If you’re reading this, chances are your mouse has gone belly-up and you’re looking for a new one. We don’t exactly plan for our mice to burn out, so most people are usually looking for a decent mouse that they can buy as painlessly as possible. But perhaps you have a little more money to spare right now and you’re looking to weigh out your options.
There’s such a wide variety of mice on the market right now that it’s much more helpful to classify them into two categories: laser and optical. Which one should you pick? Is laser worth the extra cash? It’s time to provide a clear answer to these questions.
Defining Both Mice
An optical mouse uses the reflection of a low-power LED light to track movement across a flat surface. Laser mice do the same thing, except with lasers.
If you want to get into more detail, let’s first explain how an optical mouse works. Optical mice use optoelectronic sensors which function as very small cameras that take multiple low-resolution images of the surfaces on which the mice sit.
If there’s a change in the surface, the processors within the mice will “track” where the changes were made and update the position of your mouse cursor.
Because the image is so small, the mouse doesn’t need to use a lot of battery power to take it. Look under your mouse right now. You'll notice that there’s a little lens below it for collecting light. It’s less than a centimeter wide on most models.
