Logitech has a history of making very good gaming mice. I owned an mx512 and a G7, enjoying them both very much. In fact, I originally owned a Logitech ‘huge’ trackball I used to play Tribes with…but I digress. Enter, the G9. This is their new flagship unit and we got a chance to put it through its paces.
The first thing you notice about the G9 is its peculiar form factor. It seems to ‘bend’ to the right the further towards its input cable you go. This design fits very nicely with the natural architecture of your right hand. Its outer shell is a rugged black plastic and has a ‘braided’ input cable unlike most other mice which have standard rubber cables. This braided design makes the cable very durable and tear-resistant.
The mouse comes with two interchangeable outer grips that are made for different uses. The first is called the ‘Wide Load Grip’ and, as the name suggests, is the wider and more contoured of the two. It features a black satin finish for what Logitech calls the ‘ultimate in comfort’. The second grip, called the ‘Precision Grip’, has a much more narrow form with an outer coating of ‘DryGrip’ technology. The DryGrip coating is suppose to help wick away moister during long game sessions. Of the two, I found the Wide Load Grip to be the best for my large hands, with the Precision Grip feeling just a bit too narrow for me. Although I like the DryGrip coating alot more than the satin finish of the Wide Load. They unlock from the base mouse unit with the touch of a button and go on with a snap.
A large assortment of weights come with this mouse as well, in a very handy and portable aluminum casing. You get four 4 gram and four 7 gram weights in the set. The mouse features a retractable weight tray in the palm rest capable of carrying any combination of four weights inside the unit. I like my mice heavy for better control, so I loaded it up with the full 28 grams of weight. The mouse feels much more solid at this weight and is less prone to jumpy movements.
Logitech uses a 3200 dpi Laser sensor in the G9, and the sensitivity can be adjusted by a rocker switch below the primary mouse button on the fly, and without any software needing to be installed. A set of LED lights give you a visual cue as to what setting the mouse is using. While a very solid sensor, it can be a bit ‘jumpy’ at its highest sensitivity with no weight in the mouse. After adding the aforementioned weight to the unit, this was no longer an issue.
Even the G9’s scroll wheel is unique in that it can operate in two modes. The first is what is called ‘MicroGear Precision’, in which the user receives ‘detentes’ while scrolling. The wheel is more ‘locked-down’ in this mode, allowing one movement between detentes for better control of selection. ‘Hyper-Fast Scrolling’ is the second mode and releases the wheel from the detentes, allowing it to spin freely. It spins so freely, in fact, that if you roll it quickly and let it go the wheel continues to spin for a while after. This mode is great for making your way across very ‘tall’ documents or web pages in an extremely timely manner.
Using the included Logitech ‘SetPoint’ software, you are able to program the G9 with five unique profiles for various needs from gaming, word processing, you name it.
The biggest issue I have with the mouse are the narrow buttons. I, as previously stated, have large hands and I find that my forefinger has a tendency to set off to the left of the primary button a bit. This can make it a bit of a strain sometimes to keep my forefinger in the correct position. If the primary button was slightly wider, this would not be an issue.
Conclusion: We have found the Logitech G9 to be a joy to use and, despite the narrow buttons, it offers a HUGE degree of flexibility and options to its handler. From gaming to desktop usage, it performs exceptionally well.
