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The best light gaming mouse feels like it’s ready to float off your desk. The often hole-riddled rodents may be a relatively new take on the classic input device, but they can make for seriously slick experiences. And while there’s still room for their heavier cousins, if you need to move quickly and accurately, then a light gaming mouse can be a revelation.
Hefty rubber ball mice are no more, it’s true, but even the most popular tournament-grade gaming mice of today can be hefty. If you want to cut out that weight, an ‘ultra-lightweight’ gaming mouse can serve up next-generation sensors and sleeker switches today.
Expect the shells to come perforated for extra weightlessness. Theoretically, a lighter mouse should mean reduced fatigue, the risk of medical injuries and syndromes like RSI and carpal tunnel, and also increase the speed at which you can pull off clip-worthy headshots in shooters or highlight powerful units in hectic RTS battles.
We’ve tested every lightweight gaming mouse in this list to make sure they’re up to our standard and fit for use. And believe me, there were a fair few mice that didn’t make the cut. If weight isn’t the be-all and end-all for you, then also check out the best gaming mice (opens in new tab) overall.
Best light gaming mouse
SteelSeries has hit a sweet spot with the Aerox 3 Wireless.
The honeycomb perforations spread further than most, giving even the tops of your fingers a bit of a breeze, and it features a coarse outer shell for those who need the extra grip. The side buttons are held back by a narrow thumb rest, and the otherwise beautiful RGB trim reveals visible circuitry, which, depending on taste, can cheapen the overall look.
Small hands and a claw grip will go a long way here: Large-handed palm grip gamers might find themselves dragging their digits or risking accidental clicks. Even when opting for that slightly slimmer profile, though, the Aerox 3 Wireless managed to provide Bluetooth connectivity on top of its lightning-fast 2.4GHz mode.
There’s a degree of flexibility here that other wireless options in its grade can’t match.
Paired with a physical DPI button just above the mouse wheel, RGB lighting, a mammoth 200+ battery life (with fast charge and USB Type-C), and an included receiver hub and cable, there’s a degree of flexibility here that other wireless options in its grade can’t match—and its only 3 grams heavier than the other wireless mouse on this list.
Against something like the Logitech G Pro Wireless, which I’ve been using daily for the better part of a year, both are lightweight gaming mice that require no cord, but the Aerox is a little lighter 66g to 80g. Its design may be a little dated today and the materials feel a little cheaper, but all the information you could need is front and center and there’s more of it to tweak to your liking.
Those after left-handed ergonomics will feel more at home with the G Pro Wireless, however.
Read our full Steelseries Aerox 3 Wireless review (opens in new tab).
The Mountain Makalu 67 is a stylish piece of kit. It’s also the chunkiest option on this list, making it a great choice for the bigger-handed player looking for a great light gaming mouse. Its large stature and heavily curved body should suit palm grips the best, but claw grip players shouldn’t notice any major downsides. Just note that it slopes aggressively on the right side.
In our testing, we found it had a deeply satisfying click from the two well-pronounced thumb buttons on the left. They sit relatively high up the body, giving your thumb plenty of space to work with, with molded ridges aiding further comfort. The cable is loose and light enough to whip around no problem, but the long rubber stem pinning it to the chassis might snag on a mousepad with any raised edge, like from a USB hub.
It would have been nice to see the breathable perforations stretch to the thumb and finger areas as well, but overall, the Mountain Makalu 67 is a solid choice and one that’s far lighter than it looks. It even features handy indentations to make replacing the mouse feet a breeze whenever the time comes.
We noted a super low click latency, and low lift-off distance. That comes along with a CPI that’s adjustable by increments of 50, so you can get it just right for your gaming style.
Razer slides into the emerging light gaming mouse market this year with the wired Razer Viper 8KHz. Your hardware letting you down is not an option when money is at stake, so increasing the polling rate of your mouse seems like the latest logical step. A mouse that reports its position to your computer a whopping 8,000 times per second is a little ridiculous, however.
Is it really noticeable in-game? I’ve been using the mouse for around a week, and have seen no improvement over my main gaming mouse, an aging Logitech G402, in Apex Legends or Valorant. But it’s a reassuring claim to fame that should reduce figurative mouse latency to a frankly ludicrous low.
The frighteningly fast Focus+ 20K optical sensor is housed in a solid plastic chassis that’s segmented in a cyborg-esque fashion. And it looks smoother than it actually is. Lay your palm over the low-profile body, and you’ll have a slightly textured grip and curved mouse buttons to keep you in place.
You can install the Chroma software if you care what color the entwined Razer logo is.
With five DPI profiles and 8K polling enabled out of the box, the only real reason to need Razer’s own software clogging up your machine is to set a reachable DPI toggle, as it’s inconveniently placed underneath.
There are no settings to tweak if you don’t want to either, it’s simply a case of plugging it in and you’re good to go. You can install the Chroma software if you care what color the entwined Razer logo that’s generally hidden beneath your palm glows, but it isn’t necessary to use the mouse.
