You can add your own creative touch to your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons by creating your own patterns and designs to use all over the island. With the Custom Designs application on the NookPhone, you can customize and decorate furniture, clothing, and even the ground with your very own designs.
There are even converters online that will turn your favourite images and photos into downloadable patterns. Any pattern you find online, or previously made, from Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons can be used.
How To Unlock Pro Designs
While designing patterns for in-game use is not new to the series, New Horizons raises the bar with the use of Pro Designs. These designs are for players who wish to get more in-depth with making their own clothing designs for specific garments in-game.
These Pro Designs can be made for tank tops, short-sleeve shirts, long-sleeve shirts, sweaters, hoodies, coats, a variety of dresses, robes, brimmed caps, knit caps, and brimmed hats.
In order to make your own Pro Designs, you will need to purchase the Pro Design upgrade in the Nook Stop machine. The Pro Design feature costs 800 Nook Miles and can be purchased after the Resident Services building has been constructed.
How to Unlock QR Codes
In order to download your own or other players’ designs from New Leaf and Happy Home Designer, you will need to download the Nintendo Switch Online App. This can be installed on either iOS or Android.
Once installed, you will need to log in to your Nintendo Account. After logging in, select the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Game-Specific Service, otherwise called “NookLink.” (You will need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to access NookLink.) To scan QR codes, simply select Designs, at which point the QR code scanner should open. Scan and save the designs to be transmitted to your game.
Connect your Nintendo Switch to the NookLink from the Animal Crossing: New Horizons title screen by pressing the Minus button to open up the settings menu. Select NookLink settings and then “Yes, please!”. Make sure you are connected to the internet, otherwise it won’t be able to connect.
After the game has been paired with the app, your designs can be found in the Custom Designs app underneath the “Pro Designs” tab. You will need to download your designs just one last time; press the Plus button on the Custom Designs screen and select a space for the design to fill. Press R when in the app to switch between Pro and Custom designs.
How To Use Custom Designs
In order to use these custom designs you’ve either made or downloaded, just open the Custom Designs app in your Nook Phone and select the design. At this point you will have four options: wear, display here, display on ground, and erase.
If you want to wear the custom design, just select wear and the design will be placed upon your person as a new clothing item. Pro designs will create the proper garment that it was designed for, while standard custom designs will just be a simple t-shirt.
The “display here” option will create either a mannequin wearing the clothing item or a painting. The painting can be placed on your walls inside your home, while the mannequin can be picked up and then, by selecting the new clothing item in your inventory, you can display it on the walls like any other apparel.
“Display on ground” is generally used by players designing their own paths, wallpaper, or flooring. When outside, the “display on ground” option will lay the design down in a single space, and you can remove the design by pressing Y when facing it. When inside your home, the option will change to “spread in room,” with the option to use the design as a wallpaper or flooring.
You can also use custom designs with the Island Designer app to make paths more easily and efficiently. See our Island Designer terraforming guide for more details.
How To Use The Kiosk
Custom designs can be browsed in the game itself without the use of the NookLink application or QR codes. Once you have unlocked the Able Sisters clothing shop, you will have access to a kiosk that will allow you to upload your own designs and search through designs other players have uploaded. This requires a paid Nintendo Online subscription to use.
Once you’ve unlocked the Able Sisters shop, make sure to speak to Sable every day. Sable is the older sister working on the sewing machine in the left corner. At first she will ignore your advances, but over time she will start to be more friendly towards you, eventually sharing stories about the sisters with you. You will need to speak to Sable for 10 days straight in order to get the QR kiosk in the store.
After this point, Sable will start to give you custom designs of her own creation.
The kiosk allows you to share your creations to every player in the world. Players can find your designs via the Creator ID or Design ID search functions in the kiosk. This allows players to search for designs by friends or people online. These designs include Pro Designs.
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Full House was already revived on Netflix, but the cast of the classic sitcom still aren’t ready to say goodbye to their classic characters. In fact, since they’re all stuck at home during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the cast has reunited to record a new take on the show’s iconic opening credits, complete with the original show’s theme song.
John Stamos, who played Uncle Jesse on Full House and Fuller House, posted the video on Instagram, dubbing it Full Quarantine. “Unlike [Full House], this will all go away,” he wrote.
