Gaming Mouse Round Up
The basic mouse is among the most personal computer-related decisions you can make, and professional gamers virtually reach obsessive degrees of interest over their rodent of choice. There isa good deal to search for, specially when gamingis involved, with a high level of comfortbecomingat the very topevery person'swish list.
Judging a mouse to be comfortable is straightforward, but people's tastes arediverse, and what mightreally feelmodest to oneperson is an excellent fit to another. If you know the kind of gaming mouse you prefer, that's a great start, but we've taken the liberty to pass out our range of gaming mice around the work force, to get a general opinion on comfort, to truly begin distancing the best from the rest.
Aside from comfort, the number two feature on a gamer's mind is the DPI. Though it is an unbelievable terrible term for what it refers to, DPI is the industry standard name. It means Dots-Per-Inch and it measures the number of distinct movements it takes to move the on-screen cursor one inch. A higher DPI means that the mouse is much, much more sensitive and will move around the screen much, much faster. Many mice these days can go as high as 5,600 DPI which is excellent for quickly looking around your character in an FPS, but it requires lightning-fast reflexes and fine precision control over your mouse, otherwise you're going to wind up with a serious headache.
Another requirement we established was that the gaming mouse must be GOOD at everyday tasks. Nobody wants to have two mice. With that, here are our first round of contestants for the crown of best gaming mouse:
STORM SENTINEL ADVANCE
If you like your mice like you like your nightclubs (intense and in your face with ridiculous lighting effects), then the sentinel is the mouse for you. It is comfortable in your hand, especially for gamers with larger hands, and it sports two thumb buttons for quick access to your favorite in-game commands. It also has 5 DPI options, and can support a DPI setting anywhere from 1,100 to 5,600.
The software has all sorts of fancy customizations, including the ability to adjust the sensitivity of each axis and other nonsense. It can also help you create macros and mouse button profiles. Of course you can also get the LED light show that occurs all over the mouse under control from the software.
While it was fine in our gaming tests, the mouse sucks for every day use. The steep angle of its body really make you want to use a different mouse. Fast. Somehow Logitech pulled off the crazy angles pretty well, but this mouse gets uncomfortable in a hurry.
VERDICT: 70%
The software has all sorts of fancy customizations, including the ability to adjust the sensitivity of each axis and other nonsense. It can also help you create macros and mouse button profiles. Of course you can also get the LED light show that occurs all over the mouse under control from the software.
While it was fine in our gaming tests, the mouse sucks for every day use. The steep angle of its body really make you want to use a different mouse. Fast. Somehow Logitech pulled off the crazy angles pretty well, but this mouse gets uncomfortable in a hurry.
VERDICT: 70%
RAZER IMPERATOR
At first glance, the Imperator might seem like the poor, neglected cousin of the Razer Mamba, but it has a few tricks up its sleeve and actually performed quite admirably in our testing. It is incredibly comfortable, with Razer's rubberized material covering its outside. The contoured grip fits your hand very well.
Though it doesn't have wireless, this mouse does have some nifty features including a 5,600 DPI laser sensor and the ability to adjust the position of the thumb buttons. Yeah. You can change how close / far away the thumb buttons are from your hand through a switch on the bottom of the mouse. It's actually kinda neat and the end result is a very comfortable, well-appointed mouse that doesn't look like a teenage rave (ahem, mouse above!).
VERDICT: 82%
Though it doesn't have wireless, this mouse does have some nifty features including a 5,600 DPI laser sensor and the ability to adjust the position of the thumb buttons. Yeah. You can change how close / far away the thumb buttons are from your hand through a switch on the bottom of the mouse. It's actually kinda neat and the end result is a very comfortable, well-appointed mouse that doesn't look like a teenage rave (ahem, mouse above!).
VERDICT: 82%
5K LASER GAMING MOUSE BY QPAD
This mouse is one of the most comfortable we've tested, yes that includes the Logitech models we've experimented with. People who like ergonomic bodies will really like the smooth finish and the cushioned feel this mouse provides. The shell gives each of your fingers a place to rest, without crowding or anything like that. We were impressed.
The advantages of the 5K mouse pretty much ended there, though. It was light (wwaaaaaaaaay too light) and gave us nothing to hold onto. Our hands were zooming around the desk holding onto this thing that, honestly, felt like it had nothing in it but good old Wyoming air.
We can only describe the DPI settings as "so slow it hurt to use" and "so fast that we can't see what we were doing." Yeah. Nothing in between. Lame.
VERDICT: 50%
The advantages of the 5K mouse pretty much ended there, though. It was light (wwaaaaaaaaay too light) and gave us nothing to hold onto. Our hands were zooming around the desk holding onto this thing that, honestly, felt like it had nothing in it but good old Wyoming air.
We can only describe the DPI settings as "so slow it hurt to use" and "so fast that we can't see what we were doing." Yeah. Nothing in between. Lame.
VERDICT: 50%
