Time for a new mouse! I’ve been using the same mouse for 6+ years, time to move to more modern technology! For computers and peripherals, I generally look towards gaming products, since, in most cases, they are better built and come with more features than general “consumer grade” products… But that usually comes with a bit of a price tag. But if you can handle the price tag, generally you will get a much better product for the money.
For me, I generally jump to Amazon or NewEgg to hunt around for products, and then usually hit up forums like LinusTechTips.com to look around what others are getting or having issues with.
After doing some looking around, and factoring prices that I was willing to spend, I decided to go with the Logitech G502 Proteus Core mouse.
Aesthetics
To start off, I feel like the G502 is an amazing looking mouse… It looks like an alien space ship, and I like it… You might think differently, but if you like sharp lines and aerodynamic styling, you will like the way this mouse looks.
The cable of the mouse is even a very nice braided cable, something that I really like the look of. Though, they are a stiffer USB cable, so they take a bit to get all of the kinks out of, but they look good and usually last a very long time.
Features & Specs
The G502 has a lot of bullet points about it, the stuff I feel is “more important” are the tracking resolution, that ranges from 200 to 12,000 dpi and the polling rate of the mouse, running at 1000 Hz (1ms response time).
But the mouse also features 11 programmable buttons, a surface-tunable sensor, and weights to personalize the feel and balance of the mouse.
Some of the other more nerdy features and specs are:
- Resolution: 200 – 12,000 dpi
- Max. Acceleration: > 40 G2
- Max. Speed: > 300 ips3
- Dynamic Coefficient of Friction – Mu (k): 0.103
- Static Coefficient of Friction – Mu (s): 0.153
- USB Data Format: 16 bits/axis
- USB Report Rate: 1000 Hz (1 ms)
- Button Durability: 20 Million Clicks
- Feet Durability: 250 Kilometers
Using the Mouse
In use, the mouse works as you would expect a mouse to work. It glides smooth, not too smooth, but a very nice level of smooth. The buttons are clicky and responsive and the scroll wheel works well for me.
The only real issues or concerns that I have thus far are that you really HAVE to install the Logitech software to control the mouse, if you use it without the software and drivers, things like the “G” logo stay on, at full brightness, and it’s bright and raises the temperature of the top of the mouse by a solid 3-4°F. It’s not a lot, but it’s noticeable for periods of long use. And, the cutouts for thumb placement are a little too deep for my hand. Basically I feel like I’m having to hold my thumb up most of the time instead of having a rest for it. That could have more to do with my hand placement than anything else, and I’m going to keep working with it to see if it’s going to become an issue or not. But after a solid days use, and going back and forth between some of my other mice, this one definitely has less thumb / palm support than other mouses that I’ve used.
A feature I’ve found pretty useful in my use is the adjustable profiles. Because you can adjust things like DPI sensitivity and polling, you can create profiles that are better for various tasks, like gaming vs Photoshop vs web browsing. You can save 3 profiles to cycle through by using the top buttons below the mouse wheel free-spin button.
Final Thoughts
Other than having to use the Logitech software, and the possible long term comfort issues, everything has been great. I hate installing tons of extra software that is not what I would call “light weight”, and we will see if there are long term fatigue issues. I’ll definitely post an update if there are any deal breaker issues that I discover. But after a week, it’s been OK.
This mouse has more functionality than I will ever really use, I’ve tweaked the DPI resolution a bit here and there, but the defaults worked. The one-click button to adjust the profiles of the mouse are great (you will need the software to configure this too). And the options to jump between resolutions has a lot of pluses for gaming, sniping vs running and gunning… But if you’re not gaming, they are just extra buttons.
So overall, this has been a good mouse so far… It works well, is smooth, the buttons are clicky and require a decent amount of force to actually press, and the software lets you customize every aspect of the mouse. All-in-all, a pretty good combination. That being said, if you’re the kind of person that doesn’t want to mess with the settings at all or just wants a mouse that works, I’d get something lower cost and “simpler”, 11 buttons is overkill if you only use right and left click and have no desire to use more than that.
Questions? Comments? Let me know!