Mouse Review: Logitech G9
This week, MMORPG.com Hardware writer, Jeremy Star takes a look at the latest mouse offering from Logitech with the G9 mouse. He liked it, read on to find out why!
This week we're going to be taking a look at the newest mouse offering from PC peripheral giant Logitech, the G9 laser mouse.
The Hardware – Look ma, another G!
The G9 is a corded USB laser mouse with a 3200dpi. It features interchangeable grips, a custom weight tuning system, onboard memory, adjustable sensitivity, customizable LED colors, Polytetrafluoroethylene feet, and a MicroGear™ precision scroll wheel. Like all of G family of mice – the corded ones, anyway – the cord is a heavy duty braided one.
The Technology – Lasers! Pew Pew!
The Logitech G9 uses a 3200 dpi laser to track movement. This is pretty much the highest dpi laser engine out there right now, so it's pretty much the king of laser dpi. Like the G5, the G9 has two buttons set aside for switching dpi on the fly.
For a slightly more detailed explanation of dpi, and why you want a high one, check out my Razer Krait review.
The G9 has a few technological tricks up its sleeve to differentiate itself from the competition. Firstly, it features interchangeable grips. The G9 comes with two custom grips to start with, and there are plans to offer more in the future. (Sold separately, of course.) The first grip is the pre-installed “Wide Load” grip. It has a satin texture, and a similar shape to the Logitech Revolution mouse – wide with a thumb rest that juts out on the bottom left. The second grip is the “Precision” grip, which is a more compact grip, with a DryGrip finish – meant more for those users who use their fingertips to control the mouse. The grips are easy to switch – simply depress a button and lift - and the level of customization they offer now and in the future really adds to the value of this mouse.
Secondly, the G9 features LED lights to show you what level of dpi you are currently using. The unique aspect of these LEDs is that the Logitech SetPoint drivers allow you to change the color of these lights to a hue that you find pleasing. Now, the literature says you can select between hundreds of shades of color, but in reality the lights don't differentiate much between shades of the same color. There are a few distinct shades of each color of the rainbow, but choosing sea foam blue or aqua blue pretty much leaves the LEDs the exact same color. Still, even the number of distinct colors you can see the difference between is impressive. Certainly not much of a useful feature, but it adds a level of cool to be able to specify your own color lights.
Thirdly, the G9 uses a version of the weight tuning system that was popular on the G5 series of laser mice. The G9 requires you to remove the current grip to get to the weight cartridge, but that's less of a pain than it sounds. You can weigh the mouse down or lighten the load, depending on your preference. It's not a new feature, but it definitely adds yet another level to the degree with which you can customize the G9.
;)
Fourthly, Logitech stole a page from the Razer play book and included onboard memory with the G9. Now you can unplug it from one PC and port it to another without losing your custom settings. Up to five custom profiles can be stored on the mouse and can be switched between by using the profile button on the underside of the mouse.
Lastly, the G9 features the MicroGear™ precision scroll wheel. Yet another thing that you can customize, the mouse wheel on the G9 can be used as a normal scroll wheel with the indentations that allow you to precisely scroll one unit, or you can press a button on the bottom of the mouse and set the wheel to frictionless scrolling – spin the wheel like you are on a game show, and it keeps going until you stop it or hit a Whammy. This works well for scrolling quickly through documents or lists of spells. The mouse wheel also depresses for a third mouse button, and allows for side to side scrolling.
Aside from its impressive list of customizable features, the G9 also has two side buttons for assigning game functions, or simply paging back and forth on the web. Kudos to Logitech for not paring that down to one button again.
Appearance – She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts...
Honestly, whichever grip you have on the G9, it looks a bit strange. Perhaps because instead of the sleek cruiser profile we are used to seeing from modern mice, the G9 has more of a Millennium Falcon “What a piece of junk!” look to it. It actually looks like it is customizable, because it looks like a bunch of parts slapped together. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the look, but it certainly is different.
;)
The left button is clearly a separate piece, hanging out above the one piece rocker switch for the dpi level, which in turn is a separate piece above the LEDs. The rest of the main mouse body is one piece, with the exception of the wheel. Then you have the grip piece which is also noticeably a separate piece, as well as a different shade of black than the main body.
Performance – She'll make point five past lightspeed.
And I thought Razer mice were hard to control until you fiddled with the dpi and sensitivity. Sheesh! Once I dropped both down a bit, it was a breeze to flick my cursor around with accuracy.
I tested the G9 with some of my personal favorites: Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft, and Guild Wars. Performance was exactly what you would expect from a high end gaming mouse: Flawless. The G9 glides around effortlessly with its Poly-blah-blah-blah feet, and it is ridiculously accurate. For those of you who play other games besides MMORPGs, I also tried the G9 with the newly released Team Fortress 2, and it works wonderfully for First Person Shooters.
My only problem came when I decided to try using the 3200 dpi by using the on the fly dpi switching during a game. My group laughed at me every time I moved, as I would just spin in circles endlessly. I had to lower the sensitivity considerably until 3200 dpi became usable.
