How we judge
We do not rank products with stars. We work out who each one actually fits.
Why there is no score
A product is hard to describe with one number. Hand size, what you use it for, your operating system, your work environment and your budget change which strengths and weaknesses matter.
So instead of grading a product as a whole, we judge who it suits. The same mouse can be the best choice for gaming and awkward for office work; comfortable for one hand size and wrong for another.
Every product lands in one of the four tiers below, for a stated use and user. When we cannot recommend something, we name a better alternative.
Clear advantages for this use and this user. Enough reason to choose it even accepting the price or a known drawback.
Recommended for a particular hand size, environment, operating system, workflow or price. Check that the condition applies to you before buying.
There is promise here, but variables remain. Better to wait for a price drop, a firmware fix, or longer-term evidence.
Not enough reason to choose it for this use. Better alternatives exist, or the friction in real use is likely to be significant.
What we actually look at
Typing and click feel, fatigue over long sessions, noise in a shared office, switching between devices, the software, the price — the friction that does not appear on a spec sheet. Every article opens with a "how this was written" box stating whether we used the product ourselves, the test conditions, our sources, and the date any price was checked.
If longer use changes the picture, we move the verdict up or down and record the reason and the date on that article. Desk Armory is researched, drafted and edited with AI (Claude); a human does the measuring and the final sign-off.
Finding a good product matters less than finding the one that fits you.