According to niche mouse maker Finalmouse, its new hybrid mechanical-optical Starlight X mouse has faster clicks than any other it's tested, including the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike.

"At the centre of SLX is an entirely new TMR DS analogue click architecture.... The result is not simply the fastest click latency we've ever produced, SLX achieves the fastest click latency of any gaming mouse we've tested. And, beyond that, the fastest button input we've measured in a consumer electronic device."

Apparently, Finalmouse used to use its own XLat tester to measure the time it takes from the mouse switch electrically closing to the USB packet arriving at your system. But this isn't the whole story, because the time to actually press the button down, before the switch closes, is important, too. Decreasing this button-press time is the main benefit Logitech pointed everyone towards with the G Pro X2 Superstrike, and is what allowed the company to claim a 15–30 ms reduction in click latency.

Using copper tape on the surface of the mouse clicker in combination with its XLat tester and a machine it built to model a human click, Finalmouse has managed to measure the total time taken from starting to press the button to the data packet being received by the host system:

"[The pressing machine,] in combination with a little bit of copper tape and an XLat, will allow us to very accurately model the end-to-end latency of something that looks as closely as possible like a human click actuating a mouse."

Finalmouse compares a pre-production sample of the Starlight X to the Superstrike, the Razer Viper V4 Pro, and the Endgame Gear OP1 8K V2. The latter mouse is the fastest one that Finalmouse has measured just considering the latency from actuation to packet receipt. However, it lacks the pre-click latency reduction that analogue clicks provide.

Averaging 50 test clicks for each mouse, the two mice with analogue switches clicked significantly quicker than the two with traditional mechanical switches.

Finalmouse is keen to point out that the Starlight X is quicker than the Superstrike; however, I'm not massively convinced this is important. That's because presumably the way this is achieved is by making the click actuate even sooner in the button depression than the Superstrike's lowest level, thanks to its TMR tech.

But although I do fine with the Superstrike on its lowest level of actuation, anecdotally I've heard from a lot of people who aren't keen on keeping the Superstrike at this low of an actuation level and who keep it at level three or four. In which case, the SLX's 2 ms score might just be a theoretical but not very practically realisable measurement.

What I find more interesting than the Finalmouse's score is the difference between the analogue and mechanical mouse scores. Logitech's data indicated a much bigger reduction than this, but Finalmouse's testing seems to show that when we compare an analogue click to a mechanical one, when testing under normal finger-press conditions, you 'only' shave off about 3–5 ms.

I put 'only' in quotes, however, because in practice this still shows that it's shaved in half from a couple of fast mice without analogue clicks. This being said, my reaction time (as tested by the Human Benchmark) is about 165 ms, so we are dealing in very slight improvements. Even pro gamers don't have reaction times lower than 100 ms.

As far as the Starlight X goes, I suppose if you're perfectly fine using the Superlight's lowest level of actuation and think you could go even lower, then maybe it will be worth a look. Though, at least according to commenters on X, shipping times for the mouse are best measured in months rather than milliseconds, so if their words are anything to go by, you could be waiting a while.

I was just as surprised as anyone to hear word back in July that we could see another Logitech Superstrike gaming mouse this year. The first one, the G Pro X2 Superstrike, only launched a few months ago, and yet rumours suggest the X3 Superstrike will be revealed later this month during the Logitech G Play event. And now, given an Amazon video attributed to Logitech Canada (via Jakeu on X), this seems all but confirmed.

I'll be attending G Play, so hopefully I'll get to see the new mouse in person, but I haven't actually been told what I'll be seeing there yet. Given this video, though, it's gotta include the new Superstrike, right?

Previous leaks and rumours suggested an X3 Superstrike that has the option of an all-black colourway (excluding some white accents) or a pink-and-black design. The video on Amazon confirms both of these. These previous rumours had also claimed the new version would have an upgraded controller, plus some tweaks to the haptic-inductive trigger system (HITS).

The HITS system is, of course, the main draw to the Logi Superstrike. The induction technology allows for adjustable actuation and rapid trigger, effectively allowing you to lessen the latency between deciding to click and actually clicking. The haptic system means you get the feeling of a click when you click, despite the differing actuation levels.

In the video, a new chipset and "upgraded" sensor are confirmed, the latter of which allows for an an additional 4,000 DPI, up to 48,000. But in addition to this, there are a couple more interesting claims. First is that we'll be seeing an extra +50% battery life, up to 135 hours from the original Superstrike's 90 hours at 1,000 Hz polling. Second is that the mouse will apparently have "refined weight and balance."

This last point is something a fair few people should be happy about, because some people didn't like the weighting of the X2 Superstrike. Logitech managed to shave off enough weight to keep it to around 60 g despite the new HITS system, but this made it quite front-weighted. Hopefully "refined weight and balance" means a more even distribution. And I might be piping up a fool's hope, here, but if some extra grams can be shaved off, then even better.

At any rate, it looks like we shouldn't have long to wait to find out. Maybe Logi will also do something about those mushy side buttons. In my book, that would truly leave the X3 Superstrike in top standing for competitive gaming.

Most gamers enjoy a speedy or balanced feel to their mouse pad, but there are a few of us out there who have a penchant for stopping power. If you're into tactical shooters that require very steady aim plus occasional flicks with a precise stop on your enemy's head, slower control pads are for you.

I've been trying out some different control pads in Counter-Strike 2 for months now and I feel like I'm finally able to draw some solid conclusions over which are best. At least as far as my own fingertips are concerned. Your mileage may of course vary.

Personal favourite: Zowie H-SR III
Noteworthy: Wallhack CR-005

Key terms

• Stopping power: How easy it is to stop your mouse where and when you want it to, presumably over an enemy's head.
• Static friction: How hard it is to get the mouse moving from stationary. The combination of this and dynamic friction makes for good stopping power.
• Dynamic friction: How hard it is to keep the mouse moving when in motion. The combination of this and static friction makes for good stopping power.
• Softer pads: Tend to be slower.
• Harder pads: Tend to be faster.

Razer Gigantus V2 Pro (Control ver.)

Razer's Gigantus V2 Pro is great if you really have a thing for slow pads and don't much care what you have to sacrifice to get it. The surface, which Razer says was made to match the pro player's NiKo's preference, is indeed very slow—slower than any I've used. This means little chance of accidentally nudging your crosshair out of line when holding an angle.

However, it's a bit too slow for my liking, and I'm saying this as someone who massively prefers control pads to speed ones now for playing CS2. I think the slowness is in part thanks to how soft the pad is as it's noticeably softer than any other I've tried.

But if something super-slow is your thing—and who can argue with one of the best Counter-Strike players of all time?—it'll serve you well. Also note there's even a Max Control version that is, presumably, even slower than this one.

Corsair MM Pro

Corsair's new pad is the one I like the least out of those I've tried. That's not to say it's bad, it just doesn't stand out in any particular way. It's smaller than the others and is a little too quick for my liking in a control pad, feeling a bit closer to a regular cloth pad than I'd like. In particular, I notice that with this pad I have to try a little harder to keep my crosshair steady when holding a headshot angle.

Still, it does look nice and it is slower and more controlled than many other (non-control) options on the market—it's certainly slower than speed pads. If you prefer a little more speed to your control and don't mind your competitive pad being a bit on the smaller side, the MM Pro is a reasonable choice.

Zowie H-SR III / G-SR III

I was immediately sold on this Zowie pad when I tried it. It ticks every box for me and is what I keep returning to as my baseline for playing Counter-Strike. That's because it manages to maintain a level of static friction that keeps my crosshair steady when holding angles, but is just on that cusp where I can also move my mouse pretty easily for flicks.

There's also its dynamic friction, ie, how it feels when actually moving the mouse. On this front, the H-SR III doesn't just have a decent amount of slowness/muddiness to it but also a texture that you can subtly feel as you move. It might be the placebo effect, but I feel like that's helped my muscle memory a little when aiming in-game.

Then there's the fact that it's a pretty hard pad for cloth, which means you don't get much inconsistency to how much your mouse drags depending on how hard you press. That can make all the difference in clutch moments when you tense up and push down harder. I really don't have anything to complain about here, which is why the Zowie is my go-to. (The G-SR III is just the H-SR III but a little smaller.)

Steelseries QcK Performance Control

Steelseries' QcK Performance Control is a very divisive pad. I sent it to my colleague Andy, and he had a much worse time of it than I did. To be honest I can see why: it's not your usual control pad.

Instead of opting for a slow cloth, SteelSeries has given this pad quite a smooth and hard-topped but very rough texture. You can really feel your mouse moving across it, which does help your muscle memory. Stopping power is pretty good, too.

On the other hand, static friction isn't quite as good as on the Zowie pad, and dynamic friction might be a touch quicker, too, though it's hard to tell. Most importantly, though, the rough texture can be quite unpleasant on your arm when gaming for an extended period if you're a low-sens player as many control pad gamers are. Unless you use a gaming sleeve like me, of course, but few are willing to take the L to their public image that I am.

Wallhack CR-005

Yes, this is a glass pad on an article about control pads, and glass is usually as far from 'controlled' as you can imagine. The CR-005 that Wallhack has created, however, is a glass pad with "microscopic concave formations" that help slow things down.

However, it still doesn't quite match a good cloth control pad for, well, control. After breaking it in a little, I found it to be more speedy than the Zowie and even the Corsair. It's still not as fast as speed pads though, and the static friction is particularly nice for a glass pad.

The main benefit of going glass is that it should last a very long time, unlike a cloth pad which wears out pretty quickly. It will also have consistent friction and glide however hard you press into it. The downsides are not being able to roll it up, potentially having to wear a gaming sleeve to prevent your arm sticking, having to replace your mouse skates more often as they get worn down, and having to wipe it down pretty frequently to keep dust away.

If it was a little slower and more controlled I think I'd make these sacrifices for the consistency and longevity of a glass pad, but it's just not quite there yet for control players compared to cloth. Saying that, even if it's not quite as slow as some cloth options, it's impressive that Wallhack has managed to make a glass pad as slow as this. It means glass pad lovers who play tac FPS need to miss out no longer.

With mice sensors getting so ludicrously high-spec'd, some competitive gaming mouse brands are instead trying to make the shell as light as possible. Lighter = speedier. And Pulsar is finally joining the uber-lightweight mouse trend, with a 29 gram gaming mouse that is, well, half of a mouse.

Effectively, the new X2F CrazyLight is just the front half of a gaming mouse, including the sensors, switches, and battery. Pulsar is not the first to cut a gaming mouse in half (in fact, the G-Wolves HSK Pro V2.0 has been around for a while and is just 26.8 g).

It's not even the first very light gaming mouse from Pulsar, with the X2 CrazyLight Mini being 35 g, but it is the lightest ever Pulsar mouse, to my knowledge. And it manages to get that weight without going for the honeycomb shell that many other lightweight competitors go for.

According to Pulsar, the new X2F comes kitted with Pulsar's new SX2 sensor, which we don't currently have the stats for. The previous generation XS1 has a DPI of up to 32,000, a max speed of 750 IPS, and acceleration of 50 G. This is the sensor our Jacob Fox had his mitts on when he reviewed the X2 CrazyLight Medium and X3 Crazylight Mini. It also supports up to 8,000 Hz polling. I would assume the XS2 ups some of those stats.

For context, the Razer Viper V4 Pro, which we consider to be the best gaming mouse right now, has Razer's latest Focus Pro sensor and offers 50,000 DPI, with a max speed of 930 IPS, and acceleration of 90 G.

Alternatively, we think the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike is the best competitive mouse right now, and its Hero 2 sensor offers a DPI of 44,000, a max speed of 888 IPS, and a max acceleration of 88 G.

Whether or not the X2F CrazyLight will be the best competitive mouse after its release on September 28 will likely be a combination of how good the sensor is, how well balanced the weight is, and, of course, its price. Unfortunately, we don't have information on any of those yet. Also, even within the competitive mouse scene, it's sure to be pretty niche, since you have to use a fully fingertipped grip to use these kinds of mice.

We haven't got hands-on, so it's hard to say much more, but the only critique I could levy from looks (other than 'where's the rest of the mouse?') is that you can already see the 210 mA battery, so it's a shame it's not hot swappable. A hot-swappable battery could allow for a smaller battery in the device itself, further reducing the weight, and it's just a great way of staying charged at all times. Though that would presumably add on extra weight, which might defeat the purpose for this kind of mouse.

The notion of chopping off half of your gaming mouse to improve speed definitely feels a bit niche to me, but the fact that multiple companies are doing it implies there are many more competitively minded people than I otherwise thought. Let's just hope they aren't in my games. I prefer the easy opponents I'm currently being put up against.

2026 is shaping up to be an immense year for high-end gaming mice, with everything from the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike to the Razer Viper V4 Pro and the Corsair Sabre V2 Pro proving genuine innovation, with everything from materials to speed and potency all covered off.

So when the AngryMiao AM Infinity.97 came across my desk promising a sub-50 g weight with a 30,000 DPI sensor, 8000 Hz wireless polling and some very innovative battery tech, it definitely piqued my interest.

AngryMiao is a brand I associate more with its keyboards than mice, with it having a penchant for the weird and wacky, opting for sci-fi-type designs in a similar vein to Gravastar. The AM Infinity.97 doesn't deviate from that formula, opting for a very holey chassis with an aggressive look all in the name of both lightness and standing out from a very crowded ultralight mouse market.

It's purposefully been designed to be smaller than other mice to shed weight while keeping things comfortable, shaving three percent off a 'standard' size, hence the 97 in its name—it refers to being 97% of a full mouse.

It's certainly an interesting aesthetic that's helped along in any case by the colour you choose: AngryMiao offers the AM Infinity.97 in black, white or pink. The one I was sent was white, which looks pleasant enough. At first, it seems like there aren't many places where your hand can make contact with the chassis, given the number of holes in the rodent, although you'd be surprised at how comfortable this mouse is when you get it in hand.

AngryMiao states this mouse is designed more for claw grippers than any other type, although I had no issues using a palm or fingertip grip over my couple of weeks with the device. It's a very comfortable rodent to use, and a sub-50 g weight (47 g with the battery) makes this one of the nimblest and lightest mice I've used this year. Take the battery out (more on that later), use it wired, and it can even go down to 39 g.

That lightness doesn't come at the cost of durability, either. The AM Infinity.97 is made of a magnesium-aluminium alloy chassis that feels sturdy to the touch, while the chassis is slightly contoured to fit well in hand and the cool sensation from the metal finish helps with comfort for long-term play sessions.

The button placement here makes sense, with two main options and a scroll wheel on top, and navigation buttons on the side. On the underside is a selector switch between Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity modes. There isn't a dedicated DPI switch button, which is a bit of a shame, nor is there anything like a DPI clutch on the side. It's functional, but a little minimal.

Nonetheless, I'm a fan of the custom TTC Orange Dot Optical V2 switches the brand has opted for for the AM Infinity.97's main mouse buttons. They've got a very snappy and positive feel under finger, plus have the benefit of being optical, so they're much faster than standard mechanical buttons.

Software duties are handled by a web-based UI and an associated downloadable executable that has the nasty habit of running in the background, potentially sapping away vital system resources. Otherwise, it's lightweight and easy to use, but is quite basic for duties such as setting DPI and polling rate, rebinding buttons, creating macros and profiles, setting parameters such as lift-off distance and acceleration, and that's about it. You get deeper customisation from rivals.

And now to where things matter: performance. AngryMiao has put a 30,000 DPI PixArt PAW3950 sensor inside the AM Infinity.97, which I've tested in other gaming mice over the years, and it provides ample sensitivity and responsiveness to make my usual test runs of Counter-Strike 2 a breeze.

Admittedly, using the full 30,000 DPI on offer all the time is likely to be especially jittery, but you can move it down in software between 100 and the full 30,000 to get a more comfortable level. In my instance, that was between 1600 and 3200 DPI for more accurate aiming in Counter-Strike 2, and for more comfortable navigation in Windows.

