Laser mouse or LED mouse - what are the differences?

Question

I'm in the market for a new mouse. Something simple and straightforward: 2 top buttons + wheel in the middle which also serves as a middle button.

I haven't bought a mouse in over a decade, if you can believe it... and then it was whatever someone put into my hand basically. Now I need to decide among dozens of available mice. Luckily, most of them have many bells and whistles so I rule them all out, but many still remain to choose from.

There's different sensor types - how do sensor types such as optical, laser and darkfield affect performance?

Should I favour a specific sensor type for particular surfaces ?

Notes:

• I've read:
  What do i look for while buying a mouse?
  here on SU, but the sub-question there regarding laser-vs-optical is not answered.

• This piece on LifeHacker seems to suggest it shouldn't matter.

Answer 1

There's an excellent discussion of the differences, relative merits, etc. in this Windows Central article. Some of the key points:

• The primary difference is the type of surface each one works best on. LED light doesn't permeate the surface, so it works best on non-glossy surfaces. Laser light permeates the surface much better, so it can be used with glossy surfaces, even glass-covered surfaces.

  However, that also makes it more susceptible to picking up "information" from stuff below the surface, which can make it less accurate at high speeds. For example, laser mice are more susceptible at high speeds to the extraneous information retrieved from directions other than the one the mouse is moving in. So if you move it quickly in one direction and then slowly move it back to the starting point, you may not end up at the same spot on the screen. The discrepancy between the fast and slow movements is much greater on a laser mouse than on an LED mouse.

  So the type of surface you intend to use it on should really be the driver in the decision. Laser will work better on a larger variety of surfaces, and especially glossy surfaces. If you go with an LED mouse, an infrared one is reported to work with the most surfaces (for LED mice).

• At one time, laser mice offered higher DPI (better resolution and associated tracking accuracy), but high resolution LED mice are available now, also.

• There are a number of other differences between mice besides the features (power usage/battery life, cost, etc.), but the choice of light source isn't really much of a factor in those.