The Ultimate Mouse Thread - Page 26

Hello TL!

I have dedicated most of my past week-end to finding a new mouse, something I'm rather obsessive about. I'm usually ready to go through a number of mice and, if they do not suit me, return them if they are still in pristine state or sell them on ebay otherwise. To make my choice I have relied a lot on the testimonies of fellow nerds around the world, including those inhabiting these fine forums, so I thought I'd contribute a little.

In this post I'm going to talk about the Razer Abyssus (standard and mirror), the Logitech M100, and the Logitech G300. My apologies in advance for the wall of text that is sure to follow.

I like small and light mice for a fingertip kind of grip, preferably without side buttons. My game of choice is Starcraft 2. My mousepad is an old but trusty Speedpad Anthracite (it seems to be sold under numerous brands, I can't remember mine). In this past decade I have gone from an Intellimouse 1.1a to a Logitech G1 to a Razer Diamondback 3G the scroll wheel of which has recently died on me after a little more than three years of use, prompting my search for a successor.

Although disappointed that the mouse "only" lasted three years (a decent number I guess considering my intensive use of it, but paling in comparison to the Intellimouse and the G1 which I have given to relatives and which are still going strong), I thought I'd have another go at a Razer mouse since the Diamondback was so satisfying in all other respects.

I looked at Razer's current lineup of mice and found that its only small and light mouse seemed to be the Abyssus. I first went for the "mirror edition", the one with a glossy finish, since I'm easily impressed by shiny things. I could not stand it.
Nearly everything about it was perfect. It glided well; it was the first time I ever tried a mouse that could go over 1800 dpi so setting it to 3200 dpi and then lowering the sensitivity for better precision was a rather exhilarating feeling, and the buttons were easy to push and responsive. Unfortunately, the "glossy" finish made it sticky and the mouse quickly began to feel hot in my hand after holding for just a few minutes. Also, the razer software was buggy; it automatically increased the number of lines each scroll wheel increment scrolled through on each windows startup (3 became 10, and if you left it that way 10 became 30...), an issue a quick google search will tell you is shared by many users. This is a minor point, however, as the Razer software is not necessary for optimal usage of the mouse.

Since the glossy plastic seemed to be the only problem with the mirror Abyssus, I thought the standard one would be perfect for me, but that was not the case. Once again, everything about it was excellent, except this time the buttons turned out to be very stiff. By that, I mean you have to apply quite a bit of pressure for them to register your command, which quickly becomes annoying.

At that point I decided to look for a non-Razer mouse. All their other mice looked huge, and I had become disenchanted with that brand. The only product I had bought from them had ceased to function much quicker than those I had purchased from its competitors; I did not understand how their software could still be buggy more than one year after release, and I couldn't get over that special "mirror" edition since I can't imagine how anyone would find its texture superior in any way. ("hey here is the special edition of our latest mouse, and by special we mean shitty.") I might be nit-picky but that was enough for me to look elsewhere.

I turned my attention to the Logitech mice my store of choice held, and was dismayed to notice its only small mouse seemed to be their low-end, 10€ worth, Logitech M100. Still I looked for feedback from fellow TLers and was surprised to find a lot of praise in its favor and therefore decided to bring one home with me. Unfortunately, my experience with it was quite horrendous. I don't know if mine was faulty or if the people who like it are only those who came from the Mini Optical, but I found that it didn't glide well, that it lacked precision, and that its texture was not all that pleasant (not as bad as the mirror Abyssus but not nearly as good as the standard Abyssus or the Diamondback).

Now growing more and more desperate and thinking that I'd have to settle for a big mouse, I went back to the store and studied every mouse they had, putting my hand over each one of them while still in their packaging, looking for one that didn't feel as bad to hold as the others while looking utterly stupid in the process (oh well, haters gonna hate).

I realized that the Logitech G300 was not as big as I had initially thought. I had previously discarded it because its shape suggested to me that it was a palm grip kind of mouse, but I now realized that it wasn't. The R.A.T. mice also looked appealing but I settled on the G300 purely because of my fond memories of the G1.

Well, I'm very happy with this mouse and this post is getting rather longish so I'm just gonna list the pros and cons and wrap this up:

+excellent texture, on the top *and* on the sides (which is not the case of the Abyssus, even the standard one has glossy plastic on the sides)
+smooth gliding
+responsive buttons
+two pretty LEDs that can go from red to green to blue at the touch of one of the many additional buttons. Now, as a shallow Frenchman, I find simply being able to change the color of the mouse enough to warrant the presence of a button dedicated to it, but it turns out you can save three different settings profiles in the mouse's memory and the color tells you which one you are currently using
+great customization. You can set the DPI through 50dpi increments (but it only goes up to 2500); you can separate the dpi of the X axis from the dpi of the Y axis; you can change the dpi on the fly with one of the additional buttons, and you can chose how many dpi levels you want to have at your disposal (up to five) etc.

-the only con is its schizophrenic shape. Its shape suggests palm grip but its size says fingertip or claw grip. There's a certain awkwardness to controlling this mouse at first because of that but I ceased to notice it after about one hour of use.

Also, the sensor is not located at the center of the mouse. I've heard people lamenting that but I personally can't see any difference.

Overall I'm really loving this mouse and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes small mice. I'm sorry I couldn't go more in depth about the customization and the additional buttons (6 in total), but I just don't use these fancy doodads.

If you had the courage of going through this post and have any question I'll be happy to oblige. I obviously still have the G300 at my disposal, but also the M100 and the standard Abyssus for a week until the auction is over if you want me to test anything.

Cheers.