Connectivity is handled either by Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz, with the latter supporting the 8000 Hz wireless polling rate. The fact that this mouse also comes with Bluetooth adds some versatility against the competition from the likes of Corsair, which eschews that in favour of outright performance in one device. I found the mouse's connection over either method to be reliable and stable, using Bluetooth on my MacBook Pro and the bundled receiver on my Windows gaming PC.

8000 Hz wireless polling is becoming more of a given at this higher end of the market, rather than just a nice-to-have, and it's present over both wired and 2.4 GHz use. It can be controlled in software for balancing endurance and potency, especially for pro players who are more likely to feel the benefit than us normal folk. It translates to added responsiveness and potentially lower latency, as a higher polling rate means a device reports its position and inputs more frequently (hence Hz as the measurement).

The combination of the lightweight, compact chassis and potent internals makes the AM Infinity.97 easily one of the most responsive gaming mice I've ever tested, alongside Razer's Viper V4 Pro and the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike. It sticks with Razer's idea of doing the basics well, rather than adding haptics and rapid trigger as Logitech does, but makes a fantastic first impression.

Its flagship PixArt sensor feels accurate, while its low mass makes wrist flicks and sweeping movements in CS:2 very easy, plus the optical switches translate to very brisk inputs even without any of the other tech Logitech has packed into its option. This is a rodent that nails the basics to make it a very potent all-rounder.

I realise I've gotten all the way through this copy and have failed to mention the coolest aspect of the AM Infinity.97, which is its swappable batteries. Okay, we've seen this before in headsets and more recently in mice such as the Glorious Model O3 Wireless, but the way AngryMiao does it is a little different.

The batteries are magnetically attached to the underside of the chassis and clip off when needed—it can then be replaced with a spare that's found inside the 8000 Hz USB-C wireless receiver box. Plus, this mouse can also work wired, so you aren't left in the lurch when a battery dies. Unfortunately. I don't think there's a spare backup internal cell, which would allow you to keep playing even if both batteries are dead, which is one area where Glorious wins.

As for battery life, AngryMiao quotes the AM Infinity.97 to last for up to an 'infinite' amount of time, given the swappable battery system, although that is marketing optimism at its finest. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, I was getting between 20 and 30 hours on a single battery with 8000 Hz polling enabled, leading to an effective endurance of between 40 and 60 hours with this rodent at full pelt. Drop down to 1000 Hz, and AngryMiao says you'll get up to 165 hours of use, proving how demanding 8000 Hz can be for the 340 mAh cells inside.

And now we come to the interesting bit: price. The AM Infinity.97 retails for $189, putting it well towards the top end of the ultralight gaming rodent market against some of the best gaming mice m'colleagues have tested. For reference, the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike costs $180, and the Razer Viper V4 Pro costs $160 in freedom eagle currency, making this boutique option the dearest of the lot.

That makes it a tougher sell on value alone. But if you want a mouse that looks and feels like nothing else on the market, backed by genuinely excellent core performance, AngryMiao has built something worth the premium—you're just paying for the privilege of being different.

Razer's Naga series has always been a bit eye-catching. Slapping tens of buttons on a gaming mouse will naturally make it stand out in the looks department, but having owned two Nagas in my lifetime, I can see it only really takes an evening to get why people love 'em.

MMOs are notorious for demanding lots of shortcuts and macros, and it's just not feasible on most keyboards to reach over to the nine key every thirty seconds. When considering the hundreds of hours MMOs tend to eat up, that's an awful lot of stretching time. You can make do with custom controls, but MMO mice offer not only out-of-the-box usability, but specifically crafted ergonomics.

The Naga V3 Pro follows on pretty routinely from its predecessor with the exact same dimensions, but a lighter weight and different internals. As such, it's a pretty by-the-numbers upgrade and will fit at home in the palms of a Naga V2 Pro owner. But is it really worth $180 just to get a better sensor, cleaner clicks, and doubleshot moulded keycaps? The answer for anyone but the most hardcore (and well-off) MMO gamers is 'probably not, but it's pretty neat anyway'.

And still, I'd say it's the nicest MMO mouse I've ever used. Thanks to the addition of a love-it-or-hate-it switch sound (I personally quite dislike the noise), it's not the best in every single compartment, but taking it for a spin in all manner of games shows it's no slouch in even non-MMO use cases, and for its price, it's gotta be.

Features

Being very similar to the Naga V2 Pro, you likely won't be shocked by the V3 Pro's solid feature set. It comes with three faceplates with different button layouts: twelve, six, and two. Being magnetic and super easy to swap out, the point is to flit between button layouts depending on your game.

The 12 button layout is perfect for Final Fantasy 14, making it easy to control all major skills, plus a few extra from the mouse. Elder Scrolls Online, with its smaller pool of skills, is best fitted for the six button layout. Then, for shooters and everyday use, the two button setup is king.

Its raw specs are super solid, with a max DPI of 50,000, speed of 930 IPS, and both an optical sensor and optical switches. It only comes with 1,000 Hz polling out of the box (though you can pay extra, via the Mouse Dock Pro or HyperPolling dongle, for 8,000 Hz), and though 8,000 Hz is unnecessary for most people, I still would have expected the option at this price point.

Even without the 12-button faceplate, the V3 Pro is loaded with extra buttons: two DPI switches on the left click, two under the scroll wheel, and one on the right-hand side. Even with just the two-button faceplate, you have 13 different buttons to play with overall.

The Naga V3 Pro is kitted with some other neat features, too, like its Hyperscroll Tilt Wheel Gen 2, which is one of the best scroll wheels I've used. You can scroll it without any nasty notching, or you can set nice notches for better precision in Razer's Synapse software. I like a little bit of both. Notches, but it'll spin freely if I go HAM. The wheel can be pushed to the left and right, which is neat for scrolling particularly big webpages, or, in my case, scrolling the timeline in DaVinci Resolve.

It's probably no surprise to you that the mouse with 23 buttons has a dedicated AI button, it being 2026 and all, but I swiftly swapped that out for a different control and never looked back.

Also, being 2026, you are getting the option to swap between wired and wireless (Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz), and the box comes with a USB Type-A to USB Type-C connector, which is a solid extra. The dongle, without the adapter, plugs in via USB Type-A. You aren't getting a wireless charger or charging dock with the Naga V3 Pro, but the 155 hours of battery life is enough that most users would only need to charge it every month or so.

If that battery life is more than you were expecting, you have Razer's FrameSync technology to thank. As we've explained before, think of it sort of like what G-Sync or any variable refresh rate tech does. It synchronises the hardware with the polling from your system, which means it only captures as much as is necessary for low latency. In turn, it becomes more efficient and drains the battery less. In case you're worried (and spoilers for the performance section), I found the sensor to perform very well.

Ergonomics

The Naga V3 Pro is a rather heavy beast (though lighter than its predecessor), being 112 g at its very lightest. It balances the weight well. With a very slight curve in the faceplate, it's easy to pick up with my thumb, and a groove for the ring finger on the right-hand side makes it a very accommodating shape for my rather large hands. The faceplates are well designed too, with the 12-button one curving inwards around the middle of the numberpad to give a natural groove to place the thumb. This groove also allows me to find my place without having to look at the mouse.

Importantly, that weight actually gives the Naga V3 Pro a great sense of comfort. Given you will be spending a lot of time hitting the left-hand side with your thumb, it has to be steady to avoid misclicks and poor aim in the middle of a game, and it does it well. The mouse feet are plenty smooth, and all buttons are easy to hit.

Thanks likely in part to its weight, the V3 Pro is a very sturdy mouse too, and one I wasn't afraid of breaking if it dropped off my desk. In fact, with a small compartment under the faceplate for the 2.4 GHz receiver, it's a decent mouse to throw in a backpack and use on the go too.

Though it takes a little time to get used to, the 12-button plate is far easier to use than you might otherwise think. With it counting up in threes, it's pretty easy to remember which number is which if you know your times tables, and muscle memory started to form for me very quickly.

The six-button and two-button faceplates are a little high for my liking, being near the top of the faceplate, but both have clearly defined buttons. The six-button layout also has a curve into the middle, which is great for finding a position for your thumb.

Given the button for the ring finger on the right-hand side, there's a specific way that you should hold the Naga V3 Pro to take advantage of its shape. The claw grip and fingertip grip both feel a tad awkward, but the palm grip feels perfect to me. The mouse holds the fingers well, and is well balanced to allow me to easily hit all of its buttons.

Performance

One of the biggest differences between the Naga V2 Pro and V3 Pro is in the 50,000 DPI optical sensor, and it performs really well. It's snappy, smooth, accurate, and is the same sensor used in the incredible Viper V4 Pro. Naturally, the added weight means you aren't getting competitive-level speed from physically moving the mouse, but its sensor is top-notch.

One place it does fall significantly under the Viper V4 Pro is in its polling rate, with the Naga V3 Pro reaching a max 1,000 Hz polling out of the box. You can pay extra to get 8,000 Hz via the Mouse Dock Pro or HyperPolling dongle, but I'd argue it's not worth the extra price and hit to battery life for that polling rate, especially when the Naga V3 Pro is already plenty expensive.

In Final Fantasy 14, I found the Naga V3 Pro to be a genuine boon to gameplay, allowing me to hit almost every key I want without having to stretch, and without even customising the mouse. With some smart custom controls, I managed to make the mouse even more useful in-game, with the ring finger button opening the map, and the click under the scroll wheel opening inventory.

Given its weight, I was concerned it would feel a tad sluggish in Counter-Strike 2, but I was happily proven wrong. It certainly requires a bit more effort than a super light mouse, but I found myself more accurate holding down lines of sight.

The optical switches in the Naga V3 Pro are immense, being both accurate and feeling great under the finger. In fact, all of the buttons on the mouse perform really well, and it's clear how much thought has been put into feel and function.

But my biggest gripe with the Gen 4 optical switches under the left and right click is that I really dislike their sound. Both of them have a high-pitched, plastic-sounding ping that is near shrill to my ears. At a distance, it's fine, though a little loud, but clicking away at them all day for both games and work has driven home how much I dislike the sound of Razer's latest switch tech.

In fact, I had the chance to mess around with the Basilisk V3 Pro and its older Gen 3 switches, and I think the sound is so annoying that I'd almost pick those switches instead.

Aesthetics

It might seem like a tough challenge to make a 23-button mouse look good, but actually I think Razer has nailed it with the Naga V3 Pro, much like it nailed it with the Naga V2 Pro. There are better-looking, sleeker mice out there, but none that hold so many buttons, and visually, I think it's leagues ahead of Corsair's blocky Scimitar Elite Wireless SE (which is also an MMO mouse).

The side buttons, plus scroll wheel and base, have RGB lighting in them, which is customisable in Razer's software. They do a good job complementing the black of the rest of the mouse, and even look decent when turned off.

Software

Razer's software, like software from most major hardware brands, has always been inconsistent for me, but Synapse has worked almost perfectly in my time with the mouse. In the first hour or so, the profile system did fail (with it taking forever to save a profile), but after a reset, it has not had any problems since.

You can use it to customise RGB, swap between polling rates and DPI, and most importantly, you can swap what all of those buttons do. It's all rather intuitive and easy-to-use, and my only other complaint is that the web software doesn't yet support the Naga V3 Pro (or most of Razer's mice, for what it's worth).

Thanks to the breadth of buttons, I finally found a use for profiles. Though I'm happy to have them, I rarely use multiple profiles on my gaming mouse, but one profile is my everyday profile, another is for MMOs, and the last is for shooters. For the most part, swapping profiles mostly just changes what the 12 buttons on the faceplate do, but they also change the sensitivity of the scroll wheel's free scroll function.

Value

The first time I heard the Naga V3 Pro's price point, I heard myself exhale a little too loudly. $180 is so much money, and though it is using the latest Razer sensor, it is at just a standard polling rate. And the Viper V4 Pro has the latest sensor and switches, plus it's a lot lighter, offers 8,000 Hz polling out of the box. And is still $20 cheaper.

Then, if you're looking for an MMO mouse, Corsair's Scimitar Elite Wireless SE is $40 less at MSRP, but is regularly less than half the price of the Naga V3 Pro. Giving it 89% in our review, it is currently our pick for the best MMO gaming mouse. It doesn't have a swappable faceplate, but it has chunkier side buttons that are designed to work as a mini Stream Deck.

And if you're willing to go more budget, the likes of the Naga V2 Hyperspeed is often under half the price of the Naga V3 Pro, and comes with the same scroll wheel technology (though last gen), Razer's 30K optical sensor, and 250 hours of battery life (though it uses swappable batteries). You aren't getting the swappable faceplates and the latest sensor, but for all intents and purposes, it's still a very solid MMO mouse.

So, for the same price, you could pick up a Naga V3 Pro alongside Corsair's uber lightweight Sabre V2 Pro, four and a half Mchose G3 V2 Pros, or just under 14 months of Final Fantasy 14. And that is a heavy price to stomach for any gaming mouse, even though the Naga V3 Pro is genuinely great.

If you are someone who occasionally plays MMOs, I don't think the Naga V3 Pro is necessarily for you, but if you want the best and play Final Fantasy 14 like it's your second job, I don't think I'd be recommending anything else. Though I would probably recommend cranking the speakers loud enough to drown out the clicks.

Asus's ROG 20th anniversary edition gear is pretty much all about extravagance. Just look at the $600 Azoth Extreme Edition 20. The Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 is much the same, with gold plating and a whopping 65,000 DPI. It is bougie in feel, look, and price.

I couldn't possibly call it a bad gaming mouse, because taste aside, it's a bit of a beast. It's just not a feasible buy for someone only looking for a competitive-level gaming mouse, and that's before mentioning the weight increase that comes with shoving gold inside it.

Feeling like it's ripped straight out of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I think its smattering of blacks and golds looks super clean. I'm normally pretty cynical about gold, aesthetically speaking, but in this mouse, it feels like the appearance is really considered among the black and transparent sides. The 24K gold detailing is part of the ensemble, and not the centrepiece itself.

The scroll wheel and side buttons aren't actual gold (though they look it), but the internals are. That's why it has a transparent shell. The body of the mouse also hides an ROG 20th anniversary logo, which the RGB shines through when turned on. The whole thing looks great, be it turned on or not.

You can even argue the mouse's flair has utility too. The glass skates are super smooth, and the metal scroll wheel and side buttons are both satisfying to hit. In fact, I'd say the scroll wheel and side buttons are among the nicest I've used.

The mouse is sleek to the touch too, with a super smooth shell, and it feels great in the palm. Unfortunately though, that does make it a fingerprint magnet. The idea of getting a $250 gold-plated gaming mouse grubby makes me feel a bit nauseous, so it needs a quick wipe-down every few days.

It might get grubby, but strong materials make me feel confident that throwing it in a backpack won't do damage to it. The side walls don't bend under pressure, and as a result, it feels very sturdy.

Like the Azoth Extreme, it comes in packaging that is itself a statement. The box is a puzzle box-like triangle, with a smaller transparent display case in it, and that makes it easy to show off on a desk or shelf. The box comes with the wireless receiver, a USB extender, glass mouse feet, the cord, a thank you card, and a cleaning kit.

The Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 is pretty killer in the specs department and feels great in game. The AimPoint Pro sensor is snappy and fast, and though I'd never need a 65,000 DPI, and likely won't get much benefit from the 8,000 Hz polling, it's nice to have it in such an expensive mouse.

In fairness, I'd advise turning the mouse down to 1,000 Hz for anyone but the most competitive gamer, as the 70 or so hours of battery life take a hit as a result. And 70 hours is right around the middle of the pack, as it stands.

Though its specs make it a competitive-level mouse, the weight doesn't. 82 g is nearly double the 49 g in the Razer Viper V4 Pro, which is our current pick for the best gaming mouse, and Asus' offering is $90 more. Even the standard Harpe II Ace, which is a pretty similar mouse in looks and feel, weighs in at 48 g and is currently half the price of the Extreme Edition.

