Basic Tutorials Guide: The best gaming mouse

One of the most important components in PC gaming, besides a good gaming keyboard and the appropriate gaming headset is what? Guessed correctly: a mouse! But here, too, the selection is huge and, especially for newcomers, quite confusing. But what is actually the best gaming mouse? What should you look out for? And can it also be wireless? These and many other questions are answered in our guide.

The best gaming mouse: The most important – summarized

• There is no such thing as “the perfect mouse“, so form your own opinion and see which one suits you best. Do not orient yourselves too much with others.
• High DPI–values are often an advertising argument, but in nine out of ten cases unnecessary. Over 2,000 DPI is sufficient, more does not equal better.
• Research! Basic tutorials is a good place to start for this. With the piece you spend a lot of time, you should take this also in the research.
• Do not make the choice dependent on the manufacturer or price, but consider soberly. Not every expensive mouse is also equal to better.
• Which handle are you looking for? Try it out, e.g. in electronics stores! How often do you use the mouse?
• Which purpose should it fulfill, office, gaming, which gaming (about FPS)?
• Find a middle ground when it comes to weight. Meanwhile, most gaming mice are very light.
• Cable or Wireless?Would you like to change positions with the mouse once in a while?
• A good gaming mouse should have a polling rate of 1,000 Hz. Again, 8,000 Hz, as is now often offered, is usually unnecessary.
• No mouse correction or can be turned off in the driver.
• Mouse acceleration is not needed as a gamer.
• Mouse wheel should be qualitative and comfortable to move.
• Look for quality in the switches, the surface must be able to take sweat.
• How many extra buttons do you need, what of your wishes can actually be implemented with the mouse?
• What can the software to the mouse, what can you set?  Is it easy to use and understandable?
• Lighting is nice but not a must. But it should be possible to adjust a variety of settings.
• A mouse should not only look good, but also do something. It must fit in your hand and be preferences fair be.
• A good mouse is not the sole guarantor of in-game skill. But a good mouse pad can help 😉

What is the best gaming mouse?

… many will certainly ask themselves. However, the question of the one mouse can not be answered universally. It therefore makes little sense to draw up a list of the best.

After all, the requirements for a gaming mouse differ from game to game and from person to person.

However, it is certain that gamers need a good input device for almost every game. There are many inexpensive models available on the market that deliver acceptable quality and are absolutely sufficient for most games.

In principle, it is not advisable to make the choice of mouse dependent on the manufacturer or the price. Even if many manufacturers build up a kind of product compulsion, for example, in that keyboard and mouse should communicate better in a package, you should not let yourself be impressed by this. A look at the competition is almost always worthwhile, because not one manufacturer is the best in every segment. It is much more important to look at the objective qualities.

The ergonomics of the mouse and the different grip types

In recent years, the ergonomics of traditional office equipment is becoming more and more the focus of users. Mice should also be ergonomic if health disadvantages due to frequent use are to be avoided. A conventional mouse cannot meet these requirements – the wrist is bent too much during use. The “wrong” posture of the mouse can cause a pain syndrome, which in principle can affect the entire area from the wrist to the shoulder.

Consequently, ergonomics should be considered when choosing a gaming mouse. Ergonomic mice usually provoke a slight rotation of the forearm. Through this, a better posture in terms of health is achieved.

Especially from manufacturer Logitech there are very high-quality, ergonomic vertical mice like the Lift (our review) or the MX Vertical (our review). Anyone who has tried these will appreciate the unusual design. However, they are not really suitable for gaming.

The little 1×1 of mouse grips

The most common “mouse grips” are called palm grip (palm grip), claw grip (claw grip) and fingertip grip (fingertip grip). Important to know: Not every gaming mouse is suitable for every grip type..

With the Palm-Grip, the entire hand rests on the mouse and encloses it. This type of grip is the most commonly used, as any mouse can be comfortably controlled in this way. A mouse encompassed by palm grip should be large and asymmetrical if possible.

The claw-grip, on the other hand, should be avoided. The only difference to the palm grip is that only the fingers rest on the keys and the mouse is enclosed laterally. Since the device is almost exclusively operated from the wrist, this type of grip is not recommended. With the Fingertip-Grip, the mouse is only touched by the fingers. This allows for very precise control of the mouse.

The ergonomics for gaming

However, ergonomics plays an important role not only for the “health”, but of course also for the handling, the mouse feel. It determines how quickly, how precisely and how safely it can be moved by the hand. Do you move it more with the hand lying flat on it, does the thumb control it with a firm grip or do you push the mouse more with the heel of the hand?

Precision is especially important in shooters, the mouse is the gamer’s weapon here, so it depends on the subtleties. It’s best to try out what suits you best. A new grip type usually requires a longer time to get used to, but can then prove to be better.