In the video, Stamos, Bob Saget, Dave Coulier, Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin, and Andrea Barber all reprise their roles, but from their own homes. They’re also all being pretty ridiculous. For instance, much like his ultra-tidy character Danny Tanner, Saget is shown cleaning his cleaning supplies. The video also features a special appearance from Full House creator Jeff Franklin.
Franklin’s inclusion is interesting, given that he was dismissed from Fuller House, which he created and served as showrunner on, ahead of its final season. At the time, it was reported that numerous complaints about his behavior in the show’s writers’ room had been received, including hiss possibly being “verbally abusive to staffers.”
While the final season of Fuller House has already finished filming, Netflix has yet to release the final nine episodes of the series. They are expected sometime this year.
Ubisoft outlined what’s coming to The Division 2 this week in a new blog post. And the big feature is the launch of the Northeast League, which runs from April 8-22 on PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
The Northeast League is “a series of challenges and progression levels featuring time trials, high difficulty missions, and unique enemy eliminations,” according to the post. These challenges can be played either solo or in a group and “offers players 10 additional rewards” like two unique cosmetic items, an exotic cache, and more. Ubisoft said more Leagues are coming to The Division 2 in the future that will focus on different factions, missions, and challenges throughout Warlords of New York‘s Season One, Shadow Tide.
Elsewhere in the post, Ubisoft made a mention to the suspended accounts of players who exploited a DPS glitch. The bug, which allowed those who took advantage of it to stack augmentations in order to unfairly bolster their damage stats, has since been ironed out and those accounts that were suspended for one week were fully restored as of April 7, according to Ubisoft. All suspended accounts have had their accounts rolled back to a March 17, 2020 save file, meaning all progress made from then to now has been deleted.
Lastly, Ubisoft said that while Title Update 8.5 recently dropped, the studio is already preparing another The Division 2 patch. The update, called Title Update 9, will arrive “late April” on all platforms. Ubisoft isn’t talking explicitly about what’s in the update just yet, but it did say that one new feature will be the ability to level exotics up to 40.
In other The Division 2 news, Shadow Tide just started, introducing new story elements and loot rewards to hunt. One such new challenge is a brand-new Rogue Agent to track down: Venus.
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“I don’t want to be part of a long line of Batman movies where this is just another one,” The Batman director Matt Reeves said in a new interview wherein he reveals the two Batman movies he admires the most and sheds light on what makes his forthcoming Bat-film different
Speaking with Nerdist, Reeves heaped praise on the 1992 sequel Batman Returns — “What Tim Burton did was really singular.” — and Catwoman actress Michelle Pfeiffer. (Zoe Kravitz plays Catwoman in Reeves’ The Batman.)
“I love Batman Returns. Michelle Pfeiffer was incredible. I love it, I love it so much. It’s so incredible and she’s so incredible in it. I just think it’s such a beautiful movie,” said Reeves. “I love the Penguin stuff when he’s going down the sewers as the baby. It’s just like, wow. This is the beautiful thing about Tim Burton at his best in that way that he’s got that connection into the fantastical that feels very, very personal.”
Reeves also singled out Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight as “incredible” and Heath Ledger’s “indelible” interpretation of the Joker. But Reeves particularly responded to film’s “profound” message about the terrifying and nihilistic aspects of human nature that Ledger’s Joker represents.
For his own Batman film, which is currently shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, Reeves loves the idea of exploring a Caped Crusader who’s “not yet fully formed. Where there’s something to do in this context with who that guy would be in this world today, and to ground him in all of these broken ways. Because at the end of the day, this guy is doing all of this to deal with trauma in his past.”
Now that Sony has finally revealed the DualSense, the controller for PlayStation 5, we can compare it with Microsoft’s controller for its next-gen console, Xbox Series X. Each one presents interesting features of their own, and speaks to the objectives that Sony and Microsoft have for their new consoles. So, let’s take a closer look at the similarities and differences between the DualSense and Series X controller.
Currently, both PS5 and Xbox Series X are scheduled to release in Holiday 2020. Though we still don’t actually know what the PS5 looks like, we do know most of the internal specs for both next-gen consoles, which we compare in our PS5 vs. Xbox Series X spec guide.
Both the DualSense and Series X controller reiterate similar design philosophies from their respective predecessors, the DualShock 4 and Xbox One controller. Neither one is exactly like what came before, of course, but if you’re used to holding a DualShock 4 or Xbox One controller, you’re not going to have to relearn thumbstick and face button layouts.
