pebblerocker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pebblerocker) wrote2009-01-29 10:49 am
pebblerocker) wrote2009-01-29 10:49 am
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I've been using the same plain old Microsoft optical mouse for five or six years, when I got this computer. It has finally begun to lose its click, so I'm in the market for a replacement.
The old mouse has been perfectly satisfactory for me (it's optical and has a scroll wheel, the most necessary features) and in fact I like using it better than a few fancier ones I've tried. I probably don't need much in the way of fancy stuff. A tilt wheel would be the main feature I'd have a use for. On the other hand, for a few years I've used the ordinary mouse in tandem with a trackball mouse which has forward and back buttons and I love that for web-surfing. And programmable buttons would be useful for various things, especially games.
The trackball itself is not much good for gaming. When I'm surfing the net I have time to position the cursor just right before I click, and then I'll look at the page that loads before I click again, so the jerky movement isn't a problem, but for gaming I'm constantly moving and clicking and the cursor has to go where I want it without requiring concentration. It's also hard to co-ordinate moving the ball with my thumb while holding down a button with a finger, bad news for directing my character to move in a fluid line in response to game events as well as for something as simple as cropping a picture. I'm shifting back and forth between the mouse and the trackball frequently depending on what I'm doing, which probably helps when my wrist is playing up.
Long gaming sessions give me a bit of a sore wrist (still hasn't recovered from the weekend's all-day Guitar Hero party) and my hand is in a more comfortable position with the trackball. But my old Microsoft mouse is a lot more comfortable than my partner's Logitech MX Revolution, which is a mouse with a very high-arched back. It bends my hand back too much and strains my wrist; it also has a lot of buttons which are easy to hit by accident, so I won't be getting one of them, especially for the price. I borrowed a Logitech LX8 to try out and found it very comfortable and almost exactly what I'm looking for - cursor speed can be slowed down enough not to vanish off the screen at the slightest movement, it's big enough that it stays in my hand without needing to be gripped with the fingers, it has a tilt wheel and forward and back buttons... but the buttons are in the wrong place and very easy to press, even worse than the MX. I suppose I'd get used to it and eventually learn to avoid pressing them, but since I'm going to spend money on a new mouse I plan to hold out for a really well-designed one that works the way I want it to.
I'm going to have to find a shop where I can see the mouses out of their packets and hold them before I can make a decision. Looking at reviews online is interesting but I can't tell whether a mouse is going to fit my hand or not. (Funny how in the world of mouse reviews, "gaming" only ever means FPS...)
The old mouse has been perfectly satisfactory for me (it's optical and has a scroll wheel, the most necessary features) and in fact I like using it better than a few fancier ones I've tried. I probably don't need much in the way of fancy stuff. A tilt wheel would be the main feature I'd have a use for. On the other hand, for a few years I've used the ordinary mouse in tandem with a trackball mouse which has forward and back buttons and I love that for web-surfing. And programmable buttons would be useful for various things, especially games.
The trackball itself is not much good for gaming. When I'm surfing the net I have time to position the cursor just right before I click, and then I'll look at the page that loads before I click again, so the jerky movement isn't a problem, but for gaming I'm constantly moving and clicking and the cursor has to go where I want it without requiring concentration. It's also hard to co-ordinate moving the ball with my thumb while holding down a button with a finger, bad news for directing my character to move in a fluid line in response to game events as well as for something as simple as cropping a picture. I'm shifting back and forth between the mouse and the trackball frequently depending on what I'm doing, which probably helps when my wrist is playing up.
Long gaming sessions give me a bit of a sore wrist (still hasn't recovered from the weekend's all-day Guitar Hero party) and my hand is in a more comfortable position with the trackball. But my old Microsoft mouse is a lot more comfortable than my partner's Logitech MX Revolution, which is a mouse with a very high-arched back. It bends my hand back too much and strains my wrist; it also has a lot of buttons which are easy to hit by accident, so I won't be getting one of them, especially for the price. I borrowed a Logitech LX8 to try out and found it very comfortable and almost exactly what I'm looking for - cursor speed can be slowed down enough not to vanish off the screen at the slightest movement, it's big enough that it stays in my hand without needing to be gripped with the fingers, it has a tilt wheel and forward and back buttons... but the buttons are in the wrong place and very easy to press, even worse than the MX. I suppose I'd get used to it and eventually learn to avoid pressing them, but since I'm going to spend money on a new mouse I plan to hold out for a really well-designed one that works the way I want it to.
I'm going to have to find a shop where I can see the mouses out of their packets and hold them before I can make a decision. Looking at reviews online is interesting but I can't tell whether a mouse is going to fit my hand or not. (Funny how in the world of mouse reviews, "gaming" only ever means FPS...)