Bought it today and have been fiddling around with it a little. First impressions:
Comfortable to hold; good shape for the hand. Thumb grip very good. Not as comfortable to lift, due to right side sloping a bit too much and not offering any natural grip other than a rough plastic surface. To lift it securely, you need to squeeze the mouse with your fingers and thumb, so the thumb grip does most of the lifting. Feels a bit awkward due to the relatively high weight of mouse (especially with the cord attached), but I guess it's something you'll get used to after a while.
The buttons feel sufficiently stiff so you don't click 'em by mistake but not so hard they become unresponsive; particulary the middle mouse button on this unit is much easier to click than on my previous G9, which had a terrible middle mouse button. The wheel itself is also very VERY precise; as previous Logitech high-end mice it's made of metal, and offers free-wheeling action or discrete steps. In "stepper" mode the wheel feels just gr8. Each step is well-defined, distinct and sharp, making it literally a snap to flip between weapons, items or just scrolling a couple lines down a web page. The toggle switch for the wheel is now located on top of the mouse, making it easier for people who like to change modes depending on the situation.
The (most likely teflon, or perhaps polypropylene) feet are excellent. The mouse slides very easily on my Func Surface plastic mouse pad, and the laser sensor seems to track well too. Three of the four G buttons on top of the mouse are quite easy to reach, and you easily distinguish between them just from touch alone. The four G buttons on the side are just a little more cumbersome. The two at the front are big and easy to use for my hands, and the two smaller at the back are too small - even though they're actually LARGER than the front buttons, due to being set a little too far back. You might need to adjust your personal play style to fit, or re-jig your button settings until things feel comfortable. Still, I find having these extra buttons a big plus, and quite convenient. ...If only the software had been a bit better. Ah well. *sigh*
As good as the hardware is (for the most part), software-wise it's a bit of the same fucking mess as usual with Logitech. It's always been their achilles heel. The driver install package is a 25 friggin' MB download (wth! It's a MOUSE, not a nuclear reactor!), and it installs two separate programs, one to change nothing except a few very basic settings and another to configure the buttons and define macros. These two could EASILY have been baked into one and the same app just to keep things simpler and tidier, and to stop having TWO extra icons down in the systray. Oh, and WHY is the mouse software taking up more disk space than an entire windows 3.x OS install? Jeez!
The profiles/button mapping interface is functional, but not terribly intuitive or comfortable to use. To set mouse button functions you can't select a button to change by clicking it in the image of your mouse, you have to find it in the list view on the side and then pick a function out of a mile-long combo box. To assign games to individual profiles you end up in the Program Files folder every time - which for me isn't where I have my games installed (60GB SSD doesn't hold too much these days, blah lol); now this isn't a big problem for me really because I only tried this feature out with WoW and the two L4Ds, but it's a few extra button presses per game for those like me with non-standard install paths and a lot of games.
The mouse itself 'only' stores 5 profiles at any one time (for example if you're going over to a mate's house or something and want to bring your imba gaming mouse with its pre-set button presses with you - errr... No, I don't really understand what this feature's all about either!), but the software apparantly handles a lot more - thirty. I don't see a need for that many, I just made a couple to see how the process works. Again, not the most intuitive interface, but it is functional. Profiles can even control stuff like pointer polling rate, speed or acceleration, DPI settings (1 or up to 5 levels, selectable from the mouse if you dedicate one of the onboard buttons for it) and things like that.
If you don't have the 25MB driver package installed you obviously can't make the mouse switch profile automatically depending on which software you launch, so to switch profile manually, you need to set aside one of the 11 buttons for that task. It's up to you which one that is however, which is pretty cool (default is the G11 button, right below the scroll wheel and its toggle switch). It's also up to you which button - if any - should show battery level.
