Customer Reviews

Logitech G5 Laser Mouse (Blue/Black)

5 star:		(193)
4 star:		(57)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This is a very nice and well built mouse. As soon as you use it, you can tell that it's very well made. The new surface used on this model is very nice, non slip and does not attract fingerprints, unlike the earlier 6 button version of the G5

The option of changing the weight of the mouse seems gimmicky at first, but as soon as you start to experiment with the weights, you'll see that it's actually quite usefull.

The mouse tracks very well and the on-the-fly DPI changing works flawlessly. Also it glides very nicely which is even more emphasized when using a good mouse pad.

The reason I gave this mouse 4 instead of 5 stars is simply that the shape of the mouse will not suite every gamer. It is an awesome device for anyone using a palm or finger grip on their mouse, but someone (like me) that prefers the claw grip, mainly used in FPS games will find it a bit uncomfortable. You can get used to it though.
Also, the scroll wheel is a bit annoying. It would be better if it was a little wider and didn't have this utterly useless side scrolling function, which makes it a bit awkward to depress it.

All in all this is a great gaming mouse that is worth the money it costs. Every angle of it screams quality.
Just try and take it for a "test drive" before you buy it so you can make sure it's comfortable to you.

The G5 is a very nice mouse, but if it dosen't fit one's hand, that dosen't matter. My hands don't work very well & I like another reviewer found the hump in the back just didn't work for me. I was amazed that none of the various mice specification say anything about their size, so here are the results of my quest to find out how big mice are:

V220 - 8.8 cm long
V320 - 9.8 cm
V450 - 10.5 cm
L6, L7, L8, MX400, & MX Revolution - 12.3 cm
LX7 - 12cmx 5cm x 2.5cm (long x wide x high)
MX518-12.5 cm
MX620 - 12.8 cm
G5 - 12.5 cm
G9 - 10.5 cm
Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse - 11.2cm x 5.1cm x 4.2cm
Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 - 12.4cm x 6.7cm x 4.2cm
Razer DeathAdder - 12.6cm x 6.9cm x 4.5 cm

Sorry no shape factor. I bought the DeathAdder & it also is a very nice mouse & better yet, it works for me.

This is my first time buying such an expensive mouse but I was so glad that I did. The FPS game I play on it, make fragging so much easier and weapon switching quicker.

But lately, the mouse began to freeze up in the middle of the game. The power would drop and come back after 5-10 seconds. It progressively got worst. I thought it was a driver issue but after installed the latest drivers, it still did the same freezing. It would even freeze when I wasnt playing the game. But then I took a look at the cord and it seems like there was a short in it. I could hear the PC make the sounds when you plug/unplugged a USB device whenever I would bend the wire. Now, it just wont even come on.

I love the mouse soo damn much I have to buy another. I hope this time around it will last longer.

Update ---------------------------------------

I got another one a short time later. And no problems so far. Still love it!

It's a great mouse and I love the feel of it. Fits great in my hands and the adjustable weight is too awesome of design. For a long time no problems. Games were great, then suddenly I started losing to my games and mouse stopped working randomly. A quick search on the net and all shorts of forums and blogs came up with people having similar problems. The cable gets damaged. Normally I was about the just buy a different mouse but too lazy to go out to the store I decided to fix the mouse myself.

I opened it and found it was built with a few mistakes. I saw a solder point too close the button switch that melted the housing. Saw the cable were it began to make the bend the sock around the cable was frayed. I cut around the insulation and found the shield around the cable was severed. Only 2 strands of shielding wire was left. Explains why when I plugged it in, it would work but in game time, it loses voltage and lights go out. Removed damaged shield and wires to be safe and solder each wire together. Tuck them back neatly in the mouse and plugged in and I have my awesome mouse again! The culprit, since they put a sock on the mouse cable you need to secure it from sliding back. They put a crimp right the entrance of the mouse for the cable. The constant movement in gameplay makes that crimp cut into the cable. Over time it gets damaged. I moved the crimp outside of the mouse so this doesn't happen again.

