Logitech G500 master of (nearly) all trades Review

A price tag of Rs. 3,795 (MRP) might seem excessive for some, but we assure you, the G500 is a truckload of mouse for the money and a great product overall. Superb performance, lots of customisation, and a number of useful features make it a great buy for almost anyone. Hardcore gamers will be satisfied. Razer fanboys need not apply…

[RELATED_ARTICLE]Fast-forward four and a half years, bump up the sensor’s dpi (dots per inch), add a few ergonomically located programmable buttons, give the mouse a few visual tweaks while retaining the same palm friendly design. Finally bump the model number up by a factor of 100. And voila – you have the G500. Having a lineage before should help niggle out annoying flaws. At least this was our hope pre-review. Its packaging is more than adequate, though surely a source for hiccups Green peace and environmentalists in general.

Click next to read about the look and feel of the G500

Look and feel

The G500 is a nice looking mouse. Gone is a glossy faux crater finish on the MX518, replaced with a smooth textured (but not glossy) finish. The colour scheme is pretty cool – silver and black in a nice random pattern. The sides of the mouse are sculpted to fit right-handed people, and this is accomplished pretty perfectly. We dislike ambidextrous mice, for they straddle the fence, rather uncomfortably might we add. The recess on the right is less prominent, while the thumb recess, although having the same depth, has a bit more of an outward protrusion at the bottom. Although the G500 is the same size as the MX518, it seems slightly shorter. What this translates to is, with your fingers positioned identically on the keys, a fraction more of your palm with hang over the mouse. This isn’t necessarily bad, just different, and takes getting used to, if you’ve spent significant time on the MX518. The sides of the mouse have a matte finish, unlike the softer rubberised finish on the MX518. We hope this finish wears better too, for after a couple of years of use, this reviewer found bits of the coating on his MX518 peeling off.

Flip the mouse over and you’re greeted by three Teflon feet, two large and one small These are similar to the feet on the G5, although they seem to be slightly softer. Nails will not mark them, but they seem to glide slightly better compared to the G5. The MX518 glides just as well as the G500, for while the feet are the same material as the G500, they’re a lot smaller, less surface area causing less friction.

The weight cartridge is also located on the bottom and ejected via a small button located just above the tray. Up to six weights can be inserted into the cartridge. 12 weights are provided, six each of 1.7 grams and 4.5 grams. While these weights are also meant to customise the mouse to people who are used to heavier mice, they also serve as a weight bias, and at times you may need to tinker around with different combinations to find something that gives you that extra edge during critical gaming sessions. The cable is sheathed in nylon weave, and while we find it durable, we don’t like its uncanny knack to get tangled up.

The scroll wheel is aluminium, with a textured rubber grip on the top to add purchase for your fingertip. It features side scrolling that is a huge boon for people (like us!) who work with large Excel spreadsheets. A small button just behind the mouse wheel switches between ratchet and free spin. Ratchet spin, or the regular resistance, (read click-click), movement of the mouse wheel is good when you want precision while scrolling. The free spin mode disables the resistance, therefore allowing the mouse wheel to spin freely and therefore scroll at a high speed – uber useful for long web pages. For best results, buy a monitor that can pivot into portrait mode…

[RELATED_ARTICLE]The dpi change buttons have been moved to the side of the left click button. This is a plus for anyone graduating from an MX518, as this was an ergonomic issue where the buttons weren’t very accessible, especially during a frantic frag session. Now these buttons are very easy and intuitive to use. On the side of the mouse, just above the thumb recess, are three more buttons, two positioned side-by-side with indents, that are a pretty good usability clue. Below these is a third button, and thanks to some smart delineating, it’s pretty usable. Logitech did well to prevent an ergonomic goof up here, since these buttons are clustered together, and a lesser design would render than unintuitive and therefore, useless.

Overall, the G500 is a comfortable mouse, although it’s not revolutionary in any way. Some people prefer Razer mice on account of them having a slightly lower profile. Generally, people with smaller hands find Razer more comfortable. One of the only possible cons we can think of, is that once you get used to the G500, you have problems switching back to other mice, as two of our reviewers found out, much to their dismay.

