The new Clawgrip/Fingertip king
I've been doing reviews of gaming mice and other gaming peripherals on and off for over 5 years and I been owning gaming mice for at least 11 years, having owned around 50 different gaming mice, plus owning and testing many others that didn't qualify. It's rare that a mouse can surprise me anymore.
But the new Logitech Pro Gaming mouse distinguished simply by "Pro" on the box, blew me away, so I simply had to do a review.
The mouse comes in a really standard box with nothing included, hence why I forgot to take any pictures of the box. So I'll just start with listing the specifications
MOUSE SPECIFICATIONS
Design and comfort
The Logitech Pro gaming mouse is shaped almost identically to the Logitech g100s and the g100, which has proven to be one of the most beloved shapes ever since the release of the Logitech mx300 released in 2002, and later the Logitech g3 and the Logitech g1 with quite similar shapes and was released in 2005.
However as you can see here It's not shaped identically to the g100s. The sides on the g100s is more || while the Pro gaming have a more \ / giving a better grip. It also makes the Pro gaming feel smaller, because it have a smaller footprint at the bottom and also have smaller mouse feet which also leave less surface that is actually touching the mousepad making the Pro gaming move quicker as well.
Here's another small difference between the Pro gaming and the G100s. Notice the Pro gaming backside sits higher than on the g100s
Comparing the g303 and the Logitech Pro gaming, the g303 is quite a bit wider because of the diamondshape. The bottom of the g303 is like the Pro gaming significantly smaller than the top part which also makes the g303 feel smaller than the g100s. However the g303 weighs 4 grams more so despite the small footprint it doesn't really move any quicker than the Pro gaming.
If you are asking me what the most important thing when choosing a gaming mouse, I'll always say the shape, and the Logitech Pro gaming mouse definitely deliver a very safe and comfortable shape that you can use, not only as gaming mouse, but also for everything else. Is it the perfect shape for me for gaming? Both yes and no. Yes because I can use this mouse all day for gaming, without feeling tired of having any sort of pain or discomfort. Where the shape lacks a little is when you have to lift up the mouse a lot, like in the case of using a low sensitivity in fps games. This could be fixed with textured rubber grips like Razer or Mionix are using, or steeper sides \ / . For lifting the mouse a lot the g303 shape is better, but in every other case the Pro Gaming shape is a much better choice.
So comfort wise it gets a 5/5 from me. This is a great mouse for small-medium sized hands. If you have small hands, then pretty much any grip style will fit it. If you have medium sized hands it will work for claw or fingertip. While palming the mouse is possible this is definitely a mouse made for claw or fingertip.
For RTS and Mobas this is the most perfect mouse I have ever tried. The design and comfort is perfect for these kind of games so another 5/5.
For FPS gaming it gets 4.5/5. While there's nothing wrong with the shape for FPS gaming, there's other mice which are easier to lift if you are a low sensitivity gamer.
As for looks, it follows in the footsteps of Logitech's recent products like the Logitech g810 and the Logitech g610 gaming keyboard. With the lights turned off, it wouldn't look out of place at work. With lights turned on it's just beautiful. I'm really loving the minimalistic and simple design of this mouse. That said, the g303 does gets more attention and stands out more because of the shape and honeycomb design. Here's a few pictures to show how they look compared to eachother with lights on. There's plenty more down in the gallery.
I've recorded two videos showing how beautiful the Logitech Pro Gaming looks with the different lightning modes. This video shows the different lightning modes
This one is recorded in a little dimmer light just showing my favourite lightning mode, the color cycle.
Showing some of the different cables from 4 different mice in this order. Logitech Pro Gaming, Logitech g303, Logitech g100s, Ninox Aurora
Scroll wheel, buttons and build quality
Scroll wheel
The scroll wheel have a very similar feeling to the one in the g303 in terms of the feedback you get when scrolling, which makes it one of the best scroll wheels out there. It's very quiet and the scrolling feels very smooth. The tactile feedback is very light but easily felt. Both the g300 and the Pro gaming have the best scroll wheels of the mice I currently own. The only scroll wheel I like more comes from another Logitech product, the G502. The big metallic scroll wheel with a great amount of tactile feedback and the option for hyperscrolling just feel amazing. All Logitech scroll wheels just come with one drawback. They require a lot of force to press, and while it stops you from accidently pressing the scroll wheel button I feel the force required to actuate the button is too much.
