Toby

People, you're naming mice that are practically as big as the Deathadder. The problem with us fingertip grippers is there isn't much made for us. Fingertip mice with perfect sensors don't have side-buttons and those with side-buttons don't have perfect sensors. If you're not particularly concerned with precision, the Orochi/CM Xornet should be fine. The CM Spawn combos perfect sensor+side buttons, but wholly disregards your colour-scheme requirements.

Infrared is another name for optical, to try and make optical sound more appealing to the "gamerz". Optical is more accurate (more specifically, A3090 and PMW3310 sensors are more accurate, which you'll find in most big-name gaming mice), but optical mice might be fussy about mouse pads with elaborate designs. I'm not really up to date with how much current optical sensors care about that, but decent mousepads tend to be relatively plain anyway. Generally there's no reason not to get an optical mouse, unless you're looking for a feature that no optical mouse currently provides. Lasers are still adequate, but just because you aren't consciously aware of the flaws, doesn't mean they aren't interfering with landing shots now and then. You looked up some pretty old info there.

Assuming you're still stuck between the M40/M45 and the Deathadder, what is it you're having trouble deciding on? Shape? Looks? Out of curiosity, what mouse do you have now?

I'm someone that puts their middle finger on the mouse wheel and ring finger on right-click, so I found it to be super narrow. I got used to it after a week or so though, which is why I'm 50/50 on the whole "comfort" thing (obviously comfort matters, but I think adaption plays a large part in that).

Pretty much. Its chassis is a smaller version of the Taipan, but with no side-buttons and it indeed has the same sensor as the DA. The reason for its relative obscurity is that it's only sold in asia (I had to import it), which is why I don't tend to recommend it. I miss having side buttons though, so I'm rather looking forward to this.

I use things like the CM Storm Spawn and Krait 2013, which would probably be too small for your liking. The M45 should serve you well. The Logitech G400s, Razer Deathadder, Roccat Kone Pure Optical, Steelseries Rival and Mionix Naos 7000/Avior 7000 are all commendable too.

I imagine you'd be conscious of both of those, though. I was mainly thinking of acceleration.

It's worth mentioning that what you're conscious of and what's affecting you aren't necessarily one and the same. Just because you couldn't feel/notice the cursor going those extra few pixels in the 0.3 seconds you moved it to the target -causing it to overshoot where your muscle memory dictated it should go - doesn't mean it didn't deny you a headshot. Fortunately, as time goes on and more flawless optical mice get released, there's very little reason to settle for laser mice at all. We're still missing flawless MMO and wireless mice, and the selection of fingertip-grip mice is pretty terrible, but with something like the M45 and M65, the latter only really has it's looks going for it. The sensor's objectively worse and the sniper button is more likely to hurt ones aim than aid it.

I've never seen the original EC1 and EC2 referred to with the "Pro" suffix, but as far as I can tell that's what they are. The originals had prediction and a less-than-flawless sensor, but I can't say for absolute certain that the blue version retains those flaws. I'd go with the Evo versions if you can.

Page 3 amazon review confirmed this comes in an ISO layout despite the ANSI display picture. A lot of the time UK vendors will just use images of the US ANSI version of a keyboard despite actually selling the ISO one. It's infuriating.

His list was short. There's at least 10 other mice that are as good for FPS, RTS, DoTA/LoL and anything else where quick and accurate mouse movement matters.

As has been said, none of those are really "shooter" mice. As to why people don't recommend Mad Catz? They just don't have much appeal. They look like toys and they operate like toys. Sometimes they even break like toys. Aesthetics are a matter of taste of course, but it does have a look that tends to be outgrown by the time people would both want a computer mouse and be able to afford one that costs as much. Weights, sky high DPI, "precision buttons", customizable chassis...Barely anyone needs any of these. The idea of them and the way they're marketed makes them sound like good ideas and a select few may actually benefit from them, but I think most people just convince themselves they do to justify the purchase. Hell, precision buttons seem positively detrimental to me. That wouldn't be preferable at all. Windows sensitivity should really stay at 6/11. Multiple monitor set-ups are probably the only good reason to use higher DPI, That said, even with 3 monitors side-to-side (3*1900 pixels), he'd still be fitting them within just 1.65 inches of horizontal movement. I'm guessing he anchors his wrist and doesn't move his arm at all (possibly a fingertip gripper), or has less-than-optimal windows pointer settings.

