GET A GRIP

Want to improve your virtual aim without spending a motza? Bennett Ring tests a dozen big-name gaming mice that won’t break the bank.

Want to improve your virtual aim without spending a motza? We test a dozen bigname gaming mice that won’t break the bank.

If there’s one segment of PC hardware that’s booming, it’s gaming mice (and keyboards). Gaming is one of the key areas of hardware that is still experiencing growth, so there are now dozens of different gaming mice on the market — and they’re not all equal. Compared to regular gaming mice, you’ll first notice the price. They range between $40 and $350, so we’ve decided to focus on budget mice under $100. They usually use special sensors that are far more accurate than a regular office mouse, and come decked out with features designed primarily for gamers — extra keys, the ability to record several mouse clicks into one button press (called a macro) and, of course, lots of RGB lights.

When it comes to gaming mice, there are several main variants. There are those that come festooned with buttons, some including upwards of 15 or more, and they’re mainly designed for MOBA and MMO players, who need to bind a lot of different spells and actions so they can be activated with a quick button press. We’re also starting to see a divide between optical and laser sensors, which we’ll go into more detail soon. There are also gaming mice designed for the various way gamers hold them — claw and palm grip being the most common. Again, we’ll explain what this means a little later. If you’re serious about racking up headshots or coming top of the scoreboard in your game of choice, a quality gaming mouse will go a long way to help that happen. Let’s take a look at the key specs that separate these mice from each other.

HOW WE TESTED

There are no benchmarks available to test mice, so we had to use real games to see how they felt. We used Battlefield 4, World of Warcraft and League of Legends to see how each mouse felt — were they accurate, easy to reach the buttons, easy to configure and comfortable over extended periods of time? To be frank, all of the sensors in today’s mice are, quite simply, brilliant. It was extremely difficult to notice any difference in tracking, so we measured each mouse on its comfort, features, price and software.