The finest mild gaming mouse makes controlling your video games and PC a breeze. Normal mice can weigh you down, however a lightweight gaming mouse lets you may have extra direct enter in your actions, which may result in quicker reactions in fast-paced video games. Light gaming mice are what you search for whenever you need precision and pace, and virtually no barrier between your hand and the sport.
While we’ve come a good distance since hefty rubber balls traversing journal freebie mousepads, even the preferred tournament-grade gaming mouse has a little bit of heft to it. Hence the time period ‘ultra-lightweight’ gaining buzzword standing, significantly as producers try and promote the most recent line of top-tier gaming mice.
Premium peripheral producers are placing the time and assets into creating next-generation sensors and sleeker switches; they’re even perforating the shells of enter units in an try and make gaming mice lighter. Theoretically, it ought to cut back fatigue, the danger of medical accidents, and syndromes like RSI or carpal tunnel, and in any other case enhance the pace at which we will pull off clip-worthy headshots in shooters or spotlight highly effective models in hectic RTS battles.
Hyper-accurate sensors additionally play an enormous half nowadays. At increased refresh charges and resolutions, the necessity for next-generation sensors exists to make sure gamers aren’t held again by the very factor designed to copy their actions. None of the sensors used within the mice listed beneath will battle to maintain up or threaten to carry you again, however there are execs and cons to everybody.
We’ve examined each light-weight gaming mouse on this listing to ensure they’re as much as our normal and match to be used. And consider me there have been a good few mice that did not make the minimize. If weight is not the be-all and end-all for you, then additionally take a look at the most effective gaming mice general.
Best mild gaming mouse
SteelSeries has hit a candy spot with the Aerox 3 Wireless. The honeycomb perforations unfold additional than most, giving even the tops of your fingers a little bit of a breeze, and it includes a coarse outer shell for many who want the additional grip. The aspect buttons are held again by a slim thumb relaxation, and the in any other case stunning RGB trim reveals seen circuitry, which, relying on style, can cheapen the general look.
Small arms and a claw grip will go a good distance right here: Large-handed palm grip avid gamers may discover themselves dragging their digits or risking unintentional clicks. Even when choosing that barely slimmer profile, although, the Aerox 3 Wireless managed to offer Bluetooth connectivity on high of its lightning-fast 2.4GHz mode.
Paired with a bodily DPI button simply above the mouse wheel, RGB lighting, a mammoth 200+ battery life (with quick cost and USB Type-C), and an included receiver hub and cable, there is a diploma of flexibility right here that different wi-fi choices in its grade cannot match—and its solely 3 grams heavier than the opposite wi-fi mouse on this listing.
Read our full Steelseries Aerox 3 Wireless evaluate.
The Mountain Makalu 67 is a trendy piece of equipment. It’s additionally the chunkiest choice on this listing, making it an excellent selection for the bigger-handed participant searching for an excellent mild gaming mouse. Its massive stature and closely curved physique ought to go well with palm grips the most effective, however claw grip gamers shouldn’t discover any main downsides. Just be aware that it slopes aggressively on the precise aspect.
There’s a deeply satisfying click on from the 2 well-pronounced thumb buttons on the left. They sit comparatively excessive up the physique, giving your thumb loads of house to work with, with molded ridges aiding additional consolation. The cable is unfastened and light-weight sufficient to whip round no drawback, however the lengthy rubber stem pinning it to the chassis may snag on a mousepad with any raised edge, like from a USB hub.
It would have been good to see the breathable perforations stretch to the thumb and finger areas as effectively, however general, the Mountain Makalu 67 is a strong selection and one which’s far lighter than it seems to be. It even options useful indentations to make changing the mouse toes a breeze at any time when the time comes.
Razer slides into the rising mild gaming mouse market this 12 months with the wired Razer Viper 8KHz. The identify is only a fancy means of claiming the mouse stories its place to your laptop a whopping 8,000 instances per second. Is it noticeable in-game? Not actually. But it’s a reassuring declare to fame that ought to cut back figurative mouse latency to a frankly ludicrous low.