You really can. It's only really the A3090+variants and PMW3310 that are objectively superior to anything available with a laser. However I'm not sure the "ghost shark" is even optical in the way we define "optical" as opposed to "laser".

What's your current mouse? As the other two said, DPI measures sensitivity, nothing else. Turn down the DPI and you'll have your old sensitivity back. Now, the winner of your title would be optical, so I'd suggest the M40/M45 (still not sure when the latter's coming out). The M65 tends to win in the aesthetics department, though.

Thumb on the left side, index on LMB, middle on scroll wheel, ring finger on RMB and pinky on the right side.

Roccat Kone Pure Optical, Corsair M40/M45, Roccat Savu, CM Storm Recon and Zowie EC2 Evo are all on the shorter side of mice and should be suitable for a fingertip grip. If you need even smaller mice than those, then you're into CM Storm Spawn, Razer Abyssus and Razer Krait 2013 territory (all good, but only the Spawn has side-buttons).

You nailed it. The M40/M45 has a better sensor, but the M65 looks prettier. Plenty of people are willing to miss a few headshots for the sake of a pretty mouse. OP, I recommend Zowie. The AM, the FK, the EC1 Evo and EC2 Evo mice are all good. You are however limited to 450, 1150 or 2300 DPI, which, while not necessarily being a problem, is probably the reason they aren't recommended as often as other mice.

Dude bought a Rival. But there's no difference, aside from the flaws. It's like saying you play better with a white mouse than a black one...At best, you're experiencing a placebo effect.

No, quite the opposite. If I'm misunderstanding you then I'd like to understand how. If I'm not, then you're contradicting the collective wisdom, testing and research of places like here, OCN, ESReality etc. and I'm curious to know how you know what you know.

I think you misunderstood Verne. He was saying opinions come into the equation when talking about the flaws of other sensors - i.e. not the two optical sensors that are factually/objectively better than anything else available. Or to put it more simply... It is factual. It's not solely based on preference.

Wait, what? The fact that you can live with the flaws of a laser sensor despite it being objectively worse than the two sensors I mentioned, doesn't make that laser sensor equally as good. That's like taking two cars that are identical apart from the fact that one is handles worse and saying "well, I can live with the inferior handling so this car is just as good as the one that handles better".

Yes necessarily. For FPS you want an optical mouse, but that's not to say you want any optical mouse. There are of course optical sensors with the same or worse problems than laser ones, but in the realm of recommendable gaming-mice, optical tends to mean something with some variation of the A3090 or PMW3310, which is what you want for FPS. Results may vary, but Mad Catz tend to be on the lower end of quality. You may get a mouse that's perfectly fine, but going with them probably means taking a higher risk for defects than other mice. That said, the optical version of the R.A.T 3 is the kind of thing you'd want. For palm gripping with smaller hands specifically, I'd suggest looking at the Roccat Kone Pure Optical/Roccat Savu, the Corsair M40/M45 and the Zowie EC2 Evo, though the Logitech G400s, Zowie AM/FK/EC1 Evo, Razer Deathadder, CM Storm Recon, Mionix Avior 7000/Naos 7000 and Steelseries Rival probably remain as good options, despite being on the larger end of things (we're talking an extra centimeter or so in length).

Mostly FPS means you want an optical mouse. What type of grip do you have and do you have any preference between right-handed and ambidextrous mice?

Alright. I'd really suggest turning it off, because contrary to it's name it does nothing to increase precision and if anything, does the opposite. EPP is a form of mouse acceleration, which means the faster you move your mouse in a given distance, the further the pointer will travel...Not generally regarded as a good thing for hitting targets, or clicking what you want to click in a timely fashion. If you do disable it, it might take a bit to get used to and you'll probably need to turn your DPI down a bit (not a bad thing).

Do you understand what EPP does?