Conclusion – She'll hold together. Hear me baby? Hold together...
As I stated in my Razer Copperhead review, there are now so many gaming mice on the market that it is hard to make a new one stand out. Logitech, however, achieved that end gloriously. The G9 is truly a unique mouse.
What I think of it:
;)
Again, considering the glut of mice released nowadays, Logitech did a fantastic job of making the G9 stand out. The level of customization available on this mouse is truly awe inspiring. It's great to be able to fiddle with almost everything until you have just the right combination for your tastes. Combine that with one of the highest dpis available, excellent drivers, and the perfect number of buttons, and you come up with a winner.
Both grips are very usable, though I prefer the Wide Load grip. Honestly, I would rather have a grip that has a slightly higher “hump”, but I imagine that one will probably be available for purchase in the future, and the Wide Load will do me fine until then.
Who I think can benefit the most:
Need to upgrade from an old mouse? Want to try a new mouse? Just bored? This is the mouse that everyone can use for their MMORPG gaming – except the poor southpaws. With the only drawbacks being the high price and the slightly fugly look, this is a mouse for the masses.
Final Thoughts:
You can't go wrong with a mouse that you can change almost every aspect of. This mouse would have been a 10 if it didn't look like something Han Solo cobbled together and the price was slightly lower.
I give the Logitech G9 9 Gs out of 10.
Pros
Cons
Sounds great. I've been using the G5 for about 2 years now I think and it's still a solid mouse. I'll probably always stick to the G series from this one on.
looks retro
That does not look comfy at all, the chuncky-ness reminded me of my Amiga 500 mouse
Ill stick with my Razor Deathadder.
This mouse is AWFUL, 9/10... you must be on commission.
I'd give it 5/10 tops...
The mouse is based on the concept of it being fully customizable and have disregarded basic concepts such as comfort and functionality.
Yes you can make it bigger, but it just isn't comfortable when using the extremes so you go for the intermediate size.
The button edges are very pronounced so it takes effort to navigate your fingers to different buttons.
There is no where to comfortable rest your pinky, so its kinda left hanging or scraping along the mouse mat....
Yes you can customize the LED colour... but there is only a very small section of LED on it which is 100% hidden by your hand when you are actually using the mouse. There is no LED trimmings that remain visible.
Plus they have this fancy drawer for the weights to be placed in. If you do not get them to go in perfectly flat, you can't get the drawer back open. This is what happened to me within minutes of it being delivered and i had to force it open, leaving scratches on my new £100 mouse.
I'm still on the lookout for a new mouse, but £100 out of pocket. Save your money for a nice keyboard instead.
Holy fugly, batman!
I'll stick with my G5...
it's just a mouse.
you need a REALLY big ego to have a mouse like this.
Sorry but this is not top of the game as the reviewer suggests and its not really confortable.
Oh and Razer Lachesis had 4000 dpi laser engine for a while now.
http://www.razerzone.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=72
Is the Lachesis being sold?
Also you say it's expensive, but never mention how much it is.
I would never buy that mouse simply because it's ugly as hell, its a friggin brick and looks like a POS.
Yes, I am a Razer owner and I am horribly biased as well.
Mice are very personal, everyones hands are different, different tastes too. Not everyone has long finger nails either.
I've seen this mouse sold in N.America for $85 or about 42 pounds (uk) If the reader above paid $200 for this mouse then you deserve to be shot!
I kinda like the retro look, I know in my local store I can go in and spend 20 minutes with the mouse for inital feelings, and i'll be doing that right before next pay day =)
It seems odd to me to review such a high-end mouse intended for twitch gaming on an MMORPG site - the review was fine and all, but the applicability to this fan-base is iffy.
I have used lowly, old-school, first-generation optical mice with just two buttons and no customization, and high-end laser mice with tuning systems and profiles and excellent DPI and all, and honestly cannot claim a performance benefit when playing WoW, LotRO, or EverQuest II.
So, I am sure for hardcore FPS people this mouse and ones like it are a blessing, but I do not think someone who pretty much strictly plays MMOGs can justify this purchase in terms of game improvements. If I bought it I would only do it to show off and feed my desire to have the best hardware, since clicking a massive on-screen target and then pressing button macros to attack does not require precision.
I tend to not include prices in the reviews, since they are so fluid. At the time I wrote the review, the price was pretty much a solid $99 US everywhere, but now that it has been published, you can find it cheaper. (Albeit still more than you would expect to pay for a mouse.)
"Twitch" gaming applies to MMORPGs as well. Anybody who PVPs in WoW can attest to that. Spinning and running in circles so that the rogue can't backstab you is much easier with a good gaming mouse.
Well, I used to PvP in WoW and cannot attest to that, so clearly not "anybody" can.
