Others/Mice & Keyboards by jmke @ 2013-01-07
In this group test I will focus on a specific feature and gaming goal to reduce the variables as we go on a quest to find some of the best First-Person-Shooter wired mouse out there. To properly gauge the performance of my new gaming rodents I spend several weeks with each to get to know the ins and outs, their features and deliver a good dose of my personal opinions on these mice.
Our last lab rat comes from the grand daddy of PC mouse gear, Logitech, founded in 1981, they have covered almost all PC peripheral bases.
While they have high end wireless gaming mice, in the wired department, the aging G9x is set to be replaced, the only sample I did acquire suffered from a broken scroll-wheel (the mouse was a used sample from expo's and demos), so they send me a rather unique, more budget friendly, G300 gaming mouse. A compact wired ambidextrous mouse with flashy colors and an unique button layout.
Inside the box, a small manual and the mouse of course, the cable is not braided to keep cost low.
The symmetrical design of the G300 is immediately apparent with all buttons placed on top of the mouse. There are no should buttons, instead you get four buttons next to the primary left<>right buttons. This design allows for a compact layout and deep cutout at the sides for an ergonomic fit.
The bottom of the mouse features huge mousepads for smooth gliding performance, the RED color however is a bit flashy, especially compared to the sober black/metallic finish of the top.
Once powered on you can change the color of the LED lightening present at each side of the G300. The 5 colors can be seen above.
The G300 is supported by Logitech generic Gaming Software bundle, you can choose to store profile on your computer, or up to three on the mouse. Each profile can be linked to a specific game through .exe detection. Editing the profile allows you to change the LED colors, set up to 4 DPI levels to cycle through and configure all the 9 buttons; the USB polling rate can also be increased to 1000hz for maximum performance.
Logitech took a leap of faith, when the moved the shoulder buttons to a new location. While the other mice do a variation of the original IntelliMouse from Microsoft, adding buttons, flashier looks and better/different software tweaks, Logitech moved the location of buttons which can no longer be called thumb buttons. When using the mouse my thumb was feeling quite useless as it's only there to hold the mouse. For some office applications or games the extra buttons next to the left/right buttons might give an advantage, but if you're used to thumb buttons for extra inputs, the G300 does disappoint, and no amount of ergonomic benefit can make you overlook this flaw.
If however you don't rely heavily on the shoulder buttons of a generic mouse, the G300 can make a for an appealing gaming mouse to take on the road, with its compact size, above average tracking performance and gaming profile software. For me the G300 didn't quite do it and I was fighting more with the mouse instead of the virtual opponents in-game.
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* been using the SteelSeries RAW as office mouse, after about 600.000 clicks (tracking soft!) spread over left/middle/right click, the middle click button is starting to fail, need to press down hard for it to register.
* the Cyborg RAT 7 primary gaming mice, shows some erratic behavior once in a while and requires cleaning of the lens area every few weeks; otherwise it won't track, the small alcove they created for the lens is not keeping dust out, it just helps to collect more