Mouse 1 and Mouse 2 button
Both of the main mouse buttons are separated from the shell itself which is already a good start. In my experience the buttons on mice where the shell and mouse buttons are not separated are much more likely to break, and much more likely to have an inconsistent feedback depending on where you press with your finger, and they are also in most cases much harder to press like seen in ZOWIE or Mionix mice. Comparing some of my gaming mice I would rank them in the following order by pressure required to actuate the buttons
Cm storm spawn, Logitech g303, Logitech Pro Gaming, Logitech g100s, Mionix castor, cougar 450m, ninox aurora.
In terms of the audible feedback, you can hear it here and judge by yourself.
The g303 have have my favourite mouse buttons of all mice that I have ever tried, and since the pro gamings mouse buttons feel almost identical it, comes in at a close second. They won't feel tiring during mobas or other games where you constantly have to press them, yet you won't accidently press them in fps games either.
Side buttons
The side buttons are great. It's easy to press them when you need to but hard to press them when you don't want to. They have a short travel and a reassuring feedback.
In terms of build quality, I it justifies its price tag. There's no rattle like in the Logitech g303. There's no squeaky or any other kind of noise that shouldn't be there. The mouse is uncoated, so that the coating won't fall off. The main buttons are separated from the shell and have a very consistent feeling throughout the button area so they are unlikely to break. They are omrons rated at at least 20 million clicks so they will last for a long time.
And yes I did say that it's uncoated. Usually having the mouse uncoated is something you don't want because it will be very hard to get a good grip on the mouse like in the case of the Cougar 450m that I own. The Logitech pro gaming is uncoated but made in a different material that both feels very nice, provide a good grip both while having dry and sweaty hands and importantly the coating won't come off.
Sensor Performance
Unsurprisingly the sensor performs extremely well, like every other mouse using the PMW3366 sensor. It easily does 6 m/s + without losing tracking or acting weird. There's no exciting results for The Pro gaming so I think it's more interesting to show the test that did fail. The Pro gaming mouse does well with most surfaces, but some surfaces like the Artisan Hayate will get some less consistent results as seen below
Prediction & Jitter
In terms of prediction, jitter and so on, there's none of it! The sensor truly make the mouse feel like an extension of the hands. You can however turn angle-snapping prediction on in the Logitech Gaming Software if you feel the need to.
Lift off distance
In terms of lift off distance its already very low, but if you want the lowest possible lift off distance you can use the software and use "Surface turning". That will set the lift off distance to very low as well as tuning the sensor to the surface you are using. I found that doing so didn't give any benefits in terms of sensor performance but did lower the lift off distance.
Acceleration test
The sensor unsurprisignly have around 0% acceleration.
Software
I'm using the 8.87.79 version of the Logitech Gaming Software.
The Logitech Pro gaming can do anything that any of the previous mice using the PMW3366 sensor. When you first open the software you have the option to either use the profiles stored on the mouse or use profiles stored on the computer. I always use profiles stored on the Mouse since, I want to have the same settings on any computer that I use the mouse.
On the "Customize on-board profile" you can change the functions of all the mouse buttons. You have the options to have up to 5 different dpi settings, which is more than plenty if you ask me. I like to keep it to 3, the first one at 400 for fps games, second one at 800 for moba games and 1400 for desktop use. You have the options to assign a default dpi value, to have a default value it will use when you first turn on the computer or use the mouse in another computer. You have the option to "Assign shift" which will let you quickly switch dpi levels quickly during a match and then switch back to the dpi level before. This can be useful for fps games where you might want a lower dpi level when using a sniper.
You can change the dpi in increments of 50 from 200dpi to 12000dpi, and you can change the polling rate if you want to. But there's no reason to ever keep it lower than 1000hz unless you are using a very slow computer.