In-game, the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 performs very well in my hands. The fast-paced, precise shooting of Counter-Strike 2 is a breeze, and the mouse clicks are not only well defined but very responsive too. I could see some not liking just how much the glass feet and smooth top slide, but for me, I find it to be just what I need to spring around quickly or snap onto heads.

That does mean it feels a tad overengineered for the likes of Slay the Spire 2, or other similarly slow games, but I wouldn't call that experience bad either. It feels like shooting a bullet at an ant. It will get the job done, but it's a bit flashy, isn't it?

Painting simulator Such Art is a classic mouse testing game for me, as it requires fine movement and has a slower pace. The mouse needs to feel comfortable; it needs to slide smoothly, and the sensor needs to send data to the computer at a consistent rate to perfectly draw, well, whatever my meagre art skills are capable of. I'm happy to report the Asus passed with flying colours here, proving the only obstacle to me making good art is myself.

The actual design of the mouse feels a bit more plain than I would expect for such a flashy mouse. You aren't getting extra functions here, or even anything like the Hyperscroll wheel Razer shoves into the Razer Naga V3 Pro. It has a DPI and pair button on the bottom, plus the option to swap from wired to wireless, and that's it. But as such, other than the smooth feel, there's not much to get used to. It's a typical gaming mouse, just one that's luxuriously built and luxuriously priced.

But let's be honest, the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 is not a gaming mouse you buy simply because you wanted something with competitive specs. You can get equally competitive or even better choices for cheaper. For the same price, you can get one and a half Razer Viper V4 Pros or just under eight Mchose G3 V2s. In fact, as we noted recently, you can pick up an entire desk setup for less money than this mouse alone.

But if you have the cash to spare and want something to celebrate Asus ROG's 20th anniversary, the Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 does not rest on the laurels that are its gold trimmings. It's a very solidly made gaming mouse, and viable in both competitive and non-competitive games. It looks great, feels great in the hand, and comes with tons of little extras in the box. And should you want to put it away, the display case looks great too.

Perhaps the biggest compliment I can give Asus on its Harpe II Extreme Edition 20 is that I don't dislike the mouse nearly as much as I thought I might, based on the price and look. The notion of paying over $200 for something that has gold in it certainly makes my wallet retch, but boy does Asus do a lot to justify that price tag.

It's simply infeasible for the average gamer, but that's not who this is for. Like the Azoth Extreme Edition 20, Melgeek's Centauri 80, or MSI's Godlike X motherboard, it being over the top is the point here. But if your blood is a bit richer than mine, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Last month, I reported that a leaker suggested we'll see another iteration of the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike announced during the Logitech G Play event in September. Now, peripheral reviewer Jakeu has apparently got their hands on actual photos of the new mouse: the Logitech X3 Superstrike, in all-black apart from some smaller white stylings.

I should say the phrase "actual photos" is quite loose, though, because even if these are legit, they are product photos on a white background rather than something a little more 'in the flesh.' Saying that, Jakeu also links to a picture of a supposed pink 'in the flesh' version posted on Reddit.

The original leak said the new mouse will have no new Hero 3 sensor, but will have an upgraded controller and tweaks to the HITS system. That's Logitech's 'haptic-inductive trigger system' which gives the Superstrike analogue clicks that no other mouse has replicated.

We can't say anything for certain, of course—far from it—so the following is speculation, but based on the claimed images, it looks like the same design, shape, side buttons, and even skates as the first Superstrike, the X2. Except all-black. The main hope on my end is that the weight distribution is improved to be more central and the overall weight is lowered, preferably closer to 50 g than 60 g.

At any rate, if this is indeed what is announced at G Play in September then we should know before long, and I'll hopefully be able to get hands-on with it as I'll be attending (I've not been told what Logi will be showing off, so I'm just as in the dark as you).

I do hope there are more significant changes than a re-skin, though, because as nice as the all-black version looks—with what looks like a more textured coating, too—I'm not sure that will be much for anyone to get excited over. New side buttons, an improved scroll wheel, and a lighter or more centrally balanced mouse, on the other hand, would do wonders.

Even some of these changes might justify the supposedly leaked price tag of, err, €190. That's €10 more than the X2. It would eliminate the main downsides of the mouse while maintaining the genuinely revolutionary and performance-enhancing HITS system. Fingers crossed.

MMO gaming mice look a bit funky. You probably knew that already. With sometimes dozens of buttons for all the different controls, they're niche by nature. Yet the newly unveiled Razer Naga V3 Pro looks to get around that, claiming to be both easy to use and button-heavy at the same time.

In a sense, it seems like a pretty safe upgrade from the Naga V2 Pro from back in 2022. Like that model, it ships with three swappable plates by your thumb. The standard layout has a dozen buttons, but you can replace them with a mere six (or just two) for ease of use. With two further buttons besides the left click, and two more under the scroll wheel, the Naga V3 Pro can have 23, 17 or 13 buttons total.

Razer says these plates snap into place in seconds without any tools. The idea being you can flip between them when you load up different games. It envisions players using the dozen buttons for MMOs, six buttons for MOBA and battle royales, then the two buttons for FPS games or everyday use.

Head of PC gaming at Razer, Barrie Ooi, says, “The Naga has led multi-button gaming for 17 years, and the V3 Pro is our answer to a community that wanted one mouse to adapt to every genre they play.”

Where it does differ from the Naga V2 Pro is the inclusion of Razer's Focus Pro 3rd generation optical sensor with 50,000 DPI, plus fourth generation optical switches. It's also a bit lighter, at 97 g without a plate installed, or around 112–117 grams with. At its lightest, the Naga V3 Pro is a whopping 112 g, which makes it a bit of a thicc boi.

If you are interested in the upgrade, you can pick it up from Razer right now for $180 / £180 / €200. That is a hefty 'ol fee that matches the MSRP of the Naga V2 Pro.

And if you're thinking of spending that amount of money on a gaming mouse, you should also consider the Razer Viper V4 Pro, with its top-notch specs and low weight, or the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike, with its incredible click technology. Both of these are among the best gaming mice you can buy today. The Superstrike will fetch the same price as the Naga V3 Pro, but the Viper V4 Pro is cheaper. Either way, the competition is super fierce at this price point.

And that's before mentioning that the Naga V3 Pro only comes with a 1,000 Hz polling rate (though it can get up to 8,000 Hz with the Mouse Dock Pro or HyperPolling Wireless Dongle). Still, the Naga V3 Pro is unique with the sheer volume of buttons available, and it's a sweet upgrade on the Naga V2 Pro for the same base price. Whether or not it's actually worth all that cash will be largely dependent on how it feels in the hand or your actual need for all those buttons.

Luckily, one is on its way to the PC Gamer offices—so you can expect our full review soon.

Would you believe me if I told you the Pulsar Feinmann F01 Noctua Edition is actually the second gaming mouse with a fan I've tried? Back in 2021, I had the unique experience of getting my clammy mitts on the Marsback Zephyr Pro, and I was… a fan.

But I can comfortably say that Pulsar's Feinmann F01 Noctua Edition is the most luxurious gaming mouse with a fan I've tried—a prestigious award, I know. It's loaded with great specs, like a Pulsar XS-2 sensor with up to 42,000 DPI and up to an 8,000 Hz polling rate. As such, it's not just a gaming mouse with a fan; it's a full-on competitive device.

I suspect the most 'love it or hate it' aspect of Pulsar and Noctua's Frankenstein gaming mouse won't actually have anything to do with the aforementioned fan but will instead be its honeycomb shell. In order for the fan to actually blow cold air on your palm, it needs room to do so, and the spaces in the shell are plenty. They also come with the added benefit of taking some weight off, which is needed because the F01 Noctua Edition is pretty heavy at 73 g.

Then again, Pulsar's fanless Feinmann F01 has all the same holes (though at almost 30 g lighter), so maybe Pulsar just likes the 'this thing took a couple of bullets, but it still works' look. I personally think Noctua's iconic beige and brown colour scheme makes the mouse look pretty decent despite all the gaps, but a trypophobe (warning, don't click on that link if you have trypophobia) may want to look for something a bit less holey.

Despite the holes, the F01 is no slouch in durability. I have intentionally tried to place pressure on the thinnest parts of its carbon composite shell, and it barely flexes. The same is true of the sides of the mouse, which hold in place despite me squeezing far harder than one would traditionally with a gaming mouse. Noctua made a series of "custom-built torture-test rigs" for testing the fan in the mouse, and I'm happy to say that despite my flailing around, it too holds up incredibly well.

Throwing the mouse from side to side or up and down doesn't catch the fan at all, making it a pretty smooth experience. This is not something that bothered me, but you can feel the fan humming just a little when off the pad. I can't feel the fan rumble on the highest mode when grounded on a mouse pad, but when picking it up to move across the pad, I feel a slight movement.

The fan is super easy to adjust too. Simply hold both of the buttons on the left-hand side, and push the scroll wheel up or down to cycle through the four fan intensities (plus one mode for it being off entirely). On the highest intensity (four), you can certainly hear the fan spin, but it roughly matches the noise of my rig, and I tend to play games and work with headphones anyway. It becomes near silent on intensity one and two, with three being notable, but only in a quiet room.

One thing that surprised me after a couple of days of using the mouse is that I genuinely missed the fan when I briefly swapped to a different mouse. This elevates it in my mind from a gimmick to a niche feature. But it's a niche feature you are paying nearly $200 for, and that's a hefty cost when you can get lighter competitive mouse for less.

Pulsar calls it the "mouse that breathes", which is far less appealing than I assume Pulsar thought it is. But that does feel like an accurate description of how the fan works. It doesn't blast your hand with air; instead, it feels like a cool breeze gently caressing your palm. Or maybe a less gross visual metaphor. A draft coming in through a window? Yeah, that doesn't sound as striking as 'mouse that breathes'.

One place I really benefited from the mouse is while I was playing Counter-Strike 2. When strafing through rooms, snapping sights on enemies, the game just has a capacity to make my palms sweat (Knees weak, arms heavy?), and yet I finished a game with my right hand feeling fresh.

The mouse's ability to battle palm sweat helps in horror games like Crisol: Theater of Idols and in the Call of Duty Zombies-like Sker Ritual. It's also a super snappy mouse, and its optical switches are not only fast and efficient, but also offer a decent sound too. They produce a high ping that is satisfying without being too nasally in sound. Given the amount of open space in the mouse, I was concerned there would be a reverb of some kind, but the sound is well engineered.

The over 70-gram mouse is a tad heavy, and you notice that when rapidly sliding it around the mousepad, but it's well balanced in the hand, which makes picking it up easy, and the PTFE feet are plenty smooth too. My preference would be to knock 15 or so grams off the mouse, but it doesn't handle the weight poorly.

And it's not just solid for competitive play either. In everyday use, the mouse is super comfortable to place the palm on, and the four different fan modes offer a decent degree of thermal customisation. Even with the fan off, it's a solid gaming mouse.

In paint simulator SuchArt, I found the sensor to be super responsive and accurate, and the fan helped sustain my painting sessions. The weight of the mouse is downright comforting in SuchArt's more relaxed environment, and makes slow, smooth movement a breeze.

Unfortunately, though, in addition to the weight, there are other compromises to make such a mouse, and one of the big ones is battery life. The 500mAh battery drains super quickly, with it losing just under half of its charge in just over two hours in 8,000 Hz polling with the fan set to max. Even in 1,000 Hz polling mode, it drains quite quickly, with it going down by 20% in just under two hours. That means, with the fan set to max, you can expect to charge it every day or two if you work from home or game a lot.

With a charging dock or smart battery system (like the Glorious Model O 3 wireless has), that could be okay, but going without means you either plug it into a USB Type-C every night before bed, or don't bother with the wireless mode.

And speaking of its wireless mode, the F01 Noctua Edition comes with a neat dongle, which not only connects the mouse to your rig, but also has two buttons. The right side changes DPI, and the left side is a function button, which initially flits through profiles, but it can change the fan in the mouse, swap polling rate, change liftoff distance and more.

I wouldn't set the left side of the dongle to DPI, as you can swap that from under the mouse, and I wouldn't set it to adjust fan speed, as you can change that from the mouse too. I think my choice for the left button would maybe be polling rate, so you can crank it up in competitive games for quicker responses and bring it back down in more casual games to save battery life, but this is admittedly a pretty niche use case. I like the dongle a good bit, and my only critique is that having it feature USB passthrough or some sort of charging system would really make up for the pretty poor battery life.

Another thing to consider here is the price. Many of the best gaming mice, like the Razer Viper V4 Pro, are cheaper, with better battery life, and a lighter weight. Even the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike, and its revolutionary clicks, fetch the same price as the F01 Noctua edition.

As such, I'm left in a difficult space trying to sum up this breezy gaming mouse. On the one hand, it's got a super solid build, and some smart engineering in how its fan works, and with a great sensor and high polling, it even offers competitive-level play. Yet on the other hand, it's giving up weight and battery life for that fan, and putting a bigger battery in it would only increase that weight. And therefore, it sits just under competitive mice for performance, yet costs more money.

And it's far too expensive to justify buying for the fan alone. It feels like a niche on a niche, and though it's smartly made, you really need to want exactly what it offers to justify that asking price. It is, though, one of the most unique gaming mice I've used in a few years, and a great but hard-to-recommend bit of hardware as a result.

How do you create a gaming mouse that sits comfortably in the palm of most gamers? With science, that's how. As such, Pulsar Gaming is taking matters into its own hands with a research study—and nine survey participants will get a gaming mouse for their trouble.

In collaboration with the High-Performance Human-Computer Interaction Lab at Yonsei University, Pulsar Gaming is setting out "to establish empirical design standards based on quantitative user data and actual behavioral patterns." In order to collect enough data, Pulsar has invited the "global gamer community" via X to fill out an academic survey.

You can find the survey in question here, and the response period is from August 5 until August 24. The survey is about 19 pages long, with questions available in English, Japanese, and Korean. Pulsar writes that responses will be used to create a "foundational baseline for engineering the next generation of gaming mice."

It's a fairly in-depth survey, with even just the first page asking everything from what sorts of games you play and how many gaming mice you've "meaningfully" used, to how long your phalanges are. Those are your fingers, not your toes, for those wondering.

If you fill out the 19-page survey, you'll be in with a chance of winning a random Pulsar Gaming mouse. Nine survey participants in total will be randomly selected, and these winners will then be contacted on August 26.

A survey is definitely one way to approach designing a fresh gaming mouse. The dedicated Logitech lab our Jacob visited in Switzerland is another. There, designers consider ideas such as 'making a lightweight mouse that is nothing but strands of plastic inside,' and use electrode pads to measure how different hand muscles interact with different mouse shapes.

Speaking of mouse maestro Jacob and Pulsar, it's worth noting he also highly rated the X3 CrazyLight Mini gaming mouse earlier this year—not to mention the many paragraphs he dedicated to his 'gaming mouse heaven', the Pulsar Playstore.

There's just one small problem: Our Jacob is based in the UK, and the Pulsar Playstore can only be found in Tokyo, Japan. Ah, well.

Upgrading your gaming mouse is one of the easiest ways to improve your PC-using experience. Luckily, as things currently stand, it's also one of the cheapest. I've been scouring the listings to find the best examples for the lowest prices, and rounded up nine gaming squeakers I'd spend my own cash on right now.

If you've not got much cash to spare, I'd highly recommend the venerable Logitech G203. It's currently available at Amazon for just $22, and while it's a wired mouse, it's very difficult to do any better for cheaper.

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Moving further up the line, I've also found several mid-range picks to choose from with reduced prices. The Razer Viper V3 HyperSpeed is a solidly-built yet quick-on-the-draw gaming rodent, yours for $45, while the Mchose A7 V2 is a tempting proposition from a little-known manufacturer that's starting to pump out some seriously good mice. It's down to $49, and at that price I think it's well worth a punt.