I made a WoW profile saved to the mouse and defined buttons G8-G10 to keyboard presses I always set aside for things like potions and racial abilities on my characters. Then I unplugged the mouse and stuck its cord into my other PC which did not have the driver installed, booted up WoW - making sure the correct profile was active in the mouse - and lo and behold. My Draenei cast Lifeblood and Gift of the Naaru on himself when I told him to. The profiles really do work independenty of the driver! As long as you don't need more than 5 at any one time that is.
Random quirk: the button mapping software seems incapable of differentiating between alphanumeric keypad button presses and their corresponding standard keyboard button presses. This is IMO a big deficiency, that Logitech should fix ASAP on a gaming mouse, as it prevents you from binding actions specicfically to the keypad buttons - something I use in lots of games, FPSes in particular as I can't play with the industry standard WASD layout, I use the arrow keys instead.
I haven't tested the wireless feature much yet, but web reviews I've peeked at say it's working fine. Since you need the USB cord to recharge the damn thing you must set aside two USB slots for this mouse; one for the receiver hardware, and another for the cord, unless you want to keep exchanging the two. I only got a single USB slot left now in my PC, so I stuck the tiny receiver dongle in one of the USB hub connectors of my Logitech G15 keyboard. I haven't tried gaming yet in wireless mode, but I can't see ANY lag whatsoever despite the wireless connection and the USB data going through a keyboard hub; the pointer appears immediately responsive to my (very fallible) human eye. Considering I used to game on Bluetooth mice years ago with their incredibly obvious lag, I deem any lag that might be present here to be so tiny as to be completely insignificant.
Overall:
Nice mouse. Slightly blemished by somewhat cumbersome and unintuitive software (which DOES work however without throwing up errors or crashing...), and a few design details which could have been better, like the not-entirely-optimal shape for lifting, and the too-small rear thumb G-buttons, but those are minor complaints. Oh, and the price is damn high too, but it IS a very nice solid mouse. If the hardware features appeal to you and you enjoy gaming and macros and tweaking things out and stuff, then this is an excellent product for you. Even just for gaming and never using the macros at all this is a good mouse. It's got most everything one could wish for from a PC rodent, and much higher build quality than 90% of the market, easily.
Comfortable to hold; good shape for the hand. Thumb grip very good. Not as comfortable to lift, due to right side sloping a bit too much and not offering any natural grip other than a rough plastic surface. To lift it securely, you need to squeeze the mouse with your fingers and thumb, so the thumb grip does most of the lifting. Feels a bit awkward due to the relatively high weight of mouse (especially with the cord attached), but I guess it's something you'll get used to after a while.
The buttons feel sufficiently stiff so you don't click 'em by mistake but not so hard they become unresponsive; particulary the middle mouse button on this unit is much easier to click than on my previous G9, which had a terrible middle mouse button. The wheel itself is also very VERY precise; as previous Logitech high-end mice it's made of metal, and offers free-wheeling action or discrete steps. In "stepper" mode the wheel feels just gr8. Each step is well-defined, distinct and sharp, making it literally a snap to flip between weapons, items or just scrolling a couple lines down a web page. The toggle switch for the wheel is now located on top of the mouse, making it easier for people who like to change modes depending on the situation.
The (most likely teflon, or perhaps polypropylene) feet are excellent. The mouse slides very easily on my Func Surface plastic mouse pad, and the laser sensor seems to track well too. Three of the four G buttons on top of the mouse are quite easy to reach, and you easily distinguish between them just from touch alone. The four G buttons on the side are just a little more cumbersome. The two at the front are big and easy to use for my hands, and the two smaller at the back are too small - even though they're actually LARGER than the front buttons, due to being set a little too far back. You might need to adjust your personal play style to fit, or re-jig your button settings until things feel comfortable. Still, I find having these extra buttons a big plus, and quite convenient. ...If only the software had been a bit better. Ah well. *sigh*
As good as the hardware is (for the most part), software-wise it's a bit of the same fucking mess as usual with Logitech. It's always been their achilles heel. The driver install package is a 25 friggin' MB download (wth! It's a MOUSE, not a nuclear reactor!), and it installs two separate programs, one to change nothing except a few very basic settings and another to configure the buttons and define macros. These two could EASILY have been baked into one and the same app just to keep things simpler and tidier, and to stop having TWO extra icons down in the systray. Oh, and WHY is the mouse software taking up more disk space than an entire windows 3.x OS install? Jeez!