The Xbox Series X controller is designed almost exactly like its predecessor.
DualSense utilizes PlayStation’s traditional design philosophy where the thumbsticks aren’t offset, with both the D-pad and four face buttons placed above both sticks. Starting at the top and going clockwise, the face buttons are still Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square. Both the lightbar and touchpad return as well, though the lightbar now sits on the edges of the touchpad as opposed to being on the top like on the DualShock 4.
On the other hand, the Series X controller continues Xbox’s tradition of offset thumbsticks–the D-pad is below the stick on the left, while the four face buttons are above the stick on the right. Similar to its predecessor, the face buttons are, starting at the top and going clockwise: Y, B, A, X. Unlike the DualSense, the Series X controller has a hybrid D-pad, making it easier to do diagonal inputs. Also, with no touchpad, the Series X’s Xbox home button is at the top of the controller, whereas the DualSense’s PlayStation home button rests at the bottom.
In terms of just overall shape, both controllers are fairly similar–at the very least, they’re far more alike than the DualShock 4 and Xbox One controller are. However, the DualSense is a bit more narrow in the middle and the Series X controller has slightly larger bumpers and triggers.
Color
The Series X controller continues the traditional monochromatic color scheme that standard Xbox controllers have had. In this case, the default color is black. Like previous Xbox controllers, its Y button is yellow, its B button is red, its A button is green, and its X button is blue. The Xbox home button glows white while the controller is powered on.
Sony, however, shakes things up with the DualSense and goes for a two-toned color design scheme. The standard controller is white and black. Unlike previous PlayStation controllers, the DualSense’s face buttons are devoid of color–they’re white too. The spark of color instead comes from the lightbar, which by default glows blue when the controller is turned on.
Between the two next-gen controllers, the DualSense is the more transformative, adopting a color scheme and overall design that’s fairly different from PS4’s DualShock 4.
Size
Without the actual controllers in our hands, it’s difficult to do an exact comparison of their sizes. However, in terms of size, both controllers seem likely built to better appeal to smaller hands than their predecessors do.
In a PlayStation blog post, Sony senior vice president of platform planning and management Hideaki Nishino writes that the DualSense is made to “feel smaller than it really looks.” Similarly, in an Xbox blog post, Xbox senior designer Ryan Whitaker said that the Series X controller was made to better accommodate “hands similar to those of an average eight-year-old” and is thus slightly smaller than the Xbox One controller.
The Series X controller includes a Share button that allows you to more easily capture and share both screenshots and gameplay clips. Although a button dedicated to this is new for Xbox, this already exists on the DualShock 4 and Nintendo Switch Joy-Con/Pro controller.
The DualSense ditches the DualShock’s Share button for a Create button, which seems to accomplish much the same task with the added benefit of additional, though currently unannounced, features. The DualSense also includes a built-in microphone, allowing you to quickly talk with your friends without a headset mic.
The Series X controller and DualSense both feature adaptive triggers, which allows developers to customize the triggers’ resistance, as well as haptic feedback, which allows developers to customize the level of vibration a controller produces. Both features should help game developers better convey a message to the player through their sense of touch. Additionally, both controllers have a traditional 3.5mm headset jack, allowing you to keep whichever headset you currently use. Neither controller includes paddles or apparent first-party support for the attachment.
Power Source
Both the DualSense and Series X controller use the same method of power as their respective predecessors. The DualSense has an internal battery that you’ll have to keep charged. On the other hand, the Series X controller supports external batteries–meaning you can use AA batteries or rechargeable ones. In terms of recharging or connecting either controller to a console or PC via a cord, both the Series X controller and DualSense utilize a USB-C port.
Past-Gen Compatibility
Sony has neither confirmed nor denied whether the DualSense will be able to connect to a PS4, but Microsoft has already announced that the Series X controller will be compatible with Xbox One. In fact, Xbox One controllers will be forward compatible too–you’ll be able to use your old controllers on Xbox Series X, including the Elite controllers.
Price
Neither Sony nor Microsoft has announced a price point for their respective next-gen controllers.
