▷ Gaming mice: how to choose the perfect mouse for you?

Let me guess: you are surfing the web looking at what peripherals to buy for your battle station and you sweat the fat every time you choose one of the new pieces. You can't escape that awkward crossroads where thoughts like: “These two mice have a design that freaks you out, but this other one has more buttons and it's cool too. What I do?!".

As in many other disciplines, the world of mice is in constant evolution and almost every piece that comes onto the market is an engineering work that should not be underestimated. However, among all these options, " Which is the best for me?", "Which is the perfect mouse?".

If you are asking yourself these questions and it already hurts to think, you have come to the perfect tutorial. Here we will explain everything you need to know and more about gaming mice so you can choose the one that best suits your style and need for gaming. From what type of mouse in your hand, to which are the best value for money. The reference prices that we will use will be those of Amazon at the date we published this tutorial.

Index of contents

Why is it important to choose a good

It is vitally important that you select your adventure partner with caution, as he will be the one who works with you in almost all the tasks you will do on your computer. Along with the keyboard, the mouse is that peripheral with which you are in contact most of the time, so it is essential that, in addition to meeting your needs and requirements, it is very resistant and of good quality.

For example, if you spend many hours in front of the monitor, a heavy mouse should never be your choice, as it will cause wrist pain (an experience that professional e-Sports players know well) or if your hand is very large, you should look for a mouse with a consistent design, otherwise it will be uncomfortable to grab it (one of the worst things you can suffer when buying a peripheral).

How to choose between all the mice?

In order to solve this question, we have summarized everything important in three levels that you must overcome: size , construction and purpose. In each of them we will propose a test with which little by little you will discover facets of yourself that you did not know and at the end of this path you will find the best mouse for you, that is, the perfect mouse.

These three points will help you to know what are the basic characteristics that your partner must meet. Remember: even if you are very attracted to a brand or you are fascinated by a design, if you are not comfortable using it it will generate more displeasures than joys, so, without further delay, let us investigate.

Size

As we have previously mentioned, size is one of the main characteristics of these peripherals. In the market there is a huge variety of gaming mice and each one has different measurements.

As you can imagine, to talk about size we first have to know what your hand is like, so the first test is simple. You only need a ruler or meter that you have at home with which you can know your exact measurements. For this you will have to measure from the tip of your fingers to the base of your palm, approximately.

If it gives you more than about 18'5cm, you have large hand dimensions. If your result is between 16 and 18'5cm or so, it means that your hand is medium. Finally, if the resulting length is inferring 16cm We can affirm that you have a small hand.

An easy way to understand the importance of this feature is to see the Zowie gaming mouse lineup, as it is one of the brands that focuses its efforts most on being simple, understandable and accurate. All Zowie mice follow the same numbering system where the highest numbered mice in the series are designed for medium hands, while the smallest numbered mice are designed for large hands.

In this way, if we take the ZA series as an example, the ZA11 is designed for large hands, the ZA12 for medium-large hands and finally the ZA13 for medium hands.

Zowie ZA line of mice

Building

Once the size issue has been settled, we will look at the various constructions and structures that our rounded friends present. As we have already seen in Zowie, some brands get to have four, five or more series of mice at the same time, but why is this? The answer is quite simple, the diversity of mice is entirely due to the tastes of the users.

We could talk for hours about this specific topic, but at this point of the tutorial we will focus on its form, since there are three main “schools” of catching a mouse. Depending on the grip style, different design lines have been created, although you may never have noticed this subtle detail.

For the level two test we will need a few more materials, but don't worry, nothing very specific. First, plug any mouse into your PC, get comfortable or comfortable in your chair and extend your hand on the mouse in the most relaxed way you can. Now move it around a bit. How do you get it?

If you extend almost the entire body of the fingers and the lower part of the palm, you present a palm-grip . If you slightly support the tip of the fingers and the base of the palm, congratulations, you belong to the house of the claw-grip (claw grip). And if you only support the fingertips, totally ignoring the rest of the palm, you have a fingertip-grip .

