Gaming Mouse Group Test

Introduction

With Christmas just around the corner, many of you will be anticipating a new mega piece of hardware falling down the chimney, hoping to turn your computer from a lumbering chug machine into a high performance beast. For some, however, Santa's elves are likely to be more modest.

Dry your crying eyes though; there are other ways to enhance your gaming experience, on a budget, in the run up to the birth of baby Jesus.

Today we take a look at a group of gaming mice to work out whether: a) it’s worth forking out your hard earned cash on a new one and b) whether there really is a ‘best’ gaming mouse. We’ll be taking a look at four of the newer mice models as well as one golden oldie (to see if it can still hang with the new kids on the block).

So what mice will we be looking at? We’ll be considering the explosion of colour that is the Saitek GM3200; the old stalwart of the wireless gamer the MX 1000; the Razer Krait designed for RTS’ers; the small but powerful Logitech G3 and finally Creative Fatal1ty's 1010 pro-gamer mouse. It’s a broad range of mice that all aim to fill slightly different niches.

Testing mice is no easy process: it’s kind of like testing gloves. I can tell you which one is made with the highest quality materials, which one is most responsive and which one I feel looks the most slick and attractive, but ultimately it will come down to personal preference, gaming style and hand size. We hope that our pictures and words will aid you in your choice of most suitable mouse.

Mouse Test

So how do we propose to test the mice? First up we look at the design of the mouse, considering how many buttons it has and whether it look ‘cool’. Next we’ll look at how it feels on both cloth and hard mousing surfaces and whether it suits those who play using their fingers or whole hand. Finally, we will have a look at any software that comes with the mouse before finally assessing its performance in RTS and FPS games, as well as general desktop usage.

The mouse has come on leaps and bounds in recent years, first with the introduction of the optical mouse and then the progression into laser mice. Now the most expensive mice are all running a laser system. The same cannot be said for gamers' adoption of the wireless mice. Why gamers have shunned the wireless mouse is a little bit of a mystery for me, but I believe its a combination of fear of lag and annoyance at when the battery runs out of charge.

In the last few years the design of mice has sprouted off in two directions - you either want to go for the big beefy mice with lots of buttons, or a small sleek mouse that’s light on your wrist. Today we’re going to be looking at mice that cover almost all design specifications.

So, if you’re looking to find out the ideal gaming mouse for this Christmas then sit back, relax and and tuck into our group test.