I had the old MX510 (same shape as the G5 with the 800dpi red optical tracking instead of the 2000dpi laser) for years and resisted upgrading to the G5 due to the lack of a second thumb button. So when Logitech finally put the a second button on the G5, I bought one right away. Overall, the motion does feel a bit smoother however I find that the middle mouse button (the scroll wheel button) is too imprecise and I can't always activate it without accidentally scrolling the wheel, this never happened on the MX510. The sensitivity adjustment is pretty innovative however the sensitivity buttons are a bit awkwardly placed. I would have preferred if it was more like the MX510 with one button in front and one button behind the scroll wheel instead of having both buttons placed behind.

So while I do like the mouse, it would have been perfect if they just put the laser tracking engine and sensitivity adjustments into the MX510 body.

How ironic that about a month ago, I eagerly awaited my G5 in the mail. It is not a bad mouse at all, there are somethings about that have searching for other options.

The mouse has the signature obtuse logitech ergonomic shape for right handers, which I can only describe as perfect, an almost custom fit (keep in mind i have tried the MSE mice and the overexpensive razer mice are probably gonnna be like the dell mouse im using atm). There is even a groove for where your thumb rests so it doesn't drag when you swipe. The second thing probably most notable about the device is the design. It is black with blue reptilesque scales, all of which screams out "nerd", however I gobble it up anyway. It still looks cool 8^*B. There are about 7 buttons in total: left click and right click, a dpi increaser and a dpi decreaser, and on the left of the mouse are 1 mouse4 button and 1mouse5 button. There is also the scrollwheel itself.

There is an adjustable weight system included in the g5. it comes with custom weights of up to I think 8, 1.7grams and 8, 4.5grams. That's certainly a cool feature for a person into customization and/or gaming edges. I also thought it would be useful for a person switching over from an old mouse to make the switch as seamless as possible. I tried them once, and took out both the weights and the weight cartridge, simply not for me. however they go right on the buttom of your mouse, so it's very inconspicious.

Now to holding it. it turns out the blue and black nerdy design is actually textured to feel as "scaley" as it looks. however, it came off as more stucco than scaley. i don't think i've ever slipped on my mouse, but i probably won't now. very neat, I thought to myself. I found myself just stroking it for at least five minutes O.O (im lonely) uh, what else is neat? the mousewheel can be tilted to the sides for horizontal scrolling (if you look closely at it, the mousewheel seems to be broken because it is slightly off center, but that's just logitech's ergonomic design which does prove itself). wow this thing just keeps getting better an better. However the scrollwheel itself is very hard to press. In addition there is a really neat dpi indicator with showed what dpi your mouse was at (the defaults are 400, 800, 2000?) I remember just spamming the - dpi button with my 518, even when i didn't need to.

On Fragging: my expectations were admitedly high. just coming off the 518 which insists on breaking on me (probably my fault) and knowing what a demon of a mouse that was, i was expecting alot out of this fancy schmancy new laser engine and updated mouse period, after all this is the NEW g5. i dunno, more headshots right? yeh, well not really. my ingame sens definetly felt higher than normal, but after finding my right sens all seemed well. It performed just as well, if not better than my 518 and that is saying alot. so i was very happy except for a couple nagging details. first of all, if i moved the mouse too fast for those sinister 180 randeags, it would freeze up and in the worst cases look up at the sky. very very annoying because I play free for all deathmatches and you need to turn for that stuff gong on. at first i thought it was because I actually lift my mouse off my pad at times when i turn, so i stopped that habit. yet, it still continued. So I actually had to adjust and learn to turn as fast I could without no breaking that threshold. so i was turning slower than normal. Not a deal breaker, yet... According to Logitech, it is because i didn't have a laser mouse pad, i was using a dark, dirty qck heavy. Laser mice usually do this on dark and/or reflective surfaces (which are good for optical mice, i believe) and the best surface for laser mice are light, non-reflective surfaces with a non uniform design. off the top of my head, i think of the steelpad 5L (as if my mouse track through the 1st layer :/). bullspit, The real answer is that laser mice can't track when moved too quickly, about 1.3 m/s on the g5 according to http://www.esreality.com/?a=longpost&id=1265679&page=17. I should mention that i use 1.2 ingame sens., 6/11 windows, and 400 dpi.