As the only ambidextrous mouse on our list, rubber grips beneath the two buttons on either side will aid thumb grip, but the premium touch does open up the question of long-term durability.
The lightness of the Viper 8K Hz, and the materials used, made it feel cheaper than it actually was. At least the mouse wheel has a solid click to it, and the buttons do have a positive click to them. The whole package doesn’t feel quite as high quality as others, but its ambidextrous design makes it the most well-rounded.
Read our full Razer Viper 8KHz review (opens in new tab).
Logitech has a long and storied history in the PC peripheral space, so it should come as no surprise to see them enter the light gaming mouse market. By far, the best part of the Logitech G Pro X Superlight is its wireless functionality. Though cords barely add a gram to the equation, the drag and snag potential is there.
Outside of theoretical, the Logitech G Pro X Superlight is about as sleek as stylish as gaming mice come. It looks near-identical to the G Pro Wireless with the exact same hallmarks of the popular and simplistic gaming mouse.
The outer shell is fairly pronounced near the palm, which adds that little extra support compared to sleeker mouse models, and there’s the slightest touch of contouring on the primary mouse buttons and beneath where your thumb and pinky sit. All in all, it’s a fairly restrained design by modern mouse standards.
Devoid of RGB, it wouldn’t look out of place in the office meeting room. Its egg-like body is perhaps too smooth to the touch with no real grip to speak of, but at a mere 63g, it manages to weigh less than Razer’s best lightweight attempt even while packing a 70+ hour battery—10 hours more than the G Pro Wireless even with RGB disabled, so battery life has actually improved between the two units.
It manages to weigh less than Razer’s best lightweight attempt even while packing a 70+ hour battery.
Furthermore, between mouse tests, I resort back to the near-identical G Pro Wireless and I can attest to its comfort and longevity for over a year now. Beyond the usual wear and tear, I’m yet to see any real signs of decay on the plastic, which I’m a little surprised about considering the matte black finish.
The side buttons may be a little too small and mushy for some. And there’s no CPI switch button on the mouse—that has to be changed in the software or set to one of the two thumb buttons—which must be the first time I’ve seen one omitted from a gaming mouse in three years.
Still, had it not been for the Steelseries Aerox 3 Wireless, this would be the wireless light gaming mouse option to beat. It’s just a shame Bluetooth support may have become a casualty of the war on weight, which leaves its connectivity options lacking compared to its wireless rivals.
Read our full Logitech G Pro X Superlight review (opens in new tab).
The Roccat Kone Pro is the wired and slightly lighter version of the Roccat Kone Pro Air (opens in new tab) and comes in at less than two-thirds of the price. It’s not the lightest, nor is it the swiftest, nor does it have quite the number of easily accessible buttons we’d have liked, but it makes up for its downfalls with fantastic ergonomics, battery life, and more.
The 2.6oz (75g) of weight is helped greatly by its hollow, aluminum Titan frame, and Bionic shell. Similar to its wireless counterpart, its design is an interesting take on the honeycomb look. Rather than plastering the chassis with holes, Roccat has quite classily nestled the honeycomb design under the thin plastic of the left and right mouse buttons. Not only does it help to reinforce them, but it looks rad illuminated from beneath—it makes you feel a bit like a Jedi.
That feeling extends to the immense battery life of around 137 hours, with RGB and battery saver mode on. That puts it just behind the Logitech G903 Lightspeed (opens in new tab)‘s fantastic 140 hours (which was actually measured with the RGB turned off).
When it comes to the Owl Eye sensor, it may not have the highest DPI out there at 19,000, but accuracy is what we crave and those tests came back close enough to the line that I have no complaints. Pixel skipping and input lag are super minimal, and the 1,000Hz polling rate is consistent.
It may be plain, but it’s alluring in its soft curvature.
And if being tethered to your PC makes you wince, it doesn’t translate to awkward cable battles with the Kone Pro. The braided cable is barely noticeable when shifting around on these swift PTFE feet. And it doesn’t come across as clunky-looking, either. It may be plain, but it’s alluring in its soft curvature. The almost matte finish and light scoring along the shallow thumb rest make it a pleasure to handle. That also means its lack of rubber grips isn’t an issue.
The issue comes mainly in the odd aluminum scroll wheel. There’s something about a totally flat and metallic scroll wheel that feels odd to the touch. Also, the DPI button is, for some strange reason, on the underside of the mouse, so there can be no quick profile changes mid-battle.
In attempting to change the DPI with the scrolling feature, however, it proceeded to buffer and flash for about 20 seconds before it realized what it was supposed to be doing. A testament to the Roccat Swarm software needing a bit of TLC perhaps.
It may not be the lightest mouse, nor has it got the highest DPI, but it’s a unique, ergonomic, and all-over quality build that’s easily one of the most comfortable and gorgeous mice I’ve used—not to mention it being consistently accurate.
Read our full Roccat Kone Pro review (opens in new tab).