On the "Lightning Settings" page you can choose how you want or don't want your mouse illuminated. There seem to be only one LED in the mouse for lightning effects so if you turn off the Lightning effects for the logo the lights will be completely off. In the lightning effects you have the options to choose between "Color cycle" which cycles through all possible colors the mouse can do, where you can also choose the Brightness and at what rate it cycles through all the colors. The Breathing effect will let you a breathing effect where the lights slowly turns on and off giving the effect of the mouse is "breathing". You can also turn lightning effects off which give you the option to give the mouse a solid color with no effects at all. For some reason when you do that you can't adjust the brightness.
All the light effects look really beautiful with nice and clear colors, helped by the really good print quality of the logo.
At the "Surface tuning" page you can adjust the sensor to your own surface, which in my experience just lowers the lift off distance without any negative effect on the sensor performance. The factory default seems to be working with all surfaces but will give you a higher lift off distance. Logitechs own gaming surfaces are already included and preset so you won't need to self-tune the sensor if you own any of those surfaces.
At the "Input analysis" page you have the option to see a heat map of the buttons you have been pressing, in case you want to know what buttons you are using mostly. You can also see key presses per minute which is actually quite nice in strategy games, but otherwise it's probably not something I will make very much use of.
Conclusion
The Logitech Pro Gaming has solved every shortcomings of both the Logitech g100/g100s and the Logitech g303.
It's easily the best claw/fingertip mouse I've ever used, at any price, period. So what are the cons really? None really, but if I have to be extremely picky then I would list these things
Gallery
Link to the full Gallery here
More comparison images with the Logitech G303 here
I've been doing reviews of gaming mice and other gaming peripherals on and off for over 5 years and I been owning gaming mice for at least 11 years, having owned around 50 different gaming mice, plus owning and testing many others that didn't qualify. It's rare that a mouse can surprise me anymore.
But the new Logitech Pro Gaming mouse distinguished simply by "Pro" on the box, blew me away, so I simply had to do a review.
The mouse comes in a really standard box with nothing included, hence why I forgot to take any pictures of the box. So I'll just start with listing the specifications
MOUSE SPECIFICATIONS
- Connection Type: USB
- USB Protocol: USB 2.0
- USB Speed: Full speed DPI (Min/Max): 200-12,000
- USB Report Rate: 1ms
- Sensor: PMW3366
- Indicator Lights (LED): Yes, RGB
- Buttons: 6 Other Features: onboard memory
- Height: 4.6 in (116.6 mm)
- Width: 2.5 in (62.15 mm)
- Depth: 1.5 in (38.2 mm)
- Weight: 5.0 oz (129.5 g) mouse with cable
- Weight: 3.0 oz (83 g) mouse only
Design and comfort
The Logitech Pro gaming mouse is shaped almost identically to the Logitech g100s and the g100, which has proven to be one of the most beloved shapes ever since the release of the Logitech mx300 released in 2002, and later the Logitech g3 and the Logitech g1 with quite similar shapes and was released in 2005.
However as you can see here It's not shaped identically to the g100s. The sides on the g100s is more || while the Pro gaming have a more \ / giving a better grip. It also makes the Pro gaming feel smaller, because it have a smaller footprint at the bottom and also have smaller mouse feet which also leave less surface that is actually touching the mousepad making the Pro gaming move quicker as well.
Here's another small difference between the Pro gaming and the G100s. Notice the Pro gaming backside sits higher than on the g100s
Comparing the g303 and the Logitech Pro gaming, the g303 is quite a bit wider because of the diamondshape. The bottom of the g303 is like the Pro gaming significantly smaller than the top part which also makes the g303 feel smaller than the g100s. However the g303 weighs 4 grams more so despite the small footprint it doesn't really move any quicker than the Pro gaming.
If you are asking me what the most important thing when choosing a gaming mouse, I'll always say the shape, and the Logitech Pro gaming mouse definitely deliver a very safe and comfortable shape that you can use, not only as gaming mouse, but also for everything else. Is it the perfect shape for me for gaming? Both yes and no. Yes because I can use this mouse all day for gaming, without feeling tired of having any sort of pain or discomfort. Where the shape lacks a little is when you have to lift up the mouse a lot, like in the case of using a low sensitivity in fps games. This could be fixed with textured rubber grips like Razer or Mionix are using, or steeper sides \ / . For lifting the mouse a lot the g303 shape is better, but in every other case the Pro Gaming shape is a much better choice.
