Logitech G3 Laser Gaming mouse

Intro - The G3 mouse by Logitech is basically a G5 with a different mold. Logitech recognizes that some people like the old MX300 and Click! style of mouse more than the MX500 style. They also realized that people want the same features in a mouse of that shape that the G5 has. Hence the G3 was born.

To take a look, visit Logitech here.

Looks - Overall it's a slick looking mouse. No fancy lights or anything though, which to some is good, some it isn't. Personally I don't mind one way or another, however! There is one thing I dislike about the G3, and that is if you use DPI adjustment (which it does have, similarly to the G5) you won't know what sensitivity you are currently set to until you move the mouse. Personally I dislike this, as I like looking at the G5 and seeing the indicator light that says what DPI I am set to before I even move the mouse to find out. With the G3, there is a single button on the top of the mouse back that you press one time to toggle through the sensitivity settings that either you have setup in the Setpoint software, or that it uses built-in through the regular Windows HID driver. To me this isn't really an issue as I lock my mice out at 2000dpi anyway and just adjust the slider to get good speed feedback. To someone who swaps DPI often, this could be an issue if you're used to seeing some sort of feedback for a DPI switch. Overall the two tone look is good, and it's a fairly stylish mouse.

Shape - For me, this is a great shaped mouse. I'm not a "palmer", I am the twitchy fingered type. That is who this mouse is setup for. If you like to palm mice, go with the G5, because frankly the G3 doesn't have a really ergonomic shape. It is designed to be twitched around, not casually sweeped from side to side like you're in Word all day (even though it performs well in Windows). The fit of it to my hand is great, and the mouse shortly becomes an extension of what I'm doing on the computer without my really having to think about it. That lets me know it's a good mouse, because I practically forget I'm using it, and I'm just doing what I need to do without any interruption or misclicks.

Performance - I've used the mouse in WoW, Starcraft, Doom 3 and Quake 4. It has performed very well in all games. All I had to do was tweak my setting in the games that didn't directly use the Setpoint setup, and I was off and going without much thought. The main buttons click very solidly and firmly. The only gripe I have had(and others have had from different reviews I have seen) is the side buttons. However, keep in mind this is an abidextrous mouse, so some tailoring is required through the Setpoint software. Like most, I basically turn off the right side button as I find it can be easily clicked by accident. I basically use 3 buttons on the mouse - the left and right main buttons, and the left side button. That's all I use on any mouse really, so that fits the bill for me. I imagine a left handed user would possibly be turning the left side button off in the same manner.
Pointer accuracy is great. The mouse is very smooth on screen, and goes where I want it to go. As I said, for me it basically becomes an extension of my brain for what I want the computer to do.

Software - The Setpoint software seems to be maturing very well. I have had few issues with it. One issue was a flickering mouse cursor in WoW, and when alt-tabbing out of the game the mouse would dissapear completely in the Windows environment. This could be due to some confliction on my own machine, as I never have had an issue with Setpoint in the past with this (even though a friend of mine told me the same thing happened to him, but with a G5 - go figure). Aside from this, the software has worked well for me. I have to say though, I basically disable the Game Settings because I like my mouse having the controls being adjusted for the game I'm playing manually instead of automatically. Therefore I turn the auto adjustment of Game Settings off and do it in the game I'm playing manually. This basically cuts out the whole Profiling section of Setpoint, which I feel is a big part of the software. So, I can't give the software a full rating until I test this out at some point. I do however like letting Setpoint control the pointer instead of Windows, so I set it to SetPoint Implementation and go from there.

Conclusion - 9/10. For me, this is a great mouse that I could be happy with if need be. Being that I'm always interested in trying new mice, I will use it until the next thing comes in. It is possible that I will be going back to it unless I find something truly worth sticking with. It could use some DPI lights, which would make me more likely to use the adjustable DPI feature, even though I find little use for that generally, even in FPS games.

-Rav