Optimal Mouse or Laser Mouse?

Buying the dell xps 8100 online at the moment and i have the option of a optimal mouse or a laser mouse. what is the better option? Same price.

I play poker 24 tables with HEM, HUD, Tableninja on and just web browse and play music.

I play no video games or pc games or games whatsoever.

Would you suggest the optimal mouse or laser mouse?

 

Optimal? Do you mean optical? Optimal means nothing in the scope of mice. If so, a laser is better tracking typically.

 

Laser sensors typically have higher DPI, but tracking generally has much more to do with the quality of the sensor than whether it's laser or optical. The other major difference between laser and optical mice is that they will respond differently to different surfaces.

However, if you can get an optimal mouse I would definitely suggest you buy it ^_~

 

I generally prefer optical. You don't need the insanely high DPI of laser, and optical sensors are generally less picky about what surfaces you use them on.

 

I've found the opposite. Lasers work on a much wider range of surfaces than optical.

 

I've also found that lasers track better.

 

Same here, the laser-based Anywhere Mouse MX is the only mouse I've used that will work on my glass desk without a mouse pad.

 

Are both wireless? My experience that is that laser uses more power, i.e. my mamba won't last through 12 hours of wireless use. Then again it also is on pretty high senstivity.

 

I took the laser option. Both are wired.

 

laser > optical.

having used a MYRIAD of different optical mice (including some higher-end MS mice), i can honestly say the one and only laser mouse i have currently is WORLDS better (and it was the cheapest POS they had on newegg). granted, at 1600dpi, it can be TOO sensitive--but there is a button on the top of my mouse which switches between 1600 and 800 modes.

optical mice are much more prone to interference from debris in the sensor area. they are also pickier about what surfaces they can used on. optical mice are the roller-ball mice of the 21st century.

 

Definetely laser. Laser mice offer more accurate tracking on many more surfaces than any optical mouse.

(I don't know why people complain about sensivity-I use mine at 3200dpi, 4 times a normal mouse's speed. Once you get used to it, it's actually really nice for general use.)

 

This is an old review ESREALITY MOUSESCORE 2007 and MOUSESCORE 2007 RESULTS UPDATED, so there might be better laser mice that from that time, but in those days optical > laser.

Too bad there is not a recent update on that article, but for me i find both optical MX518 and Deathadder dont envy anything to the laser mouse i tried.

 

You see, it says that a laser cannot match up to a finely tuned optical mouse. That suggests they're comparing laser mice to a high end optical mouse.

There's a reason that all of the latest gaming mice come with a laser. Because a finely tuned laser will beat an optical sensor out.

 

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GM-M6580 Noble Black 6 Buttons USB Wired Laser 1600 dpi Desktop Mouse

this is what i use. it's better at gaming than a $60 MS optical mouse.

anyone who claims optical is better is either a liar or has stock in the companies that make the sensors.

 

^lol.

Optical sensors have been proven to have significantly higher perfect control speeds than laser sensors, even among high-end gaming mice. I don't have the chart on hand, but it should be easy enough to Google.

 

i have nothing but errors with optical mice. given enough time (in an fps), i'll eventually start spinning out of control, pointed at the floor. doesn't matter WHICH optical mouse i'm using--it never fails.

i've never once had that problem with a laser mouse. i will NEVER go back.

 

Im not saying laser is worst, just saying back in those days optical was better than laser, atm for me its unproven until i see a detail review as that one, but you also speculating in terms of assuming its better already just by most of the new mouse come with laser.

Weather or not its better, both MX518 and Deathadder are great mouse and below the $50 tag, even if there were a better mice out there, i just feel like its a camara type of marketing with huge megapixels that don't really take better photos, so i find the 5k dpi laser mouse similar, and for cheaper price proven to be better at least by 2007 standards, both are my choices and probably will remain for some time.

But would be great to see a recent review comparing MX518 and Deathadder to all the new 5k laser mouse that have been released in the last 3 years.

 

No.

It's this simple: If laser wasn't the superior sensor (at least for gaming) then the top pro gamers would NOT use them.

Gamers demand ultimate precision. Considering that nearly all gaming mice now use a laser sensor, that's a strong indicator that lasers are at the very least better for gaming, if not altogether.

 

I can honestly say that's never happened to any of my optical mice. Are you using these on mirrors or something?