So comfort wise it gets a 5/5 from me. This is a great mouse for small-medium sized hands. If you have small hands, then pretty much any grip style will fit it. If you have medium sized hands it will work for claw or fingertip. While palming the mouse is possible this is definitely a mouse made for claw or fingertip.
For RTS and Mobas this is the most perfect mouse I have ever tried. The design and comfort is perfect for these kind of games so another 5/5.
For FPS gaming it gets 4.5/5. While there's nothing wrong with the shape for FPS gaming, there's other mice which are easier to lift if you are a low sensitivity gamer.
As for looks, it follows in the footsteps of Logitech's recent products like the Logitech g810 and the Logitech g610 gaming keyboard. With the lights turned off, it wouldn't look out of place at work. With lights turned on it's just beautiful. I'm really loving the minimalistic and simple design of this mouse. That said, the g303 does gets more attention and stands out more because of the shape and honeycomb design. Here's a few pictures to show how they look compared to eachother with lights on. There's plenty more down in the gallery.
I've recorded two videos showing how beautiful the Logitech Pro Gaming looks with the different lightning modes. This video shows the different lightning modes
This one is recorded in a little dimmer light just showing my favourite lightning mode, the color cycle.
Showing some of the different cables from 4 different mice in this order. Logitech Pro Gaming, Logitech g303, Logitech g100s, Ninox Aurora
Scroll wheel, buttons and build quality
Scroll wheel
The scroll wheel have a very similar feeling to the one in the g303 in terms of the feedback you get when scrolling, which makes it one of the best scroll wheels out there. It's very quiet and the scrolling feels very smooth. The tactile feedback is very light but easily felt. Both the g300 and the Pro gaming have the best scroll wheels of the mice I currently own. The only scroll wheel I like more comes from another Logitech product, the G502. The big metallic scroll wheel with a great amount of tactile feedback and the option for hyperscrolling just feel amazing. All Logitech scroll wheels just come with one drawback. They require a lot of force to press, and while it stops you from accidently pressing the scroll wheel button I feel the force required to actuate the button is too much.
Mouse 1 and Mouse 2 button
Both of the main mouse buttons are separated from the shell itself which is already a good start. In my experience the buttons on mice where the shell and mouse buttons are not separated are much more likely to break, and much more likely to have an inconsistent feedback depending on where you press with your finger, and they are also in most cases much harder to press like seen in ZOWIE or Mionix mice. Comparing some of my gaming mice I would rank them in the following order by pressure required to actuate the buttons
Cm storm spawn, Logitech g303, Logitech Pro Gaming, Logitech g100s, Mionix castor, cougar 450m, ninox aurora.
In terms of the audible feedback, you can hear it here and judge by yourself.
The g303 have have my favourite mouse buttons of all mice that I have ever tried, and since the pro gamings mouse buttons feel almost identical it, comes in at a close second. They won't feel tiring during mobas or other games where you constantly have to press them, yet you won't accidently press them in fps games either.
Side buttons
The side buttons are great. It's easy to press them when you need to but hard to press them when you don't want to. They have a short travel and a reassuring feedback.
In terms of build quality, I it justifies its price tag. There's no rattle like in the Logitech g303. There's no squeaky or any other kind of noise that shouldn't be there. The mouse is uncoated, so that the coating won't fall off. The main buttons are separated from the shell and have a very consistent feeling throughout the button area so they are unlikely to break. They are omrons rated at at least 20 million clicks so they will last for a long time.
And yes I did say that it's uncoated. Usually having the mouse uncoated is something you don't want because it will be very hard to get a good grip on the mouse like in the case of the Cougar 450m that I own. The Logitech pro gaming is uncoated but made in a different material that both feels very nice, provide a good grip both while having dry and sweaty hands and importantly the coating won't come off.