In addition, I was noticing that i had a little bit of mouse accel, as I was aiming. it's not a problem related to the mouse; it is just because I use windows vista and mousefix doesn't work. it's not a huge problem, but after i've used it for so long, i can definetly notice it affecting my aiming. at times im either overaiming or underaiming in an effort not to overaim, a bit. how happy was i to realize that the new setpoint drivers could remove it (i never used drivers with my 518). so used the drivers and started owning bitches, but whenever my drivers are on my mouse4 button would not work and i use it to talk in vent. this apperantly is another common problem. none of the fixes i have seen thus far seem promising... Aside from that, setpoint is a preety amazing software if you're not already using secondary registry editors. for instance, i can set my mouse usb polling rate and it actually stays @ 500 hz constant which didn't happen with my previous mouse. I think using 1000 hz was what kept killing my 518 though.

the final verdict:
- the laser tracker isn't all the hype it carries, optical is just as good, unless you actually use 2000 dpi...
- im going back to the logitech mx518, probably the best mouse on the market. definetly the most of your money's worth.

4/5 on the G5 from me
but the mx518 gets a 4.5/5

I had gotten my wife a replacement mouse, an expensive MS one, and she thought it was too light and cheap feeling. So I looked at all the mice available and decided to try this one because of the weights. She loves it!!! It has a great feel, she could set the responsiveness just how she likes it, and we weighted up to where she thought it felt just right.

Note that she is not a game player (except solitaire), really just surfing the web and doing email/word/excel. I ended up with the expensive MS mouse and it does feel cheap and is too light . . . oh well, maybe I can get one of the Logitech G5's for Xmas.

I am a repetitive strain sufferer who works at at the computer 10+ hours a day. I've tried a ton of mice now, both optical and laser, and even tried using a Wacom Tablet for a while. This has been the one that has helped the most with pain. The profile of the mouse is low which helps to maintain a more natural hand posture. Even though the customizable weight cartridge is meant for gamers, it also works great for RSI since one can play around with the weights until they feel most comfortable. And the precision tracking means less effort trying to move the mouse to the target. Highly recommended.

I'm pretty much a gamer n00b, and have been enjoying getting my butt severely kicked lately in Gears of War. So I'm complaining to a friend of mine about my woes, and he asks about my setup. "Whoa, dude," he says. "You can't us a wireless mouse and keyboard for gaming. Spend some money and get a really good mouse. Friggin n00b."

Turns out my friend isn't as dumb as he looks.

So I bought the G5 (after deliberating over the DeathAdder) because of the 2000dpi. Wow. Just...wow. Now, keep in mind that my point of comparison is a Logitech MX600 wireless. It's a great general purpose mouse, but the G5 feels like a miracle of modern technology by comparison. I've always found Logitech mice to be the most comfortable fit for my hand, and the G5 is no exception. I'm also completly shocked my how much comfort is added by being able to alter the weight. Honestly, I thought it was a worthless gimmick. But it works. As far as operation, just moving around in Vista felt incredibly smooth. The pointer tracks to perfection. No delays, skips, or jerks. Then, onto the game...the difference is unbelievable. I just can't describe how much of a difference this made. I hopped on GoW for a little multiplayer action, and I didn't get my butt handed to me nearly as bad as I usually do. I think I only got frag tagged about 100 times, compared to the usual 1,231,578 times. So I'm still awful, only less so.

I've still got a ways to go to get the feel for this mouse down, as I don't yet have the skills mastered to take full advantage of all the features. It's sort of like going from a Focus to a Ferrari.

Check out some of the other one or two star reviews on this mouse. They mention a cord issue. There is a general theme to all of these complaints including mine... The cord is flawed. The cord is covered in a stiff braided fabric type material. It looks nice. It makes the cord look sturdy and strong when you first buy this mouse. The reality is that the fancy braiding ends up kinking and tightening up on the cord. It ends up fraying and then eventually the cord shorts out. It just happened on my mouse after 6 months. I have a laptop and I travel with it quite often. This cord cannot stand up to being moved or folded up for travel for any length of time. I imagine if you park this thing on your desktop, it would last longer. Unfortunately considering how much this thing costs, there is no excuse for this type of failure. Logitech could care less about this flaw, so once it fails you're on you're own. Buyer beware!