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Logitech G5 and G7 Gaming Mouse Review

Logitech G5 and G7 Gaming Mouse Review

Back in the ‘beige box’ days, much focus was placed on CPU, graphics and sound hardware, but not much attention was paid to the peripherals that we used to interact with our computers. Companies like Logitech and Microsoft set out to change that. Now, largely because of their efforts, the bar has been raised and people expect high end mice and keyboards to go along with their customized gaming machines.

Logitech recently sent us their new line of gaming mice—the G5 and the G7. Both are being marketed as “tuned for gaming domination”. It’s up to us to see if that promise holds true.

G5G7combined

My first impression for both mice was quite positive. Logitech wants you to be impressed from the moment you crack the seal on the boxes. The packaging is superb, without resorting to the latest fad in “must have industrial shears to open” hermetically sealed plastic shells. The similarity between the two models ends there, however.

Let’s start with the G5.

The Logitech G5

g5topsmall

The G5, being a corded mouse, has a braided cloth cord instead of the standard rubberized cord. I’m not sure what the reason for this is, but I found that the braiding got snagged on something on my desk and also got snagged on the sharp edge of my desk at one point. I would hate to be aiming a sniper weapon in a heavy game of Battlefield-Fill-In-The-Blank and have the cord snag on something. Perhaps it was a bad choice to use braided cloth on the cord.

The bottom of the mouse has three PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) gaming feet. I guess this is an advanced form of Teflon or something – it is very slick and it works extremely well.

The most unique feature of the G5 is the adjustable weight cartridge.

g5weightbox

The G5 comes with a tin box of what at first glance I thought were Altoids, but are actually weights. There are 1.7g and 4.5g weights – eight of each. The G5 has a slot in the bottom with an ejectable cartridge that holds eight of the weights, so that you can customize the exact heft of the mouse to your tastes. When fully loaded with 8 4.5g weights, the mouse is quite hefty as you’ve just added 36 grams to the base weight. I personally really like the feel of this mouse at the maximum weight. It really adds a sense of substance to the mouse.

g5weightscropped

The box for the G5 says “2000dpi Laser Engine with Full Speed USB performance”. I can’t find a way to verify the 2000dpi measurement, but I can only assume that it’s at least close to accurate. I will say that from a ‘gut feeling’ standpoint, this is the most accurate mouse I’ve ever used. I do a lot of detail work in Photoshop and this mouse has become my hardware of choice. In fact, I want to get a second one for my Mac because using Photoshop with any other mouse has become a chore. The G5 features a selectable accuracy setting via two small buttons underneath the scroll wheel. For gaming, I crank it up for that ‘twitchy’ feeling, for normal Windows stuff, I use the middle settings, and when I switch into Photoshop I go with the lowest setting. Your mileage may vary, but the fact that the opportunity exists for you to select it on the fly is a very compelling feature.

The Logitech G7

g7topsmall

The G7 is a sleek looking cordless mouse. The color scheme sort of matches Logitech’s corporate colors – a greenish blue and silver. The button layout is the same as the G5 – a thumb button and plus/minus accuracy settings. The scroll wheel is also 4-way.

The major physical difference besides the loss of the cord is that the DPI indicator has been replaced with a battery level indicator. Also, the sides are not rubberized, and there is no textured paint, so this mouse feels almost greasy next to the G5. In fact, the surface is so slick that I actually did think it was greasy, and attempted to clean it with rubbing alcohol. This only led me to realize that the mouse actually just feels greasy, and no amount of cleaning was going to take care of it. It was sort of unsettling, but maybe I’m just picky. I’m not sure why they chose to go with a slick surface instead of textured and rubberized like the G5, but I honestly think it was a bad choice.

The bottom features the same PTFE feet, but instead of the ejectable weight cartridge, you get the ejectable battery cartridge instead.

The battery life is actually pretty good. A single battery will last a day or two depending on your usage. The really nice thing about the G7 is that it comes with a charger and a second battery, so you can switch batteries in a matter of seconds, and drop the dead one back into the charger. All cordless mice should come with two batteries, I now decree.

The charger comes with a USB port built in, so that it sort of acts like a USB extension cord. You can plug the USB receiver into the charger, or you could choose to plug the receiver into a different USB port and use the port on the battery charger for a camera or something else convenient. The G7 receiver itself is pretty small, about the size of a USB flash memory drive. Overall, this system is much better than other wireless mice I’ve used, including the MX1000. I like the idea of having battery cartridges instead of dropping the mouse into a cradle. This way, you always have a battery on standby in case you are doing marathon sessions or something. For gamers, this could be the killer app.

g7charger

The wireless performance is top notch, as I’ve come to expect from Logitech. Even with my MX1000, I never experienced any channel interference. Logitech claims the G7 has a new channel hopping feature to prevent any interference at all. I can’t verify this, but I can say that I have a pretty wireless household, and I’ve experienced no interference on the G7 whatsoever. The same cannot be said for my kids’ Microsoft Wireless Intellimice.

