Laser Mouse Roundup

Reviews: Peripherals

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Laser Mouse Roundup

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Bradford Day
Kurtis

Apr. 30, 2006

Specifications

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Design and Ergonomics

Right out of the gate, err umm!the design gate, Razer and Logitech leave Microsoft in the dust. Microsoft's boring designs and bland color schemes will do nothing to entice gamers to jump on the MS bandwagon. Ergonomically, the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 is much more comfortable than its wired companion. The sculpted sides and thumb rest feel more natural in my hand than the ambidextrous design. Non-stick feet are nearly non-existent on both models and don't glide as smoothly as the other laser mice. You would think that with all of the money Microsoft has, they would be able to spend just a little bit of it on R&D to come up with some product designs that are at least on par with the competition.

The Copperhead wins the award for stand-out design, at least visually. The blue LED waist-line wraps around the body and shines like liquor store neon while the lighted wicked triple serpent logo pulsates like a viper ready to strike. Simple black is tough to beat. The big primary buttons are easy to find but I found the thin design slightly uncomfortable in my large hand. Smooth gliding isn't a problem for the ultra slick gray Teflon feet. The neon blue LED stripe is helpful in providing extra finger grip, but can get annoying during long frag sessions.

Logitech makes no apology to left-handers with their rightie-only G5/G7 mouse shells. Despite that, these mice were by far the most comfortable to me. The large non-stick feet glide effortlessly across my mouse pad and my hand fits nicely on the body. Visually, I found the G5's rusty battleship façade to be more to my liking than the aqua and silver two-tone of the G7. Logitech now offers a carbon fiber-look G5 mouse as well.

Conclusion

Well, by now I'm sure you can guess which laser mouse tops my list. The Logitech entries are my clear favorites. But, which one of the two is staying on my desk? The wireless G7 has long battery life and never once skipped a beat during my testing, passing with top-notch wireless signal quality. However, I prefer the customizable weight packs of the G5 to the wire-free design of the G7. While both are equally comfortable and capable, I've chosen the G5 as my ultimate winner of the laser mouse roundup.

Congratulations to all our contestants and a big thanks to our sponsors for providing us with testing samples. And Logitech, for besting the rest with your ingenious G5 design, we have bestowed upon you TheTechLounge's Must Have Hardware Award. Good job G5, you've earned it.

Logitech G5 Laser Mouse: Must Have Hardware

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Desktop and In-Game Usage
Page 3: Design and Ergonomics / Conclusion

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7 User Comments

1 - Posted by CTM420 on May 1, 2006 - 2:12 pm

I wrote a little user review. Essentially I agree with your round-up. The G5 won me over too, but I think buyers should test mice themselves to get a real feel for whether it's something they will want to use every day.

2 - Posted by handrail on May 1, 2006 - 4:07 pm

i agree with your points about the G5 as well. it is definitely my favorite and the one i'm keeping.

again, i do make mention in the main reviews that smaller handed users might like the copperhead or 6000 series better than the G5...but i don't think anyone can dispute that the Logitech mice are better in terms of software. and it really does have the best ergonomics, in my opinion. the razer is a great mouse, but isn't at all curved to the shape of my hand.

one other shining example of how much the G5 rocks is the fact that practically every gaming station we passed at CES this year was using the G5...nVidia, Dell...the Logitech rep told us that they sold a bunch of G5s just to be used for displays at CES.

3 - Posted by Dyrewolph on May 1, 2006 - 9:49 pm

I just went and picked up a dvd burner for dad for his birthday... one of the guys there was talking about the mice he has at home and was complaining that he had to change the battery daily on his G7... if that's the case, and I didn't notice it in your review when i skimmed through it late last night, then I'd rather use my MX1000 over the G7... at least mine's only outta batteries about once every week or two (depending on usage) and it only takes a while to charge enough to keep playing... so yeah... MX1000 for me...

4 - Posted by handrail on May 1, 2006 - 9:55 pm

his battery must have been spent then because i left mine on for several days and never had to change out the battery. from my original review:

"The G7’s battery life is more than adequate. After a 10 hour initial charge on the normal setting, I was able to get many days of use (3-5 hours a day) without even losing a bit of charge. "

it's possible logitech had some problems with the batteries though. i thought the battery life of my G7 was nearly the same as the mx1000, except that you can swap out the packs quickly instead of having to wait for the thing to charge in the cradle...i don't like the mx1000 cradle thing.

if you don't intend to use your wireless mouse entirely for gaming, i would suggest the mx1000, it is a better desktop mouse than the G7. the mx1000 definitely has a better button layout and more of them.

brad.

5 - Posted by Kurtis on May 2, 2006 - 2:08 am

speaking of the mx1000, i still use mine and i love it. overall i like the ergonomics of it better than the G5 and G7 which revert back to the MX700's smaller body. it's a matter of preference really. and i don't game that much, so it makes an excellent desktop mouse as brad noted.

6 - Posted by handrail on May 2, 2006 - 8:07 am

yeah, the mx1000 is a bit larger than the G7...but mainly in the thumb rest area.

7 - Posted by Brian on May 2, 2006 - 11:56 am

I agree with Kurtis about the MX1000. The G5 and G7 rock, but I am big on ergonomics and because of that, I prefer the MX1000 over most other mice. I am also very picky about the wireless speed, and while the G7 seems to have no lag at all, I have no problem with the minute lag of the MX1000. Although I would probably prefer a G5 or G7 if I was a big gamer.

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