I played Gonner for 10 minutes before exiting back out to the Xbox store page to try and figure out what it was exactly, but within that 10 minutes, I was already in love. Gonner is a roguelike shooter/platformer game with weird visual design, a nearly non-existent plot, and mechanics that take some time to make sense. But wow, does it have a strong, and immediately compelling, sense of style. The game is a bit like Spelunky, but far more abstract. You move between levels by letting worms swallow you, collect glyphs to revive upon any unexpected deaths, and overcome challenges by jumping on and shooting various red, blobby enemies with whatever guns you find. You’re encouraged to visit Death for supplies between runs, and you can upgrade your character (a strange little green dude who is apparently doing all of this to please his only friend, who is a whale) as you go. Gonner is a definite hidden gem with a distinct charm that’s hard to explain–which makes Xbox Game Pass the perfect place for it, because you need to try it for yourself.
One thing Gargano is known for is his comic book-inspired cosplay. In the past, Gargano has had ring attire that pays homage to Marvel characters like Star Lord, Punisher, Captain Marvel, and our personal favorite, Iron Man. However, now that Gargano has gone heel, will those cosplays keep happening? According to Johnny Wrestling himself, don’t count on it.
“[The Johnny Gargano] character is changing and evolving, so I do not know if there will be another Marvel-inspired gear,” Gargano told GameSpot. “Well, that’s the first I’ve ever said that on record, but I’m not really sure if that’s where it is headed. In my head–in my character’s head–he did a lot of things that put smiles on fan faces to make people happy, but it was very much of a detriment to himself. That’s the reason he brought back DIY. That’s the reason he [teamed] with Tomasso [Ciampa] again, even though he had ill will towards Tomasso. So I don’t know. I don’t know if there will ever be another Marvel cosplay. I don’t know if they’ll another Marvel inspiration. You’ll have to watch and find out, but we’ll see what happens.”
It’s the ultimate heel move for Gargano: don’t give the fans what they want. Or maybe he will do something extremely outlandish like have a DC character inspired ring gear. We’ll wait to see if Gargano gets decked out in a Darkseid outfit in the upcoming months. Speaking of cosplay ring gear, at Wrestlemania 36, Rhea Ripley had great ring gear based on Vageta’s outfit from Dragon Ball Z.
Gargano will face Ciampa on NXT tonight at 8 PM ET on USA Network.
For more on WWE, check out our Wrestlemania coverage from the April 4 and 5 weekend.
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One of Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ biggest new features is Island Designer, an app for the in-game NookPhone that lets you terraform your island to your liking. This includes pathmaking, building water features, and building cliffs–or destroying those things, if you want. Using each of these abilities, you can rebuild your island’s rivers, build waterfalls, create roads and plazas, and more. It’s all up to you and your creative vision!
Below, we’ve outlined how to unlock Island Designer as well as each part of the app, how to work each of its features, our best terraforming tips, and everything else you need to know. We have tons of other Animal Crossing guides, so be sure to check out our New Horizons guide roundup for all the latest.
How To Get Terraforming: Unlocking The Island Designer App
Island Designer is a later-game feature, so there are a few steps you’ll need to take over at least two weeks of playtime in order to unlock it. You need to have unlocked the Resident Services building and begun Tom Nook’s Project K assignment, which requires you to:
Build three housing plots (following his instructions)
Get three villagers to move into those houses (one per day)
Get your island to a three-star rating
Project K will take quite a few days to complete, plus the time and effort it takes to decorate your island and improve your rating. Luckily, as long as you plant flowers and trees and put some furniture here and there, you should be able to get to three stars pretty easily once you’ve improved your population numbers.
The day after you’ve reached three stars, Tom Nook will give you the Island Designer app on your NookPhone. At first, you’ll only have access to the path tool and two types of paths (grass and dirt), but you can unlock more path options, the waterscaping tool, and the cliff construction tool with Nook Miles.
Path Types And Unlock Cost
Each additional path type costs 2,000 Nook Miles with the exception of the Custom Design path, which costs 2,300. This will let you use any Custom Design as a path. You can unlock each of the additional path styles at the Nook Stop machine in Resident Services.
Grass (free)
Dirt path (free)
Stone path
Brick path
Dark dirt path
Arched tile path
Sand path
Terra-cotta tiles
Wooden path
Custom Design path
Unlocking The Waterscaping And Cliff-Construction Permits
You can unlock the ability to waterscape and, separately, the ability to build cliffs at any time after you’ve received the Island Designer app. Each permit costs 6,000 Nook Miles and can be redeemed at the Nook Stop machine in Resident Services.
How To Terraform Using Island Designer
Before you really get going with Island Designer, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with all the tools. The app itself includes a manual that will walk you through the basics; each tool is operated with A, and you can use the + button to switch between permits and path types. We outline specific use cases and our best tips below.
