Choosing the Best Mouse

Now, let’s talk about something even more important – your mouse. I see people doing professional work that requires precise mouse movements… and they’re using a cheap mouse – usually the free mouse that came with their computer. A good mouse makes a huge difference especially if you’re working on a high-res display.

Wireless or Wired

The first and most obvious feature you should decide on is whether or not you need a wireless mouse. On my home workstation, a wired mouse is fine and I like how I never have to swap the batteries or charge the mouse. However, on my laptop, I prefer a wireless mouse like this G700s which is my favorite mouse. More on that later. Cheap wireless mouse may have some latency issues but I find that once you get to gaming-grade mouse, the latency is minimal… I don’t notice any difference. So wired or wireless is really your personal preference.

Sensor Position

Have you ever switched to a new mouse and found that you’re not used to it? You can tweak the DPI setting all you want but it never feels like your old mouse. It’s probably because of the sensor position.

On this G700s mouse, the sensor is located near the front of the mouse while on this Corsair Scimitar RGB mouse, it’s located at the center. Look at the bottom of your mouse and notice where the sensor is positioned. I realized that the sensor position changes the way I hold a mouse. On the G700s, my palm would be resting on the mouse which makes it very comfortable to use. But on my Corsair mouse, I tend to hold it like a claw because I’m used to holding a mouse so that my fingers are positioned near the sensor.

If you want something that feels like your old mouse, try to find a mouse where the sensor is in roughly the same position.

DPI

The main reason for getting a gaming mouse is the adjustable DPI setting and improved polling rate. DPI stands for dots per inch and it’s basically a measurement for how sensitive your mouse is. A higher DPI setting will move your cursors more pixels per inch. The quick gist is that all gaming mouse will have more DPI than you need even on a 4K display. Normal non-gaming mouse will typically have a fixed DPI  between 800 and 1200 which is sufficient for low-res displays. If you have a 4k display, you should get a gaming mouse with at least 2000 DPI… anything over 6000 DPI is excessive. There’s no harm getting a mouse with a very high DPI setting, but just make sure that you’re not specifically spending extra money for that feature.

On my 40” 4K monitor, I have my mouse set to 2000 DPI which will move it roughly half way across the screen for every 1 inch of movement. If you’re used to using a low DPI, it’ll take some time to adapt to higher DPI settings. And this is where the DPI buttons on your mouse will come in handy. Most gaming mouse will have buttons for you to increase or decrease the DPI. So if you need more precision, you can simply press a button to lower the DPI and make your mouse slower. If you want your mouse to move faster, you can press the button to increase the DPI. It’s a very handy feature.

Polling Rate

Finally, polling rate is the other reason to buy gaming mouse. Polling rate is a measurement of how often your mouse reports its position to your computer. A higher polling rate means that your mouse is more responsive. Normal non-gaming mouse will have a polling rate of 125hz which means that it reports its position to your computer 125 times a second or every 8 milliseconds. Gaming mouse will typically have higher polling rates such as 250hz, 500hz, and 1000hz. You will notice a difference going from a non-gaming mouse with a polling rate of 125hz to a gaming mouse of 500hz. The difference between 500hz and 1000hz however, is not very noticeable.