Click next to read on how the G500 performed

We tested the G500 on an Everglide Titan, which was the only gaming mat we had on hand initially. Tracking is smooth, and the feet offer no resistance. In fact, if anything, we’d say the feet were too slippery. The smooth Teflon feet glide effortlessly on the Titans cloth surface. A little later, we also got the chance to test the G500 on a Razer Destructor mousepad, that one of our team members purchased. The G500 gets a bit more precise on the Destructors matte surface.

With the G500, you really want to have Logitech Setpoint installed. This gives a lot more options for fine-tuning the dpi, else the three settings available using the shortcut buttons on the mouse are pretty coarse, and no matter how badly brands like Logitech and Razer would want you to believe it, you simply do not need a dpi of 5600, or even 3200. We find that we’re most comfortable with a dpi setting of 800 or 1600. Any more becomes pointless for gaming, and overkill for desktop usage.

So is the G500 better than the MX518? Yes, in almost every way. However, we don’t feel the dpi jump alone is enough to recommend the mouse. The ergonomics are better for sure, but in terms of tracking, there is only a minor perceptible difference. However, the G500 feels a little more fluid, and thanks to the much higher dpi, it accelerates quicker. Another plus is it seems to decelerate a bit more accurately. On the Titan, the differences in the sensors, of the two mice is less pronounced. We also feel the G500 is spot on accurate, and one plus is when using on a surface like the Destructor, you get very smooth glide, with no abrasiveness, compared to the MX518, to which the surface of the Destructor offers more resistance.

The placement of the keys is pretty ideal, and even the thumb buttons are very usable, even during frantic gaming sessions you’ll rarely find yourself pressing the wrong button. The weights add a further layer of configurability, not only can you add to the weight of the mouse, but you can bias the weight, depending on what feels correct to your hand.

We tried the G500 on a cheap mousepad, plain table and on a simple A4 paper sheet for all you misers who don’t want to splurge on a decent mousepad. Needless to say, the G500 tracks sufficiently well on all of them, although using this on a table will wear down the Teflon feet, scratching them, and affecting tracking in the long run.

With its feature set, we’d expect the G500 to be priced somewhere close to the Rs. 5,000 mark. The only possible feature it misses is the inclusion of wireless as well as wired connectivity although this is not necessarily a better thing. Neither is it a deal breaker. The price of the G500 as given to us by Logitech is Rs. 3,795 – a super deal, if you’re shopping for a high performance gaming mouse. Although a good mousepad will also need to be taken into the equation, we figure something like the Roccat Sense will do the trick, for close to Rs. 1,000.

Although the MX518 can be had for less than half the price, it’s also an ageing product, and is less customisable, whether it is with weights, or the shortcut keys, of which it has fewer. The G500 will is not cheap, and many non-gamers will go “yikes! – There’s no way I’m blowing 3.8K on a mouse”. Sure, you don’t need it, so why buy it?

[RELATED_ARTICLE]For hardcore gamers, this is a great mouse. You also get a handful of utilitarian features that assist in browsing and office work, such as the side scroll, ratchet/free spin wheel and extra programmable buttons. Many fans will swear by their Razer mice, and while we can’t detract from the fact that Razer makes some great mice, the G500 wasn’t found to be lacking on any performance parameters, when compared to the likes of the Razer Mamba, and the differences if any, are too fine to be noticeable during physical testing, and that is what matters. And the G500 has a lot more features. The cliché loaded comes to mind. In fact we recommend this for people looking at a highly productive mouse, even if they’re into only casual gaming, it’s a great upgrade over the MX518.

Specifications: sensor: Laser, 5600 dpi; adjustable weights: 1.7 grams x 6, 4.5 grams x 6; side scroll mouse wheel; dpi adjust and shortcut buttons

Rating:
Features: 8.5
Performance: 8.5
Build: 8
Value: 7
Overall: 8

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Michael Browne