Or you could go lateral, and pick up the excellent Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless SE for $80. It's a wireless MMO mouse that's absolutely covered in extra buttons for all your macro needs. Oh, and our best MMO mouse pick, if you're interested.

Finally, if you're prepared to drop some serious money, I'd definitely check out the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 at $145, or even the super-flashy Corsair Sabre V2 Pro for $170, complete with carbon fiber shell. We knocked many, many points off its review score because of its hefty MSRP, but with a decent discount? It's now worth some serious consideration.

Gaming mouse deals

Noctua is one of the very best fan makers on the market, but introducing its fan into the Feinmann F01 Noctua Edition gaming mouse seemed to involve a truly horrible sequence of fan tests.

Noctua has "custom-built torture-test rigs", all designed to put fans through their paces to see if they can withstand how the average gamer treats their mice. One video of six fans getting rapidly from left to right says, "This is what 30 sideways movements per second look like."

Effectively, the new Noctua mouse has a fan inside, which then blows air on your palm as you play. I've had the chance to try it out in the PC Gamer office, and so far, it's surprisingly pleasant. But ultimately, if you are gaming, you will do a lot of sideways movement and will often pick the mouse up and tap the top of the table. Noctua wouldn't want its fan to break down in a game, and it has taken to its blog to go over its testing methodology.

One test, conveniently named the 'drop test', has a series of fans on a motor that is picked up by a wheel and then dropped rapidly. You can see a video of that particular test in action below.

The results, according to Noctua, are positive for both tests. It says, "The answer to the question of how long NF-A4x10 fans can survive this type of torture is simple: surprisingly long!"

The horizontal test, pushing 12 fans back and forth rapidly, stopped after 280,000 cycles as one of the fans had failed. However, that turned out to be a bearing issue with the tape that fixed the fan coming loose.

In the vertical drop test, all eight fans were still functional after 20,000 drops. "After another 5000 drops, all the fans had their impellers pop out due to failures of the bearing lock-ring, but by this time, the foam padding at the base of the test setup that we used to soften the impact was completely shattered, so the impact force had become much higher than our accelerometer could measure."

So it seems like the gaming mouse is ready for the big league (ie gamers throwing their mice around because a monster has popped up on-screen). We'll just have to see how it fares for gaming in its other aspects. I have my hands on one, so you can expect my thoughts soon, though I don't anticipate dropping it 20,000 times.

I've been a very happy chappy ever since discovering the wonders of the Chinese 'clone' mouse market. Brands in this market attempt to deliver quality gaming mice that take after popular shapes by mainstream brands, but for a lot less money. I was sceptical at first, but my experience with Mchose mice has squashed my scepticism, and this K7 V2 Ultra+ is a fine example.

It is, for all intents and purposes, a Razer Viper V3/V4 Pro clone, and the latter is currently the absolute best gaming mouse on the market today. I say V3/V4 Pro because it sits between the two, using an overclocked PixArt PAW3955 TI sensor that hits up to 50,000 DPI. That's PixArt's flagship market-available sensor, and the Razer Viper V4 Pro has its own top-of-the-line, custom PixArt sensor that has the same DPI as this but higher IPS capability and so on. Still, the K7 V2's sensor is flagship as far as what is actually on the market.

Regarding just the shape, I notice no difference between this and the Viper V4 Pro, which tracks, given EloShapes shows no difference either. There is, of course, a difference in build quality (and no optical switches), but that's less to do with the Mchose and more to do with the Viper being practically flawless—the best build quality I've seen in any mouse. The K7 V2 Ultra+ doesn't match that, but it does match other premium mice in terms of build quality.

To be more specific, it feels lovely under the palm, is sturdy, and I have zero complaints when actually using it in-game, but if I'm pulling out my metaphorical magnifying glass for inspection, it's not completely perfect. I've noticed there's a slight amount of friction to the left mouse button before it actuates depending on where I press it. Plus it is, of course, heavier than the Viper V3 Pro and V4 Pro as it weighs 59 g, whereas the former are 54 g and 49 g respectively.

But those are pretty small sacrifices to make for getting the same Viper shape and a very performant sensor for a little over half the price of a bona fide V3 Pro or V4 Pro. It's not as cheap as some of Mchose's other options—in fact, not even some rather premium-feeling ones—but for a flagship sensor and a Viper shape, it sits right with me.

There's another thing to note, which is that you're getting a wireless charger in the 2.4 GHz receiver, which is a fantastic choice and works really well. We've seen similar from the 8BitDo Retro R8, but this one connects and charges magnetically and wirelessly rather than via some pins. Both are good, but the magnetic system might have the edge for longevity (no pins to damage) and how easy it is to just slap on top. It's super convenient and has the added benefit of keeping the receiver weighty enough to stay put, in combination with its sticky base lining.

It charges pretty quickly when on the stand: about 1% every minute, if not a little faster. Not that that matters much, because after using this thing for three or four days of pretty extensive work and gaming it only dropped to about 80%. And chucking it on top of the charging stand is effortless, provided you remember to do so.

The lighting on the receiver looks gorgeous too, primarily because it runs around the bottom so it looks a lot like a more subtle underglow than anything too garish. Though it would be more useful if it changed colour based on the mouse's battery life rather than whatever colour(s) you set it to.

These colours and effects can be changed in the software, which is available either locally or online. It is of course great that there's a web-based version; however it does take a while to load. But once you're in, you get access to every setting you might want, including things like lift-off distance (LOD) and even sensor rotation.

Getting to the meat and potatoes of competitive gaming, which is the use case this mouse is aimed at given the Viper inspo, everything is flawless. Playing Counter-Strike 2, I've had zero problems with connectivity or tracking.

The Viper shape is wonderful too, keeping my hand nice and steady when holding angles, so I can say it's at the very least pleasant for a relaxed palm grip. And given it's the most-used mouse by Valorant pros and close to that for Counter-Strike pros, I think many others would agree.

The Viper shape is also good for claw and fingertip grips, making it pretty versatile, just like Logitech's G Pro/Superlight shape. In fact, it's often considered better for these than for palm grip, but I use a hybrid palm grip and do enjoy it.

The last two sprinkles of icing on the cake are its connectivity options and its aesthetic. Some competitive gaming mice don't bother including Bluetooth, but this one does and I found it to work very well. It connects to my laptop instantly and I can now immediately switch between laptop and PC by a flick of the underside switch from Bluetooth to 2.4 GHz.

Finally, although it's still a pretty plain mouse in black, it does have a little golden flair to it on the logo, side buttons, and scroll wheel. I think it looks rather classy, which isn't always the case with golden trimmings. The blue version also looks gorgeous just judging from the product photos, though I've not seen that one in person.

In all, I really can't complain about anything in this mouse for the price. It would be nice if there was that extra tidbit of attention paid to things like button click quality, and of course it would have been nice to see this closer to 50 g. But I don't think I can expect to get that without stepping up into the $100+ range, especially given the included charging stand and wireless charging internals.

Mchose has stayed on the right side of the mark here, and I'm especially looking forward to any potential discounts in future which sweeten the deal even further. Though even without that sweetening, it's got my approval.

Keychron, the gaming peripheral creator, has developed a name for itself as a defender of open-source software over the last few years. It has an entire 'Open Source Design Project', where it posts access to files to customise its keyboards, and it even uses ZMK and QMK, which are open-source software for keyboards. Open-source mouse firmware has gone unloved by the company, until now.

Keychron announced on X that it's currently developing ZGM, an open-source gaming mouse software for use with its mice. The company plans to launch ZGM at the start of 2027. Keychron says in the announcement, "Every gaming mouse on the market runs firmware you can't read, can't audit, can't change. So we built it ourselves."

Alongside this, the company has published a new website, explaining the benefits of open-source gaming mouse firmware and how it came about. The new software is built on Zephyr ROTS and designed to be scalable and modular, meaning it can support multiple hardware variants and can work with unique sensors, buttons, and scroll wheels without rewriting.

It's also designed with low-latency input in mind, and will support both wired and wireless mice. The benefit of it being open-source is that other users can contribute to it or fork it to make their own build.

Keychron points out that the software will work with the newly unveiled G6 HE, which is its 46 g wireless gaming mouse with a swappable battery, hybrid optical/magnetic switches, and a pretty neat charging puck too. Naturally, though open-source software is good to have, it won't work with just anything out of the digital box. It often needs fine-tuning for specific hardware, which is why Keychron clarifies it will work with the G6 HE. But because it's open-source, one could technically refine it for non-compatible hardware.

If you want to keep an eye on the project, it currently has a public GitHub repository, but Keychron notes it is "currently in its early setup phase." The project mostly contains "project scaffolding, policy files, and the initial project direction" as of right now.

Still, with the likes of GMK already out there, open-source mouse firmware should bridge a gap between hardware and should give you unified language for both your Keychron mouse and keyboard. And an added benefit is that the more open-source projects that are out there, the more likely other companies are to follow suit.

It won't be long now until the summer break is over, and many hopeful young minds will be heading back to school. And we all know what that means—late night gaming sessions.

I kid. Well, sort of. I've rounded up a selection of gear that could reasonably be used for school-related duties, and will also come in handy for a bit of PC gaming in the evenings. Because as we all know, gaming can be good for your brain. No, seriously. There have been studies and everything.

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Prospective students will need a good mouse, of course. So why not a gaming model, like this Logitech G305 Lightspeed for $30 at Amazon? Or this Razer Naga V2 Hyperspeed for $60, with tons of extra buttons for... learning. Yes, that's it. Or a good mechanical keyboard. Or a monitor. Or even, if you've got really deep pockets, a proper gaming laptop for the same sort of money as many productivity-focussed machines.

Whether you're buying for a student who definitely needs both book-learning and some fun downtime, or you're hoping your parents might break open the bank account and put some money towards things you actually want, as well as need, there should be something here to suit. Come with me, as we learn together. All work and no play just isn't fun, y'know?

Back to school PC gaming deals

The best gaming mouse on the market right now is the Razer Viper V4 Pro. It's the best because it's light, very well-built, performant, and has great battery life. This last quality—its battery life—is largely thanks to Razer's new FrameSync tech, which is kind of like G-Sync but for a mouse sensor rather than a monitor's refresh rate. And now we have independent testing confirming that the new and innovative tech works as Razer describes it.

We had indirect confirmation of it before just from the fact that the Viper V4 Pro's battery life is so good (180 hours at 1 kHz polling), but it's reassuring and, frankly, just cool to see it confirmed regardless.

With any gaming mouse, there are two main things going on: optical scanning and polling. In the first case, the sensor scans for movement across your mouse pad in many snapshots per second. In the latter, the PC polls for (requests) that movement data from the mouse.

Well, actually, there are three things going on, because in between those two lies the microcontroller unit (MCU), which prepares the sensor data to hand off to the PC when it polls. Razer's innovation with FrameSync is to get all three of these aligned by making the sensor only scan at the same time it's polled for, meaning it can keep things responsive but also keep the sensor scan-outs low and save power.

Anyways, all this is great on paper, but how could we even confirm it? Well, X user and peripheral YouTuber piaknow has figured it out and put FrameSync to the test. Using a cornucopia of wires and a Rigol DS1102Z-E oscilloscope, they confirm that "Razer's FrameSync is REAL."

They explain: "Yellow line shows the USB signal and blue line shows the sensor light source. The phase between them being fixed shows that they are actually synchronized, as advertised."

So yep, it seems it's true: Razer FrameSync does, in fact, sync the sensor to the polling rate. Although it's worth noting that one commenter claims they get some small deltas, and piaknow confirms "I do get 0.25 ms intervals periodically... but because the counts are doubled at the same time, maybe it's simply packet loss due to some type of periodical extra process?"

I'm not the one with the oscilloscope, so I certainly can't say, but at any rate the periodical deltas don't seem too big, and certainly not enough to throw off the overall oscilloscope picture and the fact that FrameSync is seemingly doing what it says on the tin, just perhaps not absolutely perfectly.

That being said, there's apparently still a DPI downshift problem, which I've explained previously. Sensors, eh, there's more to them than we might think! For my part, I haven't noticed any issues with the Viper V4 Pro's sensor, and it's great to see some genuinely new tech confirmed independently.

Wallhack (previously SkyPad, if you weren't aware) has teased a gaming mouse that will be announced on July 24. This will be the company's first gaming mouse, having previously stuck to high-performance mouse pads, sleeves, and skates.

There must just be something irresistible about hot swappable batteries. This mouse looks to have them, as from the teaser trailer, we see a separate battery zooming into place. This also matches what peripheral reviewer mel0nFPS noted about a previous image-only teaser, as they predicted a "hot-swap battery system (250-300 mAh)."

I first saw a hot swappable mouse at Gamescom last year, when I was granted an early look at the Glorious Model O3. Unfortunately that mouse failed to massively impress me for other reasons when I reviewed it (mostly mediocre tracking over wireless and stiff competition at such a high price), but I did like the battery system.

Since then, we've seen other companies are having a go at it. There's the AM Infinity Mouse, which has a recent PixArt PAW3950 sensor and weighs just 49 g. And there's the as-yet unreleased Steelseries Rival Pro Mini, if the rumours are correct.

I know things like hot swappable batteries can seem like a bit of a gimmick, but I really don't think they are for a gaming mouse. Unless you're particularly bad at keeping on top of your mouse charge, it's unlikely that you'll run completely out of battery in your wireless mouse while gaming, but that's not really the point.

The point is you'll never have to take a break from wireless to plug it in if you forget to charge it, which can be important if you're playing competitive online games, for instance (which will surely be the target market for a Wallhack mouse).

It doesn't happen often, but there have definitely been times when I've noticed my battery is running low in the middle of a planned Counter-Strike session. I've had to take an unwanted break while it charges because I don't want to play with a cable now I'm used to wireless (woe is me, I know).

These removeable batteries are also more easily replaced than some, which is good for longevity.

The wireless dongle/puck also looks great, judging from its silhouette and another teaser post. I'm a big fan of the bigger pucks for mice, given they stop the little flimsy ones from falling all around. Often off the desk. And this one looks fancy, like a DAC, with a scroller for DPI and polling rate, along with a 'status' button and another element I'm nonplussed over.

If mel0nFPS's other predictions based on the PCB are correct, then we could be looking at a top-end PAW3955 sensor and optical clicks. The bottom also looks somewhat hollowed, though not in the usual way, so hopefully it'll be nice and lightweight. Given Wallhack's usual genuinely premium quality products for competitive gaming (I like its SP glass pads and gamer sleeve) I'm certainly hopeful.

We'll have to wait until July 24 to find out more, including its price tag, which I'm not exactly holding my breath for. I'll be surprised if it's any cheaper than $140, given the brand and other high-end options on the market like the Superstrike and Viper V4 Pro.

I'm known around the PC Gamer streets as a bit of a mouse pad nerd. Though that's just because I take the surface my little rodent skates across seriously, as you should. If you're playing a game that requires good aim, a good pad can be just as important for your gameplay experience as high fps, up to a certain point.

Naturally, then, I fell under the spell of glass mouse pads for a while. With glass, there's the promise of a very slippery glide, if that's your thing, but more important is the promise of consistency and longevity. Cloth pads collect dust and dirt that can't just be wiped away, and the fibres change over time. That's why pros switch them out so often.

Glass pads aren't like this, though. They do have irregularities etched into their surface to help with friction and sensor tracking, but these don't wear down because they're harder than your mouse skates. Your skates, on the other hand, do wear down quicker, but these are easily replaceable, and a cheap pack of dot skates can last a very long time.

Glass pads do require more maintenance, but not as much as I initially thought. When I first started using one—a QPAD Obsidian—I would wipe it down with a microfibre cloth between almost every two-minute Counter-Strike round, just in case something had gotten on it that could cause the skates to feel horribly scratchy when they ran over it. This does happen, but nowhere near as frequently as I initially thought. But eventually, when using a glass pad, I just wiped it down once or twice every 45-minute game, or if I noticed scratchiness.

