Modern gaming mice are packed with cutting-edge features, supposedly improving gamers’ prowess and making them better players. While certain features, like wireless connectivity and ultralight designs, have undoubtedly benefited players, others are less useful and are more like marketing gimmicks designed to make sales.
It can be hard to tell which features you need because the best gaming mice brands advertise faster sensors, brighter lighting, and other specs, which sound impressive when you hear about them. Luckily, you won’t fall for the hype again after reading our list of five overrated gaming mice features you probably don’t need.
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5
RGB lighting
An unnecessary distraction
RGB lighting on gaming mice ranges from discrete strips to in-your-face logos with throbbing effects. Either way, it is only for aesthetic reasons and its questionable benefits do nothing to improve performance. I get the idea of subtle lighting to match your keyboard or setup, but brands often go overboard with tacky customizable effects that aren’t needed and add unwanted weight and complexity to the mouse.
Some new gaming mice have over 10 individual zones and numerous effects, such as wave, breathing, cycling, and others, to make them stand out. These effects are distracting yet marketed as extra features to justify premium pricing. RGB lighting also reduces the battery life on wireless mice, and choosing between more playtime or rainbow ripples is an easy decision for most players.
4
High DPI Sensors
How far can you go?
Maximum DPI is prominently featured in gaming mouse advertising, and brands compete to see which offers the highest speed. We all love innovation and new features, but they only make sense if they’re usable and practical for players. Some of the latest gaming mice boast 25,000 to 30,000 or even 42,000 DPI sensors, which they claim offer superior tracking, improved accuracy, and unrivaled precision.
The truth is that these are just marketing strategies for brands to show that they’re doing something new to get buyers to part with their hard-earned cash. Most players are comfortable with a DPI between 800 and 3,000 DPI, depending on their games, and even 8,000 seems a stretch for users with ultra-wide monitors. A high-DPI sensor only adds to the mouse’s cost, and you probably won’t use it to its full capacity.
3
Extreme polling rates
Most players won’t notice the difference
Credit-Pocket-lint
Until recently, a 1,000Hz polling rate was the standard for gaming mice, and it was good enough for casual and competitive players alike. Brands now offer 4,000 to 8,000Hz models and make dubious claims about reducing latency and increasing responsiveness. These claims might be somewhat truthful, but they require specific circumstances that won’t apply to all but the most dedicated players.
To enjoy the benefits of an 8K mouse, you’ll need a fast monitor with a 360Hz refresh rate and a powerful CPU. Even then, most won’t feel a noticeable difference in gameplay unless they’re looking for it. Blistering polling rates can also have an adverse effect and cause stuttering and performance issues if your hardware or games aren’t compatible. Most players should be fine with 1,000 to 2,000Hz polling rate mice and don’t need 8K.
2
Adjustable weight
More likely to get lost
Credit:Logitech
The ability to adjust your mouse’s weight for the perfect feel might be great in theory, but isn’t practical in reality. Everyone likes customization, and the concept of reducing a mouse’s weight for FPS games, and then increasing it for strategy titles sounds like an appealing proposition because you get to fine-tune your experience.
However, most players with these types of mice set up their favorite weight at the start and then forget about it. This is because constantly changing weights with each game is inconvenient and requires opening the mouse panels to install or remove them. Adding or removing a few grams from your mouse won’t drastically change its feel and doesn’t affect performance either, no matter what the marketing tells you. These types of mice might be suitable for tinkerers, but most of us are better off getting a regular mouse in our desired weight that will be just as good.
Okay within reason
Some gaming mice include 10 or more programmable buttons, most of which will only be used by the minority of players. The rest of us can manage with a pair of easy-to-reach side-buttons and on-the-fly adjustment. Other buttons may be useful for certain games, as long as they are reachable and don’t require shifting your hand out of place in the heat of battle to find them. And this is where the problem lies. Having more buttons should open up more functions, but their awkward positioning or having too many buttons close together can make them redundant, depending on the mouse and your hand size.
The same goes for swappable side panels, which are designed for a niche market and aren’t practical for most players. MMO and MOBA players will benefit from having a mouse with extra buttons on the interchangeable side panels because of their games. Left-handed users will enjoy mice that let them switch the side buttons to the right side for easy access. The benefits are questionable for everyone else and aren’t worth the extra cost.
Do these overrated features apply to everyone?
Variety is the spice of life and all the features listed here will have fans who think they’re great and love using them. Some users always want the latest tech and competitive players like to push the boundaries of what their equipment can do. However, these features aren’t essential to most players, who should be fine without them.
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source: https://www.xda-developers.com/overrated-gaming-mice-features/