The profiles/button mapping interface is functional, but not terribly intuitive or comfortable to use. To set mouse button functions you can't select a button to change by clicking it in the image of your mouse, you have to find it in the list view on the side and then pick a function out of a mile-long combo box. To assign games to individual profiles you end up in the Program Files folder every time - which for me isn't where I have my games installed (60GB SSD doesn't hold too much these days, blah lol); now this isn't a big problem for me really because I only tried this feature out with WoW and the two L4Ds, but it's a few extra button presses per game for those like me with non-standard install paths and a lot of games.
The mouse itself 'only' stores 5 profiles at any one time (for example if you're going over to a mate's house or something and want to bring your imba gaming mouse with its pre-set button presses with you - errr... No, I don't really understand what this feature's all about either!), but the software apparantly handles a lot more - thirty. I don't see a need for that many, I just made a couple to see how the process works. Again, not the most intuitive interface, but it is functional. Profiles can even control stuff like pointer polling rate, speed or acceleration, DPI settings (1 or up to 5 levels, selectable from the mouse if you dedicate one of the onboard buttons for it) and things like that.
If you don't have the 25MB driver package installed you obviously can't make the mouse switch profile automatically depending on which software you launch, so to switch profile manually, you need to set aside one of the 11 buttons for that task. It's up to you which one that is however, which is pretty cool (default is the G11 button, right below the scroll wheel and its toggle switch). It's also up to you which button - if any - should show battery level.
I made a WoW profile saved to the mouse and defined buttons G8-G10 to keyboard presses I always set aside for things like potions and racial abilities on my characters. Then I unplugged the mouse and stuck its cord into my other PC which did not have the driver installed, booted up WoW - making sure the correct profile was active in the mouse - and lo and behold. My Draenei cast Lifeblood and Gift of the Naaru on himself when I told him to. The profiles really do work independenty of the driver! As long as you don't need more than 5 at any one time that is.
Random quirk: the button mapping software seems incapable of differentiating between alphanumeric keypad button presses and their corresponding standard keyboard button presses. This is IMO a big deficiency, that Logitech should fix ASAP on a gaming mouse, as it prevents you from binding actions specicfically to the keypad buttons - something I use in lots of games, FPSes in particular as I can't play with the industry standard WASD layout, I use the arrow keys instead.
I haven't tested the wireless feature much yet, but web reviews I've peeked at say it's working fine. Since you need the USB cord to recharge the damn thing you must set aside two USB slots for this mouse; one for the receiver hardware, and another for the cord, unless you want to keep exchanging the two. I only got a single USB slot left now in my PC, so I stuck the tiny receiver dongle in one of the USB hub connectors of my Logitech G15 keyboard. I haven't tried gaming yet in wireless mode, but I can't see ANY lag whatsoever despite the wireless connection and the USB data going through a keyboard hub; the pointer appears immediately responsive to my (very fallible) human eye. Considering I used to game on Bluetooth mice years ago with their incredibly obvious lag, I deem any lag that might be present here to be so tiny as to be completely insignificant.
Overall:
Nice mouse. Slightly blemished by somewhat cumbersome and unintuitive software (which DOES work however without throwing up errors or crashing...), and a few design details which could have been better, like the not-entirely-optimal shape for lifting, and the too-small rear thumb G-buttons, but those are minor complaints. Oh, and the price is damn high too, but it IS a very nice solid mouse. If the hardware features appeal to you and you enjoy gaming and macros and tweaking things out and stuff, then this is an excellent product for you. Even just for gaming and never using the macros at all this is a good mouse. It's got most everything one could wish for from a PC rodent, and much higher build quality than 90% of the market, easily.
