Skip to main content

What kind of mouse do you use most on a daily basis?

best gaming mouse razer lancehead
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Most shoppers choose a computer based on the processing speeds, storage capacity, and features like a touchscreen, good keyboard, or inking capabilities. However, just as important as choosing a keyboard with the right key travel, having a proper mouse can make your computing experience more pleasurable — a poorly designed touchpad on a laptop or a finicky desktop mouse can wreak havoc on ergonomics, inducing wrist-related injuries over prolonged use.

On the laptop side, manufacturers like Apple builds its MacBooks with larger touchpads to make navigating the operating system easier and perform gestures. With Windows, even though touchscreens help reduce the reliance on touchpads , the cursor remains a vital component to that experience, so having a good mouse on call, whether you’re using a desktop or a laptop, is important.

Recommended Videos

So how do you like to click with your computer? Whether you’re a serious gamer, a data cruncher relying on a mobile workstation, or a casual desktop user, an external mouse provides lots of benefits — more precise tracking, vibration feedback, and some even come with wireless charging — not the least of which is improved ergonomics.

According to the results of our poll so far, it looks like a lot of people enjoy the convenience of a wireless mouse most. It’s followed up closely by non-mouse users who rely solely on their laptop’s touchpad to interact with their computer, as well as traditional wired mouse users. As mouse technology continues to improve with more precision tracking, you have a lot of different options in both wireless and wired mice.

In last place was gaming mice, which isn’t too shocking. While they’re the most technologically advanced input devices, they’re often gaudy and inappropriate for the office or coffee shop setting. But if you’re a gamer, you’ll no doubt enjoy the programmable buttons and more precise input. A few even offer programmable lighting and vibration feedback.

There’s a few other niche tracking methods we’ve left out, such as the trackball. You might think not, but the trackball is still very much alive and well, thanks to Logitech’s MX Ergo. In terms of other unorthodox pointing methods, you can also still buy business class laptops from Lenovo with the legendary red ThinkPad trackpoint.

Regardless of whatever solution “clicks” with you, just remember that it should do what you need — which is to track your cursor accurately — and to provide you with comfort to minimize wrist injury.

Chuong Nguyen
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
LG’s new Gram Pro finally looks like a serious MacBook Pro rival
An LG Gram laptop on a table.

Just ahead of CES, LG has announced a refresh to its Gram Pro lineup, as well as launched a budget-friendly Gram Book. The tweaked Gram Pro laptops are the most exciting, though, with the the LG Gram Pro 17 catching my eye.

First off, it's been thinned out a bit, dropping down to 0.62 inches thick, which is almost the same thickness as the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The LG Gram Pro 17 is also a full pound and a half lighter than the MacBook Pro, both of which are striving to be one of the best laptops you can buy.

Read more
Nvidia’s new GPUs show up in prebuilts, but the RTX 5090 is missing
iBUYPOWER RTX for AI PCs side view of pre-built on sale hero

Nvidia's upcoming RTX 5080 and RTX 5070 Ti just appeared in several iBUYPOWER gaming PCs. This is the first U.S. retailer to list Nvidia's RTX 50-series in prebuilt systems. The listings are interesting, with performance figures that really don't add up. Still, the biggest question is: Where's the GPU that's bound to beat all the current best graphics cards? Yes, we're talking about RTX 5090.

The listings have already been taken down, but they were preserved by VideoCardz. A total of five systems were listed by iBUYPOWER, but they all contained the same two GPUs -- either the RTX 5080 or the RTX 5070 Ti. Both cards are said to come with 16GB of memory, and we expect them to be announced on January 6 during the CES 2025 keynote held by Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang.

Read more
OLED gaming monitors are about to get a lot brighter
Path of Exile 2 running on an Asus gaming monitor.

One of the biggest criticisms leveled against OLED monitors, despite being some of the best gaming monitors you can buy, is how dim they are. Although brightness is steadily increasing, it looks like the next crop of OLED gaming monitors will make quite the leap when it comes to HDR performance. Ahead of CES 2025, VESA has revealed a new tier of its DisplayHDR standard that's focused squarely on the brightness of OLED monitors.

The certification is DisplayHDR True Black 1,000. Most OLED gaming monitors, such as the MSI MPG 321URX or Alienware 27 QD-OLED, are certified with DisplayHDR True Black 400. This certification level is reserved for OLED -- or extremely high-end mini-LED -- displays that achieve nearly perfect black levels. According to VESA's specifications, the display has to reach 0.0005 nits with a checkboard pattern. Now, VESA is focusing on the other end of the spectrum, adding a more demanding tier that maintains those low black levels while pushing brightness higher.

Read more