Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse

To get it started off right, I'll link you to the mouse from the manufacturer's site.

That is the Logitech G5 laser mouse. I have probably used it the longest of any gaming mouse that I've owned (or is it pwned?). I always want the best precision possible out of a mouse. Some people don't care that a mouse is moving with a report/polling rate of 60, or that it moves in stair-like jaggies across their screen. I would probably die if I had to use a mouse like that.

The G5 is an excellent mouse. One of the features they advertise heavily of this mouse is the ability to adjust the sensitivity on the fly. You can either plug it in, not use the Logitech mouse software and get 3 built-in sensitivities, or you can install the software and get 5 custom sensitivities.

As an avid gamer (I play WoW almost exclusively now, although I was mostly a first-person shooter player before that), I simply do not use this feature at all. Having the option to use it basically makes me get out-of-whack with how my mouse moves and feels to me, therefore I get annoyed with the sensitivity being moved around. I'm a "one sensitivity setting" kind of guy.

My solution? Set the mouse to the middle setting in the Logitech software (Setpoint) to 2000 dpi, turn the other settings completely off, and adjust the mouse cursor speed (slider adjustment) in Setpoint so that 2000 dpi is usable for me. I basically never touch the sensitivity buttons ever again. This way I'm using the mouse at its highest DPI setting and getting the full benefit of it without having to get used to different sensitivities all the time.

For some people this doesn't work at all. My girlfriend uses multiple sensitivities. She plays WoW exclusively, and to me WoW isn't a game where you would swap sensitivities often. It is all in how you play though - depending on what character she is playing she might be using different sensitivities (ranged vs melee). She plays almost exclusively with the mouse also, so she is moving her character with the mouse, point at the buttons, twisting her view, and anything you can imagine all with the mouse. I'm a half & half user, so I use the keyboard and mouse fairly equally with a tilt towards the mouse for clicking the action buttons.

Now for one of the most important factors (at least for me): Shape! The G5 has an "ok" shape for my hands. Technically I prefer flatter mice. I have used the G5 shape for a long while now, as I had an MX500 and MX510. I always liked those, but they didn't quite fit exactly like I wanted. They are "palming" mice. What I mean by this is you rest your whole hand on the mouse, and it fits. Your fingers fit the slots, the buttons line up like they are supposed to, and ta-da, that's that. However, for someone like me, that doesn't work as well because I do not palm mice. I am a finger user, not a hand & arm user. I generally park the arm and move the mouse with my wrist and fingers, touching it with the palm of my hand on rare occasions. It might be weird, but it's how I use it.

Have I tried palming a mouse? Yes. Can I get used to it? I haven't yet. So as far as shape goes, the G5 is tolerable, but not perfect for me. I have an idea that the majority of users "palm" though, so in that aspect I'd have to rate it a 7/10 on hand fitment & shape for myself and probabaly a 10/10 for palming users.

Performance - no doubt, one of (if not the best) performing mice out there right now. Genuine hardware DPI of up to 2000, laser accuracy for even finicky wood-grain surfaces, and smooth as silk with the cursor. Also the slick feet on the bottom seem to be slick on almost any surface I have tried them on. I've used the mouse in WoW, CounterStrike Source, Doom 3, Quake 4, Serious Sam games, and more. It has performed very well with no hitching and was very precise and easy to get used to, even though it isn't a perfect fit for me. At the time of release, the USB polling rate was 500. Now through updates of the Setpoint software, the report rate can be setup to 1000, which competes with Razer's line of mice currently.

Looks - the mouse looks great. When I first got it and looked at it through the package, I actually thought at first that something was wrong with it, or that the coating was flaking off. After opening it and looking closely, I noticed this was the design, and I though it was pretty cool that it had the rust color added to it. I got the mouse practically when it was first released in the US, so I had not seen many up-close pictures of it to know exactly what it looked like at the time of purchase.
The braided cord is a nice touch as well. This makes the cable stronger in case of a hard yank, and also makes it much more tangle-free. It adds a good stiffness to it that makes the cord more managable.

Overall Impression - I think this is a great mouse. The only issue I have with it is the shape, but as I stated earlier in the review this is all in how someone holds a mouse. If you're a twitchy finger user, you probably would like a more flat, smaller mouse. If you palm mice, this is a dream come true. It feels great to palm, but I just have no pointer control that way as it is not what I am used to.

Overall personal score: 9/10