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I'm in the market for a new mouse. Something simple and straightforward: 2 top buttons + wheel in the middle which also serves as a middle button.

I haven't bought a mouse in over a decade, if you can believe it... and then it was whatever someone put into my hand basically. Now I need to decide among dozens of available mice. Luckily, most of them have many bells and whistles so I rule them all out, but many still remain to choose from.

There's different sensor types - how do sensor types such as optical, laser and darkfield affect performance?

Should I favour a specific sensor type for particular surfaces ?

Notes:

Mokubai
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einpoklum
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    One consideration not addressed in the LifeHacker article: if we're talking about wireless mice (so battery-powered), does an LED one use measurably less power than a laser one? That might mean fewer annoying battery changes. Other than that, the differences seem minimal, really not worth a great deal of worry. – Steve Rindsberg Jan 01 '19 at 17:38
  • @SteveRindsberg: Fair point, but I forgot to explicitly state that "simple" also means "wired"... +1 on the comment though. – einpoklum Jan 01 '19 at 17:44
  • In that case, I suspect that a coin-toss might be a reasonable way of deciding between LED/Laser, if all else is equal. – Steve Rindsberg Jan 01 '19 at 17:47
  • @SteveRindsberg: If this is based on your experience, can you describe it in an answer? – einpoklum Jan 01 '19 at 18:03
  • I'm afraid not; I've never had an LED mouse to compare to the various laser mice I've used. – Steve Rindsberg Jan 02 '19 at 16:32

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There's an excellent discussion of the differences, relative merits, etc. in this Windows Central article. Some of the key points:

  • The primary difference is the type of surface each one works best on. LED light doesn't permeate the surface, so it works best on non-glossy surfaces. Laser light permeates the surface much better, so it can be used with glossy surfaces, even glass-covered surfaces.

    However, that also makes it more susceptible to picking up "information" from stuff below the surface, which can make it less accurate at high speeds. For example, laser mice are more susceptible at high speeds to the extraneous information retrieved from directions other than the one the mouse is moving in. So if you move it quickly in one direction and then slowly move it back to the starting point, you may not end up at the same spot on the screen. The discrepancy between the fast and slow movements is much greater on a laser mouse than on an LED mouse.

    So the type of surface you intend to use it on should really be the driver in the decision. Laser will work better on a larger variety of surfaces, and especially glossy surfaces. If you go with an LED mouse, an infrared one is reported to work with the most surfaces (for LED mice).

  • At one time, laser mice offered higher DPI (better resolution and associated tracking accuracy), but high resolution LED mice are available now, also.

  • There are a number of other differences between mice besides the features (power usage/battery life, cost, etc.), but the choice of light source isn't really much of a factor in those.

fixer1234
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  • 1. What counts as non-glossy? If I have a smooth opaque desk, which does give off a shine (it might happen! ... if I'm not lazy and clean really well) - is this "glossy"? 2. "You can now find" - you're implying this is rare. Anyway, +1. – einpoklum Jan 01 '19 at 23:30
  • @einpoklum, "glossy" is any clear shiny material between the mouse and what contains the pattern that the mouse will detect. For an LED mouse, the thinner the better (a bare cloth surface will be better than one with a thin plastic cleanable surface film, which will still be better than a thickly laminated pad, which will still be better than a glass-covered pad). Also, a shiny surface disperses light differently. An optical mouse can detect the color differences in a woodgrain surface, and that may be adequate just to move the cursor around a document. (cont'd) – fixer1234 Jan 01 '19 at 23:55
  • But is isn't uniform and it's a crude pattern, so it will suck if you want to do fine graphics work or gaming. re: high resolution: that may have more to do with the CMOS sensor, which has improved over time. At one point, laser mice offered higher resolutions. Now, LED mice offering high resolutions are available. – fixer1234 Jan 01 '19 at 23:55