After Razer and EVGA, Corsair follows suit on 8000 Hz polling with the Sabre RGB Pro. Though not quite on the same level as the Razer Viper 8K, Corsair's implementation of 8000 Hz polling indeed works, and very well at that. Polling stability is great across the board, and owing to Corsair's custom PMW3392 sensor, the Sabre RGB Pro delivers excellent tracking and very low motion delay. The only flaw I could find is the above average CPI deviation, but that is easily corrected within the software. I'm also pleased to see Corsair taking up a suggestion I made in an earlier review and providing a setting that allows one to either have incredibly low click latency at the cost of slam-clicking and earlier double-clicking or slightly higher click latency but no slam-clicking. Giving users a choice is always the best choice, and the Sabre RGB Pro greatly benefits from this decision.

The Sabre RGB Pro is a representative of a seemingly extinct species: the large right-handed ergonomic mouse. Lately, one couldn't help but get the impression that big mice have gone out of fashion, but the Sabre RGB Pro successively fills that gap. It's a genuinely wide mouse, and therefore a great fit for people with genuinely big hands. And yet, the Sabre RGB Pro isn't heavy at all, weighing just 72 g without having to resort to visible holes. That said, the low weight comes at a price as I did notice creaking and slight flexing when pressing the sides, though I wasn't able to actuate the side buttons by squeezing. In terms of shape, the Sabre RGB Pro follows an approach not unlike that of the VAXEE ZYGEN NP-01: Though undoubtedly a right-handed ergonomic mouse, the hump curvature is more akin to that of an ambidextrous design, lacking the raised left side usually encountered on right-handed ergonomic mice. Furthermore, neither the front nor back flare out much, and the sensor is positioned more towards the front, which is rather uncommon as well. In short, it's a fairly unique design that works well in practice.

As far as buttons go, the Sabre RGB Pro does really well, too. The main buttons are spring-loaded, resulting in very snappy and responsive clicks, which is also true of the side buttons. The scroll wheel provides good tactility, but is rather noisy, and the heavy wheel click may be off-putting, too. In order to ensure signal integrity at 8000 Hz, mice capable of 8000 Hz require a cable with stronger shielding, resulting in less flexibility. While that is true of the Sabre RGB Pro, its cable easily beats those of the other two 8000 Hz released thus far, the Razer Viper 8K and EVGA X17. Lastly, I have no complaints about the mouse feet.

Similarly to previous Corsair mouse releases, the great hardware is undercut by mediocre software. Corsair's staple software, iCUE, has received a thorough makeover for the Sabre RGB Pro, but unfortunately, it still delivers an underwhelming experience. Much like earlier versions, iCUE 4 eats CPU and RAM for breakfast and floods the system with a myriad of processes even when not actually running. At the same time, one doesn't have a choice but to have iCUE installed, as the Sabre RGB Pro lacks on-board configuration profiles. The problem is this: 8000 Hz polling doesn't work well with every game, and for non-competitive games in particular, there is no need to use 8000 Hz, especially given the fact it comes at a CPU cost. Hence, it would be handy to have several on-board configuration profiles, each set to a different polling rate for one to simply cycle through them as needed. The EVGA X17 has them, but the Sabre RGB Pro doesn't, so one has to put up with iCUE instead. Unlike Razer Synapse, iCUE doesn't support application-specific profiles, either, which means manually changing the set polling rate is the only option. I don't mind resource-heavy software as long as the functionality is there, but that's simply not the case with the Sabre RGB Pro. I'd be content if Corsair would provide a lightweight utility such as Logitech Onboard Memory Manager for one to adjust polling rate conveniently, but that isn't the case, either. In short, Corsair really dropped the ball on the software side of things.

Where does this leave us then? If it weren't for iCUE, I'd give the Sabre RGB Pro an Editor's Choice without thinking about it twice. It's an excellent mouse top to bottom, and at $59.99 for the RGB version and $54.99 for the non-RGB version, the cheapest 8000 Hz mouse thus far, too. At the same time, most people will want to make use of 8000 Hz polling, yet constantly having to open iCUE to manually change the polling rate depending on which game one wants to play can get really old fast. Razer solved this by having application-specific profiles, and EVGA by having multiple on-board profiles, but Corsair has neither, which brings the Sabre RGB Pro down a notch. Still, value for money is excellent, which is especially true of the non-RGB version that also ends up being even lighter than the RGB Pro. This becomes even more apparent when looking at the competition. The ambidextrous Razer Viper 8K is the benchmark when it comes to 8000 Hz polling, but costs $79.99, which is quite the premium. The EVGA X17 goes for the same, has a successful 8000 Hz implementation, excellent software, but a worse cable, much higher weight, and pointless sniper button. Sitting on the other side of the spectrum, the VAXEE ZYGEN NP-01 resembles the Sabre RGB Pro in how it blends ambidextrous and right-handed ergonomic design elements and comes with great performance, quality, and entirely without software, but only 1000 Hz polling, for $59.99. All in all, I consider the Sabre RGB Pro another very strong showing from Corsair, and decided to settle on a trifecta of awards: Recommended, Budget (for the non-RGB version), and Innovation (for the 8000 Hz).