2019 was really the year that saw an explosion of lightweight honeycomb shell gaming mice. With it came a wave of innovation, stock paracord-style cables, PTFE feet followed. As 2020 is about to draw to a close, we need to address the number one issue with gaming mice right now and that is QC (Quality Control). We’re on the brink of a ton of new tech becoming standard in mice, that includes low latency wireless, optical switches and 8000hz polling rate. I’ve reviewed dozens of gaming mice to date and a surprisingly high percentage of them have had noticeable QC right out of the box.
While the community has been relatively accepting of minor issues on first batches of new models, it’s still hard to understand why QC issues have been so commonplace in 2020. Some of these issues have been very well documented on r/mousereview and are far from a rarity. Some common problems that include the post-travel on the CM MM711, double clicks on the GPW, and an array of issues with the Glorious mice with their cables and clicks. This is just to name a few, it seems that for some mice QC issues are the exception not the rule. As consumers we should no longer accept sub-par QC especially considering the size and scale of some of these brands. Companies have the capability to ensure QC on their mice and work out any kinks and issues with their designs prior to releasing a product to the public.
It’s difficult to get excited about any of the technological advances right around the corner when we know that many of these same mice will be plagued by the same build quality problems we’ve been experiencing for years. I would say a good 25-35% of the mice I’ve reviewed have very noticeable build quality issues and with certain mice it’s nearly impossible to get a “perfect copy”. This needs to change, let’s hold brands more accountable going forward into the new year.