Specs: 2000/800/400 dpi, 6.4 megapixels/second , 1000 reports/second, Adjustable weight cartridge
Price: $60-85 (estimate)
Strengths:
Picked up this mouse yesterday, spent about a hour fiddling around with the settings and I'm using it primarily to play Counter-Strike:Source. One of the first things I notice out of the box was that this was no cheap piece of plastic, it feels rugged and decently balanced in terms of weight. I'm an average size guy (5'10) with hands that are neither too big or small but immediately the ergonomic design of this mouse shined through in the way it is molded. You'll notice an indent immediately on the left side where your thumb rests almost perfectly (with room to spare for me, yet the depth of the indent is maintained) as well as on the opposite side where the tips of your ring and pinky will rest.
An interesting path Logitech chose was to give this particular model a nice, grippy texture throughout. The sides with the indents are heavy molded plastic with a non-slick feel, however the top and buttons of the mouse are a grippy texture that doesn't feel rubbery but rather like softer lizard skin. You'll have no grip problems holding on to the mouse nor will it be any challenge to change your hand position for comfort.
The mouse has the standard two-button set up, as well as the mousewheel which can click down as well as scroll. One of the benefits of this particular mouse wheel is that it can also click horizontally, meaning you can scroll side to side as well as up and down. You can also bind those clicks to commands if you so choose, however clicking the mouse wheel straight down sometimes can mistakenly tilt the wheel if you aren't careful...so you might go to throw a grenade when all you wanted to do was hit "push to talk". There are also two buttons on the thumb side which are fully programmable as well.
The absolute best selling point however was the adjustable dpi. The two buttons under the scroll wheel (+/-) are used to determine the dpi speed of the mouse. (Indicated by the three orange LED bars near the thumb side) You can choose 400, 800 or 2000 dpi and do it on the fly! What this means is that with the click of a button you can change the pointer speed, and with another click change it right back! For example, if I'm running around in Counter-Strike:Source with an AK-47 and I like faster mouse speed to switch 180 degrees, I want a higher dpi for more flexibility. But say I pick up an AWM (sniper rifle) and zoom in for a steady shot I can slow down or speed up the pointer in zoom view to meet my needs. You can adjust the dpi in conjunction with the standard pointer speed (with Logitech's included software) for a custom feel.
The mouse also has interesting feet, in that it is not the normal four rubber nubs underneath. It has big pieces of teflon(?) style material that slides like butter in a pan. IMPORTANT: for best mouse performance in a gaming environment, a good mousepade is KEY. One that won't slide, has alot of space to move and is smooth and responsive to your movements. My personal reccomendation is a Steel Series Steelpad which can be as big as a phone book or as small as a normal mousepad depending on your needs. Sliding wise this mouse is very accurate and fast, the speed might take a bit to get used to.
One of the cool features is the custom weighting system. A removable cartridge which locks into the bottom of the mouse has slots for 1.7 or 4.5 gram weights (8 total slots). I use the full 36g available because I like my mouse heavy but you can customize exactly how much weight you want to add to give your mouse that comfort and control feel. This is great for bigger gamers too because often they have more strength in their movements and need a tougher, heavier mouse to compensate their wrist movements. Very nice feature and the difference is noticable.
Overall I would say for serious gamers, this mouse is worth every penny. The USB cable is rugged braided textile and long, the USB connction is fast and the laser is precision. I hope this review helped anyone out who is looking into buying this mouse.
Final rating: 9/10 (two more buttons would have made it perfect!)
