Logitech goes in some interesting new directions with its latest gaming mouse.
Logitech's gone with a "more of the same" approach with its new G9x gaming mouse. It shares much of the design flare of the G9, and adds only a few minor evolutionary improvements - the most important of which is that tracking on the mouse now goes up to a bewildering 5000dpi.
We've always thought the G9 to be a little off-song for a gaming mouse, but there's no denying its popularity. Certainly, the features the G9x shares with it are strong, such as the outer shell, which can be swapped out to create a slimmer mice, or the button positioning, which is solid and again near-identical. With a cloth-wrapped cable and slightly rubber-feeling (not actually rubberised) and solid metal scroll-wheel that can be set to normal mode or free-spinning mode, there's no denying that this is a classy mouse.
But...
As I'm typing this review, there's an unmistakable twinge in my forearm from my intense mouse testing session (the dummy cargo-ship training level in CoD4). The mouse is a touch on the small side for what are already not the largest of hands, which led to a claw-like grip being needed to control fine mouse movements - there simply isn't adequate surface area on the mouse's right-hand side. And the slightly rough surface is actually harder to grip than you'd expect. After a bit of use it becomes kind of waxy and prone to slipping.
Similarly, there's not quite enough support under your palm to be comfortable - and it's even worse with the larger housing removed. Perhaps it's just our mousing position, but with our hand resting naturally on top of the G9x a lot of the secondary buttons are rather hard to reach, adding further to the sense of impending arthritis.
Still, gamers with smaller hands or who like the option to switch down to a smaller pointing device will like it, and the G9x's software - if you bother with such things - is certainly easy to use. All in, however, it's not going to come close to shifting Microsoft's latest Sidewinder.
Issue: 133 | February, 2012