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Hands-On with Logitech's 5700dpi G500 Gaming Mouse

Norman Chan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:30:00 -0500

Just a few months after we awarded Logitech with a perfect score for their superb G9x mouse, they've announced the new contender for best mouse ever. The G500 is the long-awaited update to the G5 gaming mouse, taking its familiar ergonomic chassis and cramming the G9x's laser sensor into the body. The wired peripheral has a minimum resolution of 200dpi, which can be adjusted on the fly up to a whopping 5700dpi (the G9x only had a max of 5000dpi). Logitech claims that the G500 can process sensor data at a rate of 12 megapixels per second, and can detect movement as fast as 165 inches per second (as if your twitch skills are that good).

The usual gaming mice features are also present, including removable weights (range of 165 grams to 192 grams) and 10 programmable buttons. But the standout improvements are in the inclusion of a hyper-fast scroll wheel mode (for web browsing), and the relocation of the dpi adjustment buttons to the front of the mouse so you don't accidentally hit it in the middle of a game.

Hit the jump for more of our hands-on photos, but you'll be able to try the G500 yourself when it goes on sale in September for $70.

Nova Gaming Jumps Into the Gaming Mouse Market with Slider X600

Mark Edward Soper — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:08:13 -0500

Nova Gaming is best known as a long-time purveyor of a line of high-performance gaming mousepads in the Killer, Winner, Master and Raider series. And, now, to make sure its Nova B4L gamer's bag has more Nova gear inside than ever before, the French company is rolling out a gaming mouse, the Slider X600, at next week's E for All Expo in Los Angeles.

The gaming mouse market already has some formidable competition, such as the corded Logitech G9 (laser sensor, up to 3200 dpi, interchangeable grips, 5 buttons, adjustable mouse weights), corded Microsoft SideWinter (laser sensor, up to 2000 dpi sensor, 5 buttons, adjustable mouse weights and replaceable feet) and upcoming cordless Microsoft SideWinder X8 (Blue Track optical sensor, up to 4000 dpi, replaceable mouse feet, macro recording).

So, what does the Slider X600 bring to the table?

Ceramic mouse feet (described as "indestructible")
Up to 3200 dpi resolution
Three mouse profiles
Eight programmable buttons
Five lighting color options
A unique right-side location for the USB cable (see photo)

To keep the cord from getting in the way, Nova Gaming is also rolling out a new mouse pad, the OVER Slide, which features a cable clip on one side and Nova Gaming's trademark beveled-edge design which warns the user when he or she is about to mouse off the pad. OVER Slide features a 12,000 dpi ceramic mousing surface. Slider X600 will retail for $99.99, and the OVER Slide for $39.99, and you won't have long to wait: they're due in November.

Gamers, what do you think? Can a master of gaming mousepads understand the other half of the equation? Do you like the idea of a side-mounted cable or are you waiting for a wireless gaming mouse? Hit Comment and tell us what you're looking for, mousewise.

Illustration courtesy of BusinessWire.

Microsoft Sidewinder X5

Will Smith — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:00:00 -0500

Sporting an ever-so-slightly trimmed-down shape compared to the original Sidewinder gaming mouse, along with a stripped down featureset, the Sidewinder X5 delivers great performance at a very reasonable price. Like the original Sidewinder, the design works great for gamers who use either a claw or a standard grip (or who like to change between them), but it’s not particularly comfortable for people with small- to medium-size hands. After a couple of hours of play using a standard grip, our hands cramped.

While its height seems trimmed down a little, the Sidewinder X5 is still designed for a large hand.

Missing from this updated Sidewinder are the original mouse’s adjustable weighting system, the interchangeable foot pads, the sensitivity display, and the weighted cable anchor. While we especially miss the cable anchor, extra features (like the one that have been omitted) aren’t something we’d expect in a mouse that costs $60.

The Sidewinder X5 mouse retains the killer high-and-low thumb button studs, which make it easy to tell precisely which thumb button you’re hitting, regardless of the grip you use on the mouse. We’re also pleased to say that Microsoft has improved the scroll wheel with much better tactile response. And, when it comes to the sensor, the X5’s 2000DPI laser sensor is simply as good as any other gaming mouse sensor we’ve tested.