I use an MS wireless (oh no, wireless!) laser 5000 series mouse and can spin in circles just fine, and as one might guess, this is not even close to a gaming mouse - not corded, has no fancy features, is meant for home/office use. Spinning is a gross movement, not a refined movement. A refined movement is targeting the head of someone at 100 yards with a gun in an FPS, as you only have a very few pixels to aim at and need precision. A gross movement is holding down a button and twirling around, something any mouse made since we ditched those balls can do.
Anyway, I am sure these uber mice are a delight to use, at least in titles they are designed for, but I honestly think we are deluding ourselves when we start making performance claims in a game like WoW. But that is just me. If people enjoy these mice and feel it helps them out in MMORPGs, all the power to them, I simply remain unconvinced.
I agree with this, perhaps we can hope for a game that will allow mice like this to be at home in some type of mmo game.
That mouse looks very retro. I like that actually.
But in everyday use, it all comes down to which mouse offers me more comfort. So far, that price has fallen to my current G7 mouse which I love to death. Despite being cordless, it's very responsive, quite precise and not having the cord constantly get in the way is a godsend. Only drawback is that the supplied rechargable batteries only last a good day of intensive gaming, but it only takes a couple of seconds to change and the charger is quick enough to keep up with battery usage. By the time the battery in the mouse goes flat, the one in the charger has been ready for hours and you always get a fair warning when the battery is about to die.
Sure, the FPS crowd might laugh at me for using a cordless, but I'm an MMO player and the G7 is in no way a hindrance when it comes to WoW PvP. Quite the opposite. Since MMOs tend to be more about investing countless of hours and doing repetitive tasks rather than quick precision sniping from hundreds of yards away, comfort is IMHO much more important than DPI, acceleration speed, USB polling, fancy looks etc. If it feels good in your hand, responds the way you want it to and the buttons are placed right where you want them, then go for it.
Unfortunately, no mouse review is going to tell you how a certain mouse will make your hand feel after a 12 hour XP grind marathon since it's all so individual, so you just have to try things out on your own
damn i must be really out of touch. i had no idea they were coming out with a new G mouse. I just picked up another g5 for a total of 6 last week. i have two for my 2 computers, had to get 2 for the g/f's two computers, 1 for work, and then the new one for my laptop.
im sure as soon as i get a chance to try this new one ill have to buy 6 of those! i like that they didnt go wireless because i got tired of having battery problems with wireless mice years ago
shouldnt have taken any points off for looks. even the g5 looks ugly compaired to the plain mice of yesterday. new tech is cool when it looks different. besides form follows function is the rule.
don't bother bringing a fancy mouse to work it's something they use to test the size of your ego. for each button beyond two your ego is double the size. and yes managers do pay attention to that.
A mouse like this I'd definitely have to test drive before I dropped $100. I love my G5 and just got a replacement as, after 14 months of hard mileage, the right mouse button failed.
Oh, and Polytetrafluororethylene (PTFE) is the chemical compound for the trademarked name: Teflon. Further proof that all marketing people need to be strung up with piano wire. Of course, the more likely explanation is that DuPont wants some royalties for using their (TM) in any product description and Logitech were unwilling to pay.
We have a major arms escalation going on at work, the lunch hour game time competition in intense. We all have the exact same computer but EVERYBODY had upgraded their keyboard and mouse in an attempt to gain some advantage.
Wow...
I picked this mouse up a few days ago, and returned it the next day. I am not trying to bash the reviewer at all, but I find the review to be very lacking.
I personally give the mouse a 6/10... maybe 7/10 if a new more streamlined face plate is released (and if it doesn't cost more than $10).
This mouse is not designed for MMORPG games. Any old mouse that you find comfortable will work for an MMORPG. This is a FPS mouse all the way, and is not comfortable at all. If you like actually holding the mouse in the palm of your hand like I do, then this mouse is NOT for you as it is very small (incomparison to the rest of the 'G' line from logitech) This mouse is super customizable with weights, faceplates, adjustable DPI, built in memory, and so on. Too bad the majority of the customazations are prettymuch worthless for anyone who wants a real gaming mouse and not just a cool new toy.
Features I found worthless:
Features I found usefull:
Conclusion:
Unless you just want a new toy to brag about, save yourself 50 bucks and go buy a new G5 or G7 wireless mouse. This was a big letdown for me compared to the rest of the Logitech 'G' line of mouses.
Ego size from your mouse? I have never heard of that! I thought it was the car you drive. lol
I have a MX Revolution and a DiNovo keyboard on my desk at work, not because I want everybody to see them but I really like the way they type and move.
I have the G9 too for playing Planetside and WoW. Nope you don't really need this mouse for WoW but for FPS it is awesome! Very smooth but I am bias towards Logitech. I didn't like the feel of the Razor to tell the truth but everybody's hands are different.
i've had this mouse for a long time, upgraded from MX518, costed just over the price of MX518 which was awesome but also getting old, so i decided to go for it and i don't regret it.
also i don't see why people link mice and egos together, it's stupid as it's all down to little details of preference. you shouldn't trust reviews on the comfort of something, just the specs.
i wouldn't mind trying a razer out for a while but i'm not gonna buy it just to try it :P