Did you purchase a new gaming PC and are now finding yourself looking for a new ergonomic gaming mouse? Hopefully, you’ve been asking yourself a bunch of questions about what you’re looking for in a gaming mouse.
Like so many other gamers, you’re probably looking to gain a competitive advantage and improve your gaming performance. This guide will help guide you to ask the right questions and give you some direction on how to choose the right ergonomic gaming mouse for you.
Ergonomic Impacts & Grip Types
Most gamers will spend countless hours playing at their gaming desk with their hands cradling the mouse. During these gaming sessions, you should feel comfortable while also considering how to protect your hands from getting hurt. When picking out a gaming mouse, you have to think about if the design is ergonomic for your playing style. Figuring out what gaming mouse grip style that’s best for you is simple.
Identifying the Right Grip
There are three main types of mouse grips for an ergonomic gaming mouse:
Palm Grip
Palm grip mice fit into the palm of your hand and are more comfortable for long periods of use. Plus, they’re best used for massively multiply online (MMO) style gaming, which needs an accurate and delicate glide control. Palm grip mice feature a relaxed and natural grip for a resting hand, and they are usually wider than the other two mouse grip styles. This style of an ergonomic gaming mouse is the most popular grip style on the market, and they are often sold for non-gaming purposes as well.
Claw Grip
The claw grip mouse requires a tighter grip than the palm grip style and is best suited for real-time strategy (RTS) games where the mouse is moved across the entire screen. This type of ergonomic gaming mouse style causes the hand to arch up, which makes fewer contact points with the mouse than with a palm grip mouse. This causes your hand to form a claw shape. Claw grip mice are shorter in length and thinner than the palm grip mouse.
Fingertip Grip
A fingertip grip mouse is designed to only provide contact points for your pointer, middle finger, and thumb tips. These three fingers will control the movement of the mouse, rather than the entire palm. This style of ergonomic gaming mouse is great for first-person shooter (FPS) games that require swift movements and twitch reactions. This type of mouse is hard to get used to at first, but as you continue to use it, you’ll find that it gets easier. The fingertip grip mouse is the shortest in length and has the lightest weight of all three grip styles.
Features to Consider
When shopping for a new ergonomic gaming mouse, it’s important to consider the following features.
Mouse Weight
You should consider the weight of the mouse when you go to purchase a new ergonomic gaming mouse. Some mice have weight systems that make it so gamers can remove or add weight to the mouse. The weight of the mouse helps make the gestures and movements of the mouse more precise and fluid.
Programmable Button Configurations
There are power and value in customizing your ergonomic gaming mouse’s additional buttons. You can create shortcuts to help you when you’re playing a game. Some games don’t allow certain macro functions to be configured, so it’s something that you should look into when playing multiplayer games online.
Form
The best way to choose a good shape for your ergonomic gaming mouse is to try it out, but if you can’t, it’s best to take a look at the ratings and ergonomics. You want to try to find something that feels comfortable in your hand or will provide you with great ergonomics.
Size
When it comes to an ergonomic gaming mouse, there are three main sizes: Large, standard, and small. Standard is the recommended size for a claw grip mouse, and if you want to go with a palm grip, it should ideally be large. The basics of this feature are to find an ergonomic gaming mouse that’s the right size for your hand, so if you have a small hand, the standard size or small size would be best for you.
Technical Aspects
There are more features that you should look at other than the ones listed above – although those are very important things to consider!
These additional features include the cord type, unless you’re getting a wireless ergonomic gaming mouse, the cord’s material, the drag impact of the cord, and the length of the cord. This is just one example of a technical aspect that you might want to think about before purchasing an ergonomic gaming mouse.
Sensor Type
There are three different laser sensor types, and you’ll find that the differences between each of them are minimal. The three types are laser, infrared, and optical.
In addition to this, it’s essential to know the distance at which they stop reading when you lift the mouse. Less than 5mm is the appropriate range to go for because then you can lift and readjust the location of the mouse without losing connection. This information, however, isn’t often told by the manufacturer.
DPI or Points Per Inch
This measurement is what allows the mouse to find the difference between two points and is typically used to describe the sensitivity of the mouse. There is a small camera that is used to read the surface where the mouse passes. A mouse with a higher DPI will cover more screen distance with a small movement of your hand. Mouse DPI’s bottoms out around 200 and can go up to 8,200.
If an optical and laser mouse has 2000 DPI, they are just as accurate. Although it depends on the quality of the mouse. The accuracy could vary, and that’s where the refresh rate comes into the decision-making process. The laser can achieve higher precision, whereas the optical cannot, but at the same DPI, the sensitivity of the mouse is the same.
Fixed DPI vs. Adjustable
Most mice have on setting for DPI. The common mouse hovers around 800 DPI, which makes them great for productivity but not so much for gaming.
Ergonomic Gaming Mouse Refresh Rate
DPI’s are important, but then there’s the number of images per second that the mouse camera takes as you glide it across a surface. If your mouse takes only a few images per second, no matter how sensitive it is, you won’t be able to enjoy it properly.
Having a refresh rate of more than 500Hz is not usually taken advantage of, so you probably don’t need anything more powerful than that.
Acceleration
The acceleration of an ergonomic gaming mouse should be 1:1 and should be disabled, the problem with this is that sometimes Windows or games will activate the acceleration by default. There are some applications on the internet that work on eliminating all these inconveniences that can make it harder for gamers to pay.
Handed vs. Ambidextrous
Most ergonomic gaming mice are ambidextrous or can be used by either hand. High-end ambidextrous gaming mice do exist, and they can have extra buttons on both the right and left side with grooves on both sides to accommodate the ring finger and thumb.
Mice that are made specifically with right- or left-handed users in mind tend to be more ergonomic and have extra buttons on the side that make use of the thumb or ring finger.
Last-Minute Details
There are a couple more details that we didn’t mention earlier that you should also keep in mind when buying a new ergonomic gaming mouse.
Price: Cheaper mice are made with lower build quality, whereas the more expensive versions are going to have higher build quality. Remember that you get what you pay for. This doesn’t mean that you can’t find a great ergonomic gaming mouse in the lower price ranges, but in most cases, the rule of thumb applies.
Left-Handed Mice: If you’re left-handed, you have to be very careful before purchasing an ergonomic gaming mouse. Before you buy, you want to verify that the mouse was designed to be used by the left-hand or is ambidextrously designed. Otherwise, you’ll find that your performance and comfort will take a nosedive.
Extra Buttons: If you’re into MMO’s or games that consist of repetitive actions, you’ll want to find a mouse that is designed with programmable buttons.
Mousepad: Mousepads will help your ergonomic gaming mouse’s performance. Avoid using your mouse on bad surfaces and invest in a mousepad, there are so many available on the market, and the majority of them are very affordable.
Final Thoughts
There are so many things to consider when you go to purchase a great ergonomic gaming mouse. If you take all of these things into consideration, we’re sure that you’ll find the best ergonomic gaming mouse for your needs.
