Who Makes The Better Mouse?

Highlights

• Razer and Logitech are leaders in PC gaming mice, with Razer known for RGB lighting and innovative sensors, and Logitech excelling in durability and battery life.
• When choosing a gaming mouse, gamers should consider programmable buttons, wired vs. wireless connectivity, and sensor specs like polling rates and DPI.
• Razer offers sleek and sophisticated designs, while Logitech has a wide range of styles and customizable options. Logitech focuses on durability and battery life, while Razer constantly innovates with powerful specs.

There’s no doubt that Razer and Logitech are leaders in the PC gaming world, especially when it comes to gaming mice. The Razer Basilisk Ultimate wireless mouse is the best gaming mouse of 2023 (so far), but Logitech wasn’t far behind with their own high-performance mouse options.

Related: The Best Gaming Mouse in 2023

Regardless of their accolades, both Razer and Logitech have multiple gaming mouse options, each built to serve a specific type of gamer. Razer is well known for its RGB-lit devices, but it also tends to lead the industry with its innovative sensors that offer incredible polling rates and super-high maximum DPIs. Logitech, which started with a focus on commercial-grade PC accessories, is second to none when it comes to durability and battery life, not to mention its plethora of colorful options.

There is a bit of personal preference involved, but luckily, choosing a gaming mouse is an easy feat for gamers who know what they want. Gaming mouse specs often tell users everything they need to know before purchasing, but they’re also frequently filled with tech terms and numeric mumbo jumbo. Most importantly, gamers want to choose a mouse based on:

• Programmable Buttons: MMO and strategy players will want more buttons than fans of shooters
• Wired vs. Wireless: Wired mice tend to have slightly lower latency, while a wireless gaming mouse is much more convenient
• Sensor Specs: Polling rates determine how quickly a mouse can communicate with a PC, while DPI (or CPI) indicates how precise movements are tracked

Both Razer and Logitech seriously consider all of these factors, but which company should players turn to when in the market for a new gaming mouse?

Design & Ergonomics

Depending on which grip style a player prefers, the shape and size of a gaming mouse will work better or worse. Most of the Razer gaming mice are designed to serve a variety of grip styles, but they often cater directly to specific types of gamers, such as MMO players. Most of their gaming mice aim to support claw and palm grips (the two most common), but their high arches lend themselves well to fingertip grips as well. Helping with this mass-appeal design style is the significant lack of textured sides on most of Razer’s mouse options. Instead, they offer stick-on texture either included with the mouse or available as a separate purchase, depending on the model. As one would imagine, that’s not as good as just having built-in textured sides, but for those who detest texture, it’s a welcome change. However, textured sides are the default for most of Razer’s premium gaming mice.

Logitech, being a PC peripheral powerhouse even outside the gaming sphere, is able to offer an expansive collection of mouse options. Despite having more options, however, most often there are only slight differences between each mouse to meet specific needs directly. However, in some cases, a small change is all that’s needed, such as with their G Pro X Superlight, which uses a much more powerful sensor and is perfect for FPS gamers who just want a basic mouse with superior specs.

Still, Logitech continues to innovate, like with their Lift Vertical ergonomic mouse, which has respectable mid-range specs, but provides a revolutionary approach to wrist health. It’s not really designed for gaming specifically, but it’s the most comfortable choice in the long term; it still manages to have extra buttons and a sensor that outpaces many budget gaming mice options. While most of Logitech’s mouse options have simple contouring that adheres well to most grips, they also offer gaming mice with dynamic shapes and waterfall sides with finger rests. Even those who prefer fingertip grips can get a powerful gaming mouse by selecting some of Logitech’s smaller options.

Despite these different design choices, overall the two companies have quite a bit of overlap between their gaming mice lineups. Each has gaming mice with varying amounts of RGB lighting, each offers a wide spectrum of weights, and each even has a gaming mouse with customizable parts. As far as style goes, Razer almost exclusively offers sleek and sophisticated mice, mostly in black or white. Logitech is all over the board with its styles, even within just its gaming lineup, which has bright colors and tons of RGB lighting right alongside its simple black-and-white mouse options.

Connectivity & Customizability

Both Logitech and Razer stay in line with the rest of the gaming mouse industry by providing players with wireless and wired options that have almost imperceptible latency. Most of the wireless mice from either company can connect through Bluetooth and come with a wireless dongle to help strengthen the connection or as an alternative wireless connection. Although many gamers still don’t trust wireless over wired gaming mice, the fact is that a wireless gaming mouse is just as responsive as a wired mouse to anyone who isn’t a super-star pro gamer.

Related:What Gaming Mice Do The Pros Use?

Both Razer and Logitech also offer free customization apps as well, allowing users to change button layouts and RGB lighting zones. Logitech G Hub and Razer Synapse may aim to accomplish the same things, but they end up being very different in a few important ways.

First and foremost, Razer Synapse isn’t just for gaming mice; it’s for all Razer devices. That’s great – for users with other customizable Razer products. For everyone else, it just adds a lot of bloatware that makes it tedious to customize a gaming mouse.