There's one other bit of maintenance required, too. Unless you're in a cold climate and have dry skin all the time, you'll probably want to use a gamer sleeve so your arm glides consistently over the pad while you aim, whatever the conditions.

I got used to this maintenance and started using a glass pad, and for a while I was hooked. There's just something about having very little static or dynamic friction and having an incredibly consistent glide that makes you feel like you're in the driver's seat. Every little movement is in your control, as is how smoothly you make those movements.

That seemed fantastic at first, but over time I've found I often don't want that much control. Somewhat paradoxically, I gain control over my aim by giving up some control of my mouse. That shouldn't really be a surprise, though, because 'control' pads are designed to be slower, i.e., providing more resistance to your movements, giving you less free control over your mouse movements. That's the opposite of a glide-y glass pad.

There's definitely a place for glass pads, but I just don't think I'm the target market. They're great if you don't need pinpoint aim and love a smooth glide, or if you need the kind of pinpoint aim that benefits from smooth, consistent tracking with a long time-to-kill (TTK). Games such as Quake Champions or The Finals, for instance.

However, in tactical shooters like Counter-Strike 2 (my go-to game), I find I play much better when using a control cloth pad. I'm able to hold angles better and keep my gun very still, and I can make the small adjustments needed when peeking or occasionally flicking thanks to the increased stopping power and static friction.

I know that over time I could develop finer control over my aim with a glass pad, and maybe then I'd find them to be better. But I did try. I've put dozens of hours in on different glass pads, and I still feel a little relief when going back to a control pad like the Razer Gigantus V2 Pro or Zowie HSR-III, or even a smooth cloth pad like the SteelSeries QcK Performance Speed.

I've even tried a glass mouse pad that's designed to offer a bit more control: the Wallhack CR-005. And this did feel better to begin with, to the extent that I wondered whether it could be my endgame pad. But that control feeling seemed to wear off a little over many hours of gameplay (perhaps, very speculatively, due to skate debris getting stuck between the micro surface bumps), and regardless I still felt on more solid ground, so to speak, when I whapped a cloth pad back on the desk.

I could have stuck it out with glass, but I ask myself: why? If pro players are able to reach their heights on cloth, then I see little incentive to switch to glass over the long-term, and there's little incentive to try and stick it out when I'm not getting the benefit in the short-term, either.

So, unless I ditch Counter-Strike and pick up Quake Champions once again (I'll be holding out for that fabled arena shooter genre comeback until the day I die), I'll be sticking with cloth, I think.

There is one thing that using glass pads has given me which I will continue to use, however: the gamer sleeve.

As I mentioned earlier, in most cases, using a sleeve with a glass pad is essential if you want to keep your arm moving across its surface consistently every time. But a couple of months ago, I heard someone say somewhere (I can't remember where) that a gamer sleeve can even be of benefit when using a cloth pad. So I tried it, and now I can't go back.

Yes, whenever I boot up Counter-Strike, I sleeve up too. Even though I play on cloth. I felt a little sheepish the first few times, but I kept reminding myself that some pro players use them and that nobody is here watching me anyway. But now, it feels as natural as putting on my coat before I go outside in the winter.

And if I forget? It's just as noticeable as forgetting my coat. Without my gamer sleeve on, moving my arm around the mouse pad—aiming with low sensitivity, as you do in Counter-Strike—feels inconsistent at best, and downright slow at worst. But with my trusty half-palm-and-forearm sheath properly donned, my arm scoots around deftly, in exactly the same way every time I boot up the game, whatever the weather.

So thank you, glass pads, for opening my eyes to the wonders of the humble sleeve. You might not have won me over for playing my tactical shooters on your slippery surfaces, but you've given me that.

When it comes to gaming mice, big innovations don't come around that often. Earlier this year there was one, though, as Logitech was the first to put proper analogue clicks in a mouse using a mix of haptics and induction in the G Pro X2 Superstrike. And now, rumour has it we'll be seeing a second version very soon.

That's according to someone the peripheral reviewer Jakeu calls a "highly trusted leaker", who revealed it on the reviewer's Discord server. What will it be like? "No Hero 3. Upgrade main-controller. Further tweaks for HITS."

Apparently we'll be seeing the new Superstrike at Logitech G Play this September.

That's all the unnamed leaker gives us, which isn't a lot to go on. "No Hero 3" means no next-gen sensor, which is fine in my books because the Superstrike's Hero 2 sensor is just fine. Upgrades to the controller and HITS tweaks sound good too, but again, I find HITS on the Superstrike to be just fine as-is, personally.

There's the slim possibility that Logitech is updating the mouse with what we've seen the likes of Keychron and even lesser-known manufacturers working on: hybrid traditional and analogue switches. Except I doubt Logitech will want to have a physical click in there when they worked so hard on the haptics system to replicate the feeling of a real click but have it trigger whenever the analogue click does—very successfully, I might add.

More likely is that there could be a new shell for the Superstrike, fixing things like weighting, as the new internals make it quite front-heavy. There could also be improvements to things like the side buttons and so on.

It would make sense for Logi to release an iteration like this given the company essentially slapped the new internals in a Superlight 2 (with some weight reductions) to get it to market as quickly as possible.

Assuming the rumour is correct, it might be a shame for anyone that already bought a Superstrike. But then again, I doubt such people didn't know they were getting bleeding edge tech that could be superseded before long, even if that does end up being a little quicker than we expected.

The Asus ProArt lineup is, in essence, the company's range of fancy PC products for creative professionals—and my goodness does it contain some nice-looking stuff. Which is why I jumped at the chance to test out one of the latest additions, the Asus ProArt Mouse MD301.

It's certainly a handsome squeaker, designed to provide a subtle, refined, ergonomic option for those who have some serious work to do. It's all business, this mouse, and there's something desirable about a design that eschews gamer-like frippery and instead aims for a more executive flair.

It's also customisable, in the sense that you can remove its main button switches for something more serene, or more clicky. There's also a horizontal scroll wheel, à la the Logitech MX Master range, which feels beautifully dampened. Really, most of the controls here are of the premium, well-thought-out sort, and that's very pleasing to see.

However, this $100/£105 professional rodent has the odd quirk that gives me pause. The side buttons are a touch flimsy. The thumb rest is slightly small and a little awkward. I've also had the odd connection issue, and the software feels like an afterthought.

There's a lot to like about the MD301. But as a long-term tester of the Logitech MX Master 4, I can't help but feel that if you're going down the professional ergo mouse route, it's the better buy of the two. The ProArt MD301 is a lighter, leaner attempt at an ergonomic mouse with many admirable qualities, but it drops the ball a little too often to give it my full seal of approval.

Asus ProArt Mouse MD301 features

The Asus ProArt Mouse MD301 is an ergonomically-shaped mouse that feels a lot smaller than your average ergo squeaker, coming in at 114.8 mm long, 75.2 mm wide, and 46.8 mm tall. Sit it next to a Logitech MX Master 4, and it looks positively tiny. It's also cheaper, coming in at $100 compared to the Logitech's $120 MSRP.

It's got six programmable buttons, including all the usual suspects. A left and right click, a middle scroll wheel click, two side buttons, and a hidden DPI button underneath a ridged plastic surface integrated into the chassis behind the wheel. It looks, in many ways, like a default mouse—albeit with some subtle ergo touches

Oh, and it's also got a horizontal scroll wheel mounted to the left-hand side. Logitech really changed the game with the old MX Master 3S design, didn't it?

Another interesting feature to note is the switches underneath the left and right buttons. By default, the ProArt MD301 comes with two (deep breath in) TTC E169-60BB0G0 (80M) units, but these push-fit socketed models can be pulled out and replaced with supported TTC, Omron, and Kaith units, which Asus has handily listed here.

The scroll wheel has a party trick, too, in the form of Asus' SmartShift tech. This allows for precise, clicky control when spun slowly, and a free-wheeling action when you spin it at an appropriate speed. It's a lot like Logitech's magnetic solution on paper, but feels quite different.

Spin the wheel at high speeds, and you can still feel it notch underneath your fingertip, albeit very quickly. Whereas Logitech's infinite scroll feature frees the wheel up with a glass-like, smooth action, the MD301 has a tendency to keep some tactile feedback in play, which makes it easy to stop at a defined point with precision.

Asus says the MD301 has up to 180-day battery life, and can gain eight hours' worth of charge in a single minute over its USB Type-C connection. Speaking of which, it also comes with a braided Type-C to Type-A cable, and a small USB Type-A dongle for wireless connection. Bluetooth connection is also supported.

Sensor-wise, this Asus squeaker makes do with an 8,000 DPI optical unit, which, in combination with its 1,000 Hz maximum polling rate, is unlikely to set gamers' hearts a-fluttering. Still, the MX Master 4 does just fine with a similar sensor (and a much lower polling rate), so it's not unsurprising for a work-first mouse. It's also a fair bit lighter than Logitech's latest ergo effort, tipping the scales at 99.7 g compared to the MX Master 4's 150 g bulk.

Asus ProArt Mouse MD301 ergonomics

The first thing I noticed about the MD301 is its diminutive proportions, especially when sat next to the MX Master 4. It's a lot narrower, with a much smaller thumb rest. However, it's got a wider top "hump", which feels good underneath my palm.

Switching between the two, it's clear that the Asus is designed to rotate your hand over to the right side more drastically than most, although at nowhere near as extreme an angle as something like the Keychron M5. It doesn't feel aggressively ergo, though. More like a slightly chonkier gaming mouse with some interesting quirks.

Clicking and spinning my way around the controls, I've been continually impressed by the effort that's gone into the switchgear and material choices. The left and right switches have a very positive click action, and well-weighted buttons.

The scrollwheel feels notchy yet free-flowing in all the right ways, with its clicky, fast-speed scroll being something of a highlight. The same goes for the horizontal wheel, which is heavily dampened and weighty underneath my thumb. Nice.

I'm also a big fan of the smooth outer coating, which has a silky quality that feels rather pleasant underneath my fingertips. It's slightly fingerprint-prone, but no worse than any other black gaming mouse I test these days.

The DPI switch is hidden underneath a ridged plastic insert that runs down the middle of the design, and provides a small moment of delight when you realise it's exactly where you expect it to be, but tastefully obscured. This is a classy mouse. A device for grown-ups. A refined rodent, if you will.

The only real ergonomic drawbacks come in two forms. One, the left-side thumbrest is quite small, and dips inwards. Using the MX Master 4 on the daily, my thumb has become accustomed to lolling on its own throne-like protrusion of silicone—whereas here it needs to tuck itself into a diminutive (and firm) plastic seat. My digit has become lazy, it seems, and has a tendency to want to fall off.

And two, the side buttons don't feel as high-quality as the rest of the unit. They're perfectly functional, but sitting as they do beneath a gorgeously weighted horizontal scrollwheel, the contrast is immediately obvious. They're simply "fine," while the rest of the controls are pretty excellent.

Overall, though, the ProArt MD301 is an impressive-feeling device, especially given its relatively low weight compared to its chassis size and ergo design. If anything, I could stand for it to be slightly heavier, in return for better side buttons and a bit of extra room for my thumb.

Asus ProArt Mouse MD301 performance

Given this is an ergo mouse with a relatively modest sensor, it would be unfair to expect Razer Viper V4 Pro-like performance or tracking ability from the MD301. Lo and behold, it's not the sharpest-performing rodent on the block.

Still, the sensor tracks well enough for work and light gaming usage, as shown by the MouseTester charts below.

I have, however, experienced the odd connection drop out. This has manifested as a very occasional half-second pause, and has happened several times during my week-long testing. I've got a lot of 2.4 GHz wireless devices plugged into my machine, and several more around my front room, so it's possible that the dongle here is slightly interference-prone—although I haven't been able to pin down the exact cause.

I have two other gaming mice plugged into this PC at all times (the MX Master 4 and the Razer Cobra Hyperspeed), and neither have had any connection issues. I tried unplugging both mice to see if it fixed the problem, and managed a few days of solid connection—before again experiencing a very quick pause.

I also had one connection pause while using the mouse with a gaming laptop I'm currently testing, so it doesn't seem to be specific to my main machine. The problem is so intermittent as to be barely noticeable, but there's something in this room the MD301's 2.4 GHz dongle doesn't appear to like.

Asus ProArt Mouse MD301 aesthetics

I love the ProArt MD301's aesthetic design. It's somehow utilitarian, slightly luxury, handsome, and hardly noticeable all at the same time. The ridged plastic vertical insert framing the scrollwheel is about as simple as design touches come, and yet adds a certain something that both feels good underneath your fingertips, and looks ever-so-slightly special on your desk.

Do I miss RGB lighting, or a touch of gamer flair? Not a bit of it. This mouse is all business, and that by itself makes it stand out.

Asus ProArt MD301 software

The ProArt MD301 connects to Asus Gear Link, a web-based app that allows you to adjust the DPI, polling rate, and button response settings within a browser. In order to tweak macros and use some of the features, though, you also need to install a companion app as an extension, which somehow feels like the worst of both worlds.

Pick either a web app, or installed app, Asus. Having one in order to properly use the other feels like an extra level of annoyance.

The web app itself has the odd quirk, too. I regularly split my 32-inch, 4K screen into two side-by-side browser windows, but the Asus app complains that it doesn't have enough room in one panel, suggesting I "switch to a larger screen." What do you want, a 49-inch ultrawide?

There's an option to use it anyway, though that's a new one on me. It seems to scale the interface just fine if you override it, but it's a bit indicative of the software experience overall. Unfinished is the feeling I come away with.

Still, early annoyances aside, the web interface works well enough. It's a bit barebones, though, and given the premium-feel of the mouse itself, it strikes as a clunky afterthought tacked on to what is otherwise a well-put-together package.

Asus ProArt MD301 value

At its $100 MSRP, I'd say the Asus ProArt Mouse MD301 is well-priced for its bracket. It's a chunk cheaper than the Logitech MX Master 4, and looks and feels like a premium mouse for more reasonable money.

That being said, I can't help but feel you're getting a lot more for your cash with Logitech's offering. It's got a more comfortable thumb rest, near-silent switches as standard, and a set of controls that can match (and occasionally beat) the Asus in terms of feel. And, it must be said, the Logitech software experience is a lot more refined. Plus, I've not experienced any connection pauses with the Master in many months of everyday usage.

Which puts the ProArt squeaker in an odd spot. It's a lot lighter than the Master 4, which makes it more suitable as a gaming mouse. But it's still got an ergo-spec sensor, so I doubt many will be buying it for its gaming performance chops.

And while it's a good-looking object that would suit the *loudly coughs* executive-ergo-mouse-using-professional, I can't help but feel there are enough hang-ups here to cause them to sniff into their yuzu-infused lattes.

It's a good effort from Asus, and a mouse with many likeable qualities. However, the quirks slightly outweigh the advantages, and as a result, I struggle to recommend it over the competition.

The humble mouse has been through some changes in its time. When it’s not adding extra buttons all over the place it’s twisting your wrist into unlikely positions or looking like whatever the Mad Catz RAT was. A general theme over the years, however, is that they’re getting bigger, and perhaps there's a study to be done into whether PC gamers’ hands are getting larger too, the better to cradle and envelop them.

Logitech has taken the opposite approach with the Mobi—it’s truly tiny. This is a travel mouse, a mouse for the truly short of space, a sliver of silicone-wrapped plastic that folds in half when not in use, looking rather like the Surface Arc mouse Microsoft put out in 2017, but a little bit cheaper. Where that device folded flat for transport, this one goes the other way.

Hand the Mobi to someone and the conversation goes like this: “It’s a phone?” No. “It’s a phone stand?” No. “What is it then? I can’t believe I don’t know.” Click click click on the buttons. “Oh, it’s a mouse!”

