As I have mentioned before in other reviews, I enjoy playing PC games. Am I the type of gamer that raids on World of Warcraft? No. Am I the type of gamer who plays his fair share of Steam and online PC games? Yes. Therefore, when looking at gaming mice what should I be looking for? Should I look for the hardcore mice that include a ten key macro pad where your thumb should be? Or should I stick with a traditional PC mouse?
In all honestly, I think it just comes to what feels best for you. Yet, how are we supposed to test mice before we purchase them? For me , mice have to meet certain standards before I would even consider purchasing one. It must be excellent to use while internet browsing, have a high quality finish and design, and feel just right in my hand. So, for me, finding the right mouse is difficult, as before you can even use the device you’ll have to purchase it and hope for the best.
Thus, the question stands: What mouse meets my criteria, yet would still be suitable for an average gamer? Logitech was kind enough to help me solve my predicament and provided me with a G502 Proteus Core gaming mouse. I’ve used my fair share of Logitech mice before, but never have I encountered their gaming mice.
Today, I will be reviewing the G502 Proteus Core gaming mouse and be covering the following topics: the design, my experience, its features, and my overall thoughts.
Figure 1 – The G502’s design.
The Design
Sticking to the traditional hand palm design, where users lay their entire hand on the mouse rather than gripping it with their hand, the G502 provides a comfortable feel and allows gamers to rest their hand without any discomfort. As you can hold the mouse in different ways, I found resting my palm on the mouse to be the best position.
Having an all plastic housing, the G502 is a very lightweight mouse that provides for quick movements across nearly any surface, although I was using a standard mouse pad. The G502 sheds most of its weight by having a non-detachable black braided USB cable and not having any internal batteries. For those that prefer a heavier mouse, Logitech does include five 3.6 gram weights that can be inserted into the bottom of the mouse; more on that below.
On both locations where your thumb and ring/pinky finger rest, is a soft touch plastic with a hex shape pattern that allows your fingers to grip the mouse more easily. The thumb area also has, what I would call, a wing to allow you to rest your thumb instead of holding it up, as shown in figure 1 by the blue band.
Next are the eleven programmable buttons that can be reconfigured using the Logitech Gaming Software (LGS). By default, and beginning with the top of the mouse, users have a left and right click, either free flowing or precision click scroll wheel, a user profile (G9) switch button, G4 and G5 forward and back internet buttons, dpi adjustment G8 and G7 buttons located for the thumb, as well as a sniper button for precision movements.
Finally, there is the underside of the mouse. With its five glide pads, the G502 has a dynamic coefficient of friction, μk, .10 and a static coefficient of friction, μs, of .15 on a wood desk. Even on my mouse pad as well as glass, the G502 moves quickly and does not stick. Then you have the most important function of the mouse, the 200 – 12,000 dpi sensor that has either a very accurate or very rapid mouse movement. While using the mouse, I found that the default setting worked best for both gaming and internet browsing. More on this below.
Figure 2 – The weights of the G502.
My Experience
After reviewing the Logitech G430 Gaming Headset, I had already installed Logitech’s Gaming Software. Immediately after Windows had finished installing the device drivers, the LGS recognized the mouse and provided me with many new options.
Here I had the ability to make the mouse my own, and customize each and every function and button until I was satisfied. The “G” logo on the mouse glows a solid bright blue light, and at first did not bother me, but once day had turned to night, the bright blue light was very distracting. Fortunately, the LGS provides a quick and easy toggle switch to turn the light on or off.
The next thing I did was to begin creating custom profiles for the mouse. Having onboard storage for three different mouse profiles, users can choose completely different settings for three different types of games. One profile may be for general internet browsing or Word processing, whereas another is for fast action games like Diablo 3, and then with the click of a button I can move to a profile suited for Civilization V.
What makes these profiles so different from other standard mice? Well, not only are all three stored on the mouse to allow users to transfer to a new PC, but give the ability to choose custom dots per inch (dpi) ranging from a fast to a slow mouse movement. Also different buttons can be adjusted for different functions in the game. How do you tell what profile you’re on, you may ask? When switching between profiles a three strip LED indicator tells you, which also acts as a dpi indicator.
With its 32bit microprocessor and 1ms report rate, I ran into zero lag whilst gaming on my PC, even though it has an older USB 2.0 cable. Users should not worry about any lag as a 1ms report rate is nearly impossible to notice.
We know the mouse is great to use during gaming sessions for long periods of time, so obviously we know that it can withstand internet browsing, but how does it stand up to long term usage? As I have been using the mouse for a few weeks now, I can report that just over these few weeks the mouse has held up to all day usage and gaming. As I said above, I have used my fair share of Logitech mice and never have I had one fail on me. With primary buttons (Left and Right click) having a 20 million click rating and its three year warranty, users should not worry whether or not the mouse is going to fail on them any time soon. This is particularly important, as once users find a mouse that they like they tend to keep them for as long as possible, or until something better turns up.
Figure 3 – The G502 shown in the Logitech Gaming Software.
Features
Beginning with the control of both weight and balance of the mouse, Logitech provides five custom 3.6 gram weights that can be inserted into the bottom of the mouse. With different arrangements, users can customize how the mouse moves with their hand; whether they’re like me and use zero weights, or they’re the type of user that enjoys a heavy mouse. At the standard weight of 121 grams, the mouse does tend to move around a lot. The weights are shown in figure 2 above, and the various configurations are shown in the video below.
As I mentioned before, the dpi optical sensor can reach between 200 – 12000 dpi making this mouse 4K compatible. Why is it 4K compatible you may ask? Well 4K monitors have 4,000 pixels, meaning if you run at 200 dpi it could take you nearly a minute to reach the top of the screen, even if you move the mouse very quickly across your mouse pad. With the LGS, users can also perform a “figure 8” motion with their mouse for the software to better understand the surface they are using. By moving the mouse in a figure 8 pattern, the LGS calculates how long and how smooth the surface being used is. I would highly recommend performing this action before using the mouse.
Finally, there is the mouse’s customizable buttons. While using the LGS, users have the ability to change any button they desire. Left click can be right click or the G5 button could be zoom for a game. With a click of a single button on the mouse, the scroll wheel can transform from a manual scroll to a fast free flowing scroll wheel. The possibility for custom buttons is endless.
My final thoughts
All in all, I am once again impressed with Logitech. The mouse’s design and functionality meets not only a gamer’s requirements for his games, but also provides a relaxing feel when switching to internet browsing. Whilst I was reviewing the G502, I just could not find anything that I was not happy with; Logitech really hit the nail on the head with this one. Returning to the question of ‘What mouse meets my criteria, yet would still be suitable for an average gamer?’ Well, at a price of only $79.99, I really feel that the G502 is that sort of mouse.
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