Sensor Performance
Unsurprisingly the sensor performs extremely well, like every other mouse using the PMW3366 sensor. It easily does 6 m/s + without losing tracking or acting weird. There's no exciting results for The Pro gaming so I think it's more interesting to show the test that did fail. The Pro gaming mouse does well with most surfaces, but some surfaces like the Artisan Hayate will get some less consistent results as seen below
Prediction & Jitter
In terms of prediction, jitter and so on, there's none of it! The sensor truly make the mouse feel like an extension of the hands. You can however turn angle-snapping prediction on in the Logitech Gaming Software if you feel the need to.
Lift off distance
In terms of lift off distance its already very low, but if you want the lowest possible lift off distance you can use the software and use "Surface turning". That will set the lift off distance to very low as well as tuning the sensor to the surface you are using. I found that doing so didn't give any benefits in terms of sensor performance but did lower the lift off distance.
Acceleration test
The sensor unsurprisignly have around 0% acceleration.
Software
I'm using the 8.87.79 version of the Logitech Gaming Software.
The Logitech Pro gaming can do anything that any of the previous mice using the PMW3366 sensor. When you first open the software you have the option to either use the profiles stored on the mouse or use profiles stored on the computer. I always use profiles stored on the Mouse since, I want to have the same settings on any computer that I use the mouse.
On the "Customize on-board profile" you can change the functions of all the mouse buttons. You have the options to have up to 5 different dpi settings, which is more than plenty if you ask me. I like to keep it to 3, the first one at 400 for fps games, second one at 800 for moba games and 1400 for desktop use. You have the options to assign a default dpi value, to have a default value it will use when you first turn on the computer or use the mouse in another computer. You have the option to "Assign shift" which will let you quickly switch dpi levels quickly during a match and then switch back to the dpi level before. This can be useful for fps games where you might want a lower dpi level when using a sniper.
You can change the dpi in increments of 50 from 200dpi to 12000dpi, and you can change the polling rate if you want to. But there's no reason to ever keep it lower than 1000hz unless you are using a very slow computer.
On the "Lightning Settings" page you can choose how you want or don't want your mouse illuminated. There seem to be only one LED in the mouse for lightning effects so if you turn off the Lightning effects for the logo the lights will be completely off. In the lightning effects you have the options to choose between "Color cycle" which cycles through all possible colors the mouse can do, where you can also choose the Brightness and at what rate it cycles through all the colors. The Breathing effect will let you a breathing effect where the lights slowly turns on and off giving the effect of the mouse is "breathing". You can also turn lightning effects off which give you the option to give the mouse a solid color with no effects at all. For some reason when you do that you can't adjust the brightness.
All the light effects look really beautiful with nice and clear colors, helped by the really good print quality of the logo.
At the "Surface tuning" page you can adjust the sensor to your own surface, which in my experience just lowers the lift off distance without any negative effect on the sensor performance. The factory default seems to be working with all surfaces but will give you a higher lift off distance. Logitechs own gaming surfaces are already included and preset so you won't need to self-tune the sensor if you own any of those surfaces.
At the "Input analysis" page you have the option to see a heat map of the buttons you have been pressing, in case you want to know what buttons you are using mostly. You can also see key presses per minute which is actually quite nice in strategy games, but otherwise it's probably not something I will make very much use of.
Conclusion
The Logitech Pro Gaming has solved every shortcomings of both the Logitech g100/g100s and the Logitech g303.
It's easily the best claw/fingertip mouse I've ever used, at any price, period. So what are the cons really? None really, but if I have to be extremely picky then I would list these things
- The scroll wheel button is hard to press.
- The cable could be thinner. But this is a non-issue for me since I'm using a cord holder.
- The Logitech g303 have slightly better feeling mouse 1 and mouse 2 buttons. The g303 buttons feel slightly easier to press and have a more even pressure required throughout the button area. The Pro gaming feels easier to press in the front and harder on the back of buttons.
- While I have no problems lifting the mouse, I do need to add more force to lift it than for example the g303. This could be fixed by adding some rubber material on the side or make the sides steeper. Not sure if the last option would be comfortable though. I wouldn't want this "fixed" in a future version if it meant the mouse would be less comfortable.
Gallery
Link to the full Gallery here
More comparison images with the Logitech G303 here