Pathmaking
When you’re using the path tool, pressing A on a plain grassy area will build a path, and then pressing A again will remove it. You can also use the grass tool to remove paths if you prefer. You can use different path types next to each other, but they won’t be flush with one another; there will be a gap between them.
If you have a few of the same path “tiles” adjacent to each other, pressing A on them will first round the path, and you’ll have to press A again to remove it fully. You can use this to create rounded edges and various shapes.
For example, to make circles on the ground, put four path tiles next to each other in a square, then hit A on each of them again to round them out. For hearts, do a bigger 3×3 square with one corner missing, then round out the sides nearest that empty corner.
Special Cases
Not all the path types were made equal. You can only dig into dirt, dark dirt, and sand paths; you can plant flowers and trees on these paths as well. All other paths are more solid, but you can still place items on top of them like you would grass, dirt, or sand. Keep in mind that fossils will only appear on grass, so it’s not recommended that you totally cover your island in paths.
Using Custom Designs
You can also use Custom Designs you’ve either made or downloaded as paths if you’ve unlocked the ability to do so (it costs 2,300 Nook Miles at the Nook Stop machine). This is far easier and more efficient than placing the designs on the ground one by one like in previous games.
Regular Custom Designs mostly work like any other path, but unlike regular paths, you can remove them at any time using Y (which is likely to be an accident and can be frustrating). Also, Custom Designs do lay flush with one another even if they’re different. Because of this, you can make a more complex path using several different designs; if your design has multiple pieces, use + to switch between them (like when making corners or edges to a road, for example).
If your Custom Design has at least one transparent pixel, you can layer that design over the standard paths. This way, you can round out the edges of your custom designs like you would the regular paths–just lay down and shape a regular path first, then put your design over it. You can also place Custom Designs that utilize transparency on regular grass.
If you change a Custom Design in the NookPhone app, any path you’ve put down using that design will change with it. This can make it easy to update your paths without having to redo all of them, but make sure you’re editing the right ones!
Waterscaping
For waterscaping, pressing A on land will dig a trench for water. Pressing A again will fill up the trench; as with paths, if you have a few “tiles” of water next to each other, pressing A will first round out the edges and then, when pressed again, remove the water entirely.
Waterscaping is the most finicky of the Island Designer tools, and it definitely takes practice. For example, to round out a sharp corner, you’ll have to place your character a bit back from the edge. Be patient!
When building rivers, keep in mind that bridges span four water tiles. The edges of the river also have to be even for three or four tiles in order to support the bridge.
Your character can hop across any water feature that’s one or two tiles wide. With this in mind, you can create land bridges across rivers without fully dividing the river–you can fill in a piece of land in the middle of a river and jump across it. Keep in mind that villagers won’t be able to cross rivers without bridges.
Warning: Fishing
When waterscaping, make sure you leave enough river to fish in normally, if you care about fishing. You’ll want at least some river on a cliff section in order to catch clifftop-only fish, and you’ll want any river you hope to fish in to be a normal width (three or four tiles so you can get your bobber wherever you need it to go).
Cliff Construction
Cliffs are built and destroyed from the level below them, and like with everything else, you can round them if you have multiple cliff pieces next to each other. You can build up to three tiers of cliffs on top of one another, but you won’t be able to climb up the third tier, and you can’t build new tiers right up to the edge of the previous tier–meaning you can’t make big cliff walls.
Villagers won’t be able to go up cliffs without an incline, so keep this in mind when placing villager houses on cliffs.
Waterfalls
To build waterfalls, you need to be up on the cliff you’d like the waterfall to go down. You can then use the waterscaping tool to build the waterfall at the edge. You need to fill in the waterfall first before you can destroy the cliff it’s on.
Other Tips
When terraforming, it’s a good idea to have anything edible on hand–preferably your native fruit, since it’s the least profitable of the fruits. You can eat fruit to gain a kind of super-strength that allows you to dig up trees whole and destroy rocks. Using this fruit power, you can move trees in your way without cutting them down and having to grow them all over again. You can also destroy rocks that are in undesirable locations, as they will “grow” back in another spot the next day. You can keep destroying rocks until they end up in good locations.
Yesterday, Sony surprised everyone by revealing the DualSense, PlayStation 5’s new feature-rich controller. It’s two-toned, slightly futuristic… and looks a bit like Mario’s overalls if you can imagine it just right.
