So you are planning on getting a new gaming mouse but don’t know whether you should get a wired gaming mouse or a wireless one. We got you covered. Here is our detailed comparison between a wired gaming mouse and a wireless gaming mouse.
Why Would Someone Want A Wireless Mouse
Imagine that you are playing a fast-paced first-person shooter game like Apex Legends, and you come across a situation where you have to move the mouse instantly over a long distance on the mouse pad. Let’s say you do move your mouse instantly, but the wire of your mouse gets stuck on something. You couldn’t move the mouse all the way and missed the aim. Because of this, you couldn’t land the first shots on the enemy and get killed. You can see how frustrating this situation would be.
The example that we mentioned above is no exaggeration. It does happen to a lot of gamers. Besides that, it is quite annoying to deal with a wire that is dangling all over the place while you try to move your mouse rapidly. In short, the wire of a wired mouse can cause a detriment in the in-game performance of a gamer.
Performance factors aside, there is another reason why someone would want a wireless mouse over a wired one. And that reason is simply aesthetics. Let’s face it, no one likes tons of wires cluttered up on your gaming setup. Fewer wires mean that the setup will look clean, it will take less effort to clean and dust the setup, and it also means that less effort will be required for cable management.
Is Latency Really A Problem In Wireless Mice
It is common knowledge amongst gamers that a wired connection will always be able to achieve a much faster speed than a wireless connection. This will result in much lower latency times. The difference in latency is easily noticeable when switching from a wireless internet connection to a wired one.
For the longest time, this has been true for wireless mice as well. Wireless mice have always struggled to provide even similar latency numbers to what wired mice have been able to provide. However, wireless technology has made tons of improvements. Not only the wireless technology but mice themselves have also seen tons of improvements over the years.
With all these advancements, the latency issue of the wireless mouse has now been solved. We are at a point where there is minimal to no difference between the latency of a wireless gaming mouse and a wired one. There are even certain wireless gaming mice that have better latency than some wired options.
Battery Timing
Another drawback that wireless gaming mice used to have was their battery timing. Nothing is worse than having to wait for your gaming mouse to charge up so you can play a game or have your gaming mouse run out of juice in the middle of a match. However, gaming mice these days do not have this issue. A wireless gaming mouse can easily last for months on a single charge.
The Issues With A Wireless Gaming Mouse
With everything that we have mentioned so far, it seems that there is no reason to go for a wired gaming mouse over the wireless option. However, there are several issues with a wireless gaming mouse that may make it a deal-breaker for some gamers.
Because a wireless mouse cannot draw power from the computer, it needs to have a set of batteries. These batteries have some weight. This means that no matter how hard a manufacturer tries, a wireless mouse will not be able to be as light as its wired counterpart. The second issue with wireless gaming mice is the price. A wireless mouse will always be more expensive than its wired counterpart because of the more expensive parts used in its making.
The Bottom Line
Wireless gaming mice and wired gaming mice are both great. It all depends on personal preference. If you have no problem with the extra weight and the extra cost, you can go for the wireless route. But if these are dealbreakers for you, then you can stick to the wired options.
