Digital Trends

Logitech G9 Laser Mouse

November 14th, 2007 | by Josh Norem

Use and Testing

In daily use, the G9 feels pin-point accurate at all times and is very comfortable. After using both a G7 and the MX518 for the past year or so, we weren’t sure how we’d like the new design, but we dig it. It feels more natural around our hand since there’s less “rise” in the middle compared to the old design.

Once we were comfortable, we tried the different shells, and found we liked the one with the grainy surface that is a bit shorter at the back where your palm meets the mouse. The other shell is comfortable too but we didn’t like its slick surface.

We then tried adding some of the weights to the mouse and found they make a subtle difference. In the end we ended up using no weights at all. 

We then messed around with the sensitivity settings and came up with a good compromise. By default you have four sensitivity levels, and they include: 400, 800, 1600, 3200. We felt that 1600 was a bit too slow for us, but 3200 was too much. Luckily, Logitech lets you tweak every setting on the mouse, so we changed the DPI levels to five, and made a middle-ground setting of 2400 on the X-axis. We did not change the Y-axis.

The included software lets you customize the DPI settings with ease

Speaking of the software, it literally gives you too many options. We did not set up any profiles for games or create any macros, but those options and many more are available. We did change the color on the DPI display from red to blue, however.

Once we were done fiddling we jumped into Call of Duty 4, and found the ability to manipulate the DPI settings on the fly came in handy in the game’s sniper missions. We also played some TF2 and the Crysis demo, and found the mouse to be spot-on accurate at all times and very comfortable as well. We even went back to our G7 to compare and found the G9 to feel slightly more “connected” and comfortable. We like the new location of the DPI buttons as they don’t get in the way of scrolling the mouse wheel.

Conclusion

The G9 is a fantastic mouse, which won’t be a surprise to most people who have sampled a G-series mouse before. We like the new design, and the increased DPI is actually a bit too accurate, but we found a happy medium in the easy-to-use software. Though some people might miss the feel of the 5-and-7 series, and bemoan the fact that it’s wired, we like it just the way it is. The only downside is that it’s very expensive, but considering how good it is, and the fact that you will most likely use it for years, it’s a very safe investment. 



Pros:

• Very comfortable
• Highly customizable
• Incredible precision 


Cons:

• Expensive