THERE are a few things to note about mice made for PC games. The first thing is that while gaming mice are good enough for every day use, they are geared towards making the game-playing experience easier for the hardcore gamer.
This means that due to latency concerns, you very rarely find gaming mice which are wireless.
Similarly, if you like your scroll wheel smooth and without detents, then (with the exception of the Logitech G9) you're not going to find it in a gaming mouse.
On the upside, gaming mice are made to withstand quite a bit of abuse, so they will normally last longer than normal mice, although you have to be prepared to pay a premium for this durability.
The other thing common in modern game mice is a very high resolution - typically, modern gaming mice have maximum resolution rates from 1,800dpi (dots per inch) all the way up to a whopping 4,000dpi in some models.
Most people think that the higher the dpi the better the accuracy of the mouse. In actual fact, a higher dpi means that you have a cursor that moves really fast across the screen and this is actually only useful if you have a large monitor where you want to move the cursor across a 2,560 x 1,600-pixel screen faster without sacrificing accuracy.
However, high dpi mice are less useful when you have a low-resolution screen where all this speed would only be counter-productive at high dpi settings, whether in games or normal use.
When not playing games, a setting of 800dpi is actually the most comfortable setting to use for a mouse.
With that out of the way, we will now take a look at three of the best high-end gaming mice available in the local market today.
I AM not just being diplomatic when I say that when it comes to gaming mice, there really isn't a clear winner - whizz-bang features aside, a lot depends on how large your hand is and the way you hold the mouse.
Each of the gaming mice here have their own strengths - the Microsoft SideWinder and the Logitech G9 for example, are highly customisable, while the Razer Lachesis works for both left- and right-handers and has very good tracking and the highest resolution of any mouse currently on the market.
My verdict then is this: If you have medium- to-small size hands like me, then the Logitech G9 is a very good choice. You probably won't find a mouse as customisable with so many features as the G9 right now.
For larger hands, the choice has to be the Microsoft SideWinder - while it wasn't a good fit for my small hands, the SideWinder is great for larger hands and has nearly as many customisation options as the G9.
The Lachesis then, is for the left-handed game player, or for those who need the fast 4,000dpi settings. For left-handers who may not like the strange shape of the Lachesis, Razer also has a large array of ambidextrous-design mice to fit you.