Naturally, we’ve rounded up some of the best reimaginings people across the Internet came up with for your viewing pleasure, from the beautiful to the hilarious.
The DualSense design has a lot going for it — chief among them is its sort of “blank canvas” approach. While only a white model has been revealed, everyone with access to Photoshop seems to have put their twist on its look, and frankly, we want a lot of them to become a reality.
Elca Gaming’s retro-inspired DualSense has us hearing PS1’s startup sounds all over again.
All-black variations, like this one by Mucrush, quickly became a fan favorite, especially when paired with the classic PlayStation face button colors.
Reddit user u/badnewsco also tried their hand at some awesome classic PlayStation controller variations.
The DualSense is ripe for simple recoloring with its two-tone design, and Reddit user u/H4WK1NG’s bright designs don’t disappoint.
Fleshmonk had a whole lot of variations to share, from bold colors to neon Joy-Con to Knack. Just Knack.
Reddit user u/dormstreams made some Sony first-party mockups, including his takes on God of War, The Last of Us, Spider-Man, and Horizon Zero Dawn controllers. Maybe this is a glimpse at what limited edition DualSense controllers may end up like?
The DualSense is a marked departure from the DualShock line of PlayStation controllers that came before it, as its design is decidedly fuller, its grips seemingly bulkier, and it’s aesthetic Stormtrooper-adjacent. As expected, the Internet ran with these comparisons and went in some truly hilarious directions.
Jared Petty and Geoff Keighley both noted the aforementioned Stormtrooper comparison and, frankly, they’re spot on.
Mike Ryan had a similar Star Wars connection here…
God of War director Cory Barlog immediately noticed a similarity between the DualSense and Black Widow’s all-white look.
IGN’s Dan Stapleton saw the controller and thought – yeah, that’s EVE from WALL-E.
Our own Brian Altano also had some comparisons to make: one a lovely homage to Mario’s iconic overalls, the other a horrific depiction of Borat’s mega-thong. Very nice.
In terms of sheer performance and capabilities, the best gaming mice will always lead the pack. But, when you’re trying to get some work done at your office, a co-working space, or a cafe, you might not want all the extra flair (like hyper RGB lighting effects) those gaming mice have. Fortunately, there are plenty of excellent mice, gaming and non-gaming alike, that can get the job done.
We’ve picked out an assortment of mice that are perfect for general use, whether it’s basic browsing or serious work. There are many different styles to suit the needs of just about any user. We’ve got ergonomic and ambidextrous mice as well as a trackball and highly portable mice. Whatever your needs, you’ll find a great mouse among this bunch.
We’ve also ensured all of our picks have one of the best modern conveniences: wireless connectivity. Some use Bluetooth while others use USB receivers, and some can still connect over a wired USB connection, but all of them will let you use them without having a wire getting in the way.
Logitech has the market for professional mice cornered, the MX Master 3 is its premier mouse. It’s designed with ergonomics in mind, so your hand will stay comfortable over a long day of work. But, comfort is only one aspect, as it’s also highly versatile.
The MX Master 3 features Logitech Darkfield Tracking to make it usable on most surfaces, so no worrying about it misbehaving on metal or glass. And, with both a USB receiver and Bluetooth, it can connect to a broad range of devices from Windows and Mac computers to iPads and Linux-powered machines. It also supports Flow, letting you seamlessly use this mouse with three devices at the same time. You’ll get up to 70 hours of runtime from the MX Master 3’s built-in battery, and if you’re ever low, you can get three hours of power back with just one minute of charging. Plus, you won’t find many scroll wheels as fancy as the MX Master 3’s MagSpeed Electromagnetic wheel, and there’s even a thumb wheel for horizontal scrolling.
If you don’t need a mouse all the time, it might not be as appealing to buy a serious pointer that’s crammed full of features. The Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse offers a simple and affordable option that should be more than enough mouse for most. It has a simple, ambidextrous design, and runs on a single AA battery.
As the name suggests, this mouse connects over Bluetooth and uses the Low Energy mode which helps it offer up to 12 months of battery life, so it should have a bit of charge ready whenever you might need it. One nice thing to see on a budget mouse is the inclusion of a clickable scroll wheel, making web browsing that little bit quicker.
