Corsair Harpoon Review
Corsair is known as the jack of all trades in the world of gaming mice. They've gifted Scimitar PRO to the world of M.M.O (Massively Multiplayer Online) and M.O.B.A (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) gaming. When players needed something that can give them precise tracking experience, Corsair offered M65, which also features aluminum framed chassis. When people went crazy over modulated stuffs, they've made Glaive. Now when most of the people demands an FPS gaming mouse that can offer a comparatively high quality sensor within a mid range budget, Corsair released Harpoon. This is Mashhud Hasan and today we're going to review this mid tier gaming mouse and will let you know if it is really worth of your budget or not.
Sensor : First of all, let's talk about the most important part of the mouse, the sensor. Harpoon contains PMW3320 optical sensor along with an emitter that can illuminate and prepare any surface for the sensor to perform. That's the reason this mouse can track on almost all kinds of surfaces from opaque to bright. It can run up to 6000 DPI. It features IR LED emitter, 20G of acceleration and 3-Wire S.P.I (Serial Peripheral Interface) to have a snappy rapport with the integrated Micro Controller. I've tested this sensor's accuracy and it was pretty impressive. It's most friendly Windows Sensitivity level is 5/11. That's why tested it's accuracy at various DPI levels but in same sensitivity level which is 5/11. At the DPI of 1000, it's accuracy is 81.4%. At the DPI of 2000 & 4000, the accuracy is 80.26% and 79.62% respectively. At the highest DPI level, the accuracy comes out at 77.554%. So, overall at any DPI you'll be able to get the accuracy somewhere around 80% which is surely acceptable for precise tracking and targeting anything at FPS games. There is a small issue though. Comparing to vertical tracking, it stutters noticeably at horizontal tracking. Another issue is it's desired voltage. There's a sensor available called PMW3325 which has a quite similar specs to PMW3320 but has a higher rate of tracking speed. Even after having a slightly better status, this sensor's desired voltage is only (1.8-2.1)V while PMW3320's desired voltage is (2.1-3.4)V. This will put an extra impact on the working process of it's M.C.U (Micro Controlling Unit). Tested the sensor in R.P.G (Role Playing Game) and FPS games and the performance was satisfying. At the DPI of under 2000, It doesn't spin out at quick horizontal flicks. But it fails to handle the same velocity of horizontal flicks at 2000+ DPI and eventually spins out. It's acceleration isn't significant but sometimes decelerates at higher motion of tracking. At 6/11 Windows Sensitivity, it skips pixels significantly but at 5/11, it doesn't jump any pixels. No angle snapping and interpolation detected. Considering accuracy, this sensor is quite as same as Logitech G102's Mercury sensor even after having a lower tracking speed. Overall this sensor is good to go at anywhere, from professional works to gaming.
Buttons : This mouse has a total of 6 buttons including left & right buttons,a scroll wheel,a DPI button and two side buttons as forward & backward browsing. Left and right buttons aren't so crispy but they're sturdy and a bit hard to click. DPI button isn't placed on the correct position because it often gets accidentally clicked by my middle finger. Side buttons are very crispy and they snap back pretty fast after clicking. But both of the side buttons are placed at the higher position which is quite uncomfortable to reach with the thumb. Scroll wheel is rubberized and has a notched texture on it that causes the wheel to get gripped nicely. Even though the left & right buttons are hard to press but they have a decent response speed. I've tested both of the buttons' response speed and found out that they have an average latency of 10.47 ms. Maximum latency was somewhere around 15 ms and lowest was 3 ms. Here I'm going to show their response speed results down below.
Body : Harpoon has a pretty wide shape of chassis that's compatible for palm grippers but it's size is a bit short. Texture of the body was satisfying but I've faced some issues with it's curved areas. Due to having a curved texture at the left side, this mouse often gets slipped off from the hand. Even though both of the side are jagged but they aren't enough to get gripped tightly. It has a body dimension of 111.5mm x 68.3mm x 40.4mm (Length x Width x Height) which is almost perfect since the perfect ratio between length and height is 2.5:1. Comparing to the left side, the right side of the mouse is quite low. That's the reason it was quite struggling to allocate my pinkie finger and ring fingers on this mouse comfortably. It has a 1.8m long rubber coated cable that creates some friction with the surface but that isn't distracting. That's why mouse bungee is recommended to use if you have Harpoon underneath of your hand. It has a total of four small sized slip pads that can glide the mouse smoothly.
Circuitry : Here comes an important part of this mouse. As I've mentioned before, it's sensor is linked with it's micro controller via 3 way S.P.I connection that lets the sensor to exchange data with the D.S.P (Digital Signal Processor) by analog to digital and digital to analog conversion. Even though the sensor's higher desired voltage puts some negative impact on the M.C.U but still it delivers a decent polling rate. I've tested it's polling rate and it barely goes down to 920 Hz and always produces a constant rate of 950 Hz to 980 Hz. This causes the mouse to provide snappy performance.
