How to know if mouse is laser or optical?

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Ghost02

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Today I bought a mouse at PC Zone after mine decided to stop working, on the box they have a label saying it is a laser mouse however it has a red light that shines where the laser is meant to be, I was under the assumption that only optical mice did this? Can someone please clarify on how to be sure if I have received an optical mouse or a laser mouse?
 
So if it has the red light then I can almost be sure that they sold me an optical mouse as a laser mouse?
 
Ghost02 said:
So if it has the red light then I can almost be sure that they sold me an optical mouse as a laser mouse?
Click to expand...
It has nothing to do with colour. Or whether you can see the light for that matter.

The main difference is how coherent the light is & how its generated.
 
So how would I know if it was a laser or optical mouse?
 
I take it there is no brand/model/number to Google in the first place?

I would've been a bit weary. :p
 
If it doesn't have lights it might just be using a frequency that isn't visible. Most of the Logitechs do this.

Both lasers and LED/optical ones can use invisible frequencies.
 
Yup it's a great mouse. I took a few days to get used to mine but now I love it. It definitely improved my kill ratio on BF2 as well! I also got mine from PC Zone for R199.
 
Thanks for the help guys :) now to get my new wifi card to trasfere to my other pc at more that 884KB/s :)
 
A laser mouse IS optical. It works by detecting light pulses. The difference is the ones sold as "optical" use a normal LED whereas the laser ones use a laser diode. AFAIK infrared lasers only which means they're invisible. I've never seen one using a visible laser so normally if you can see the LED it's an "optical" mouse. The sensitivity is not necessarily an indicator, you get pretty sensitive un-laser ones as well..

Edit: I see the website does say it's a laser, so maybe this is the exception. Pretty obscure brand though so it's probably a different sensor than what you usually see.
 
Last edited:
I learned something new about laser and optical, and the difference between weary and wary all in one thread. Bonus :)
 
TJ99 said:
A laser mouse IS optical. It works by detecting light pulses. The difference is the ones sold as "optical" use a normal LED whereas the laser ones use a laser diode. AFAIK infrared lasers only which means they're invisible. I've never seen one using a visible laser so normally if you can see the LED it's an "optical" mouse. The sensitivity is not necessarily an indicator, you get pretty sensitive un-laser ones as well..

Edit: I see the website does say it's a laser, so maybe this is the exception. Pretty obscure brand though so it's probably a different sensor than what you usually see.
Click to expand...

It was only something to last until I order I proper one online, like an emergency case and then I got curious when I saw it. It feels like a decent mouse so far though so I may not buy something else just yet.

Thanks to everyone for the help :)
 
TJ99 said:
A laser mouse IS optical. It works by detecting light pulses. The difference is the ones sold as "optical" use a normal LED whereas the laser ones use a laser diode. AFAIK infrared lasers only which means they're invisible. I've never seen one using a visible laser so normally if you can see the LED it's an "optical" mouse. The sensitivity is not necessarily an indicator, you get pretty sensitive un-laser ones as well..

Edit: I see the website does say it's a laser, so maybe this is the exception. Pretty obscure brand though so it's probably a different sensor than what you usually see.
Click to expand...

It was only something to last until I order I proper one online, like an emergency case and then I got curious when I saw it. It feels like a decent mouse so far though so I may not buy something else just yet.

Thanks to everyone for the help :)
 
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