Grip Types

Most mice are designed to satisfy one of the three grips, since they are the most common distributions between people and all of them have unique design characteristics and are generally difficult to fuse, which means that mice for mixed postures are not too much. popular for not fully satisfying either.

For palm-grip you should look for a mouse that has an elongated ass and a smooth arch, that is, that from the wheel to the base of the mouse there is little pronunciation on the hump. As you can imagine, this is because the palm rests on the mouse and a pronounced hump would only bother.For claw-grip, it is usual to find the opposite, in other words, that from the highest point of the hump to the base there is a considerable pronunciation. This is sought as it is there where the base of the palm is placed, which is the one who pushes the mouse with the help of the lateral fingers. Meanwhile, the index and heart are usually positioned vertically on the main buttons prepared for any situation. It should be noted that this grip is common in the gamer community. Finally, the fingertip-grip , which is similar to the claw-grip, but dispenses with the use of the palm. In this grip, the middle two fingers usually relax slightly on the buttons and it is the lateral fingers that carry all the force of the movement. It is often said that this grip is the one that offers more precision at the same time that it is the one that tires the hand the most.

Similar to what happened in the previous point, the fingertip-grip, not being the most popular grip, there are few specialized mice for this style of grip, which is why claw-grip mice with humps are often used very pronounced.

It is interesting to see how something as subtle can influence the design of a product as refined as mice, taking into account, in addition, that this characteristic is something quite unique to mice.

As for the construction, we want to highlight other characteristics that, although they are interesting, do not have as much weight as what was previously mentioned when buying and fall more on the personal tastes of each one.

We have ambidextrous mice, that is, those mice that are symmetrical so they can be used with either hand. The button switches, which, although different, all pass exhaustive control tests, so you only usually notice a real difference in the sensation when pressing. The sensor, which, although it is one of the most important parts of the mouse, the majority that we will show will have the same hardware or derivatives of it, since this generation of sensors is incredibly efficient, precise and powerful. We are talking about the Pixart PMW 3360 sensor and its variants PMW 3389, PMW 3366, Hero and others, and, finally, a feature that is gaining weight in recent years and that is gradually establishing itself: the ability to dispense with cables. This multiplies both possibilities and comfort, and apparently newer mice don't sacrifice precision, so stay tuned in the near future.

Purpose

A question we often overlook is "What purpose do I want to give this peripheral?" And yet I would personally say that it is the most important question we should ask ourselves.

For this last level you will not need any material, just answer the question that we have asked you. It may sound simple to you, but it really is an important question that will take time to answer. With clear ideas in mind about what you want, you will be able to choose with much more certainty the partner that best suits you (and this applies to life too!).

And why is this question so important? Once you have met the minimum requirements of your mouse (a good size and a suitable shape…), depending on what you want it for, you should look for it of one type or another.

The purpose is not exactly a characteristic of mice, but it is something that, without a doubt, you will need to select your perfect mouse. Very relevant things like weight, number of buttons, button functionality or mouse ergonomics.

Some questions that we propose are:

How much money do I want to spend? Do I want it to be wireless / portable? Do I want it to be colorful? What kind of games am I going to play? How long will I be in front of the monitor?

The first two questions are easy to answer, but why are the following relevant?

Many people like to brag about peripherals and brands know it. This is why many mice have large amounts of RGB lights or designs taken from a Michael Bay movie . Sometimes these design decisions can affect the user experience, so we recommend that you think carefully about whether it's worth sacrificing one feature in exchange for the other.

The type of game is important when choosing design. For example, for competitive shooters a simple, precise mouse with no cluttering buttons is more interesting, while for MMORPGs it may be more useful to have extra buttons, either on the side or even above, to be able to run macros and link spells or simply control the DPI. On the other hand, if you are an off-road player, I would advise you to find a balance between the aforementioned.

