Best Mouse 2024: Get Speed, Comfort, and Precision with the Best Wired and Wireless Mice

Too many people ignore the importance of buying the best mouse you can afford when you’re using a PC or even a laptop on a desk. Sure, you can struggle on with a bargain-basement effort or the trackpad built into your laptop, but you’ll find yourself working faster and more effectively if you connect a half-decent mouse. You’ll find it easier to navigate the desktop, make selections, and get around your normal apps, and if you work in any field that involves graphics, video, code, or design you’ll find a good mouse pretty much essential.

What’s more, buying the best mouse you can means you can use your PC in comfort. It will support your hand while you’re working and help ensure you don’t get RSI from clicking the buttons, scrolling the scroll wheel or moving it around. Many even come with extra programmable buttons you can use to control important functions without resorting to the keyboard, which can help you work more efficiently. If you’re just getting used to working from home, you’ll be surprised what a difference a decent mouse can make. We delve into which features you should look for in more depth in our buying guide at the bottom of the page.

Best mouse: At a glance

How we test mice

With mice, there’s no substitute for real-world use, so we put each mouse through its paces over several days on a Windows laptop or PC. We test the mouse across a range of applications, including web browsers, Office apps, and image-editing or video-editing apps. Where appropriate, we’ll also give the mouse a workout in fast-paced action and real-time strategy games. While we focus on accuracy, tracking, and the performance of the primary buttons and scroll wheel, we’ll also check any additional functions, buttons, or wheels to see how they work, along with any control software provided. We’ll also test wireless mice using both a Bluetooth connection and a 2.4GHz USB dongle – where supported – to check the strength, range, and reliability of the connection.

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The best mice you can buy in 2024

1. SteelSeries Prime Wireless: Best wireless mouse for any purpose

Price when reviewed: $70 | Check price at Amazon

The Prime Wireless is one of those mice that instantly feels right when you put your hand on it. In use, it’s even better thanks to SteelSeries’ proprietary magnetic optical mouse switches, which are good for 100 million clicks and give the Prime Wireless an extremely satisfying and positive click-action. The ABS plastic body has what the manufacturer calls a “rough matte” finish, which makes the Prime easy to grip, even when things get sweaty. The maximum DPI setting is a whopping 18,000 and it glides about effortlessly thanks to three large PTFE skate pads.

The Prime’s gaming background only shows through in the RGB scroll wheel light, but you can disable that using the SteelSeries GG control panel. The rechargeable battery lasts up to 100 hours with the RGB lighting turned off, and there’s a handy quick-charge facility that gives you a decent 40 hours of use with just 15 minutes of charge. The only negative is the 2.4GHz wireless dongle: it’s a USB-C affair which could prove a problem on some older laptops, and it sticks out rather far at 30mm compared to just 10mm for the Logitech equivalent. This mouse debuted at $130, but you can now regularly find it on sale for under $60, making it an even easier choice.

Key specs – Sensor: SteelSeries TrueMove Air Optical; Max sensitivity: 18,000dpi; Connectivity: 2.4GHz wireless; Buttons: 5 buttons, 1 scroll wheel; Battery: Internal li-ion; Dimensions: 4.9 x 2.3 x 0.91in; Weight: 2.8oz

2. Microsoft Modern Mobile Mouse: Best low-profile mobile mouse

Price when reviewed: $60 | Check price at Amazon

Mice don’t get much slimmer or more portable than Microsoft’s Modern Mobile Mouse, and if they did there would be precious little left to grip. The shape takes a little getting used to, suiting a loose fingertip or palm grip rather than anything firmer, but the low profile means you get a mouse that will easily slip into a laptop bag or case. What’s more, there’s a bulge at the rear to support your palm, while your hand can sit at a flatter, more comfortable angle.

In terms of features, it’s fairly basic by Microsoft standards – no fancy customizable buttons, and just a simple up/down scroll wheel. It’s also Bluetooth-only, with no facility to pair with multiple devices. Yet Microsoft’s optical technology ensures it works as well on a bare desk or kitchen table as it does on a mouse mat, and it’s accurate enough for everyday office and creative use. It’s a great mouse whether you’re at home or on the road.

Key specs – Sensor: Microsoft Bluetrack Optical; Max sensitivity: 1,000dpi; Connectivity: Bluetooth; Buttons: 2 buttons, 1 wheel; Battery: 2 x AAA; Dimensions: 2.4 x 4.2 x 1in; Weight: 2.8oz

4. Cherry MW 9100: Best travel mouse

Price when reviewed: $45 | Check price at Amazon

Cherry’s new MW 9100 is a small symmetrical travel mouse that is a little heavier than you might expect. It weighs 3.2oz, which lends it a solid feel, and the design is a step above the usual as well, the silver accents on the rubber side panels delivering it from desktop anonymity.

