In a time where MMO mice no longer are as abundant as they used to be, Corsair releases not only the Scimitar Elite Wireless, which is a "classic" MMO mouse through and through, but also the Darkstar Wireless, which, while primarily conceived for MMOs as well, sets slightly different priorities. Most notably, the side buttons on the Darkstar Wireless aren't arranged in a 12-button "grid," but instead, only six in total are arranged clockwise around the thumb area. Hence, even though the Darkstar Wireless still has plenty of buttons, it can't compete with the Scimitar Elite Wireless in this regard, although the thumb having some space to rest on makes it more suitable for games that aren't MMOs. Added functionality is provided by two buttons at the top, two buttons next to the left main button, and most importantly, the ability to tilt the scroll wheel, which gives access to another two button functions. At 98 g, the Darkstar Wireless is also substantially lighter than the Scimitar Elite Wireless, and therefore is more of a multi-genre mouse, and a direct competitor to the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro or ROCCAT Kone XP Air.

For the main buttons, Corsair has opted for optical switches from TTC. While generally quite firm and snappy, button response is slightly dull and muted on these, as is the case with most other optical switches. At the same time, the inability of optical switches to ever develop double-clicking due to wear and tear is a bonus, especially since Corsair traditionally gives users only limited access to adjusting debounce on their mice. One can either disable debouncing entirely, which elicits the lowest possible click latency, but does introduce so-called "slam clicking," which describes inadvertent button actuation upon "slamming" (or gently repositioning) the mouse on the pad. To prevent this, one has to enable debouncing, though this in turn increases click latency considerably. Of course, implementing a more robust and elegant debouncing algorithm would be the ideal solution to this problem, but the use of optical switches at least prevents double-clicking with debouncing disabled, so that is something. For the six side buttons, surface-mounted 2-pin switches from Omron are used, which shine with minimal pre and post-travel. Ergonomically, the way the side buttons are arranged has some limitations, however, as those using palm grip in particular may find themselves hitting the rear-facing buttons in particular accidentally. The two buttons next to the left main buttons are outfitted with 2-pin low-profile switches from Kailh and suffer from noticeable pre-travel as well as accordingly mushy and uneven actuation, though this may in fact be by design, as it makes accidentally hitting these buttons during heated moments more difficult.

When it comes to the scroll wheel, the Darkstar Wireless beats the Scimitar Elite Wireless by a mile. Though the encoder again comes from TTC, noise levels are much lower, and tactility is very good, allowing for controlled scrolling. That said, due to the way the scroll wheel array is designed, the wheel click is fairly stiff, and actuation quite weird and unpleasant. In addition, the ability to tilt the scroll wheel to the left and right is welcome, especially as it allows for horizontal scrolling when doing productivity work, and the design is well-tuned enough such that I never actuated the middle (scroll wheel) click inadvertently when tilting the wheel. Another area where the Darkstar Wireless has the edge over the Scimitar Elite Wireless are the feet, as the Darkstar Wireless doesn't have the usual black-dyed standard feet Corsair likes to use, but rather non-dyed pure PTFE with a black backing for better sticking of the adhesive. While the actual feet therefore are quite fine, the edge rounding is fairly good, and glide impressively good on an otherwise not exactly lightweight mouse. Speaking of the build in general, the only flaw I could find on my sample is a rattle coming from an indeterminable location, as there is no creaking, flexing, or similar otherwise.

At 98 g, the Darkstar Wireless is a decent bit lighter than the Scimitar Elite Wireless, which is mostly due to the significantly reduced battery capacity, namely 560 mAh. As a result of the smaller capacity, battery life is accordingly lower, at 65 hours when using 2.4 GHz wireless without illumination according to Corsair. Unfortunately, and much like on the Scimitar Elite Wireless and other Corsair wireless mice, the battery readings within iCUE amount to non-descriptive descriptions such as "high" or "low," which simply aren't helpful in assessing or gauging anything. This aside, iCUE has been improved tremendously by Corsair lately. Due to now being modular, the number of processes launched as well as drivers installed by iCUE has gone down significantly over previous versions, which is why the prospect of having to leave iCUE running all the time is nowhere near as terrifying as it used to be. In terms of functionality, iCUE is still among the most capable of mouse software, as even advanced bindings such as a shift function (similar to Razer's Hypershift function, or Logitech G-Shift) can be realized.

