Has wireless mouse technology improved over the years?

A

a123456

Limp Gawd
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Nov 10, 2006
Messages
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I've had limited wireless mouse experience. One was about 9 years ago with some ergonomic Logitech optical mouse. It was fine except the power saving feature on it was annoying. Whenever you stopped moving the mouse for a little bit, it would sleep. Then, when you moved the mouse again, it would take like .5s-1s to wake up so in that wake up time the mouse cursor wouldn't move even though the mouse moved.

Fast forward a few years. Second experience was with some MS optical mouse. The waking up part wasn't that big a deal anymore but I noticed that the red light was pretty much on all the time so the battery drained really quickly and it got old having to replace the battery all the time.

I'm looking to get a new wireless mouse for a work laptop if wireless technology has gotten better. Specifically, very limited "input lag" on the wake up and hopefully longer battery life. I went to the nearby Best Buy and tried all the mice there. I liked the feel of the Performance MX so was thinking about getting this. I didn't really like the smaller laptop-like mice like the Anywhere mouse and I'm okay with carrying around a larger mouse. It's for work so I don't need 10000dpi awesome gaming but something that feels comfortable for long periods.

At home, I've used the Intellimouse Explorer, which was fine until it died. Switched to G5, which is fine except that the mouse makes random semi-annoying clicking noises when I'm not clicking (RMA'd one and new one makes same noises after a month so I figure it's a property of the laser or the mouse) and the middle button is really tough to press.

So any suggestions?
 
I have an MX5500 from Logitech, it's the Bluetooth keyboard/mouse setup. I love it. It works great, no delays. I can game just fine with it as well and the mouse has lots of buttons and features. I did plug the dongle into the front of my computer just to further minimize travel distance of the signal.
 
My first wireless mouse was the Logitech MX1000 I bought 4-5 years ago. It's the most comfortable and accurate mouse I have ever used.

I will never go back to a wired mouse.
btw, I play counter strike source and other FPS games with this mouse.
 
i think anything out these days is going to be better than what you had in the past. not sure if you had a faulty ms mouse where the red light was on all the time, in my experience, the light will go off once the mouse goes idle. then it'll come back on with movement. unless you had it on an different surface (such as glass) then i've seen that happen.

again in my experience, sometimes even the newest stuff can lag and not work as accurately as a wired device just because of other technology inside the environment.
 
One thing I notice about Microsoft's wireless products is that they get REALLY laggy when you are doing something intensive over your wireless network (like transfering a large file). Other than that, I dont really see much that wireless mice could improve on these days. The technology is pretty mature already.
 
I'm resigned to the fact that wireless mice are going to be worse than wired but if the wireless mouse can be almost as good as a wired mouse 95+% of the time, I can probably live with that.

Worse case, I can just use a wired mouse with the laptop, but I'd prefer the extra space of a wireless if they are decent. I actually don't know the exact conditions that I'll face on the road in terms of outside interference but the only other wireless device that I anticipate will be on will be a mobile broadband card in the laptop.

When I had the MS mouse, I didn't really notice that much extra lagginess since I was using it on a desktop and wired network except when the battery was dying, which happened about once every week or two. Changing the battery that often was a bit too much hassle for me.
 
I went from the logitech vx revolution to the logitech g9x and what a world of a difference. I think mainly because you can change the polling rate from 125hz (8ms)all the way up to 1000hz (1ms) but takes up more cpu power. Also the ability to change DPI on the fly is pretty sweet too. Im sure there are wireless mice you can do that with but i wouldn't know.

Forgot you said "wireless" :) Well i took back the G9x (wired) and got the Razer mamba instead. It is both wired and wireless. 1000hz (1ms response time) and up to 5600DPI so id say they've come a long way :)
 
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I love my G7, been using it for 4 years now. I can't stand wired. I have no problems with games and lagging.

The new G7 has some nice tracking specs:

o Tracking resolution: 2000/800/400 dpi (user-selectable)
o Image processing: 6.4 megapixels/second
o Maximum acceleration: 20-g
o Maximum speed: 45–65 inches(1m 15–1m 65) /second (depending on surface)
o USB data format: 16 bits/axis
o USB report rate: 500 reports/second
o Sleep mode: Intelligent

hmm, me thinks it's time to get a new one!
 
To answer the OP's question, yes, things have changed. Wider use of Li-Ion and Li polymer rechargeables means the mouse doesn't have to sleep so deeply, and more sophisticated electronics allow it to wake it more quickly. Something like the MX1100 will work almost instantaneously and last a few months on a charge... and they self-recharge by plugging them into the computer via usb and turning them into wired for a few hours. 2.4GHz interference is about the only drawback for a good wireless mouse nowadays.
 
I'm shredding with the Razer Mamba. It feels wired even though it's wireless. When I plug in the wire to charge it while gaming there is no noticeable difference.
Yes, things have change a great deal. I can move my hand anywhere on my desk with having to get more slack or feeling a tug on the wire.
It's also great for distance PC surfing.:p
 
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