# Wireless mice



## Runefox (Feb 14, 2013)

So I'm a little fed up with having a cord on my mouse. I'm currently using a Logitech G500, and it's great, but the cord gets caught up in the drawer of my desk and it pisses me off, especially while gaming. I don't expect the cord will take too much more of that kind of treatment, either, so I'm looking to ditch the cord.

So far I've looked at the Logitech G700 (don't really like the quad thumb buttons), the Razer Ouroboros and Mamba 2012 (I'm very worried about the build quality of Razer products), and the Saitek RAT 9 (doesn't have a corded option, uses proprietary battery packs). As far as features go, all I really want are good tracking, right-handed ergonomics, DPI adjustment and 2 (or a sensible arrangement of more) thumb buttons. I don't care about macros or software or anything stupid like that, so that's not a concern. I'm looking for usability and reliability.

Any suggestions?


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## Zenia (Feb 14, 2013)

http://www.retailplus.com/products/keyboard-micemice/retail-plus-24g-wireless-optical-mouse-mouse

I use this mouse. It is really good so far and the little usb receiver that plugs into the computer is small so it doesn't get in the way. It takes 2 AAA batteries and goes into sleep mode if you don't use it for a few minutes, so the batteries last longer than the other mice I have used.


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## Cairn (Feb 14, 2013)

Have you ever tried a roller-ball mouse:





I use this one and love it. No cords, and its single AA battery lasts for many months. Some people say they are strange to use, but once you get used to it, you won't go back.


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## Runefox (Feb 14, 2013)

I've tried a few trackballs, but they tend to cramp up my hand during use (Kensington Orbit is the WORST). I imagine they would be quite good for certain graphics applications, or if I had an RSI, but for general use and gaming especially, I prefer my mouse.

The RetailPlus mouse looks quite good for RetailPlus, but it's a portable mouse, more suited for laptop users. This is going to be for my desktop, so it's not going to travel much, and I have rather large hands, so I need something in around the same kind of size as the G500 to be comfortable.


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## Zenia (Feb 14, 2013)

I use the Retail Plus one on my desktop.  It is still great. Cheap too.


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## CaptainCool (Feb 15, 2013)

Zenia said:


> I use the Retail Plus one on my desktop.  It is still great. Cheap too.



Runefox doesn't want a tiny cheap mouse though, he wants a big and reliable high performance mouse :3

Personally I don't have much experience with wireless mice. However, I am a big fan of Logitech when it comes to mice, I don't like the quality of Razer mice and I have no experience with Saitek at all.
I would probably go with the G700. The thumb buttons are weird but they seem to be positioned in a way that makes it easy to get used to them.


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## Fernin (Feb 15, 2013)

I've used a razer mamba for years, haven't got a single bad thing to say about it.


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## Batty Krueger (Feb 15, 2013)

The older razers had real good build quality, but the newer ones are kinda meh. I had a saitek keyboard for ages that was awesome so I imagine their mice are good to.  Have you tried using a wire weight to keep the cord of of the way of the drawer?


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## BRN (Feb 15, 2013)

R.A.T 7 user here. 

The R.A.T 7 features 6400 dpi maximum which is completely adjustable independently in the x and y-axis, with up to four settings stored in the mouse itself and changeable via the use of a small button just behind the scroll wheel. Furthermore, a small button on the wing at the side temporarily sets your dpi to a custom percentage of the current dpi while it is held down (for, say, sniping). The wing at the side and the palmrest are adjustable and also interchangeable, and the weight of the mouse can be adjusted through weights on the underside (not shown). It's got a solid aliminium chassis and it's also fucking sexy.

The R.A.T 7 comes with a braided non-stick cord, shown, which could solve your problem. Alternatively, the R.A.T 9 is the same as the R.A.T 7, but is wireless with rechargeable batteries.

I've been using it for a month now in place of the Logitech Marathon (Logitech M705) and I've been ecstatic. It's a beautiful mouse - get it!


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## CaptainCool (Feb 15, 2013)

SIX said:


> R.A.T 7 user here.
> 
> The R.A.T 7 features 6400 dpi maximum which is completely adjustable independently in the x and y-axis, with up to four settings stored in the mouse itself and changeable via the use of a small button just behind the scroll wheel. Furthermore, a small button on the wing at the side temporarily sets your dpi to a custom percentage of the current dpi while it is held down (for, say, sniping). The wing at the side and the palmrest are adjustable and also interchangeable, and the weight of the mouse can be adjusted through weights on the underside (not shown). It's got a solid aliminium chassis and it's also fucking sexy.
> 
> ...



That's no mouse... It's a space station!


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## Runefox (Feb 18, 2013)

After deliberating a bit, I've settled on the Razer Ouroboros. I had the intent to get the RAT 9, but after thinking it over and thinking about the two companies, I felt like I trusted Razer more than Mad Catz.

So far, I'm happy with it. The Razer Synapse software is a steaming load, but then again, so is every mouse customization software suite. Sure, it's got neat features, but the mouse skips for a few seconds when adjusting settings. I've also determined that the base station needs to be relatively close by (Within 1-2 feet) or else the mouse begins to skip. The scroll wheel is a little weird, working fine on browsers, but requiring multiple turns to get it to do much in games. It may just be me, since this is getting better as time goes on. The USB cable included for the base station is very nice, and the station itself is magnetic, though I still haven't quite gotten the hang of propping the mouse up onto it yet. Also magnetic are the side adapters. I went with the thumb rest on the left and the rubberized blank on the right. While the pinky rest is nice, I find I get more control with it missing from the mouse. The palm rest is back one notch, and I've raised the palm rest by one and a half revolutions of the wheel. It fits quite well, and the setup is a bit smaller overall than the G500.

The tracking is great, and there is no perceptible lag in the mouse itself. One issue I've come across a few times that seems to have something to do with the mouse being moved just as it's going into sleep mode is that the Y sensitivity reverts to minimum, regardless of the sensitivity set. I thought I'd worked around this by setting both X and Y sensitivity in Synapse, but while typing this, it happened on the X axis instead. It's cleared up easily enough by switching DPI, and hopefully this is something that gets fixed. I've heard that this is a known issue among Ouroboros owners, and as far as issues go, it's rather benign. Generally, I use 4800 DPI. I had been using 3200 (as I did with the Logitech) but it didn't seem to move the cursor at the same rate the old mouse did. 6400 is also good, though a little too fast.

Battery life so far has been excellent. I spent an entire work day and then some using the mouse nonstop, and it's currently sitting at 70% - With LED's set to dim rather than off. The same was true when I spent all of yesterday playing Mass Effect 2 - It has never yet gone below 50% charge. The best thing about the battery life is that if this battery starts to lose capacity, any standard AA battery will work. Obviously I'd want to replace it with another 2500mAh rechargeable to maintain the same level of battery life.

Overall I'd call it a good mouse. It feels good, it glides smoothly, tracks well, and it's wireless (with a wired option). A couple of little nit-picks that are really driver-related (as usual), but otherwise solid. It's slightly heavier than my G500 was, though the better footpads seem to mitigate that. I like a lighter mouse generally speaking, since I don't like when a mouse sticks in place. Some of the research I'd done into the RAT 9 also pointed to random pointer movement and other oddities that I didn't want to deal with. Thankfully, those issues don't seem to be present in the Ouroboros. I only wish it were mostly made of metal like the RAT 9 was.

EDIT: Oh, one thing I do kind of miss is lateral/tilt scrolling, but for all the things that actually supported that, it's not that big a loss.


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