If you’re looking for the best gaming mouse then you may be surprised by just how much choice you have. Good gaming mice don’t come cheap so you want to be sure you’re not making the wrong choice and wasting your money. To help you out here’s my top 10 candidates for the title of best gaming mouse.
Starting to show its age a little, the G3 is still a good mouse with the same optical engine as its bigger brother, the G5. If you’re on a budget this is definitely worth considering.
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Produced in collaboration with Razer, this is Microsoft’s best gaming mouse. Basically a Copperhead with a different suit, this is a good attempt by Microsoft to break back into the gaming peripherals market.
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Available in 3 colours (red, green or blue) the Copperhead is a long-standing favourite. Compact and light with a 1ms response time to movements, it also features glowing siderails and mouse wheel. It can store up to 5 button profiles in its onboard memory allowing you to customise the mouse for different games and switch at the press of a button.
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With a small and light design, this is a popular mouse for gamers with smaller hands. It also boasts 8 buttons so allows more control to be moved from the keyboard.
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Recently updated to include a second thumb button and a fetching black/blue lightning pattern on the shell, the G5 was considered, until recently, the best gaming mouse by many gamers, despite its high price. It is comfortable and well built, and the weight cartridge allows up to 36grams to be added to give the mouse a heavier feel according to your taste.
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The Razer Lachesis boasts the highest dpi rating available today, with a high-tech 4000dpi laser sensor. It also has nine programmable buttons and five different profiles that can be stored in the onboard memory and swapped on-the-fly. Add to that a very comfortable ambidextrous shape and Razer’s trademark lighting and you have the makings of a great gaming mouse. But is 4000dpi taking things a bit too far?
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The Saitek Cyborg has a unique party trick – it can adjust it’s size, increasing in length to suit the size of your hand. It also boasts a 3200dpi laser sensor, 2 programmable buttons and a programmable 4-way hat switch. In addition, the strength of the wheel’s click can be adjusted.
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Just pipping the Cyborg to third place, the Sidewinder offers a good list of features. You get a decent laser sensor and programmable buttons, but on top of that you get variable weights and interchangeable feet to alter the gliding characteristics of the mouse. There’s also an LCD display to indicate the current dpi setting, and the Sidewinder allow macros to be recorded and assigned to buttons on-the-fly.
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I’ve placed the Deathadder so high up the list because it makes a great all-round gaming mouse. Released to rave reviews, the Deathadder provides you with an excellent 1800dpi infrared sensor, five programmable buttons and an extremely comfortable shape. At 1800dpi it may fall some way behind the likes of the G9 and Lachesis, but it’s enough for most people. This is the mouse that would satisfy most gamers most of the time.
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The Logitech G9 may fall behind the Lachesis in the dpi stakes, but it has other features that make it a better gaming mouse. Similar to the Saitek Cyborg, the shape of mouse can be changed by swapping the grips, with further customisation available through the addition of extra weights. The wheel can be switched between smooth and clicky movement and the colour of the LED display can be adjusted. The G9 may be expensive, but you do get a lot of quality for your money, making it my recommendation if you want the best gaming mouse.
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Worth considering
Logitech fans will have spotted that the G7 is missing, the cordless version of the G5. I generally prefer corded mice as they tend to be lighter (no batteries tucked away inside the shell) and don’t suffer from the lag that you can experience with cordless mice. Having said that, the G7 is no slouch. If you really want a cordless mouse, the G7 is the one to go for.
Another notable omission is the Razer Diamondback, which was recently re-released with the 3G infrared engine from the Deathadder. The Diamondback is an old but popular design, and this update should help it to sell a few more units.
Left Handed Gaming Mice
Sorry, but if you’re a left-handed gamer then your choices of an ergonomically designed mouse are limited. Probably the only left-handed mouse worth considering is the Logitech MX610, other than that you can choose from the various ambidextrous mice on offer, such as the Razer Copperhead.
Coming Soon
The Roccat Kone will be hitting the shops soon and should give the top three something to worry about. Expect a review soon followed by an update to this list to see if the Roccat Kone can claim the title of best gaming mouse.
Think I’ve got it wrong? Do you want to recommend your favourite mouse? Then leave a comment!
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The deathadder dies if you use the wrong firmware with the wrong driver.
Although, I used the right drivers my second deathadder died today so in my opinion it sucks, and so does Razer support.
I have heard of some problems with the Deathadder, and it is very fussy about the firmware.
However, they're not all duds. My Deathadder is still working fine after regular daily use.
logitech rocks, g7 is the best gaming mouse, not deathadder
Lol Ur brainless moron, G7 is cordless means it can never be better and Deathadder>all but Lachesis>deathadder
so what if its cordless? the new mice dont lag anymore
I can't say G7 is any bargain. On my 2nd and it's going into the trash. 1st double clicked on it's own. 2nd run for 2 months and started freezing up.
Why is the Lachesis mentioned in a top 10 of gaming mice? If it was a top 10 of most flawed gaming mice I might understand, but it's not. I've had nothing but trouble with my Razer Lachesis, ranging from the shitty drivers (skips at random intervals) to the uncontrollability of a 4000 DPI mouse. It detects so much movement that any tiny deviation that 2000 DPI mice wouldn't catch translates into your aim being thrown off completely. Coincidentally two of my friends also bought Razer Lachesis mice, both of them had the same problems and complaints about these issues are commonplace amongst Lachesis users on the internet. On an interesting side note: it died after an official Razer firmware update that was supposed to stop it from skipping, I guess it worked!
Meanwhile I've resorted to using my old Logitech G5. It's a decent enough mouse, in spite of the flawed sensor and useless weights (who needs weights when the mouse is already heavier than 4 Razer mice combined?).
anything above 2000 dpi is flippin useless, i know accuracy is important, but when the movement of breathing moves thecursor halfway across the screen its a bit silly
@mokey - you're not the only person to think that high dpi is not a good thing, but there are a lot of gamers who crave the extra sensitivity. Personally I find the Lachesis to be too sensitive, but 3,200dpi seems to me about right for FPS gaming, whereas 2,000dpi is better for most other stuff. It's really a question of personal preference.
@Droniac - the Lachesis has definitely had a bad start with some shocking driver/firmware problems and bad support from Razer. However, things are looking much better with v1.64 of the firmware, now that Razer's customers have done the testing for them. They really dropped the ball on this one and their reputation has been damaged as a result, but the Lachesis is a good mouse that now deserves a second chance.
I don't know about you lot, but I'll never use a laser or an optical mouse until they've ironed out the kinks. Too many times using my brothers machine to play TF2 only to have my view point suddenly shot up and spinning when the laser has skipped or miss-read.