It’s time to close the current poll to find the most important feature on a gaming mouse. After a total of 758 votes the results are as follows:
What's the most important feature on a gaming mouse?
- Ergonomic shape (29%, 366 Votes)
- Programmable buttons (17%, 214 Votes)
- High DPI sensor (16%, 205 Votes)
- Adjustable DPI (13%, 166 Votes)
- Wireless (6%, 81 Votes)
- LED Lighting (4%, 53 Votes)
- Variable weight system (4%, 50 Votes)
- Long cable (4%, 47 Votes)
- Memory for button profiles (4%, 46 Votes)
- Brand name (2%, 28 Votes)
Total Voters: 758
Loading ...As you can see, the most wanted feature of a gaming mouse is way out in the lead with 48% of votes and that is an ergonomic shape. This makes sense – if you’re gaming for hours on end you don’t want to end up with your fingers cramped into a hideous claw-like shape. This is great for right-handed gamers as they have plenty of choice, with mice such as the new Razer Imperator and classic Logitech MX518 offering ergonomic comfort, but for left-handed gamers the choices are limited to ambidextrous designs.
The second placed feature is a set of programmable buttons. Fortunately just about all gaming mice these days offer at least a couple of programmable buttons, but some obviously offer more than others … the Steelseries WOW Mouse offers fifteen programmable buttons, but two better examples are the Razer Naga (with 12 buttons) and the Logitech G500 (with ten).
I was surprised to see that a high-dpi sensor beat on-the-fly adjustability (my third choice). With top mice now exceeding 5,000dpi you have to wonder how many gamers are actually playing at such high levels and at that level adjustability seems like an essential feature to me, but the readers have spoken – high dpi is more important.
Down in fifth place is wireless. Again, I was surprised here as I had expected wireless to feature more highly, particularly with the recent release of great wireless mice such as the Razer Mamba and Microsoft Sidewinder X8.
A couple of the more gimmicky featues of gaming mice were low down the list (LED lights and adjustable weights) and clearly most of you think that you’ve got enough cable length.
But most reassuring was that you’re all more interested in the features of a mouse than it’s brand name – so if Logitech or Razer do release a crap mouse then it’s not guaranteed to be popular (*cough* Salmosa *cough*).
O my..
Marketing has certainly taken its’ toll. The most important feature for a GAMING mouse is an accurate sensor with no positive or negative acceleration, minimal tracking lift off distance and no skipping. No mouse on the market has all these down as of yet. Fail.
You’re spot on, End0rphine – while the mouse manufacturers have been chasing ever higher dpi settings, almost to a point where the mouse is too sensitive to be used at all, you’d have thought their research budgets would have been better spent fixing some of the more fundamental problems with mice.