The Cooler Master MM720 is by far the smallest of the light gaming mouse bunch here, meaning it’s also the lightest at a mere 49 grams. It features the trendy honeycomb design but swaps a long body for a stubby design you could mistake for a cheap travel mouse you’d find grossly overpriced at an airport tech store.
The design isn’t for everyone, but it’s comparatively tiny footprint isn’t just a byproduct of Cooler Master aiming for that ultra-lightweight buzzword. It’s miniature form-factor in that it’s primarily designed for a claw grip. There’s no reason a palm or hybrid grip won’t work but prepare for your digits to curl over the clickers if that’s the case.
Either way, the rare (and much appreciated) finger rest on the right-hand side should help keep things comfortable.
As for buttons, there are the typical six remappable ones: the left and right buttons, a scroll wheel, two side buttons, along with the DPI button. The latter is on the bottom, similarly to the Roccat Kone Pro, which is a bit impractical if you need to change on the fly. You can remap the DPI switch to another button if that’s a priority, though.
Its smooth, plastic finish isn’t the most premium around, but even with the creaks, there’s no way a tense grip will crush it like a can. And despite the perforations, it’s IP58 water-resistant, so dropping a gamer beverage over this thing won’t destine it for the trash heap.
Why should I use a lightweight mouse?
A lightweight mouse is great for competitive gaming. The lighter weight makes it easier to stop, allows for quicker flings and swipes across your mousepad, which is ideal for first-person shooters. Some players like to lift the mouse as they play, and a lighter mouse is easier for those sorts of actions.
What counts as a lightweight mouse?
The general consensus is that, to count as a lightweight gaming mouse, you have to be looking at one that’s less than 80g. Most standard gaming mice are over the 100g mark as a rule.
How do we test gaming mice?
We’ve used enough gaming mice to have a good feel for build quality, button placement, and shape. Our opinions on those aspects of mouse design are naturally subjective, but they’re also well-informed. The tricky part of testing gaming mice is analyzing the other part of the equation: tracking performance, jitter, angle snapping, acceleration, and perfect control speed, and determining how each of those issues affects the experience of using a mouse.
For that, applications such as Mouse Tester come in handy. We used this software to see if we could spot any glaring issues with the mice we used. In every gaming mouse we tested, though, angle snapping and acceleration were disabled in the mouse drivers by default (though a mouse can still exhibit acceleration from issues with the sensor itself) and never encountered any glaring performance issues.
Gaming mouse jargon buster
Grip refers to how you hold the mouse. The most common grips are palm, claw, and fingertip. Here’s a good example of how each grip works (opens in new tab).
CPI stands for counts per inch, or how many times the mouse sensor will read its tracking surface, aka your mousepad, for every inch it’s moved. This is commonly referred to as DPI, but CPI is a more accurate term. The lower the CPI, the further you have to move the mouse to move the cursor on the screen.
Jitter refers to an inaccuracy in a mouse sensor reading the surface it’s tracking. Jitter often occurs at higher mouse movement speeds or higher CPIs. Jitter can make your cursor jump erratically, and even slight jitter could wreck a shot in an FPS or make you misclick on a unit in an RTS.
Angle snapping, also called prediction, takes data from a mouse sensor and modifies the output to create smoother movements. For example, if you try to draw a horizontal line with your mouse, it won’t be perfect—you’ll make some subtle curves in the line, especially at higher sensitivities. Angle snapping smooths out those curves and gives you a straight line instead. This is generally bad because it means your cursor movements won’t match your hand’s movements 1:1, and angle snapping will not be useful in most games. Thankfully, almost all gaming mice have angle snapping disabled by default.
Acceleration is probably the most reviled, most scrutinized issue with gaming mouse sensors. When a mouse sensor exhibits acceleration, your cursor will move faster the faster you move the mouse; this is often considered bad because moving the mouse slowly six inches across a mousepad will move the cursor differently than moving the mouse rapidly same distance. This introduces variability that can be hard to predict.
Perfect control speed, or malfunction rate, refers to the speed at which the mouse can be moved while still tracking accurately. Most gaming mice will track extremely accurately when moved at slow speeds, but low CPI players will often move their mice large distances across the mousepads at very high speeds. At high speeds, especially at high CPIs, not all mouse sensors can retain their tracking accuracy. The point at which the sensors stop tracking accurately will differ between CPI levels.
IPS measures inches per second and the effective maximum tracking speed of any given sensor is rated too. Not to be confused with the gaming monitor panel type by the same name (opens in new tab), the higher the IPS of any given mouse, the better it can keep up with high-speed movement and maintain accuracy.
Lift-off distance is still a popular metric in mouse enthusiast circles, though it does not affect most gamers. LOD refers to the height a mouse has to be raised before the sensor stops tracking its surface. Some gamers prefer a mouse with a very low lift-off distance because they play at very low sensitivity and often have to lift their mouse off the pad to “reset” it in a position where they can continue swiping. With a low LOD, the cursor will not be moved erratically when the mouse is lifted.
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