While it may resemble a Star Trek communicator or a tiny flip phone to go with your geek pie hairstyle (“that’s well weapon”), the Mobi is in fact just a mouse. It has two main buttons, two further programmable buttons, a little touch-sensitive panel to act as a scroll wheel, a PAW3222 4,000 DPI optical sensor, and a USB-C port for charging. It connects to your PC (and two other devices) via Bluetooth with fast pairing, and will play nicely with a Bolt receiver if you ask it to, though one isn’t included in the package unless you buy a special ‘business’ version.

The folding nature of the mouse is actually a stroke of genius. When collapsed, it will slip neatly into your skin-tight futuristic space-catsuit without causing too much of a bulge. And when stretched out it fits in the hand, something many compact mice that just take a normal-sized one and shrink it can’t claim. Your third finger and thumb will go underneath the 120-degree (ish) central hump if you let them, and there's certainly space for them to do this, but most of the time there's just enough height in the body of the mouse for your thumb to rest on.

Unless you have insanely long fingers you won’t run out of space on top, and the third and fourth buttons are cleverly integrated under the scrollpad, with a press at the top or bottom activating them. These click much more loudly than the nicely damped main buttons, and you can use the Logi Options+ software for a degree of customisation about what they do, including a neat double-tap auto-zoom.

And while it may look a little flimsy, Logitech has some remarkable claims about how it’s not. It can, apparently, withstand 50,000 folding actions before it starts to wear out, which Logi thinks should take 15 years (or about 5,479 days, for an average of nine folds a day). Obviously that doesn’t take into account people constantly folding and unfolding it because of the novelty of the hinge mechanism, but in 15 years we’ll be controlling our PCs with brain implants anyway. Instead of a simple switch in the hinge to detect when it’s closed and switch it off, Logitech says there's an on-device AI that protects against unintentional clicks while you’re folding it. If that sounds absurd, it’s because it is, but that’s where we are in the space year 2026, requiring an AI to tell us whether we’re wearing pants or not.

Better is the battery life of 30 days from a full charge, and the ability to use it for 22 hours after a charge of just one minute. You won’t be able to use it while it’s charging thanks to the position of the USB-C port, which isn’t quite up to Apple Magic Mouse levels of egregiousness, but with a cable connected it feels enough like you’re about to snap the plug of in the socket to make you reconsider after a few seconds. The battery cover can be pried up with a screwdriver, and it looks like the cell could be replaced, though Logitech hasn’t mentioned anything about this.

Of course it’s possible to play games with it. You can game with a trackpad or the tiny red nub on a Thinkpad, and I’ve played Age of Empires II with much worse things than the Mobi. It doesn’t require any kind of special surface to glide over, seems quite happy on a trouser leg, and the pointer is reliable and accurate. The important thing here is how much better it is to use than a laptop’s trackpad, especially if you’ve not put in the hours required to get good at using one for gaming.

Sadly, that’s almost all the praise it’s possible to muster about the Mobi. Its four buttons are fine, but scrolling is a mess. Not only is the touchpad the same texture as its surroundings, so it’s quite possible to be lovingly rubbing your fingertip against one of the buttons instead of where the action is in the middle, but even if you do get it in the right place, the web page or camera zoom you’re controlling moves jerkily, as if it’s losing track of your fingertip.

A hand that’s used to a solid-bodied mouse can rebel against being asked to cradle something so slender, and you end up moving from what should be a straightforward palm caress to a crab-like grip on the edges. It’s possible to pick the back edge up, fold your fingers underneath, and keep only the sensor in contact with the tabletop, and this might be the best way to use it despite every promotional image showing it with front and back firmly on the ground.

So, yeah. The Logi Mobi Fold is a nice piece of engineering but inevitably can’t hold a candle to a proper gaming mouse. Perhaps that’s not the point, as we don’t expect products designed for extreme portability to perform precisely like their full-size counterparts. At 79 g it’s heavier than the Logitech G Pro X Superlight and the Corsair Sabre V2 Pro, so if you’ve got it tucked in your bag and fancy a bit of Total War it’s better than a trackpad, but a modern full-sized mouse is hardly a large piece of equipment to transport, so use that instead.

I'm hardly an esports fiend, but a good gaming mouse is pretty essential no matter what you're playing. Cards on the table, the game I've been obsessed with most recently is Magical Princess, an obvious spiritual successor to the Princess Maker series. This character-raising sim hardly requires a swishy, flicky mouse—but I'm still glad I'm playing it with one.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: the best hardware is sometimes the bits of kit you don't have to think about. As such, I can't recommend the ageing Razer DeathAdder V3 Hyperspeed enough, and I wouldn't trade it in for the world—unless our top pick for the best gaming mouse overall happens to get a discount. Well, wouldn't you know it, the Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro is now $20 off at Amazon.

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Now, if like me, you also happen to have a great gaming mouse that received a score of 91% from our very own Nick back in 2024, there's really no need to rush out for the upgrade. Unless you're a gamer with pro ambitions, there's little in it between these two lightweight, wireless gaming mice. However, I like shiny things, and the V4 Pro for $150 still sounds like a cracking deal to me.

While the V4 Pro is a few hairs heavier than my beloved V3 Hyperspeed, it leaves that older mouse in the dust when it comes to features. I'm talking an up to 8,000 Hz polling rate, a max sensitivity of 45,000 DPI, plus a max speed of 900 IPS coupled with a max acceleration of 85 G. It's definitely overkill for raising my fictional daughter and overseeing her career of street fights and petty crime, but these bleeding-edge upgrades are very nice nonetheless.

Our Dave is a longtime fan of the V3 Hyperspeed's sibling, the Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro. Even so, he was immediately impressed by the newer Razer squeaker, writing in his DeathAdder V4 Pro review, "It does feel like the company cut some corners when it put the old V3 Pro together. And those cheaper aspects are thrown into stark relief the instant you pick up the new DeathAdder. It's a superior squeaker in pretty much every respect."

Calling the V4 Pro "the smoothest, slickest Razer mouse I've ever laid digits on" is high praise indeed. Dave also specifically rated this wireless gaming mouse's greatly improved Optical Scroll Wheel, calling it "a huge improvement over the noisy, hollow-sounding, slightly gritty mechanical one used in previous DeathAdders." Though, unfortunately, he thought the Gen4 switches on this mouse's main buttons made them louder than their forebears.

That 8K polling rate also comes at a price, as it can whittle down your battery life to only 22 hours if you have it on constantly. However, the Synapse software offers a potential remedy with its Smart Polling Rate Switcher option. Basically, you can set the mouse to automatically switch polling rates depending on whether you're in-game or not. The Dynamic Sensitivity switch works similarly, switching up your DPI if it detects a swifter flick of the wrist. Together, that will definitely save your battery life, though Dave says this latter feature took some getting used to.

He writes, "That's going to need a degree of practice, though, as I found myself overdoing things and slamming into walls when I was meaning to back the F off under fire. I can see it becoming bedded in, though, once you get your head and hands around it."

As for me, though, that just sounds like a standard match of Arc Raiders following the panicked realisation I've waded into a PvP gunfight. At least the worst I have to worry about in Magical Princess is my virtual daughter spending too much time at the outlaw bakery and getting into illicit loaves.

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Whether it's a fetching PC case that comes in purple, or a gaming mouse with more buttons than you can shake a thumb at (plus Stream Deck integration), I appreciate a bit of kit that breaks the mould. No, head-turning hardware isn't always revolutionising the wheel, but aesthetics do still count for a lot.

For instance, you may want to make your desk a shrine to the retro gaming tech of your youth. I'm not going to name any particular consoles made by a certain playing card and videogame company for fear of dating the oldheads, but the 8BitDo Retro R8 has the aesthetic down. Even better, it comes with a charging dock and altogether costs just under $32 from Amazon.

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As someone with a perpetually messy home office, I tend to take a dim view of charging docks as I'd rather not invite more clutter onto my desk. Our James didn't feel exactly the same to begin with, but the 8BitDo Retro R8 apparently went some ways to affirming his love of charging docks. For a gaming mouse, it's certainly not hard to see the argument for one.

But it's not just a place to pop your mouse when it's not in use. Besides charging, the dock can also act like a wireless receiver. Add to that the 8BitDo Retro R8 enjoys an up to 100-hour battery life in Bluetooth mode, and fumbling for the charging cable because your squeakers run out of juice quickly becomes a thing of the past.

It's worth noting that, yes, that impressive battery life is whittled down considerably over a 2.4 GHz connection. According to James' 8BitDo Retro R8 review, this can vary between 26 to 105 depending on what polling rate you're using. That's also a point—this affordable gaming mouse can enjoy an up to 8,000 Hz polling rate. That's only over a wired connection, though, mind. Still, you can get up to 4,000 Hz over a wireless connection, which will be more than enough for most!

The onboard PAW 3395 optical sensor offers a maximum DPI of 26,000 on top. In all, this is a responsive gaming mouse for not very money.

As James writes, "Snappy twitchy shooters like Counter-Strike 2 are as, well, snappy and twitchy as you'd like them to be. I never feel any resistance whipping around maps, attempting to hit heads and hitting the wall behind them (don't worry, that's normal for me). Connection has been perfect in testing, never cutting out when connected to the stand. It's not quite a competitive mouse in those specs (and feel), but it is comfortable and easy to use."

Lastly, though I'm right-handed, I do appreciate that this gaming mouse is ambidextrous. From the curves, to the extra programmable buttons along the side, it's all symmetrical. And weighing only 77 g, it'll likely feel good in whichever hand you place it.

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If I say 'gaming mouse', I'm sure many of you will think of brands like Logitech, Razer, and Corsair. But what if I told you there's a whole other market out there, full of much cheaper but still often very high-quality mice? The 'Chinese clone' market offers just that, and one of the best of the bunch, the lightweight Mchose L7 Ultra+ is at its lowest ever price of $50 at Amazon for Prime Day.

I reviewed the Mchose L7 Pro+ earlier this year and was very impressed by it. The Ultra+ version is essentially the same as the Pro+ I tried, except it's got a slightly better sensor (and possibly a bigger battery—it's hard to tell from Mchose's spec comparisons).

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For most intents and purposes, though, they're essentially the same mouse, as it'll be very difficult to tell the difference between the PAW3395 and PAW3950 sensors.

The long and short of it is the L7 Pro+/Ultra+ gives you a high-spec sensor that stands up against 'custom' big-brand ones in a well-built, lightweight chassis. The lightweight part is key here, too, as the mouse manages to keep under 50 g, which is fantastic and matches the current best (and much more expensive) gaming mouse on the market, the Razer Viper V4 Pro.

The shape might not suit you if you're a full palm gripper, but if you use a more relaxed palm grip, or ideally a claw grip, it's great. The '+' at the end of the name means it's a little bigger, and I found the size to be perfect for my average-sized hands. If you have smaller hands you might prefer the non-Plus 'Pro' version on sale for $46 at Amazon.

I find the clicks to be a little stiffer than some other mice I like, but only by a little, and I got used to it in no time. Apart from that and the mediocre battery life, I have no real complaints.

It doesn't have anything fancy like RGB, it's just a solid mouse for much cheaper than the premium options from big-brand alternatives that it competes with. It performs well, feels great, and is well worth that discounted price tag. If it's a high-quality build and great performance that you're after, I'd give it a look.

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A physician called me out on how I sit a couple of months ago, and I've been making adjustments to my desktop ever since. One such adjustment is a new vertical mouse: the Razer Pro Click V2.

Wouldn't ya know, it's down to its lowest price on Amazon for Prime Day. It's $90, down from $120.

This new price puts it in firm contention with other office-minded mice, such as the Logitech MX Master 3S, which I used prior to the Pro Click. That's down to $76 right now and a lovely mouse, though not quite as ergonomically upright as this Razer one.

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What I like about the Pro Click is how it shifts my entire arm into a more natural position. It took some getting used to—the main mouse buttons feel a bit skewiff at an odd angle at first—but over time, it's become normal.

There are a couple of extra buttons above and below where your thumb sits. These are, I'm sorry to say, my least favorite part of the mouse. They're just too easy to press by accident. Though speaking to our reviewer, Nick Evanson, he tells me he didn't struggle with those anywhere near as much as I have.

Here's what Nick had to say in his review: "Having used the Pro Click V2 Vertical Edition for a while now, I can honestly say that it's supremely comfortable and it gives me no aches or pains over long days of clicking."

Though Nick and I will be the first to admit this is a bit of a tough sell as a primary mouse for gaming. You definitely could game with this thing, though it's far from the lightest option at 150 grams (over three times a truly light mouse), and accuracy takes a hit from the vertical angle. Or at least it does for someone who's played games their entire life with a flat mouse.

There's plenty to like about the Pro Click, however. It offers a Type-C charging port, wireless connectivity via a 2.4 GHz dongle, 1000 Hz polling, and a high DPI of up to 30,000. It also has RGB lighting that is surprisingly tasteful.

So, hey, if you're looking for ways to make your desk setup a little easier on the joints, or you have also been accosted by a physician, the Razer Pro Click V2 might be a good shout at this price.

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To paraphrase a well-known line from a certain film, it's an older model, but it checks out. By older, I do just mean 'last generation', though Razer released the DeathAdder V3 Pro back in 2022. Four years is hardly a lifetime ago, but things have progressed very rapidly in recent times when it comes to gaming mice.

But for all your super lightweight, ultra-fast, gazillion Hz polling rate rodents, the mighty V3 Pro still stands above the crowd. Only its successor, the DeathAdder V4 Pro, is mightier. And best of all, you can now pick up a black or white V3 Pro for under $67 at Amazon.

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This particular model doesn't come with the 8,000 Hz HyperPolling dongle, but you honestly won't have any quibbles about the mouse's standard 1,000 Hz polling rate. Paired with Razer's Focus Pro 30K optical sensor, you'll have no problems keeping up in games, unless you happen to be a caffeine-injected esports twitch shooter specialist.

For the rest of us mere mortals, the lower polling rate means you can enjoy up to 90 hours of gaming before the mouse needs charging.

Due to the DeathAdder's distinct shape, this mouse is very much for right-handed people, and to be blunt, it's a very gaming-focused rodent, too. You can use it for day-to-day PC activities, of course, but the side buttons and clunky mouse wheel aren't so great for whizzing through spreadsheets or hopping back and forth in application menus.

But hey, this is PC Gamer, not PC Imma-Excel-nurd, so just buy this mouse and enjoy peerless clicking and tracking in all your favorite games. Just like Mr Bezos clearly does, because why else would he offer this great mouse at such an awesome price?

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June 26, 2026: This cracking deal on my daily driver gaming mouse is still alive and kicking. A 30% discount on this here squeaker remains tough to beat.

Sometimes the best hardware really is the bit of kit you don't have to think about. As much fun as I have with bright colourways and, you know, cat ears, even I can appreciate hardware that doesn't draw attention to itself—save for perhaps a tasty discount this Amazon Prime Day.

The Razer DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed is my daily driver, largely because its 100-hour battery means I need to think about it very infrequently. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great gaming mouse beyond that, and obviously it's now even better at 30% off during the Prime Day sale. You can now pick up my favourite squeaker for only $70 from Amazon.

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It has been very slightly cheaper than this in the past, and with a bit of luck we'll see this mouse return to that even more affordable 2025 price at some point this week—though we can't be sure. Considering the Razer is still asking for 100 bucks for the DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed, the current Prime Day deal ain't half bad, though.

Besides that beefy battery, you're also getting an extremely lightweight mouse still boasting some serious gaming chops even years after its 2024 debut. For a start, the Razer Focus X sensor onboard offers a maximum DPI of 26,000. You also get a 1,000 Hz polling rate as standard. Now, neither of those numbers are the highest out there these days, but I'd argue most don't need to go for the tippy top bracket.

For instance, Razer does offer the option to upgrade to an 8K wireless 'HyperPolling' dongle but to my mind this only makes sense for the esports pros, and even for pros it's almost certainly overkill. Swishing around this mouse in an 8K mode will also run down the otherwise impressive battery far quicker than gliding around with 1K.

