Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse

Written by Charles Husemann on 10/19/2005 for PC  

When Logitech announced their new line of gaming mice I was a little surprised to see that one of them was going to be a wireless mouse.  I’ve always been a big fan of their gaming mice (I’ve had a MX510 since the day they hit the stores) but I was a little wary of a wireless mouse as there is usually a bit of lag associated with wireless controllers.  This perception was re-enforced when I reviewed Logitech’s Cordless Desktop MX 3000 Laser a few weeks back and found that the wireless mouse included with that exhibited some lag when playing games like Battlefield 2 and CounterStrike:Source.  I’m happy to say that somehow Logitech has managed to deliver a wireless mouse that shows no perceptual lag when gaming with the G7 gaming mouse.

 

The G7 and its corded twin the G5 share the same five button design which has a form factor that will be familiar to those who have used Logitech’s MX500 series of mice.  The G7 inherits the same overall shape of the previous mice but loses a few of the buttons.  Gone is the forward button on the side of the mouse, the two scrolling buttons above and below the scrolling wheel, and the application switching button that sat below the wheel.  Logitech did add two buttons below the wheel which allow you to increase and decrease the resolution of the mouse.  The scroll wheel also now supports side scrolling (something I’ve yet to find a use for).  While I don’t miss the scrolling buttons I really did miss the forward button.  I’m sure I’m in the minority on this one but it was kind of a helpful button to have around.

 

Inside the box you find the silver and green mouse, two LI-ion batteries, a USB recharging unit with USB port, the USB wireless receiver, and a CD with Logitech’s Set Point software. The green is a nice hunter green metallic that contrasts nicely with the sea of grey and black items that make up my PC rig.  Besides the difference in buttons the G7 has two other notable differences from the other Logitech mice I’ve used.  The first is the dual purpose indicator on the bottom left part of the mouse.  The display shows the currently selected resolution of the mouse as well as the amount of juice left in the mouse.  The resolution is displayed in orange while you are using the mouse and then it switches over to a green display when you stop using the mouse.  The Setpoint software will also notify you when the battery is low by popping up a warning message.

 

The second major difference in the G7 is the three large Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) feet on the bottom of the mouse.  Not only is the material a little slippier than your standard mouse foot material but Logitech made them about 10 times larger than your standard foot which leads to a much smoother sliding mouse. The material also feels like it’s going to last a lot longer than your standard foot material as well.

 

Installing the mouse is dead simple, you just plop one of the batteries into the mouse, plug the receiver into the re-charger, and then plug the re-charger into your computer.  Installing the software is optional as the mouse is ready to go out of the box.  You’ll only be limited to the three pre-defined resolutions (400, 800, and 2000 DPI) but it’s nice to be able to use the mouse without having to install the mouse software.

 

Installing the SetPoint software really opens up the power of the mouse.  The software allows you to re-assign the functions for the mouse buttons as well as alloing you to configure five different resolutions for the mouse (the software adds two more resolutions to the two already built in).  This allows you to add a few more resolutions in between the ones built into the mouse if the built in ones are too high for you or not high enough.  This is helpful for FPS games when you want to have a high resolution while you run around and shoot and want something a little less sensitive while you are zoomed with a sniper rifle.

On average I got about eight to ten hours of battery time out of a charge.  The charger has two different modes a standard mode and a turbo mode.  The standard mode takes about 7 hours to recharge a battery while the turbo mode will recharge a battery in around two hours or so.  While most people probably won’t have a lot of use for the normal mode, those using the mouse on a laptop have a nice easy way to charge their mouse without draining their laptop batteries.  Logitech also did a nice job with the re-charger/receiver combo in that it only takes up one USB slot for the pair but if you are taking your rig out to a LAN party or want to use it with your laptop you can just take the receiver (which is about the size of a small USB flash drive).  The fact that they included two batteries is also a nice touch and ensures that you’re never going to be without juice for your mouse.

 

After using the G7 in a variety of games and applications I can honestly say that I did not experience any lag or jumpiness during game play.  It was all smooth and accurate in everything from FPS games like Battlefield 2 and Half-Life 2 to RPG’s like Dungeon Siege II and the City of Villains beta.  I even tried the mouse with a few games of Bejeweled 2 with no problems (although using a 2000 DPI mouse for Bejeweled 2 was a lot like killing a spider with a five megaton nuclear bomb). I can also note that a resolution of 2000 DPI takes a lot of getting used to.  I started with a custom resolution of 1600 DPI to start with and then worked my way up from there.  Using a mouse like a G7 will also ruin you for other mice as switching between the G7 on my gaming rig and the generic MS mouse on my work computer was like driving a four cylinder Ford Fiesta after driving an eight cylinder BMW 5 series.

 

With the G7, Logitech has not just thrown out a high powered gaming mouse onto the scene but rather a well thought out gaming mouse system.  I do miss some of the extra buttons but the performance of the mouse more than makes up for it.