Overall this mouse is very impressive. Has a decent level of sensor that can perform well in any conditions. Build quality was good but there was some issues with the shape of it's body that needs to get fixed. Buttons were all good but again there was some problems with their positions and satisfying circuitry part. Thanks for reading and I hope this will help you guys to decide whether you should buy it or not. Stay tuned for more.
Sensor : First of all, let's talk about the most important part of the mouse, the sensor. Harpoon contains PMW3320 optical sensor along with an emitter that can illuminate and prepare any surface for the sensor to perform. That's the reason this mouse can track on almost all kinds of surfaces from opaque to bright. It can run up to 6000 DPI. It features IR LED emitter, 20G of acceleration and 3-Wire S.P.I (Serial Peripheral Interface) to have a snappy rapport with the integrated Micro Controller. I've tested this sensor's accuracy and it was pretty impressive. It's most friendly Windows Sensitivity level is 5/11. That's why tested it's accuracy at various DPI levels but in same sensitivity level which is 5/11. At the DPI of 1000, it's accuracy is 81.4%. At the DPI of 2000 & 4000, the accuracy is 80.26% and 79.62% respectively. At the highest DPI level, the accuracy comes out at 77.554%. So, overall at any DPI you'll be able to get the accuracy somewhere around 80% which is surely acceptable for precise tracking and targeting anything at FPS games. There is a small issue though. Comparing to vertical tracking, it stutters noticeably at horizontal tracking. Another issue is it's desired voltage. There's a sensor available called PMW3325 which has a quite similar specs to PMW3320 but has a higher rate of tracking speed. Even after having a slightly better status, this sensor's desired voltage is only (1.8-2.1)V while PMW3320's desired voltage is (2.1-3.4)V. This will put an extra impact on the working process of it's M.C.U (Micro Controlling Unit). Tested the sensor in R.P.G (Role Playing Game) and FPS games and the performance was satisfying. At the DPI of under 2000, It doesn't spin out at quick horizontal flicks. But it fails to handle the same velocity of horizontal flicks at 2000+ DPI and eventually spins out. It's acceleration isn't significant but sometimes decelerates at higher motion of tracking. At 6/11 Windows Sensitivity, it skips pixels significantly but at 5/11, it doesn't jump any pixels. No angle snapping and interpolation detected. Considering accuracy, this sensor is quite as same as Logitech G102's Mercury sensor even after having a lower tracking speed. Overall this sensor is good to go at anywhere, from professional works to gaming.
Buttons : This mouse has a total of 6 buttons including left & right buttons,a scroll wheel,a DPI button and two side buttons as forward & backward browsing. Left and right buttons aren't so crispy but they're sturdy and a bit hard to click. DPI button isn't placed on the correct position because it often gets accidentally clicked by my middle finger. Side buttons are very crispy and they snap back pretty fast after clicking. But both of the side buttons are placed at the higher position which is quite uncomfortable to reach with the thumb. Scroll wheel is rubberized and has a notched texture on it that causes the wheel to get gripped nicely. Even though the left & right buttons are hard to press but they have a decent response speed. I've tested both of the buttons' response speed and found out that they have an average latency of 10.47 ms. Maximum latency was somewhere around 15 ms and lowest was 3 ms. Here I'm going to show their response speed results down below.
Body : Harpoon has a pretty wide shape of chassis that's compatible for palm grippers but it's size is a bit short. Texture of the body was satisfying but I've faced some issues with it's curved areas. Due to having a curved texture at the left side, this mouse often gets slipped off from the hand. Even though both of the side are jagged but they aren't enough to get gripped tightly. It has a body dimension of 111.5mm x 68.3mm x 40.4mm (Length x Width x Height) which is almost perfect since the perfect ratio between length and height is 2.5:1. Comparing to the left side, the right side of the mouse is quite low. That's the reason it was quite struggling to allocate my pinkie finger and ring fingers on this mouse comfortably. It has a 1.8m long rubber coated cable that creates some friction with the surface but that isn't distracting. That's why mouse bungee is recommended to use if you have Harpoon underneath of your hand. It has a total of four small sized slip pads that can glide the mouse smoothly.
Circuitry : Here comes an important part of this mouse. As I've mentioned before, it's sensor is linked with it's micro controller via 3 way S.P.I connection that lets the sensor to exchange data with the D.S.P (Digital Signal Processor) by analog to digital and digital to analog conversion. Even though the sensor's higher desired voltage puts some negative impact on the M.C.U but still it delivers a decent polling rate. I've tested it's polling rate and it barely goes down to 920 Hz and always produces a constant rate of 950 Hz to 980 Hz. This causes the mouse to provide snappy performance.
Overall this mouse is very impressive. Has a decent level of sensor that can perform well in any conditions. Build quality was good but there was some issues with the shape of it's body that needs to get fixed. Buttons were all good but again there was some problems with their positions and satisfying circuitry part. Thanks for reading and I hope this will help you guys to decide whether you should buy it or not. Stay tuned for more.
No comments