The frighteningly quick sensor is housed in a strong plastic chassis that’s segmented in a cyborg-esque style. And it seems to be smoother than it truly is. Lay your palm over the low-profile physique, and also you’ll have a barely textured grip and curved mouse buttons to maintain you in place. With 5 DPI profiles and 8K polling enabled out of the field, the one actual cause to wish Razer’s personal software program clogging up your machine is to set a reachable DPI toggle, because it’s inconveniently positioned beneath.
As the one ambidextrous mouse on our listing, rubber grips beneath the 2 buttons on both aspect will support thumb grip, however the premium contact does open up the query of long-term sturdiness. The entire package deal doesn’t really feel fairly as prime quality as others, however its ambidextrous design makes it probably the most well-rounded.
Read our full Razer Viper 8KHz evaluate.
Logitech has an extended and storied historical past within the PC peripheral house, so it ought to come as no shock to see them enter the sunshine gaming mouse market. By far, the most effective a part of the Logitech G Pro X Superlight is its wi-fi performance. Though cords barely add a gram to the equation, the drag and snag potential is there. Sure, the battery of this explicit pointer may run dry at a second’s discover. Still, the Powerplay wi-fi charging performance can hold it going indefinitely by going deeper into the Logitech ecosystem for some further money.
Outside of theoretical, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight is about as glossy as fashionable as gaming mice come. Devoid of RGB, it would not look misplaced within the workplace assembly room. Its egg-like physique is maybe too clean to the contact with no actual grip to talk of, however at a mere 63g, it manages to weigh lower than Razer’s finest try even whereas packing a 70+ hour battery.
The aspect buttons possibly just a little too small and mushy for some. But had it not been for the Steelseries Aerox 3 Wireless, this could be the wi-fi mild gaming mouse choice to beat. It’s only a disgrace Bluetooth assist might have turn out to be a casualty of the battle on weight, which leaves its connectivity choices missing in comparison with its wi-fi rivals.
Read our full Logitech G Pro X Superlight evaluate.
The Roccat Kone Pro is the wired and barely lighter model of the Roccat Kone Pro Air and is available in at lower than two-thirds of the worth. Similar to its wi-fi counterpart, its design is an attention-grabbing tackle the honeycomb look. Rather than plastering the chassis with holes, Roccat has fairly classily nestled the honeycomb design below the skinny plastic of the left and proper mouse buttons. Not solely does it assist to strengthen them, nevertheless it seems to be rad illuminated from beneath—it makes you are feeling a bit like a Jedi.
And if being tethered to your PC makes you wince, it does not translate to awkward cable battles with the Kone Pro. The braided cable is barely noticeable when shifting round on these swift PTFE toes. The problem comes primarily in that the DPI button is, for some unusual cause, on the underside of the mouse, so there could be no fast profile adjustments mid-battle.
And whereas it will not be the lightest mouse, nor has it acquired the very best DPI, it is a distinctive, ergonomic, and all-over high quality construct that is simply one of the snug and lovely mice I’ve used—to not point out it being constantly correct.
The Cooler Master MM720 is by far the smallest of the sunshine gaming mouse bunch right here, which means it’s additionally the lightest at a mere 49 grams. It options the fashionable honeycomb design however swaps an extended physique for a stubby design you might mistake for an inexpensive journey mouse you’d discover grossly overpriced at an airport tech retailer.
Its clean, plastic end isn’t probably the most premium round, however even with the creaks, there’s no means a tense grip will crush it like a can. And regardless of the perforations, it’s IP58 waterproof, so dropping a gamer beverage over this factor gained’t destine it for the trash heap.
Its comparatively tiny footprint isn’t only a byproduct of Cooler Master aiming for that ultra-lightweight buzzword. There’s a way within the miniature form-factor in that it’s primarily designed for a claw grip. There’s no cause a palm or hybrid grip gained’t work however put together to your digits to curve over the clickers if that’s the case. Either means, the uncommon (and far appreciated) finger relaxation on the right-hand aspect ought to assist hold issues snug.
Why ought to I exploit a light-weight mouse?