And at only 55 grams, gliding really is the word with this gaming mouse. No matter how cluttered my desk becomes, no matter how little space I have to work with, using this mouse is ever a treat. Whether I'm popping headshots in 007 First Light, or simply trying to make the tastiest card play in Beastro, the DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed has yet to let me down.

If you won't take my word for it, take Nick's from his original Razer DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed review; despite being our resident ergonomic mouse diehard, Nick gave this gaming mouse the following final verdict: "More than just a cheaper version of the DeathAdder V3 Pro, this Razer mouse should be on top of any PC gamer's shopping list. Lightweight, fast, and accurate. What else do you really need?"

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As fun as a gimmick is, sometimes you just want a really-performance-focused peripheral. I've already given the exceedingly affordable Turtle Beach Burst II Air the spotlight this week, but I'm not done with no-frills gaming mice yet. If neither fun colourways nor RGB lighting moves you, then you're going to want to know about this Prime Day deal.

Weighing only 60 grams in the hands, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 isn't just light in form, but also light on price. If you can afford to push the squeaker budget boat out just a bit, this swishy, flicky gaming mouse is now only $114 on Amazon.

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Yes, if it was my money I'd absolutely pick up the pink version instead, but you won't find as good a deal on that bright colourway. Those who only feel at home around more muted hues will otherwise be pleased to read that the white version is also deeply discounted.

Looking beyond mere aesthetics though, Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 has lots else to offer. For a start, the Hero 2 sensor offers up to 32,000 DPI, plus you're getting a max polling rate of 2,000 Hz. 1,000 Hz will suit most, but those wanting just a smidge extra (and not wanting to pay a premium price for 8K) will be well covered here.

On top of that, you've also got a decently beefy battery which will last up to 95 hours from a single charge. Our Alex writes in his review, "After just over 35 hours of solid game and work usage, it was still going strong at 89% battery in my testing, so I'd expect to get much more than the quoted 95 hours."

Such an efficient, focussed mouse does have its drawbacks though. The Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 does enjoy two extra, programmable buttons along its left side, but it doesn't feature anything dedicated to changing the DPI. Instead, you've got to wade into the G Hub software to adjust it every time.

On the subject of buttons, the Superlight 2 enjoys particularly loud ones. Alex offers a bit more detail on this point, writing, "The hybrid optical-mechanical left- and right-click buttons are firm and solid, and make the ones on my old Razer Basilisk feel downright mushy in comparison. They're also loud, and I could easily hear them over music while wearing a pair of over-ear headphones. This is one mouse that really wants you to know that it's doing a great job of clicking, bless its heart."

Some cheaper alternatives...

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The Corsair Sabre V2 Pro earned a score of 92% from our reviewer, Jacob Fox, at full price. So, how does it fare now that it's been discounted by 34% 37% this Prime Day? Pretty good, I tell ya.

The mouse is currently on sale for $63 over at Amazon (only the black model has seen an extra discount since we first highlighted this one). That's a deal exclusively for Prime members, but you could always sign up, buy the mouse, and then cancel. Or you could just spend four bucks more to get it at its 'regular' sale price of $66—this regular sale price was the Prime only price just yesterday. What's that about?

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It's a good price for a good mouse either way. It has been sitting at around $70 for the past couple of weeks, before dropping down to $66 for Prime Day. Before June, it was around $80 or more. This looks to be the lowest it's ever been according to CamelCamelCamel.

You might not associate Corsair with competitive gaming mice, but it has done a superb job with the Sabre V2 Pro. It weighs just 36 grams, and if that wasn't impressive enough, it's kept the weight down without resorting to poking holes in the outer shell.

Jacob Fox says in his review: "Much the same as when I tried the G Pro X Superlight for the first time, this step down in mouse weight makes me feel like I'm fighting less against my mouse to place those headshots and keep my crosshair level when turning corners."

Of course, it's also a wireless mouse, utilising a USB dongle for a dedicated 2.4 GHz connection.

The sensor causes no trouble with accurate readings throughout our testing. It's rated to a higher DPI than most would ever even think to use at 33,000 with max acceleration at 50 g and max speed at 750 IPS. It's also rated to an 8K polling rate—another thing to brag about on paper.

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For the past week, I've spent a chunk of my day checking the major retailers for deals on gaming mice. There have been plenty of early deals, though now that Prime Day has kicked off properly, I've seen an avalanche of price drops from Jeff's big shop.

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These are all good-quality gaming mice, many of which we currently, or have previously, recommend as the best gaming mice around. It's important to us that we recommend only products that we know to be good, and so if you want to check out our reviews for these mice, just type their name into the box below.

Just note we reviewed the Mchose L7 Pro+, not the Ultra+, though it's only a slightly improved version at a slightly different weight. Still light as heck, anyways.

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The full details

In these trying techie times, an all-in-one device definitely appeals. For instance, a gaming headset is all very well and good, but a detachable microphone arm that allows me to wear it like a regular set of cans on the walk to work is a must. And if that microphone can't also crisply render my dulcet tones over a Discord stream, then what's the point? The all-in-one approach makes sense for the PC gamer's wallet, but unfortunately it hasn't fully taken hold of every peripheral arena.

That's why the Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless SE stands out. Now, within the realm of gaming mice, an MMO mouse may seem like it enjoys niche appeal at best. I'd argue that having all my Glamours in Final Fantasy XIV Online within thumb's reach is a real gamechanger, but I digress. The 16 programmable buttons along the left-side of the Corsair Scimitar Elite SE aren't just great for managing in-game rotations, they also introduce Stream Deck functionality. For only $70 from Amazon, that's a 2-in-1 device deal I can certainly get behind (and better yet, the white version is about 50 cents cheaper).

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Corsair bought Elgato way back in 2018, hence the Scimitar Elite SE's native Stream Deck capabilities. Setting aside the virtual Stream Deck integration, it helps that this is both a comfortable and powerful gaming mouse in its own right too.

The Corsair Scimitar Elite SE features a Marksman S 33k DPI optical sensor, offering precision that doesn't also swiftly drain your wireless mouse's battery. That's paired with a polling rate of 1,000 Hz which, though a little low compared to some gaming mice, is more than enough for most.

However, this may well be a gaming mouse destined for Eorzea rather than Dire Marsh at night in Marathon. Hope notes in her Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless SE review that it's not the swiftest, flickiest beast. Weighing 161 grams, it's not the heaviest mouse that will ever cross your desk, but esports fiends will likely be better off looking elsewhere.

As many of the extra buttons line this gaming mouse's right side, left-handed gamers are also not going to be particularly well-served here, either. But even if you've got an especially dextrous pinkie, this is a mouse moulded to be most comfortable in a right-handed grip.

All of that said, the Corsair Scimitar Elite Wireless SE more than deserves its best MMO gaming mouse crown. There's nothing wrong with hardware that knows what it's about—and that specialisation just makes the added Stream Deck integration all the more welcome a surprise. For about $70, this 2-in-1 device more than deserves the desk space.

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Every now and then, you encounter an element of your gaming setup that requires the no-frills approach. For instance, an all-singing, all-dancing gaming mouse isn't a huge priority for many gamers (not me though). After all, what's the point of, say, RGB lighting that's just going to be covered up by your palm?

Well, you don't have to worry about that or otherwise being distracted by dancing lights with the Turtle Beach Burst II Air. Yes, that does mean it's a bit of a plain-looking gaming mouse, but that just means it's both speedy and enjoys a long-lasting battery life. Now effectively half price at Amazon, this plain gaming mouse is definitely worth a second look at only $50.

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Weighing only 47 g and enjoying 120 hours from one full charge, the Turtle Beach Burst II Air offers plenty to keep the esports fiends happy. On top of those already very appealing features, this gaming mouse also offers DPI settings from 50 all the way up to 26,000. Make no mistake, this bit of kit has very much prioritised performance over its looks.

You can hone this feature set to your liking thanks to the Swarm II software. Unlike some peripheral software I could mention, our Kegan describes it as an "intuitive" application that makes it easy to make adjustments on the fly (though some settings such as DPS can be quickly adjusted via one of the extra buttons on the mouse's side).

He goes on to elaborate, "[With the software] you can adjust macros, change the polling rate (with four set increments ranging between 125 to 1,000), [plus] there’s a setting to change the standby mode, making it easier to conserve the device’s battery, and even a motion sync mode, designed to increase the sensor’s responsiveness."

Now, I know what you may be thinking: 'Only a 1,000 Hz polling rate? That's a bit low for a performance mouse, isn't it?' Well, Kegan read your mind all the way back in 2024 too. He writes, "While some gamers might have preferred a polling rate above 1 kHz, personally if I’m playing competitive games I want the best fps possible, so I couldn’t really complain about the Turtle Beach Burst II Air maxing out polling at 1 kHz. Not only do higher polling rates put more of a strain on your CPU but they can also drain the battery life of your mouse."

For the money, you can't say fairer than that (though the beefy 120-hour battery definitely helps). If you want to put your budget towards, say, enjoying more frills on other peripherals, this mouse won't let you down.

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For years, Logitech's egg-shaped G305 has been a budget beast, offering a comfortable feel, decent sensor, and solid shape at a reasonable price. It was so good, in fact, that it was our pick for the best budget wireless gaming mouse until the copycat Mchose G3 V2 Pro showed up. Incredibly, it claimed a spot on top of the budget gaming mouse hill for eight entire years.

Almost as if it were perturbed for losing that spot, Logitech has just launched a refresh, the G305 X Superlight, with an upgraded sensor and ever so slightly different look. Now it's got RGB that shines through a translucent patch in the base, to match the look of the G316 X 98 gaming keyboard.

But, in return for those upgrades, you are paying more money now, so it doesn't just need to be better to actually be better. It instead needs to be better for the money. Okay, I'll stop saying "be better".

That's all before mentioning that, like almost every bit of PC gaming gear, the competition has gotten fierce over the years. Logitech doesn't just need to compete with itself; it has to throw hands with a dozen other mouse brands to come out victorious.

At 59 grams, the G305 X Superlight has a pleasant feel to it. It's not very weighty at all, but there's certainly enough that it gives some resistance as I use it. The skates give resistance, too, and I'm not a fan of them. They catch just a little, sticking more to my mouse pad than I'd like. It definitely feels like more of a subjective thing, but I would like a light mouse to glide more in use, especially in snappy first-person shooters.

As well as this, I can hear a defined scratching sound with the mouse skates (we had the same problem with the Protoarc EM25 recently), which doesn't appear to do damage but can be quite annoying. Once I really started to take note of it, the mouse actively annoyed me, which is a bad sign for long-term use.

I even found myself cautious of making wide motions because it was loud enough to distract. You should be able to fix this by replacing the skates with after-market ones, but that's something you really don't want to have to do with a mouse just to get it feeling okay, especially a budget one.

One thing that I do appreciate about this mouse is its tiny visible screws on the bottom. You can get in there and replace the battery, should you want to, and easy access is a good thing, as far as repairability is concerned.

Speaking of internals, Logitech's Hero sensor is still potent. You are getting a max DPI of 44,000 here, and it's snappy and responsive enough to handle high DPIs well. It also technically supports 8,000 Hz polling, but you have to buy an optional receiver to actually use that. If doing this means getting a cheaper mouse, I actually think making 8,000 optional is a fairly smart play. It's a niche polling rate that most won't see the benefit of.

In shooter Mouse: PI for Hire, I had no problems blasting away all the baddies, and the easy-to-access DPI switch on the top of the mouse means I can flit between sensitivities with ease. The switches are satisfying to click and produce a rather loud noise in response.

I almost never found myself double-clicking, though I think part of that is the comfortable shape. It's a sturdy shell (get it? Because of the egg thing), and though it's plastic, it's certainly strong plastic. The round base means that I am often encouraged to squeeze the sides with the bottom of my palm. It's a comforting hold that feels very natural in play. I'd say it's better suited to small hands, thanks to its tiny frame, but I didn't particularly mind it with my fairly big hands, either.

At just under 60 grams, it's relatively light, though again, those skates just let it down somewhat. On a heavier frame, I can see the appeal of more catchy skates, but I really want the G305 X Superlight to feel breezy in use.

One thing I always try to test with gaming mice is Counter-Strike 2, as its short time to kill makes precise, quick aiming so important. For the most part, the G305 X performs admirably here. The sensor never cut out, and shots are easy to make.

The G305 X's specs are almost approaching competitive esports level, and that's certainly nice to have at this price point, though there will always be some compromises. For instance, moving from it to my daily driver, the 8BitDo Retro R8, it has a better sensor but worse polling, and the R8's skates gave me instant relief when I swapped. And the R8 does all of this, with an included charging dock and great aesthetics, for $30 less. I didn't realise until I'd swapped mice how much the skates impacted my enjoyment of the G305 X.

The G305 X is impressive in more than one way, though. Its 35-hour battery life is certainly quite strong. It's also the type of mouse you can just throw in a bag and bring places. I know, as I've done that. It's sturdy, light, small and comes with a small compartment on the bottom for the 2.4 GHz connector. This means it's a very neat little package.

And that package is partly so neat because of its subdued aesthetic. I've had my hands on the black one, and outside of the RGB strip at the top, it's all very understated. It looks clean on a desk and doesn't distract much from the screen. Its rounded base is not only comfortable but looks neat too.

But Logitech aren't even the only one doing that egg shape anymore. I recently had the chance to test out the rather impressive Mchose G3 V2, which comes in at less than half the price, and honestly, I'd be picking that instead if it were my cash. The 12,000 DPI in the G3 V2 is lower, but you get the same base polling, a stronger battery life, the exact same weight, and its Omron mechanical switches are very pleasant too.

That's before mentioning the G3 V2 Pro, which is around ten dollars more than the standard G3V2, comes with an upgraded sensor, and packs a 26,000 max DPI. Mchose's mouse feet are also substantially better, to me.

The G305 X Superlight does seem like a noticeable improvement over the standard G305 on paper, and in practice, it's a solid mid-range device with strong stats, a solid feel, and a clean look. However, the G305 has partly stood the test of time because you'd always find it on sale, and thanks to a price bump, the G305 X doesn't actually feel like a no-brainer upgrade, especially when the market is more vibrant, varied, and interesting than ever before.

According to one PC peripheral YouTuber, some of the best gaming mice on the market that use the latest sensors aren't sticking at the DPI they're set to (via MouseCast). At least, not when moved at a very slow speed.

An X user noted the problem a couple of years ago, pointing out the problematic feature in the firmware for some popular mouse sensors: the PixArt PAW3395, PAW3950, and PAW3399. Designed to prevent stationary cursor jitter, the 'DPI downshift' feature (as the X user phrased it) apparently works by throttling higher DPIs down to a lower one for when velocity is very low.

The potential problem with this is that one might intentionally be moving the mouse very slightly and very slowly, in which case the DPI will be lower than you've set it to and you'll get a slower movement than you might expect.

The YouTuber, pandahling, explains that there are three kinds of DPI downshift you might see. One that's binary, where it downshifts to a threshold (usually 7,500 DPI) when above this DPI and at very low velocity. The second type is caused by a profile switch in the firmware which changes things somewhat but still means that most DPI settings will be subject to downshift at low velocities.

The third kind of DPI downshift is much more slight, but apparently affects every these sensors at every DPI setting, not just at high ones. The YouTuber notes that all four PAW3950 mice they bought recently suffer from this one, as well as the Viper V4 Pro, the best gaming mouse on the market, which uses a newer, custom PixArt sensor.

The mice tested were found to have a 2–5% downshift in DPI, except for the Viper V4 Pro which was found to have a much higher 8–10% downshift. All only when at very low velocity, of course.

The graph above, from Pandahling's video, shows MouseTester results for the Viper V4 Pro at 800 DPI and 8K polling.

The vertical line on the left represents when the mouse moves quickly, and the slope on the right represents it moving the same small distance but very slowly. As you can see, there are fewer 'counts' of deviation from a stationary position when the mouse is moved slowly, which means there are fewer inputs registered by the mouse.