When deciding on a grip type, you should consider how much DPI you typically use, are you a fine tuner or a coarse motorist? Can you move the mouse equally well in all directions or push/pull down or to one side less well if necessary? Best is to anlzuegen once in the store itself hand.

The weight of the mouse

Lighter mice can be moved faster than heavier ones. Heavier mice can be guided more smoothly than lighter ones. It is ultimately a matter of the gamer’s personal preference. Heavier mice put a lot of strain on the wrist.

The mouse should be large enough to be operated comfortably. In addition, the weight should be distributed fairly evenly. With regard to this point, the main thing to pay attention to when choosing a mouse is the comfort that the device offers. Those who play with low DPI will have to lift the mouse more often, the mice should then be as light as possible.

In the meantime, however, “ultra light” gaming mice in particular have become established, whose weight is hardly higher than that of a chicken egg. Mice with additional weights, which were once commonplace, are almost non-existent today. Heavy mice are now in the 100 gram range and can be quite advantageous. Here, too, personal taste is the deciding factor.

Gaming mouse with cable or wireless?

This is also a “question of faith”. The prejudice that wired gaming mice are necessarily faster than their wireless counterparts no longer applies nowadays. Even wireless mice convert inputs in less than 0.1 milliseconds.

For the average person, it is simply irrelevant whether the mouse is wired, or wireless. A mouse without a cable offers more comfort, you can take it to the couch and it doesn’t get tangled anywhere. But if the battery is empty or the driver causes problems, then the screaming in the middle of the game is often big.

DPI / CPI

The values DPI (dots per inch) or CPI (counts per inch) indicate how far the cursor moves on the screen when the mouse is moved one inch.For a DPI value of 1,000, the cursor moves 1,000 pixels on the screen when the mouse is moved one inch – 2.54 centimeters – in reality.

Contrary to popular belief, a good gaming mouse is not characterized by the highest possible DPI value.

The mouse must only actually have a DPI value that covers the demands of the user. This goal is achieved at about 1,600 DPI in most cases. Mice with – for example – 20,000 DPI or more are pretty much not needed by anyone.

Much more than a high DPI value, the easy adjustability of this value distinguishes a good gaming mouse. The highest possible DPI value is specified – lower values can be set. In gaming, it makes sense to choose a mouse whose DPI value can be adjusted in increments of 100 (or even less). You need a different DPI value for every game. The higher the DPI value, the faster the cursor moves. However, the precision suffers from this.

Polling rate

The polling rate indicates – in layman’s terms – the speed of communication between the mouse and the driver. The higher the polling rate, the more frequently the driver “polls” the mouse. The more frequently this polling occurs, the faster mouse movements and keystrokes are processed.

So, if speed is important, mice with higher polling rates are preferable. Mice with lower polling rates, such as 125, “stutter”, which means that transmissions can occasionally stop.

It should be noted, however, that an extremely high polling rate can overload the driver – in which case the mouse’s requests would be delayed. In practice, the polling rate is irrelevant in most cases. Polling or sampling rates of up to 8,000 Hz are promotional – but if you’re not an Esports pro, 1,000 Hz is quite enough.

Mouse correction

Mouse correction, also called angle snapping or mouse prediction, is a useful function especially in the field of graphics programs. It is a function for “falsifying” the actual mouse movement. If the mouse detects that a straight line is being drawn, it will hide all other incoming signals and keep the cursor on the straight line.

The drawn mouse line is artificially smoothed, so to speak. In gaming, such mouse correction is an enormous hindrance. If you try to move the mouse precisely, the mouse correction can intervene and prevent it. For this reason, the mouse correction should at least be able to be deactivated in the mouse driver.

What better way to try this out and illustrate it than with Paint?

Lift-Off Distance

The Lift-Off Distance specifies the distance that the mouse sensor must be from the surface in order to stop sensing. This value is especially interesting for gamers who lift the mouse and reposition it. With a non-limited lift-off distance value, this new placement would lead to unwanted and uncontrolled cursor movements. For gaming mice, the value should normally be between 1.5 and 1.8 millimeters.

Mouse acceleration

Mice that have integrated mouse acceleration allow the cursor to be dependent on the speed of the actual mouse movement. In everyday use, this means that the faster you move the mouse, the greater the distance covered by the cursor on the screen. It is therefore an artificial acceleration of the cursor by the mouse’s sensor.

In gaming, mouse acceleration is mostly undesirable. The average gamer wants an exact reproduction of his mouse movements for highest precision. However, if the sensor has mouse acceleration, this intentionally distorts the transmission. This results in an unnatural movement in the game. Such a mouse acceleration is therefore strongly not recommended for gaming. If you want to aim quickly (which often happens), then you shoot “over the target”.