A light-weight mouse is nice for aggressive gaming. The lighter weight makes it simpler to cease, permits for faster flings and swipes throughout your mousepad, which is good for first-person shooters. Some gamers wish to carry the mouse as they play, and a lighter mouse is less complicated for these types of actions.
What counts as a light-weight mouse?
The common consensus is that, to depend as a light-weight gaming mouse, it’s important to be taking a look at one which’s lower than 80g. Most normal gaming mice are over the 100g mark as a rule.
How can we take a look at gaming mice?
We’ve used sufficient gaming mice to have really feel for construct high quality, button placement, and form. Our opinions on these elements of mouse design are naturally subjective, however they’re additionally well-informed. The difficult a part of testing gaming mice is analyzing the opposite a part of the equation: monitoring efficiency, jitter, angle snapping, acceleration, and excellent management pace, and figuring out how every of these points impacts the expertise of utilizing a mouse.
For that, purposes corresponding to Mouse Tester turn out to be useful. We used this software program to see if we may spot any evident points with the mice we used. In each gaming mouse we examined, although, angle snapping and acceleration have been disabled within the mouse drivers by default (although a mouse can nonetheless exhibit acceleration from points with the sensor itself) and by no means encountered any evident efficiency points.
Gaming mouse jargon buster
Grip refers to the way you maintain the mouse. The most typical grips are palm, claw, and fingertip. Here’s a good example of how each grip works.
CPI stands for counts per inch, or what number of instances the mouse sensor will learn its monitoring floor, aka your mousepad, for each inch it’s moved. This is usually known as DPI, however CPI is a extra correct time period. The decrease the CPI, the additional it’s important to transfer the mouse to maneuver the cursor on the display screen.
Jitter refers to an inaccuracy in a mouse sensor studying the floor it’s monitoring. Jitter usually happens at increased mouse motion speeds or increased CPIs. Jitter could make your cursor leap erratically, and even slight jitter may wreck a shot in an FPS or make you misclick on a unit in an RTS.
Angle snapping, additionally known as prediction, takes information from a mouse sensor and modifies the output to create smoother actions. For instance, when you strive to attract a horizontal line along with your mouse, it gained’t be excellent—you’ll make some delicate curves within the line, particularly at increased sensitivities. Angle snapping smooths out these curves and provides you a straight line as a substitute. This is mostly dangerous as a result of it means your cursor actions gained’t match your hand’s actions 1:1, and angle snapping won’t be helpful in most video games. Thankfully, virtually all gaming mice have angle snapping disabled by default.
Acceleration might be probably the most reviled, most scrutinized problem with gaming mouse sensors. When a mouse sensor displays acceleration, your cursor will transfer quicker the quicker you progress the mouse; that is usually thought-about dangerous as a result of shifting the mouse slowly six inches throughout a mousepad will transfer the cursor otherwise than shifting the mouse quickly similar distance. This introduces variability that may be onerous to foretell.
Perfect management pace, or malfunction fee, refers back to the pace at which the mouse could be moved whereas nonetheless monitoring precisely. Most gaming mice will monitor extraordinarily precisely when moved at gradual speeds, however low CPI gamers will usually transfer their mice massive distances throughout the mousepads at very excessive speeds. At excessive speeds, particularly at excessive CPIs, not all mouse sensors can retain their monitoring accuracy. The level at which the sensors cease monitoring precisely will differ between CPI ranges.
IPS measures inches per second and the efficient most monitoring pace of any given sensor is rated too. Not to be confused with the gaming monitor panel kind by the identical identify, the upper the IPS of any given mouse, the higher it may sustain with high-speed motion and preserve accuracy.
Lift-off distance continues to be a well-liked metric in mouse fanatic circles, although it doesn’t have an effect on most avid gamers. LOD refers back to the peak a mouse must be raised earlier than the sensor stops monitoring its floor. Some avid gamers want a mouse with a really low lift-off distance as a result of they play at very low sensitivity and sometimes must carry their mouse off the pad to “reset” it able the place they will proceed swiping. With a low LOD, the cursor won’t be moved erratically when the mouse is lifted.
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