In other words: very slow movement means a decrease in DPI. That's why the slope ends lower on the right than it started on the left. The same distance has been travelled, but there were less dot/count registers on the slow return journey, and MouseTester therefore assumes that it hasn't returned to its starting spot.

I use a mouse with a PAW3950—the Zowie EC2-DW—and haven't noticed any problems, even when making small and slow micro-adjustments when holding an angle in Counter-Strike. But I only play at a low DPI of 800—if it's good enough for CS2 pros then it's good enough for me. And the PAW3950 seemingly doesn't suffer quite as much as the Viper V4 Pro reportedly does from this third type of DPI downshifting that occurs even at lower DPIs.

I must say, I'm not sure just how much of an effect such slight downshifting would have in practice given I don't tend to move my mouse gradually at a very low velocity—I'll have to try it out once the Viper V4 Pro is back from its merry travels at the PC Gamer offices. But one recommendation for those with an affected sensor, unless the manufacturer has fixed it in a firmware update, might be to keep your mouse DPI at least below 7,500 to make the first two types of more dramatic DPI downshift less likely.

MSI might not be the first name you think of when it comes to gaming mice, but the brand has been quietly toiling away with its peripherals in recent times and has come up with the Versa 300 Wireless 8K as its latest entry. On the face of it, with a 26,000 DPI sensor, 8000 Hz wireless polling rate and a light 66g mass, it looks as if this humble rodent could be up there with some of the best gaming mice we've tested—I've been putting it through its paces to find out.

On first impressions, the Versa 300 Wireless 8K comes across a little generic, with an all-black plastic chassis with a rougher texture and little contouring for comfort. That being said, the plastics used in its construction feel quite dense, and there's some pleasant texturing on the sides of the unit to supplement extended use.

At 66g, too, it's quite a lightweight choice, helping wrist flicks and quick movement without feeling like you're lugging around something heavy, and I'm a fan of how tactile this mouse feels with those textured surfaces, the large rubberised scroll wheel and all the rest of it.

The button placement here makes sense, with two main options: a DPI switch and a scroll wheel on top, and navigation buttons on the side. On the underside is a selector switch between Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz wireless connectivity modes, and even a little cubby hole for the USB-A receiver that this mouse comes with—neat.

You do get a small amount of RGB-based flair, with a light-up MSI logo that attempts to protrude through the rear of the chassis—it's there, but seems on the dim side. Likewise, the MSI Center software that's used to control the Versa 300 Wireless 8K is a little bereft of features, allowing you to only remap input and trigger macros, plus some more advanced features such as angle snapping and the debounce time for the mechanical Omron switches this mouse has. If you want to control that singular RGB lighting zone, you'll need to use another app—Portal X—which just seems like more needless faff.

With this in mind, Portal X is web-based, meaning you can configure the mouse across different operating systems than just Windows, although with the RGB lighting here and not in MSI Center, there isn't feature parity across both suites.

On the point of those mechanical switches, the Omrons inside here have a firm and tactile click under finger, although they feel as if they've got a longer travel than the more common hybrid or optical switches we're beginning to see on a lot of gaming mice. I don't mind this, but for outright speed and precision, you may want to look at key rivals with a different switch type.

And now to where things matter: performance. MSI has put a 26,000 DPI PixArt PAW3395 sensor inside the Versa 300 Wireless 8K, which I've tested in other gaming mice over the years, and it provides ample sensitivity and responsiveness to make my usual test runs of Counter-Strike 2 a breeze.

Admittedly, using the full 26,000 DPI on offer all the time is likely to be especially jittery, but you can move it down in software between 100 and the full 26,000 to get a more comfortable level. In my instance, that was between 1600 and 3200 DPI for more accurate aiming in Counter-Strike 2, and for more comfortable navigation in Windows.

The 8000 Hz wireless polling rate is also a pleasant move for this rodent, especially against similar rivals such as the Endgame Gear OP1w 4K and the Be Quiet! Dark Perk Ergo, for added responsiveness and potentially lower latency for the pro players who are likely to notice that sort of thing. A higher polling rate means a device reports its position and inputs more frequently (hence Hz as the measurement).

All of this combines to make this MSI choice feel responsive in shooters, such as CS2, with brisk and responsive movements and inputs with little noticeable latency that make this a strong choice for FPS titles. The switches inside are mechanical ones rated for up to 60 million actuations, making them a durable choice for even the hastiest of spam clickers when you need to get a shot off first.

Connectivity is handled either by Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz, with the latter supporting the 8000 Hz wireless polling rate. The fact that this mouse also comes with Bluetooth adds some versatility against the competition, which eschews that in favour of outright performance in one device. I found the mouse's connection over either method to be reliable and stable, using Bluetooth on my MacBook Pro and the bundled receiver on my Windows gaming PC.

As for battery life, MSI rates the Versa 300 Wireless 8K to run for up to 196 hours via 2.4 GHz at a more standard 1000 Hz polling rate. Up it to 8000 Hz, and you'll throw a lot of that endurance away, with my testing putting it at around 75 hours at full pelt. That's still not bad against other choices, which tend to have a larger drop-off when you run them at full power.

And then we come to quite a useful piece of information I've purposefully left out—price. MSI has attached a $100/£60 price tag to the Versa 300 Wireless 8K, making it surprisingly affordable against rivals mentioned above for the feature set on offer here. On the whole, it helps this choice stand out if you're after a powerful and lightweight rodent for FPS titles that doesn't break the bank.

With this in mind, I think other options from the likes of Endgame Gear or SteelSeries look a little more eye-catching and have stronger software features for a similar outlay. This MSI one does well on features and performance, although I think it lacks a certain polish to make it a real top contender.

If you're looking for an ergonomic PC mouse, you're probably already considering the Logitech MX Master 3S, or the Logitech MX Master 4. I've used both as my main productivity meeces for extended periods of time, and can tell you that either make for excellent picks. But, if they're a little pricey for your liking, ProtoArc has made an ergo mouse with many similar design features for much, much less.

The result is the ProtoArc EM25, a wireless ergonomic mouse that knows what it's about. Right from the off, it screams "budget MX Master" from the nearest rooftop. It's got a similar chassis shape, an extended thumb rest, two scroll wheels (one with a clutch, no less), quiet main switches—the whole kit and kaboodle. The problem is, at every turn, this mouse reminds you of why the Logi mice are brilliant, and why this one doesn't meet the mark.

It's got all the right features on paper, but most of them prove to be a disappointment in practice. It's also got some odd material choices, some strange-feeling mechanisms, and an overall lack of refinement. Dancing around this mouse's various controls over the past few weeks has caused me to pull a vast array of facial expressions, and none of them have been a smile. Almost every control here feels slightly wrong, in a plethora of different ways.

There's a certain solidity to the chassis design that makes the EM25 verge towards consideration—especially given its very reasonable $50/£29 price tag. However, unless you're absolutely desperate for an MX Master-a-like for less, I can think of lots of less-ergo, but much better standard mice for your money.

Features

3.5

Ergonomics

1

Performance

2.5

Aesthetics

4

Software

2

Value

2

Group 1 Data

Product	Features ()	Ergonomics ()	Performance ()	Aesthetics ()	Software ()	Value ()
ProtoArc EM25 gaming mouse	3.5	1	2.5	4	2	2

We scored the ProtoArc EM25 out of five in six distinct categories.

ProtoArc EM25 features

The ProtoArc EM25 is an ergonomically-shaped mouse with a clutch-controlled main scroll wheel, a horizontal side scroll wheel, and an enlarged thumbrest on the left hand side, à la the Logitech MX Master 3S/4. It's also got twin forward and back buttons, and a small button mounted on the front left corner for switching between its Bluetooth and regular 2.4 GHz connections, the latter of which makes use of a small (some would say, nano-sized) dongle.

Said dongle can be retrieved from the bottom of the mouse via a magnetically-sealed hatch compartment, which is a nice touch. The polling rate is switchable, topping out at 1,000 Hz.

The sensor is an 8000 DPI max optical unit, while the battery is a 500 mAh internal rechargeable model. ProtoArc doesn't list the battery life in among the specs, but I've only had to charge my review sample once (straight from the box) over several weeks of on and off testing.

Software comes in the form of a web app rather than an installed application, which I'll be going into a bit later. And, again like the MX Master 3S and 4S, it's got quiet click switches underneath the main left and right buttons, for your serene, productivity-clicking needs.

The weight isn't listed on the product page, but some searching around suggests it's about 90 grams. What I will say is that the EM25 is light enough to give my scales trouble measuring it, and it feels significantly less porky than the 150g MX Master 4.

Still, it's definitely built for productivity purposes—those looking for something fast and genuinely light would be better off elsewhere.

Plenty of control options

Features

3.5

Plenty of control options Data

Product	Value
Features	3.5

ProtoArc EM25 ergonomics

Testing out all of the buttons, wheels, and ergonomic features of the ProtoArc EM25 is something of an adventure, and that's because almost all of them, in some form or fashion, feel a bit… wrong. I'm going to need to go through them individually here, because each is worthy of note.

Let's start off with the good. The two main switches underneath the left and right buttons feel very positive. They're quiet, too, while still providing plenty of clicky feedback. You can tell most of the money went into these two switch units, and that's a sensible place to put it. They're the ones you'll be interacting with most, after all.

Then there are the traditional forward and back thumb buttons on the left hand side. These are hollow-feeling, bendy, and springy in all the wrong ways. Still, there's a positive click underneath them, and I'm sure you'd stop noticing their drawbacks over time.

My true ire, however, begins with the big orange clutch button behind the main scrollwheel. It's got an astonishingly long travel, a surprising amount of springy resistance, and seems to engage and disengage the scrollwheel clutch at differing points, somewhere along the way.

There's a physical mechanism working behind the scenes to switch the scroll wheel from free scroll into a more clicky affair, unlike Logitech's magnetic solution, and the difference is pretty stark. Which brings me on to the main wheel itself.

In free scroll mode, it feels disconcertingly light. So much so that it can be quite difficult to control, and the wheel moves from side-to-side in its housing more than I'd like. In ratcheted mode, it feels slightly graunchy and overly-loud, although fairly positive. The middle click, though, takes far too much force to activate, and results in the wheel inadvertently moving as you press down on it.

Despite all this, my biggest critique has to be left for the skates on the underside. They look acceptable in person, and feel fine when you run a finger over them. But, no matter the mouse pad, it feels like there's a raised edge somewhere that should have been sanded down.

I can actually hear (and feel) this mouse scraping against my smooth Corsair pad as I move. I'll be honest, that's a new one on me. And I've tested lots and lots of budget mice over the years. Unmute the video below and turn your sound up for an example:

Shape-wise? It's actually quite nice to palm, and perfectly fine for fingertip usage, too. I'm not convinced by the satin-style finish, though, which is a bit tacky. And by that, I mean literally. Tacky, as in it tacks against your skin. Eesh.

Oh, and there's a side scroll wheel as well, which is somehow totally different-feeling and yet similar to the main scroll wheel itself. It's… fine. A little loose, a little hollow-feeling, a little tinny. But fine. Mercy me.

The main switches are fine, but as for the rest? Nope.

Ergonomics

1

The main switches are fine, but as for the rest? Nope. Data

Product	Value
Ergonomics	1

ProtoArc EM25 performance

At no point does ProtoArc advertise the EM25 as a gaming mouse, and given its specs, I don't think many will be buying it for such a purpose.

However, I game with the Logitech MX Master 4 all the time, as it's perfectly reasonable to use for several thousand turns of Civ 7, or a slower-paced, singleplayer shooter. So, I thought I'd try out the EM25 for the same purpose. And you know what? It's also fine.

However, the MouseTester charts above show some odd inconsistencies in the polling rate, although I can't say I noticed the mouse feeling particularly laggy or inconsistent in practice. It's not super-accurate or particularly fast to respond, but it's decent enough to get by. Can you do some light gaming with an EM25? Yes. Should you? Probably not.

For day to day usage, the sensor feels smooth and reasonably accurate, and I've had no dropout issues with either the 2.4 GHz or the Bluetooth connection. In terms of the internal, movement-tracking components, this mouse delivers acceptable performance for a pure productivity squeaker. In terms of the experience of actually using it, see all the ergonomic issues above.

Acceptable, for an ergo mouse

Performance

2.5

Acceptable, for an ergo mouse Data

Product	Value
Performance	2.5

ProtoArc EM25 aesthetics

Despite the drawbacks of the satin finish in terms of hand-feel, the coating actually looks pretty great in photos, and in person, too. I also like how the EM25 is highly reminiscent of Logitech's offerings, while having a neater, tidier design of its own.

The orange button sticking out of the top also adds a nice splash of colour to the black-and-chrome aesthetic. It's a mouse that looks good on your desk, that's for sure. I just wish it felt anywhere near as good when I put my hands on it.

Quite the looker, it must be said

Aesthetics

4

Quite the looker, it must be said Data

Product	Value
Aesthetics	4

ProtoArc EM25 software

Your software options here are webpage-based, which, on my Chrome browser, renders all the text in a Times New Roman font. I know that's a small thing to point out, but it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the design. However, there are plenty of options to reassign button functions, create macros, and tweak the general settings of the mouse. By default, the EM25 sets itself to a 250 Hz polling rate, but it can be upped to the full 1,000 Hz here.

Despite the functionality, the interface really does feel basic, with some confusingly-labelled features. An "Advanced Controls" tab allows you to switch on "maximum sensor performance" for limited amounts of time, from 10 seconds to half an hour.

It "runs the sensor at peak performance with high LED brightness" says the menu page, although with a warning of increased power consumption. Fair enough. I've left it off for my testing, as you can only enable it for a 30 minute maximum, and in my opinion, you're bound to forget the option exists. You can also adjust the click debounce time, or activate an Extended Range Mode which supposedly boosts the range from 8-10 meters to 10-12, again, diminishing battery life.

I tested it, and I couldn't tell the difference in terms of using the mouse from different ranges. Still, it manages to transmit successfully over the whole distance of my large front room with the setting turned off, so hooray for a bit of extra juice.

Barebones, and full of head-scratching moments

Software

2

Barebones, and full of head-scratching moments Data

Product	Value
Software	2

ProtoArc EM25 value

I really want to like the ProtoArc EM25, honestly I do. I've used lots of 'Amazon special' gaming mice and ergo mice over the years, particularly as I enjoy a quiet mouse for sociable gaming, and there aren't too many big brand options.

You know all those $20-$30 "silent mouse" options in the listings from manufacturers you've never heard of? I've tried a lot of them. My drawers are absolutely full of the not-so-squeaky squeakers, alongside the many high-end, mid-range, and budget gaming mice I've tested at PC Gamer.

Honestly? I'd take almost any of them over the EM25. It might be cheap, but it really hasn't made me cheerful. And while I appreciate the effort that's been taken to make an MX Master competitor for a more reasonable price point, the end result is something I've found very disappointing.

It's got the MX Master's rough shape and feature set—but in terms of value, I really think you'd be better off looking elsewhere. The sensor is fine, the main button switches are decent, and it looks good on your desk. But I could say the same of many other ultra-budget mice that are even cheaper than this one.

The question I'd be asking myself, if I was considering one of these, is whether I really need those trick scroll wheels in combination with the quiet switches and an ergo shape. If yes, then it's the Logitech MX Master offerings for you.

If you just need a cheap, comfortable-yet-not-ergo mouse, though, how about the Mchose G3 V2? Or this Inphic cheapo-beepo unit I've been messing around with recently. It's $20, it's got a thumb rest, quiet switches, and a single scroll wheel that's perfectly acceptable. Or, if you've decided to save some more pennies and want an ergo mouse that's a bit different (yet still cheaper than the Masters), what about the weird and wonderful Keychron M5?

Overall, it's very difficult to recommend the ProtoArc EM25, unless you must have an MX Master-alike for around $50. Even then, I'd say saving your cash for the real thing is a much better bet.