According to niche mouse maker Finalmouse, its new hybrid mechanical-optical Starlight X mouse has faster clicks than any other it’s tested, including the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike.

“At the centre of SLX is an entirely new TMR DS analogue click architecture…. The result is not simply the fastest click latency we’ve ever produced, SLX achieves the fastest click latency of any gaming mouse we’ve tested. And, beyond that, the fastest button input we’ve measured in a consumer electronic device.”

Apparently, Finalmouse used to use its own XLat tester to measure the time it takes from the mouse switch electrically closing to the USB packet arriving at your system. But this isn’t the whole story, because the time to actually press the button down, before the switch closes, is important, too. Decreasing this button-press time is the main benefit Logitech pointed everyone towards with the G Pro X2 Superstrike, and is what allowed the company to claim a 15–30 ms reduction in click latency.

Using copper tape on the surface of the mouse clicker in combination with its XLat tester and a machine it built to model a human click, Finalmouse has managed to measure the total time taken from starting to press the button to the data packet being received by the host system:

“[The pressing machine,] in combination with a little bit of copper tape and an XLat, will allow us to very accurately model the end-to-end latency of something that looks as closely as possible like a human click actuating a mouse.”

Finalmouse compares a pre-production sample of the Starlight X to the Superstrike, the Razer Viper V4 Pro, and the Endgame Gear OP1 8K V2. The latter mouse is the fastest one that Finalmouse has measured just considering the latency from actuation to packet receipt. However, it lacks the pre-click latency reduction that analogue clicks provide.

Averaging 50 test clicks for each mouse, the two mice with analogue switches clicked significantly quicker than the two with traditional mechanical switches.

Finalmouse is keen to point out that the Starlight X is quicker than the Superstrike; however, I’m not massively convinced this is important. That’s because presumably the way this is achieved is by making the click actuate even sooner in the button depression than the Superstrike’s lowest level, thanks to its TMR tech.

But although I do fine with the Superstrike on its lowest level of actuation, anecdotally I’ve heard from a lot of people who aren’t keen on keeping the Superstrike at this low of an actuation level and who keep it at level three or four. In which case, the SLX’s 2 ms score might just be a theoretical but not very practically realisable measurement.

What I find more interesting than the Finalmouse’s score is the difference between the analogue and mechanical mouse scores. Logitech’s data indicated a much bigger reduction than this, but Finalmouse’s testing seems to show that when we compare an analogue click to a mechanical one, when testing under normal finger-press conditions, you ‘only’ shave off about 3–5 ms.

I put ‘only’ in quotes, however, because in practice this still shows that it’s shaved in half from a couple of fast mice without analogue clicks. This being said, my reaction time (as tested by the Human Benchmark) is about 165 ms, so we are dealing in very slight improvements. Even pro gamers don’t have reaction times lower than 100 ms.

As far as the Starlight X goes, I suppose if you’re perfectly fine using the Superlight’s lowest level of actuation and think you could go even lower, then maybe it will be worth a look. Though, at least according to commenters on X, shipping times for the mouse are best measured in months rather than milliseconds, so if their words are anything to go by, you could be waiting a while.