The mouse wheel, the third button of a gaming mouse

In everyday life, the mouse wheel is usually only used for scrolling. Beyond that, however, it can be used as a third mouse button and assigned additional functions in numerous games. In the gaming sector, you should pay particular attention to the fact that the rasterization of the mouse wheel can be switched on or off. The sensitivity of the mouse wheel should also be easy to adjust. A 4-axis mouse wheel is recommended (e.g. Roccat Titan Wheel), which can also be operated to the left or right. This is very useful for graphics or video editing or for scrolling in documents.

A mouse wheel should have as frequent a sampling rate as possible, i.e. it should only have to be turned a little to release it, in order to provide precision for jumps in CS:GO, for example. The release can then be timed better. With some models, the mouse wheel starts to squeak at some point, so pay attention to quality. It shouldn’t be too close to the mouse, but also shouldn’t stick out too far, otherwise you’d have to put other fingers down when operating it.

Switches & Surface

In terms of switches (left and right mouse buttons), the average gaming mouse should generally have Omron switches and a lifespan of 20 to 80 million clicks. Almost every gaming mouse available on the market meets these requirements. However, some manufacturers offer even more. The pressure points on a mouse should also be taken into account: are they too fast or too slow – in other words, do they trigger too early or too late? This may sound petty at first, but it’s almost the most important thing when you’re making clicks in the millions with a mouse.

The coating of a mouse is part of the ergonomics. If it ever gets stressful while gaming or too hot in the summer, the mouse should be able to tolerate hand sweat without becoming slippery or peeling off.

Additional buttons

“Normal” mice only have two buttons and a mouse wheel. Gaming mice, on the other hand, can have numerous additional buttons that can be assigned a wide variety of commands. Almost every gaming mouse has two additional thumb buttons. Some models even have up to 20 buttons.

With so many buttons, you’re usually talking about an MMO or MOBA mouse, which is precisely intended to appeal to players of these genres. Experienced gamers can execute numerous commands within fractions of a second when they use the mouse’s additional keys. A mouse with many additional keys is especially suitable for fans of online role-playing games. Shooters, on the other hand, usually don’t need the additional keys.

Mouse buttons are “nice to have”. However, the question arises as to what you can actually do with them. The developers are working together with the game manufacturers to come up with as many unusual and useful features as possible. Adding a macro to an additional mouse button or a simple command like replacing a keyboard key are hardly worth mentioning these days. Mouse buttons should never be a nuisance during operation. Can all additional keys be reached comfortably and distinguished from each other haptically?

Software & Lighting

Almost all well-known hardware forges also offer a corresponding driver for a gaming mouse. Here there is a competition between features and gadgets that can be implemented with this. It is important that a mouse driver is clear. All “technical terms” should be explained again briefly – gladly also in German.

Settings such as mouse wheel speed, DPI, angle snapping, a simple macro recording, many additional features and lighting characterize a useful mouse. A driver should be reliable as well as simple and offer as many functions as possible.

It also makes sense to be able to choose between different profiles. Depending on the area of application, one button press is then enough and the settings are adapted to the new game or area. However, some manufacturers also like to let their software become outdated, so make sure that your brand will also update the driver in the future (for new games, for example).

The illumination is also one of the software’s setting options in more and more models. From flickering to breathing, almost everything is there, and mostly in 16.8 million possible colors. That can look nice, especially if you can configure it according to your own wishes. You shouldn’t be “blinded” by the lights on the mouse though, especially when buying! It does have a LAN style factor, but you’re usually looking at the monitor when gaming.

The best gaming mouse 2023: Our recommendations

So what is now the best gaming mouse, we can not tell you. But we can give you some recommendations for mice that we have tested ourselves and found to be good. And you can be sure: in 2023 alone, numerous gaming mice have passed through our hands.

Please note that these are subjective choices. If you can recommend another gaming mouse, we’d love to hear your comments. If you have any questions, they’re welcome as well – we’re happy to help you find the perfect mouse for you.

The best gaming mice up to 55 euros

• Strong features, top sensor, low price: The NZXT Lift – € 49.99 *
• Strong gaming mouse for under 20 euros? This is possible as the Lexip AR18 Aero Speed proves – € 30.41 *
• Lightweight mouse, unique design and a fan: The Marsback Zephyr Pro RGB – around 56 euros

The best gaming mice up to 100 euros

• Exceptionally robust and with strong specifications: The SteelSeries Aerox 5 Wireless – € 99.99 *
• Top sensor, sleek design and extra durable: The ROCCAT Kone Air Pro –€ 72.16 *
• 26,000 DPI, wireless design and high quality: The Corsair Sabre RGB Pro Wireless – € 49.99 *

The best gaming mice over 100 euros

• Wireless, 18 buttons and technically outstanding: The SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless – € 99.99 *
• 30,000 DPI and 90 hours of battery life: The Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro – € 133.41 *
• Almost identical, but symmetrical and also for left-handers: The Razer Viper V2 Pro – € 159.99 *