Prodigious provider produces prowess
Logitech is on a roLLat the moment, a slew of new products butting their way into existing niches, and carving out new ones with little mouse-sized hammers and chisels. Top of the fashion pile in mouse marketing meetings is to pretend your product is somehow tied to the professional gaming scene.
These esports mice are all very well, but when will somebody design a mouse for people who sit around all day surfing Reddit? Logitech—whose approach to branding is to write “PRO” in huge letters on the box, but not say pro what, and put out press releases featuring pictures of pro-gaming stars, cropped so you can’t see what mouse they’re using—does seem to have taken the approach rather to heart.
And it doesn’t really need to. Logitech products are solid. They could be sold on their own merits, rather than some link to a minority pursuit, but the pull of the celebrity affirmation is strong. We heartily endorse this product and/or service.
Getting on to the mouse in question, the G Pro is unquestionably a mouse. It’s part of the current trend for stripped-back products, with fewer features but better build quality. Why it still needs 16.8 million colors of LED lighting, though, is beyond us. Perhaps we’re not very imaginative: Setting it to red could render it useful in a photographic darkroom, for example. You only get six buttons on this model, but they’re well positioned, and all programmable using Logitech’s generally excellent software, which will need an update to work with the new mouse—so beware if you’re upgrading from an older Logitech model.
The casing is an identical swathe of black plastic in a classic rounded Logitech shape, unbroken apart from splits around the buttons, and the gaps for the dreaded lighting. It’s unadorned with grippy panels or thumb-rests, leading to a spartan look, offset by a single shiny patch forward of the wheel. The rolling disc itself is pleasingly broad, deeply ridged, and taking a positive effort to spin from one notch to the next.
Thrust it back and forth fast enough, and you even hear it pass over whatever mechanism tries to stop it. There’s nothing special about it, it’s just a plastic circle without a rubber tire or soft-touch coating, but it’s well designed and satisfying to use.
And that could be the summation of the G Pro, as feel is everything for a peripheral that spends so much time in your hand. It’s engineered to be extremely accurate, with a PMW3366 optical sensor, the absence of any smoothing or pixel rounding, and some clever metal springs under the main buttons; the nicely braided cord is a decent length; and it feels good in the hand.
Specifications
Sensor Optical
Sensitivity 200–12,000 dpi
Sensor Model PixArt Technologies
PMW3366
Polling Rate 1,000Hz
Programmable Buttons 6
LEDs One zone,
16.8 million colors
Cable Length 6 feet
Weight 2.9oz
It brings forth a different type of feel, too, exemplified by a quote from a CS:GO pro in the promotional material. He says that upon switching to the G Pro it “felt like” he was landing more shots. No stats are given to back this up; it’s provided as a fact purely on “feel” alone. If you’re coming to this mouse from something older, and maybe using it on a high-res screen at the top end of its sensitivity, and skipping over the question of why you skimped o a mouse when building your rig, there’s a chance this kind of quality build will allow you to land more shots. If you’re already landing a lot, then maybe the feeling that more are connecting is good enough.
You’ll also find the PMW3366 optical sensor in Logitech’s cheaper G Daedalus mouse, so anyone looking at the Pro will need to decide whether the Daedalus’s slightly awkward shape is enough to send them up the range. If it is, the G Pro will not disappoint you. –ian evenden
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