Tech_Advisor_-_November_2019

104 TECH ADVISOR • NOVEMBER 2019

GAMING SPECIAL

keeping the fingertips and rear of the palm in contact.

This allows for quicker button pressing and slightly

quicker movement, but puts more strain on your wrists.

Fingertip grip: The most agile grip also puts the most

strain on your wrists. Fingertip grip, as the name

implies, involves guiding the mouse with only your

fingertips – no palm contact at all. Generally, a mouse

that works for a claw grip will work for a fingertip grip.

The main distinction is between palm and claw grips.

Other factors

Button count: You’ll pretty much never find a three-

button gaming mouse. Even the budget-friendly

devices we’ve tested have five to 10 buttons.

Sensor: Dots per inch, or dpi, is a measure of how

many pixels the mouse moves on-screen per each inch

of desk you move it across. Some people prefer to

make large, sweeping motions with a lot of precision,

necessitating a low dpi. Others want fast, jerky motions

that start and stop on a penny – high dpi. The latter

group will want to pay particular attention to each

mouse’s limit.

At this point, the dpi arms race has become largely

meaningless. Manufacturers push numbers that are so

high as to be impractical for most people’s day-to-day

use. Is that 16,000dpi mouse more useful to you than

the 12,000dpi mouse? Probably not.

Shape: There are three main categories here, too: right-

handed, left-handed, and ambidextrous. We’ve looked

104 TECH ADVISOR • NOVEMBER 2019

GAMING SPECIAL

keeping the fingertips and rear of the palm in contact.

This allows for quicker button pressing and slightly

quicker movement, but puts more strain on your wrists.

Fingertip grip: The most agile grip also puts the most

strain on your wrists. Fingertip grip, as the name

implies, involves guiding the mouse with only your

fingertips – no palm contact at all. Generally, a mouse

that works for a claw grip will work for a fingertip grip.

The main distinction is between palm and claw grips.

Other factors

Button count: You’ll pretty much never find a three-

button gaming mouse. Even the budget-friendly

devices we’ve tested have five to 10 buttons.

Sensor: Dots per inch, or dpi, is a measure of how

many pixels the mouse moves on-screen per each inch

of desk you move it across. Some people prefer to

make large, sweeping motions with a lot of precision,

necessitating a low dpi. Others want fast, jerky motions

that start and stop on a penny – high dpi. The latter

group will want to pay particular attention to each

mouse’s limit.

At this point, the dpi arms race has become largely

meaningless. Manufacturers push numbers that are so

high as to be impractical for most people’s day-to-day

use. Is that 16,000dpi mouse more useful to you than

the 12,000dpi mouse? Probably not.

Shape: There are three main categories here, too: right-

handed, left-handed, and ambidextrous. We’ve looked