The two click buttons have very crisp yet quiet actions, the notched scroll wheel is perfectly calibrated and the DPI button behind it lets you switch between three different levels of sensitivity.

With Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless connectivity, customizability via the Cherry app, and 70 days of battery life (it recharges via USB-C), the MW9100 is a fantastic jack-of-all-trades. Cherry even supplies a little travel bag.

Key specs – Sensor: PixArt PAW3212DB-TJDT Optical; Max sensitivity: 2,400dpi; Connectivity: Bluetooth, 2.4GHz wireless; Buttons: 5 buttons, 1 scroll wheel; Battery: 550mAh internal li-ion; Dimensions: 3.9 x 2.5 x 1.3in; Weight: 3.2oz

5. Microsoft Bluetooth Ergonomic: Best ergonomic mouse

Price when reviewed: $70 | Check price at Amazon

While some ergonomic mice look as if they have been designed with an alien life form in mind, Microsoft’s Ergonomic mouse looks reassuringly normal, with the only hat-tip to hard-core ergonomics being the soft-touch thumb rest on the left. With only five buttons, it isn’t the most feature-laden mouse, but you can program the two side buttons using Microsoft’s Mouse & Keyboard Center software.

Available in four rather dashing colors, the Microsoft Ergonomic also features an aluminum scroll wheel, which wasn’t something we expected to find on a mouse at this price. The result is a mouse that looks and feels significantly more expensive than it is. The Bluetooth-only Ergonomic is powered by two AAA batteries which, according to Microsoft, should keep it working for an impressive 15 months.

Key specs – Sensor: Pixart PAW3228 Optical; Max sensitivity: 2,400dpi; Connectivity: Bluetooth; Buttons: 5 buttons, 1 scroll wheel; Battery: 2 x AAA; Dimensions: 4.7 x 3 x 1.7in; Weight: 3.2oz

How to choose the best mouse for you

Unless you’re a gamer or a design professional, the most important aspect of a mouse is comfort and the mouse’s shape. Generally speaking, more expensive mice tend to follow an ergonomic shape, where the mouse is designed to fall naturally underneath the spread of your right hand.

However, some people prefer a lighter, slimmer, and often ambidextrous mouse that you rest your hand lightly on and use with your fingertips. Some mice have a more vertical format and keep your hand in a “handshake” alignment, which is something that puts less strain on the muscles and the wrist. If you’ve used a few mice then you’ll probably have some idea of what suits you best but, if you haven’t, this can be the trickiest part of making your choice.

The other key issues are connectivity and sensitivity or resolution. Going for a wireless mouse means less cable clutter, which is useful if you’re using it with a laptop that you might be using at home, in the office, and elsewhere. Some connect via Bluetooth while others connect via a plug-in USB dongle, which might be essential if you’re using a desktop PC, as many still ship without Bluetooth built in.

Wired mice are generally less popular these days, but they still have some big advantages. You don’t need to worry about batteries or charging the mouse, and wired mice just work on nearly every PC or laptop, which can’t always be said about wireless mice. Wired mice are also often slightly cheaper, and there’s barely any delay between you moving the mouse or clicking a button and that being registered with your PC. Even in the worst-case scenarios, we’re talking milliseconds with a wireless mouse, but that can be enough to mean the difference between victory and defeat in online games.

What sensitivity or resolution do I need?

The sensitivity or resolution of a mouse is expressed in dots per inch (dpi), meaning the number of individual points within an inch of movement that the mouse is able to pick up. Modern mice tend to start at 800dpi and go up to an average 1,200 to 1,600dpi, with gaming and high-end productivity mice taking that further to 4,000 or even 8,000dpi. Take the numbers with a pinch of salt; a 4,000dpi mouse isn’t necessarily any better than a 1,600dpi version and, for many of us, such a mouse would actually be too sensitive if used at its full resolution.

Most people have the sensitivity dialed down – the high resolution just makes movement smoother and more accurate. Even professional gamers often won’t have the sensitivity maxed out; it’s just there if they need it for activities where pixel-perfect precision matters.

Is there anything else worth looking out for?

It’s worth thinking about battery life with wireless mice or about features that allow you to use the same mouse on several PCs, tablets, or laptops and switch between them with a button press. What’s more, mice of all kinds can benefit from extra buttons or wheels that give them extra programmable functions for, say, zooming the view in and out in design applications or skipping backwards and forwards in your web browser.

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