We typically test mice using a mixture of fast action games—think Team Fortress 2 and Quake Live—as well as slow-movement challenges, such as the sniper mission in Call of Duty 4. At the fast sensitivity setting, the X5’s sensor was pixel accurate even at extreme speeds. When sniping, we cranked the sensitivity down for smoother movement and got similarly accurate results.

We’re not fans of Microsoft’s mouse software. While it lets you customize each of the three sensitivity settings to your personal taste, we wish that it let you establish more than just three different sensitivities. As for the Sidewinder button, which launches the Intellipoint software on XP and the Games Explorer on Vista, it ably fulfills Microsoft’s “weird proprietary button” rule. (In our experience, there’s always one odd proprietary button on every Microsoft Hardware product. Always.)

All told, this “budget” gaming mouse is an improvement on the more expensive Sidewinder original, but there are still cheaper, more comfortable budget mice out there. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: If you can’t palm a basketball, your hand is probably too small to comfortably use a Sidewinder.

Steelseries Ikari

Will Smith — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Steelseries delivers a one-two punch of awesome with its first mouse—the Ikari, a standard five-button, right-handed design suitable for gamers who use either the palm and claw-style grips. With its low-profile design, the Ikari doesn’t provide sufficient support for folks who like to rest their palm on the mouse; our palm-gripped tester had a stiff hand after a few hours of play. Nonetheless, the Ikari’s other features and kick-ass sensor make us almost willing to ignore the less-than-ergonomically perfect shape.

We love the Ikari’s tournament-friendly, driverless design. Using the screen on the bottom of the mouse, you can tweak the sensitivity of the mouse on any PC, without any dependence on drivers. The settings you create are stored in the mouse’s flash memory, so they’ll work on any PC you use, even a tournament rig that you’ve never even played on before. Once you configure the mouse’s high and low sensitivity settings, you can swap between the two using the sensitivity button directly below the scroll wheel. A pair of white LEDs on the side of the mouse light up to show you which sensitivity you’re using.

The Ikari’s most notable feature is the bottom-mounted LCD display,
which you can use to adjust the sensitivity settings on-the-fly, sans driver. Tres cool!

Now let’s be realistic: The sensitivity indicator lights are really just a gimmick. In the heat of an online firefight, you’d have to be suicidal to glance down to make sure you’re on the proper sensitivity! Harmless gimmicks are forgivable, but the real problem here is that the Ikari only lets you switch between two sensitivity settings, on-the-fly. It’s not a deal-breaker, but on the sensitivity front, we hate having to choose just two sensitivities. Hell, three settings is barely enough! But aside from this quibble, the Ikari’s six-button design is positioned for quick and easy access, even in the most heated of battles. The button layout includes two top buttons, two thumb buttons, a single button on the scroll wheel, and the sensitivity adjustment button.

With a sensitive laser sensor and a driverless approach designed to appeal to hardcore tournament players (who play their most important matches on machines not their own), the Ikari Laser leaves us undeniably stoked. With a few tweaks for comfort and one more sensitivity setting, this mouse could easily reach Kick Ass territory.

Razer DeathAdder

Will Smith — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:24:38 -0500

We love the shape of this mouse—it’s comfortable for even the longest session—and the DeathAdder just gets better from there. The sensor delivers pixel-perfect accuracy, and we love that the driver lets us adjust everything from X and Y sensitivity to the lights on the mouse. We’re still not sold on the idea of constantly updating firmware for a mere mouse, but Razer’s built a highly compelling rodent with the DeathAdder.

The DeathAdder’s matte finish and uber-comfortable design let even the sweatiest gamers maintain pixel-perfect control during heated deathmatches.

Razer eschewed the standard laser sensor for an old-school 1800dpi 3G optical sensor. Our testing showed that this third-gen optical sensor offers virtually indistinguishable performance compared to laser sensors. Now, even mouse sensors have their own fanboys—some hardcore gamers swear by old-style optical sensors; others prefer their mice with lasers.

But regardless of your personal preference, we think you’ll find that the DeathAdder’s sensor kicks ass. The mouse itself is extremely comfortable, even for extended gaming sessions, and the buttons are perfectly placed for palm-grip gamers. Gamers who use a claw grip may find this particular mouse a touch narrow. Combined with the uber-comfortable matte finish, the DeathAdder rivals the Logitech G5 for comfort.

