA games. The extra set of buttons on both the mice are certainly an advantage as they allow you to assign macros to them for games and even remap them for shortcuts in everyday use. The tactile feedback engine or the vibration motor is a rare feature in a gaming mouse, but for now it’s only a gimmick since there’s no advantage to using it. Build quality is almost the same but the Scimitar Pro RGB has slightly better materials and a sturdier frame. Both the mice have an ergonomic design where the Rival 500 fares better for a more comfortable shape. Performance is almost the same but if you want to go with numbers, the Scimitar Pro RGB gets a higher score. Considering the MRP of both the devices, the Rival 500 is expensive. However, the price might fluctuate online. Apart from the selling price of the mice, if you look at the features, build quality and performance, the Scimitar Pro RGB comes ahead of the Rival 500.
This article was first published in the October 2017 issue of Digit magazine. You can subscribe to the magazine by clicking here.
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Abhijit Dey
A Star Wars fan and sci-fi enthusiast. When I'm not playing games on my PC, I usually lurk around the Internet, mostly on Reddit. View Full Profile