Many "top pro gamers" also use the MX518, DeathAdder, and Diamondback 3G, all of which are optical. The main advantage laser has traditionally had over optical is sheer DPI, but now even optical is up to 3,500 DPI (i.e. the new DeathAdder and Abyssus), so the "ultimate precision" argument isn't valid.

 

Those are a few optical gaming mice in a market otherwise dominated by laser mice.

I'm not saying that you can't have a good gaming optical sensor. But I personally at least find that lasers are more precise and track better.

On gaming surfaces, laser mice also seem to track better. Many gaming mousemats state how much they increase tracking for both optical and laser mice-the laser tracking is always increased more. That just suggests to me that lasers track better.

 

laser pretty much works on any surface. that is a huge advantage.

 

My vote goes to laser mouse as laser mouse has higher dpi.

 

Umm, the amount of increase doesn't really prove anything about the values themselves before and after.

There are a number of different criteria, and what the benchmarking suggests is that the DeathAdder could track properly up to much higher speeds than all the gaming laser mice they tested at the time. On the other hand, laser mice tend to have much higher DPI.

Laser mice might track well on a variety of surfaces, but if you're going to get a mousepad anyway it doesn't really matter.

Overall, the thing you focus on will depend on your gaming style. If you're a high-sensitivity gamer, the higher DPI is good for you. If you're a low-sensitivity gamer, you want to focus on maximum tracking speed.

 

So it's basically down to the image processor in the mouse. The thing is, a laser mouse is always going to have a better image due to the physics of the matter, so if you have the same processor, a laser will be better. There are cases where an optical mouse with a much better processor than a simple laser mouse will outperform the laser, but being as we're not talking about anything so fancy here, the laser is the one to choose.

 

on a normal, hard surface mouse pad.

honestly, has no one else experienced a "mouse spasm" during gameplay? optical mice have done it to me all the time.

 

I'm not so sure it's that simple; the image processing chips are likely not directly interchangeable between laser and optical mice. I suspect that the greater detail seen by laser mice can actually work against them once you move them at higher speeds. If it was as simple as you suggest, the DeathAdder wouldn't have beaten Razer's other mice by as large a margin as it did.

Mouse vendors really need to list proper specs for their mice, rather than just the overall type of sensor and the level of DPI. Only recently have I seen some manufacturers actually list rather important figures such as maximum tracking speeds... According to Razer's specs, their 3.5G laser sensor beats their 3.5G infrared sensor, however. Even so, such specs aren't really standardized at this point in time.

It's true that since the OP isn't a gamer in this case, laser is probably a better choice at the same price point because it can handle a greater variety of surfaces.

I think that has more to do with the quality of the mouse than with optical vs laser.

 

a $60 optical mouse has a spasm.

a $20 laser mouse does not.


you were saying something about quality....?

 

Price is not the sole indicator of quality either.

 

Price != quality. Just look at Monster Cable.

 

Maybe it's me but I can't see the difference between optical and laser.

 

This is exactly the point I'm trying to get at. I owe you rep.

Neither of my $60 optical mice have any spasm issues (both Razer DeathAdders, the old and new versions). For the record, I use mine on a hard Razer eXactMat surface.

Also, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Pita. The fact that your optical mouse cost 3x as much as your laser mouse is not indicative of the mouse's quality.

 

I have trackball, laser, and optical at my house. I prefer laser on fps and optical on RTS and the like.

 

That's the opposite of what I would expect.

 

Well with the laser mouse, it is more sensitive and the movement is more controlled on FPS. I have played COD4, BF2, BFBC2, and others. The laser desktop mouse I have seems to work best because on FPS the mouse is more sensitive to your movements (swing left to right, up and down, sniping, and the such).

With RTS (Supreme Commander my main game for this genre), I don't need a more accurate mouse. Actually, I need something that will move quickly, especially in a head to head battle. The mouse moves a lot quicker on the screen (naval factory to say the land factory).

I mostly use laser, and I have learned to adjust the speed under mouse settings and got used to it.

 

Honestly, you can't just rate optical vs. laser overall since there are many variations within each group. Are you talking about the best of each or at a certain price point... also, for the OP's purposes, it probably won't matter based on his usages.

 

If I had to choose between an optical and a laser AT THE SAME PRICE(are you sure????) I would go for the optical.It stands to reason