[74]

Logitech G5 Laser

I bought this mouse expecting a great gamer mouse. I can tell you thus far that it is not. I have read several places that it runs perfectly on a Steelpad S&S; even on Logitech's own website. I can tell you that it does not. When I unpacked it it looked awesome and it still does. It looks very fancy and to me it seems as if they put more work into the looks than the performance part. The drivers they sent with the mouse were absolutely useless and only messed everything up. So I downloaded a firmware from the Logitech website in order to make it run so-so. It did help, but the mouse is still stalling in Counter-Strike. This is due to the fact that it cannot run on many surfaces (i.e. many mousepads). If you move the mouse too fast, it just stops moving - even on highest DPI! The Logitech SetPoint is a poor invention too. Again it looks so much better than it works. I would prefer it to look simple and work perfectly any day.

Apart from the performance issues there is the cord. For some reason Logitech thought it would be smart to make the cord out of "cloth" (is that the right word?). This was a horrible idea, as the cord is impossible to straighten out. That means that if you do not have a cordholder, this will be your result after 4-5 months:






It also gets stuck now and then because of the cord. The mouse surface is extremely rough, which means that it feels like your hands are all sweaty, even though they are not. This is very annoying when you are playing.



Advantages:

• It is possible to switch DPI on the mouse itself.
• It is possible to adjust the mouse's weight by inserting small weights into the mouse (they are included when you buy the mouse) at the bottom.
• High DPI. However, this is mostly useless.
• The mouse wheel can be moved to the left and right.

Disadvantages:

• Runs bad on many common surfaces such as many popular mousepads.
• Too rough mouse surface which makes your hands feel sweaty even if they aren't. This can be annoying while gaming.
• The cord cannot be straightened which means that you will need a cordholder.
• It only has a "back-button" which is horrible if you are used to having a "forward-button" when browsing the Internet. I guess Logitech thought that it would save them 1 gram weight.
• The mouse wheel is often too sensitive. It is not always possible to open a tab in Mozilla Firefox by pressing the mouse wheel, as it often scrolls down instead. This could be due to the fact that it can be pressed, scrolled and moved to the left and right.

I do not recommend buying this mouse considering the price. Logitech say that it is a gamer mouse, but thrust me, it's a terrible gaming mouse. You will not be able to do 180 turns without the mouse giving up half the way around. Not to mention the mouse wheel being a pain sometimes and the lack of a "forward-button". The mouse is not great for gaming, nor is it great for casual use.



Overall rating

• 3/10

The reason for this rating is based on what I have written above of course, but also due to the fact that it is a gaming mouse. Gaming mice are not supposed to stall whenever you need to make a fast move or turn around in FPS-games. Who cares if the mouse has 400 higher DPI than the MX518 for example if it stalls on the half way? Pathetic, simply pathetic.


Next review: Sennheiser PC140


Review written by 74 - 25-12-2007