If you’re familiar with Razer, you might be a bit worried that its mice don’t have a home outside of gaming, but the Razer Basilisk X HyperSpeed is wonderfully understated and can slip under that radar thanks to its omission of RGB lighting.
What you get from the Basilisk X HyperSpeed is a highly accurate mouse that can run for ages on a single AA battery. It offers superb tracking with a USB receiver, but it also supports Bluetooth connectivity. That makes it a handy 2-in-1 that you can use for gaming at home with the dongle and take to work using its Bluetooth connection. It’s all the more impressive that this mouse comes in at under $60.
The Logitech G604 is another one of those mice that shouldn’t be mistaken as only being at home in a gaming environment. The G604 has a comfortable design and a scroll wheel that mimics that of the MX Master 3 by having both a free-spinning and a ratchet mode. You also get the dual connectivity from a USB receiver and Bluetooth.
The Logitech G604 can run on a single AA battery for up to 5.5 months using Bluetooth or for 240 hours using the faster wireless connection. What helps the Logitech G604 shine outside of gaming is also what helps it shine in games: all the buttons. The G604 features 15 buttons in total, with six next to the thumb and an extra two near the left button. Paired with Logitech’s software, you can set up a whole host of macros to convince coworkers that you’re a spreadsheet wizard.
If you’ve got your hand basically glued to your mouse all day, you may have run into a bit of pain in your arm. That can come from having your arm rotated inward for so long, and it can lead to RSI after some time. That’s something an ergonomic mouse aims to alleviate, and the Logitech MX Vertical is a compelling example of this.
At first glance, it might not even look like a mouse. It has the profile of a sailboat because of its high peak, but that gives you a grip that will keep your arm from twisting far inward. Beyond that comfortable grip, the mouse supports multiple connection modes over its USB receiver, Bluetooth, or a wired connection. It also supports Flow for use between multiple devices at once. If you forget to keep the four-month battery charged, you can get an extra three hours of power in just a minute of charging.
The best gaming mouse is actually the SteelSeries Rival 600 (read our review), but the Rival 650 (read our review) is its wireless twin, as it’s virtually identical in every other respect. You’ll get SteelSeries’ incredibly accurate TrueMove3+ sensor that combines a precise optical sensor with a depth sensor to fine-tune when the mouse detects lift off from a surface.
The Rival 650 offers both a wired and wireless connection, letting you continue to use it when the 24-hour battery is drained. You can customize the lighting as you like, and program the three thumb buttons for extra functionality.
If portability is one of your major concerns, a big, lumpy mouse might not be the best option for you. Microsoft has the answer with its Arc Mouse. The design follows from the earlier Arc Touch mouse, with a bendable body that forms a curve when in use and lies flat when powered down. In fact, it’s bending it flat that turns the mouse off.
The Microsoft Arc Mouse runs for up to 6 months on two AAA batteries and connects exclusively using Bluetooth. You won’t have to worry about losing or forgetting any USB receiver dongle. You won’t find any true buttons on the top of this mouse, as it instead registers touches for both left and rick click as well as vertical and horizontal scrolling. While that may take some time to get used to, that lack of moving parts is less to worry about if you throw this mouse into your backpack. Of course, because it folds flat, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a pocket to slide the Arc Mouse safely inside.
When desk space is tight, a trackball mouse can be a winning ally, and the Logitech MX Ergo has what it takes. This mouse features a large trackball paired with a button for enabling precision mode, so you can move your cursor right where you need it. It offers a total of eight buttons, including a tiltable scroll wheel.
If you’re wondering where the Ergo in the name comes from, it has to do with a feature in the stand. This mouse has an adjustable tilt, which can let you change the angle you hold it at. The MX Ergo offers up to four months of battery life and can get a full day of power in one minute of charging. It also supports Bluetooth connectivity and can sync across multiple devices using Flow.
So, you want a bunch of the great features you’re hearing about but in a smaller mouse? Enter the MX Anywhere 2S, a mouse compact enough to fit in smaller hands but capable enough to keep up with the bigger competitors.
The MX Anywhere 2S supports Logitech’s Flow software for syncing across multiple devices at once, and it can pair using the USB wireless receiver or Bluetooth. You’ll get up to 40 days of battery life from the mouse and can recharge it for up to a full day’s worth of power in just three minutes. While the mouse is small enough to go just about anywhere, it also has Logitech’s Darkfield sensor for accurate tracking on just about any surface, so you can take it and use it anywhere.