We have already mentioned it several times throughout the tutorial, but the time in front of the monitor is relevant to know how much the weight of the mouse can affect you. If you spend many hours on the computer, it is essential that the mouse does not weigh too much (<120g approximately), but it will generate fatigue and can end up in wrist problems or worse. By the way, we remind you that every few hours sitting in front of the computer you should always take a break!

These five are just some of the questions that have occurred to us, but you should ask yourself all the questions that occur to you. The more questions you answer, the more you will know what you like and the closer you will be to your dream mouse.

Recommendations for gaming mice

In this final section we will make certain recommendations based on different combinations of the things we have mentioned before. I will briefly point out the main characteristics of each one.

My main advice is to look for your basic needs ( claw-grip + large size + MMOs ) and from there establish a hierarchy of preferences, for example:

Sober design> wireless> less than € 80> with integrated DPI control.

Razer DeathAdder Elite

Price: 69'92 € Weight: 104g Hand Size: large Grip: palm-grip Design: balanced Sensor: PMW 3389 Wireless: No Extras: ergonomic lateral rubber, simple RGB lighting

Razer Lancehead Tournament Edition

Price: 78'99 € Weight: 109g Hand size: medium / small Grip: claw-grip / palm-grip Design: balanced Sensor: PMW 3389 Wireless: Yes (108'99 €) Extras: ambidextrous design, lateral ergonomics rubber, great RGB lighting

Logitech G403

Price: 49'95 € Weight: 87'3g Hand size: medium Grip: claw-grip / fingertip-grip Design: simple Sensor: PMW 3366 Wireless: Yes (€ 117'80) Extras: simple RGB lighting

Logitech G Pro Wireless

Price: 155'00 € Weight: 80g Hand Size: medium Grip: claw-grip Design: balanced Sensor: Logitech Hero Wireless: Yes Extras: ambidextrous design, integrated DPI control, simple RGB lighting

Zowie EC2-B and EC1-B

Price: 73'99 € Weight: 90'7g Hand Size: medium Grip: palm-grip / claw-grip Design: simple Sensor: PMW 3360 Wireless: No Extras: sober design, integrated DPI control

Razer Naga Trinity

Price: 92'99 € Weight: 118g Hand Size: medium Grip: palm-grip Design: modular (single - complete) Sensor: PMW 3389 Wireless: No Extras: modular design, great RGB lighting, perfect for programming macros (MMOs)

SteelSeries Rival 600

Price: 59'96 € Weight: 96g Hand Size: large Grip: palm-grip / claw-grip Design: balanced Sensor: TrueMove3 Wireless: Yes (€ 129'99) Extras: large RGB lighting, double sensor (movement + height)

SteelSeries Rival 710

Price: 107'24 € Weight: 135g Hand Size: large Grip: claw-grip / palm-grip Design: complex Sensor: TrueMove3 Wireless: No Extras: customizable OLED screen, hump with programmable vibration, interchangeable parts, simple RGB lighting

ROCCAT Kone Pure Owl-Eye

Price: 64'90 € Weight: 86'2g Hand Size: medium - small Grip: fingertip-grip / claw-grip Design: balanced Sensor: ROCCAT Owl-Eye Wireless: No Extras: simple RGB lighting, multiple button assignment

Conclusion to choose the best among all gaming mice

So far our list of recommendations! Each and every one of these devices are great choices that will help you reach your full potential.

As you can see, you have many options and these are not the only candidates on the market. There are many more, but now you can make a difference since you now have the knowledge to choose the best one for you!

I personally do fingertip-grip most of the time, I have a medium hand, so I opted for a Logitech G403 Wireless and it's great.

And you, have you already decided which one to buy? If you are also looking for a keyboard at mouse level you can visit our keyboard guide. Tell us your ideas about mice and your own recommendations!

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