Software

The Logitech Setpoint software is pretty comprehensive. As of the time of this review, I was using version 2.46 dated October 17, 2005. You can do all the normal things like set button assignments, overall sensitivity, and pointer trails, etc. However, this version of Setpoint has game recognition and per-game sensitivity settings for both X and Y directions. I was not able to get Setpoint to recognize any Steam game, or Diablo II. I’m not sure if there’s a list of games that are auto-detected, if there is, I wasn’t able to find it. You can, however, browse through your files and add games to the list manually, so this is only a minor inconvenience. You have to tell Setpoint to take priority over the OS for mouse functions for the per-game settings to work.

setpointadvanced

G5 vs G7 and conclusions

The G5 and G7 are definitely some of the better mice I’ve used. As far as wireless mice go, the G7 is the best wireless mouse I’ve ever used, hands down. It was difficult to say that based on my happiness with my beloved MX1000, but in the end I have to concede the wireless crown to the G7.

With that said, I must say that between the two, the G5 is ultimately the better gaming mouse. Of course, each individual has different reasons for choosing different mice. Some people can’t live without wireless, and if you’re one of those, the G7 is definitely a great buy if you happen to play games. I have gone back to the tether because of the superior heft and feel of the G5. The G7 feels sort of chintzy compared its sibling. The scroll wheel is a bit squeaky and the whole thing just feels more poorly put together than the G5. However, if you simply must have wireless, the G7 is a great buy. The dual batteries alone make it worth it.

With the exception of the braided cloth cord, the G5 is pretty much the best mouse I’ve ever used. It has taken the place of the MX1000 on my primary desktop. I only wish Logitech had sent me one for each computer I use!

Highs

  • High performance
  • On-the-fly accuracy adjustment
  • Really nice battery swap system

Lows

  • Price
  • G7 feels a bit light and poorly constructed

Scores Breakdown
Attribute Score Comments
Bonus items & software 10 The weight cartridge system is a surprising and welcome addition to the G5 and the battery charger is an excellent addition to the G7.
Documentation 8
Features & options 9
Presentation 10
Price / value 7
Total score 44/50 88%

Comments

  1. shwaip
    shwaip Did you find that only having one thumb button on the mouse was a major downside? One of the things that has stopped my friends and I from buying one of these is only having one thumb button.

    one note:
    PTFE is teflon.
  2. Shorty
    Shorty Sweet :D

    Wouldn't mind a G5, looks & sounds good ;)
  3. primesuspect
    primesuspect With the Setpoint software, you can configure the "left/right" scroll button to be keystrokes or whatever, so actually there are five configurable buttons if you give up the on-the-fly accuracy settings. So, thumb button, scroll left, scroll right, sens. up, and sens. down can all be reprogrammed.
  4. Shorty
    Shorty Does the setpoint translate over to the MX1000 mouse..? Was it a straight plugin/plugout?
  5. primesuspect
    primesuspect I don't know, to be honest. My MX1000 is on a different machine. This is my first install of Setpoint.

    The sensitivity adjustments do not depend on the setpoint software. You can still use them as they are hardware rather than driver based, even without installing the 33mb setpoint package.
  6. QCH
    QCH Nice review!!!
  7. Trogan
    Trogan The G5 looks good but too much money to spend just on a mouse.


    As Q said, nice Review prime :thumbsup:
  8. primesuspect
    primesuspect That's what a lot of people think (price), but honestly, the G5 is worth it. If you do any work in photoshop, $70 isn't much to spend on a high quality input device.
  9. TheSmJ
    TheSmJ I agree. Once you start using a high quality pointing device (such as the G5 or G7), you'll never want to go back to "plain" 2-button mice.
  10. Gobbles
    Gobbles Good review.

    As for it being a gaming mouse. I need more buttons then that. My 510 has what 8 buttons and I have them all bound in every game. I think the G5 would be awesome if they included all the buttons from the 510 - 1000 series mice.
  11. profdlp
    profdlp Great review, prime. I've been getting by with a mundane two-button mouse since my old one started having sticky button problems, the G5 is going on my Christmas wish list. :D
  12. primesuspect
    primesuspect Four month checkup:

    I still love the G5. I still feel that it is the best mouse I've ever used.

    However, the braided cord? --> Cats LOVE to chew on it :mad:
  13. lemonlime
    lemonlime I've been tempted to pick up the G5, but bought the G15 gaming keyboard instead.. I think they would complement eachother nicely though ;)
  14. Atticus
    Atticus Ahh they look great together. I bought a G5 just after christmas based on prime's article, which is great btw, and i love it. I bought the G15 about a week later and i can't keep my hands off it. :rockon: The pair look fantastic together and work great.
  15. lemonlime
    lemonlime
    Atticus wrote:
    Ahh they look great together. I bought a G5 just after christmas based on prime's article, which is great btw, and i love it. I bought the G15 about a week later and i can't keep my hands off it. :rockon: The pair look fantastic together and work great.

    I really love my G15 too, I have been using ~$30 logitech keyboards for years, and I didn't know what I was missing all this time :)

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