Logitech has been giving out a lot of mail-in-rebates for their G500 Laser Gaming Mouse for some time. So I went ahead and bought myself a G500 last month from newegg when they offered some instant savings along with a mail-in-rebate. The price turned out to be merely around $32 for what is one of the better gaming mouse in the market today. The G500 looks sleek, hosts a lot of buttons, allows weight adjustment, and boasts up to 5700 DPI with a Laser Sensor.

Appearance:

At first glance, the G500 does not look much different from its predecessor G5, which is great. Gamers who have used the G5 know that the ergonomic design is extremely comfortable to use. This design supports only right handed people, however, like most mice. The sides of the G500 are made of a gritty material that feels like sandpaper. While this is supposed to increase friction and allow a better grip, it can be very annoying at first, especially for people who are so used to rubber sides. As you get used to it, the grip does get better and more comfortable. On certain occasions though, on warm days when the fingers get slightly sweaty, the gritty sides seem to worsen the grip. The cord is braided as expected from Logitech, but the USB connector isn’t gold plated (miss that rich feel with my Razer products). The mouse seems to support more of a palm grip than a claw grip, so take this into consideration before buying.

Buttons:

There are ten buttons on the Logitech G500: the two usual right/left click buttons, three thumb buttons on the left side, two DPI switching buttons, three wheel buttons, and a wheel mode switching button. The thumb buttons are easy to use and feel distinct enough that you won’t misclick. The DPI switching buttons are cleverly placed on the edge of the left click button, which don’t interfere in intense situations despite being easily reached. Where we usually have just the middle click (the wheel being pressed down), the G500 sports three middle clicks with the wheel. The wheel mode switching button toggles between the Logitech Hyper Scrolling mode and the traditional “clicky” mode.

Scrolling:

The Hyper Scrolling mode is a neat design, where the wheel rotates very fast without friction, but it’s next to useless for gaming and often darn annoying. At the slightest touch of the finger, the wheel moves and if you have anything assigned to the scroll up or down keys, then they trigger. This is particularly annoying for FPS gamers who usually assign weapon switching to the scroll keys. If you are going through pages of documents then the Hyper Scrolling mode does wonders, but for pure gaming, I prefer sticking to my clicky wheel scrolling mode where I know that my weapons won’t switch at the wrong time. It’s clicky because you can feel the bumps as the wheel rotates. While this mode is the same as any other mice’s, it is fast enough not to cause any annoyance.

Another troublesome aspect is the three middle clicks: the wheel can be pressed directly down, or pressed tilted to either sides. While this is a very smart idea in theory, the execution wasn’t as perfect. It takes a lot of practice to get used to this new feature, which doesn’t work right almost always. For me, it came down to either assigning the same function to all three middle clicks or learning the precision required to properly press each button. I chose the former and I’m happy with the results. Maybe down the line when I don’t have much competitive gaming to do or Logitech comes up with a better mouse, I’ll give the three middle clicks another go.

Weight Adjustment:

Logitech G500 Laser Gaming Mouse comes with a nice small box that contains six 4.5g and six 1.7g weights. The mouse has a removable cartridge that can hold up to six weights. So you have a lot of options when it comes to customizing the weight of your mouse. My advice is to go ahead and try several combination to find out which one feels the most comfortable to you.

Software:

The software, Logitech SetPoint, isn’t included with the package. You have to get it online. Although this is a minor inconvenience for most people, I prefer getting all my software and drivers from online anyway to make sure they are up to date. The interface of the software is really nice and easy to use. As with other high end gaming mouse, there is an onboard memory for the mouse. So anything you change in the software, you can store in your mouse as a profile. This allows for easy adaptation in LAN gaming sessions with friends.

With the software, you can choose an array of functions to assign on any of the buttons, ranging from many window functions to launching programs. The macro creator is really convenient, allowing even more diversity and ease. The polling rate ranges from 125 Hz to 1000Hz, which isn’t anything groundbreaking, but is still on par with other high end gaming mice. You can choose different DPI settings for horizontal and vertical axes if you wish, and the range of DPI is from 200 to a staggering 5700! You can place 5 different levels on the software to switch between those DPI on the fly in game. Red LEDs on the mouse indicate the level you are at, and it’s conveniently easy to tell which DPI you are at. The flexibility G500 offers is amazing and is a huge step forward from any average mouse.

Trial:

I tested the Logitech G500 Laser Gaming Mouse in Unreal Tournament 3, Counter-Strike: Source Beta, Left 4 Dead 2, and Starcraft 2. I made a profile for each game and used the software’s auto application detection function to conveniently switch between the profiles when I launched each game. During long sessions of the FPS games, the mouse never faltered. It ran smooth at all times, the buttons triggered properly, the DPI switching was flawless, and sudden movements did not jerk the screen. After playing with the DPI switches and the weights, I was easily able to figure out the best level of comfort for each game. Starcraft 2 was even more fun. As a test run I made a macro to select all my warp gates (W button on the keyboard) and place several units in quick succession. It worked brilliantly and I can’t wait to find out what else I can macro on there.

Verdict:

The Logitech G500 Laser Gaming Mouse is a wonderful gaming gear. It’s easy and smooth to use, and prides in a lot of useful features. It does have some drawbacks, but they are easy to forgive once you get a good grip on the mouse and learn the features. Especially, with the amount of rebates Logitech is giving out right now, it’s hard to complain. If you have any other high end gaming mouse, don’t bother switching to this one yet; rather, wait for the G500′s older brother. But if you are planning to buy a very good gaming mouse on a budget, then this is the perfect choice.