Meanwhile, Logitech has pared down their app to ensure G Hub is easy to use. Unfortunately, it’s also a bit difficult to figure out, thanks to the lack of instruction and clarity on whether an action has been completed, such as saving a specific button layout to an onboard memory slot. Both companies’ customization apps leave a lot to be desired, but overall they work very well once players get used to them, although Razer Synapse really works best with more than one Razer device connected to it.

On the physical side of things, Razer and Logitech again seem evenly matched, though for different reasons. Razer gaming mice aren’t very customizable, one of the few exceptions being their specially designed Naga series, which has swappable side plates. Most of their mice don’t even have additional color options, and only a few have RGB lighting in places other than the logo. Granted, the RGB gaming mice from Razer are very bright and pretty; often more so than any other brand.

Logitech thrives on color and customization, offering vibrant colors or customizable RGB lighting on nearly all of its mice. Many Logitech mice are also available in multiple sizes or with left-handed versions. While they don’t offer customizable sides like the Razer Naga, they do have adjustable DPI shift buttons and make it easy to upgrade to wireless charging. Their G502 Hero gaming mouse even has optional weights that players can swap out between rounds. Regardless, Logitech’s customizability comes into play before a player makes a purchase, unlike Razer’s.

Performance & Durability

This category is where Logitech and Razer differ the most. Let’s consider the goals of each company. Razer seeks to design cutting-edge, top-of-the-line products that can impress gamers and be competitive at the highest level. Logitech makes products for everyday people, from office workers to pro gamers. They aim for quality and durability, but they don’t necessarily need all of their mice to have the very best specs.

The best Razer gaming mouse uses their Focus Pro optical sensor, which has a DPI of 30K. Yet Logitech isn’t far behind with their Hero Sensor that gives many of their gaming mice a DPI of 25K, a common enough DPI for some of Razer’s mice too. Regardless, Razer gaming mice are some of the fastest around, especially in their price range. Razer has some of the best specs overall, but in all honesty, most gamers aren’t going to need their specs to be so powerful.

What gamers do need is dependability, something Logitech is well-equipped to provide. Having decades of experience supporting offices where mice are being used for thousands of hours every year, their gaming mouse options offer some of the best value on the market. Although their sensors aren’t the absolute best, they’re built to last, along with thoroughly tested switches, grips, and scroll wheels. That’s not to say that Razer’s mice aren’t dependable, but Logitech has basically mastered durability with the mouse and keyboard. It’s why plenty of Esports players choose to compete with a Logitech gaming mouse over a Razer one.

Razer encourages upgrading by constantly one-upping themselves and providing gamers with regular, incremental improvements on their already impressive devices, and some gamers live for that. Players who perform closer to average will probably prefer Logitech’s slightly lower-tier gaming mouse options that last years and are still perfectly competitive.

Additionally, Logitech is famous for its battery life across devices. Their gaming mice aren’t any different and tend to last much longer than any other brand’s mouse. Even with RGB lighting, the battery on a Logitech mouse will last longer than most Razer gaming mice that don’t have lights. The mid-range mice like the G305 can last months on a single battery, with higher-performance mice staying powered for weeks at a time.

Verdict

When comparing electronics, it feels like instinct to go for the one with the absolute best performance, but that’s not the only consideration gamers should have, especially if they aren’t playing at a professional level. Razer is unabashedly one of the leaders in gaming mouse performance, but having the latest, greatest mouse isn’t always the best way to go.

Logitech has an impressive selection that caters to every type of PC user. Their designs and options make it so that even two of the same gaming mouse models can look completely different from each other, while their ergonomic designs offer a comfortable grip to anyone and everyone. There is a wide spectrum of power across Logitech gaming mouse options, with players able to choose high-performance, 25K optical sensors, or a mid-range option that still meets all of their needs, has extra features, and is a bit more affordable than other mice.

At the end of the day, Razer has the absolute best specs, but they often lag behind in terms of reliability. Meanwhile, Logitech has a gaming mouse for everyone. Despite being better known for their commercial application, they’ve proven themselves in the eyes of pro gamers with specs that can compete with some of Razer’s best mice. Logitech will no doubt continue to be surprisingly competitive, whether it’s on an office desk or on a tournament stage.

Our Favorite Logitech Gaming Mouse

How to Choose a Gaming Mouse

Choosing the right gaming mouse can seem like an impossible task, especially given the fact that there often isn’t a way to test it out before the mouse is purchased. In general, though, gamers can look at a few specifications to narrow their search down.

First and foremost, gamers will want to think about their grip style and whether the mouse is shaped appropriately to provide ergonomic support. Small mice are ideal for fingertip grips and players with smaller hands. Large mice can offer broad surfaces or high curves, both of which are best for palm grips and players with larger hands.

Along with this, play style and the genres a gamer plays most will let them know about how many buttons they want on their mouse. Typically, MMO players and strategy game fans like to have lots of extra buttons for hot-keying commands, while FPS players want the fastest, lightest options – meaning as few extras as possible.

Finally, the internal specs are of significance depending on how competitive a player wants to be and whether they prefer wired or wireless devices. Higher DPI numbers indicate a better reaction time, regardless of whether a player keeps their settings high or low. However, it should be noted that the average gamer can’t detect a difference in DPI once it gets over about 12K.

By considering these factors before settling on a gaming mouse, players can find exactly what they need, no matter what type of gamer they are.

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