While charging on the Darkstar Wireless isn't as ridiculously fast as on the Scimitar Elite Wireless, at almost 0.5 A, the Darkstar Wireless charges very quickly. This is relevant in that the charging cable is so stiff that it essentially prevents usage of the Darkstar Wireless during charging almost entirely with how much mouse movement is restricted by it. In the past, Corsair utilized slightly more flexible rubber charging cables on some of their wireless mice, but for whatever reason, they have decided to go back to the thick braided ones, which are as stiff as it gets. Another long-standing peculiarity with Corsair wireless mice is the omission of a wireless extender. These days, even many $50 wireless mice comes with one, yet Corsair seems to believe not including one on their $169.99 flagship mouse is perfectly fine. The issue is that when plugging the dongle directly into a USB 3.x port, the noise emitted by this type of port can adversely affect connectivity, which is why plugging the dongle into a USB 2.0 port is recommended instead. However, such ports are increasingly hard to find on current mainboards, so in order to safely rule out connection issues, one would have to purchase a third-party extender or USB hub. How anyone at Corsair deems this acceptable on a $169.99 mouse, I don't know, but clearly, this omission is shared by every single Corsair wireless mouse so far, so it doesn't come as a surprise.

Wireless extender aside, performance is more than serviceable on the Darkstar Wireless. There is no CPI deviation at all, general tracking is fine, and polling stable throughout. Wireless motion delay sits at around 1.5 ms, which isn't amazing but perfectly fine, and wireless click latency is only 1.4 ms without debouncing, or 5.8 ms with debouncing. As with other Corsair wireless mice advertised as such, the 2000 Hz polling on the Darkstar Wireless once again isn't real. Instead, each packet is simply duplicated, which is good enough to fake readings, but is functionally equivalent to 1000 Hz polling and thus completely useless. A fairly unique and more worthwhile feature is the inclusion of a six-axis gyro and accelerometer, which we've previously seen on the M65 RGB Ultra Wireless. This comes with two main features: First, more granular lift-off distance adjustment (five levels in total), which is certainly welcome, and a tilt gesture system, allowing to execute certain actions upon tilting the mouse in a certain way. Once again, I have a hard time imagining a single situation in which this could have any use. Clearly, lifting one's mouse in the middle of a game and awkwardly tilting it to specific degree to reload one's gun or something isn't too desirable when the same could be done by pressing a single button on the keyboard. A mouse is only useful when it's on the pad translating hand movement to the display, and any function that only works when not doing that therefore has limited utility.

Overall, the Darkstar Wireless is one of those mice I have a really hard time rating. It no doubt gets a lot of things right, but at the same time, there are several annoyances that could have been avoided easily, especially on a mouse this pricey. On the other hand, buttons and performance are perfectly solid, and the button layout and functionality isn't replicated by many other mice. In addition, when disassembling the Darkstar Wireless, it becomes clear why is costs as much as it does, as the internal design is among the most complex ones I've had the pleasure (or displeasure) of dismantling thus far. While this doesn't necessarily have any value for the customer in itself, it is clear that the engineering effort needs to be reflected in the pricing. Another thing to consider is that the competition isn't priced much differently. The ROCCAT Kone XP Air is priced at $169.99, and given the the wide range of issues it suffers from, this is at least $169.99 too much. The Razer Basilisk V3 Pro at $159.99 isn't exactly a bargain, either, and the same applies to the SteelSeries Aerox 5 Wireless at $139.99, which also comes with its own share of issues. Hence, due to being a fairly unique package, with good buttons and performance throughout, and despite its pricing, the Darkstar Wireless earns our Recommended award.