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Gamers aren't nearly as afraid of wireless mice as they used to be, and for good reason. Lag and fidelity issues are a thing of the past, and never having a wire in the way is its own reward. Generally speaking, there's only one sticking point remaining: the price. Wireless gaming mice from big-name manufacturers range up to $150 for customizable powerhouses. That's a big jump from wired models, which tend to hover around $60.
Enter the Corsair Harpoon RGB Wireless. At $50, it undercuts not only almost every major wireless gaming mouse on the market, but also a variety of wired models. More importantly, the Harpoon RGB Wireless offers a comfortable grip, intuitive software and excellent in-game performance. The RGB features are rather ancillary, and the shape doesn't lend itself to any particular genre. But overall, the Harpoon RGB Wireless is a strong best gaming mouse contender, particularly considering the price.
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Design
You'll consider the Harpoon RGB Wireless either understated or plain, depending on how flashy you like your gaming mice. The chassis is solid black all around, with a relatively small profile (4.6 x 2.7 x 1.6 inches) that suits both palm and claw grips. While the Harpoon RGB Wireless' appearance is not exactly a flaw, the mouse does look extremely similar to a lot of other gaming mice; there's nothing really distinctive about it.
Even so, it's got pretty much everything you need in order to tackle everyday single-player or multiplayer PC games. There are textured grips for the thumb and the two outermost fingers, as well as a textured scroll wheel, a dots-per-inch (DPI) sensitivity button just beneath it and two thumb buttons off to the side. Everything is easy to reach and offers a satisfying click.
My only major gripe here is with the RGB features. Other Corsair mice offer lights on both the palm rest and the scroll wheel, but the Harpoon RGB features only the latter. That means you'll barely ever see the mouse's fancy, customizable RGB illumination, because your hand will be covering it. Given the choice between RGB lighting I'll never see and no RGB lighting but a slightly cheaper price, I'd probably have opted for the latter.
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Features
The most important feature of the Harpoon RGB Wireless is right in its name. The device is one of the cheaper wireless gaming mice from a major manufacturer. Other products in the same price range tend to be smaller, laptop-oriented models (like the Razer Atheris) or those that on disposable batteries (like the Logitech G305). Not only do the wireless features on the Harpoon RGB work flawlessly, but also, you can switch at will between USB and Bluetooth. This is impressive, considering that some much-more-expensive mice tend to stick with USB-only setups.
While I didn't subject the Harpoon RGB Wireless to rigorous, tournament-style conditions, I can say that the wireless features worked perfectly, without exhibiting lag or misinterpreting commands, all in an office that's jam-packed with wireless traffic. Both the USB and Bluetooth settings worked well, although the mouse would occasionally fail to reconnect via Bluetooth after I'd rebooted the computer. (This was never a problem with the USB dongle.)
Not only do the wireless features on the Harpoon RGB work flawlessly, but also, you can switch at will between USB and Bluetooth.
And while this is an extremely minor point, it's also wonderful that the Harpoon RGB Wireless has a place on its underside to stash the USB dongle. It's much harder to lose the tiny accessory this way.
Beyond that, you can reprogram any of the buttons (except the left-click one), create profiles, adjust the lighting and change the DPI levels in the Corsair Utility Engine (CUE) software. While the CUE has a higher learning curve than comparable programs from Razer and Logitech, there's also more you can do with it, particularly if you want to create inventive lighting profiles. I also like that you can monitor CPU and GPU temperatures and fan speeds through the CUE's Dashboard feature, but it's also easy enough to ignore the software entirely if you like how the mouse works out of the box.
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As for the battery life, Corsair estimates that you can get up to 60 hours — in Bluetooth mode, with all the lighting turned off. This may not be the most realistic estimate, but I still found that the device has plenty of power to spare. In three days of using the device for both gaming and productivity, I was drained the battery from 100 percent to 70 percent. That means it's totally feasible to use this mouse for up to about a week of regular play. You can also recharge the Harpoon while you game, thanks to a long USB charging cord.
Performance
Corsair designed the original Harpoon as sort of a jack-of-all-trades, entry-level mouse, and the Harpoon RGB Wireless performs very similarly. I tested this mouse with Destiny 2, StarCraft: Remastered, Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales and World of Warcraft and found that it handled every game equally well. Shooting down legions of foes in Destiny 2 was as simple as optimizing my deck of cards in Thronebreaker, and the two thumb buttons were helpful for programming extra commands.
Shooting down legions of foes in Destiny 2 was as simple as optimizing my deck of cards in Thronebreaker, and the two thumb buttons were helpful for programming extra commands.
My one caveat would be that I don't know how the Harpoon RGB Wireless would hold up in tournament play. There's no extra "sniper" button for FPS players, and the mouse's design doesn't seem optimized toward any genre in particular. Then again, at the tournament level, the most important question is whether a mouse feels comfortable, and the Harpoon RGB Wireless does.
Bottom Line
Corsair has stripped all the pretense out of the wireless gaming mouse and delivered a device that's both high in functionality and low in price. The Harpoon RGB Wireless is neither the cheapest wireless mouse available, nor the most feature-rich, but it arguably strikes the best balance between the two. Unless you specifically need something fancier, or something smaller, it's hard to think of any reason to pass up this mouse.
Credit: Corsair
