Buyer's Guide: The Best Mice

The perfect mouse works on all surfaces, feels comfortable in your hand, and is responsive and precise. As you'll see, technology packed mice can get quite expensive. Here are a few things to look out for when shopping for a new mouse:

- Sensor: while the good old red LED sensors are certainly cheap, they do usually mean that you'll need a mouse mat. Laser sensors (and related technology like BlueTrack, Blackfield etc.) are more accurate.

- 400 to 6000 dpi: the higher the dpi, the faster the cursor will move onscreen. In games, it can be useful to drop down to 400 dpi. For day-to-day office computing, 1200 dpi is perfectly fine. We wouldn't recommend you go any higher than 1600 dpi.

- 125 to 1000 Hz: this is the frequency with which a mouse reports its position to the computer, otherwise known as the polling rate. The higher this figure, the more precise a mouse will be, although it'll also use more of your processor's resources. We recommend sticking to 500 Hz.

- Other: anyone who finds they have an aching hand or wrist after a whole day using a mouse should look for a longer model—measuring over 12 cm—with a higher casing. This will keep your wrist supported up off the desk.

With these factors in mind, here's our pick of the best mice out there right now.

Editor's Choice

Logitech's G500 is the best mouse for all kinds of users, not just for gamers. It feels comfortable to handle and has a scroll wheel that can be set to spin round freely or click round in steps. Plus, it offers precision navigation, comes with a feature-rich driver and its laser sensor has no trouble tracking very fast movements.

Two Alternatives

Best of the Rest

Here are a few more of our favourites.