Our only complaint is that the DeathAdder offers too much granular control for quick in-game sensitivity adjustment. Instead of dedicated sensitivity switching buttons that toggle between two or three settings, you must bind one of the mouse’s five buttons to on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment in the Razer control panel, and then use the scroll wheel to hone in on the desired sensitivity. If you don’t adjust sensitivity on-the-fly, this shouldn’t pose a problem for you. But if you do, it could be a deal-breaker.

Microsoft Sidewinder Gaming Mouse

Will Smith — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:43:55 -0600

We like fancy gaming mice. We like them for their super-accurate sensors, their adjustable resolutions, and the veritable cornucopia of buttons that grace their frames. But above all, a gaming mouse has to remain comfortable during marathon wrist-crippling gaming sessions, which is where the new Sidewinder really falls apart.

You see, this mouse is just too big. It’s not as though we have tiny, inadequate hands. Really, we don’t. We all have large, extremely manly hands. However, even with our giant meathooks, this mouse is too wide.

What makes it difficult to give this mouse a poor verdict is that we quite like its shape and many of its features. Its sensor is remarkably accurate—and includes the now-standard shift-on-the-fly sensitivity that we’ve come to love. Its button placement is quite good, too, and we really dig the vertically arrayed thumb buttons. Unlike mice that have horizontally mounted thumb buttons, the Sidewinder’s buttons are easy to distinguish from each other and painless to press. And we love the built-in screen, which shows you exactly what mouse sensitivity you’ve set. We even appreciate the macro software, which lets you perform instant 180-degree turns and other custom maneuvers with a single button-press.

The mouse also comes with a weighted box, which keeps the mouse cord from flopping all over your desk. It’s a little gimmicky, but a nice gimmick nonetheless. Without a doubt, the Sidewinder’s interchangeable mouse feet are our favorite feature. The mouse ships with three sets of feet, each with a different level of smoothness. We love this and hope to see it on more mice. There’s nothing worse than wearing out the Teflon pads on an $80 mouse.

While the buttons feel just right, the wheel leaves something to be desired. Its action is too stiff, and it’s difficult to click the mouse wheel without accidentally scrolling the mouse.

Unfortunately, the wonky scroll wheel combined with the monstrously oversized frame means this mouse won’t be living in our house.

Logitech G9

Will Smith — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:22:45 -0600

It’s difficult to improve on something that’s already damn near perfect. That’s the problem Logitech faced when designing the follow-up to the kick-ass G5 gaming mouse. The new G9 features an innovative, but not necessarily improved, design.

Sporting changeable shells, the mouse accommodates all hand sizes. The petite “ladyhands” shell is perfect for people with finer fingers, while the “meathooks” shell is big enough to accommodate everyone but the largest of giants. We continue to dig Logitech’s weighting system, which lets you adjust the heft of your mouse. With room for four weights, you can add as much as 28g of mass to your rodent—not as much as the G5 allows but still more than enough to elicit a gliding action.

Logitech also added the MicroGear scroll wheel, which uses haptic technology to switch back and forth between super-speedy smooth scrolling and traditional detent-style scrolling. Unlike the Logitech MX Revolution, the G9 allows you to swap scroll modes by pressing a button on the bottom of the mouse, so switching modes won’t cause problems in games that use mouse3 (the Revolution’s toggle button).

That’s what we like. We don’t, however, like this mouse’s physical design. The G9 is designed for gamers who hold the mouse with the tips of their fingers—Fatal1ty-style. The problem is that mice designed specifically for such claw-style players aren’t particularly comfortable for day-to-day mousing, and they’re not good for gamers who use a standard grip; the thumb buttons and sensitivity-adjustment buttons are located inconveniently for people who use a conventional grip.

The G9’s sensor, like the G5’s, is precise and perfect. The only real flaw that this mouse exhibits is its claw-friendly design. We just don’t think that this grip-style is very popular. In a decidedly unscientific poll of 15 gaming editors of all ages, not one used the Fatal1ty-style grip. Maybe the G9 should be labeled “For Professional Use Only.”