Logitech have been around for as long as everyone can remember. Founded in Switzerland, they now are present in most countries with their own manufacturing facilities in Asia. Their name became synonymous with reliability and quality throughout the years. They originated as an OEM company and rapidly evolved, although the OEM sector is still an important part of the company, providing more than 10% of their total sales currently. They produce almost every peripheral there is for PCs, ranging from keyboards and mice to headsets and gamepads. Today we will have a look at the latest, most technologically advanced corded mouse Logitech ever created, the G5 Laser mouse. Designed specifically for gaming, it is claimed to be more useful than an aimbot in a class gamers’ hand. We are about to find out.

The Logitech’s G5 laser mouse packaging is very well thought out, for being the package of a mouse. The mouse is entirely wrapped in a sealed plastic enclosure, along with all its accessories and bundled items, but also protected by a cardboard box. The cardboard box is open where the mouse is, making it entirely visible and accessible for those that want to try their hands on it, although it still is sealed in plastic. Yet it is sturdy enough and despite the opening where the mouse is, it should provide more than adequate protection against strong bumps. The cardboard box is very well designed, naming the technical specifications and features of the mouse, in 6 languages.

Inside the package, you will find a small metallic box with weights and a weight cartridge. The adjustable weight is one of the prime features of the mouse, and very likely a world’s first. By opening the metallic box, you will find eight 4.5gr weights and eight 1.7gr weights. Given that the weight cartridge can take up to eight weights as well, the weight is adjustable from 1.7gr up to 36gr, in 1.7gr steps. Talk about precision! This way, you can adjust the weight of the mouse to your liking and muscular strength. A lighter mouse will be easier to use, especially for long periods of time. A heavier mouse will be more precise and give a better feeling, but it will tire you much quicker. You can adjust the weight to achieve the perfect balance between those two for your own hand.

Inside the package you will also find a manual, a small products catalogue and a software installation CD. It is quite obvious what the performance catalogue is for, presenting many of Logitech’s products inside it. The small manual provides installation details and support data. Finally, the CD includes the latest SetPoint software, which Logitech is using for all of their latest products. As you will later see, the software supports all or most of Logitech’s input products as well, so it can be quite handy if you use more than one Logitech product.

The G5 Laser mouse looks very much like the older high end mice from Logitech, the MX510, MX518 and MX1000. The mouse has a strange colour as it consists of shades of grey with a shade of brown right at the middle of the mouse, much like burned or rusted metal. The colour sure looks strange, but I do like it personally. The mouse is corded, as you already know, and this is the only mouse I ever saw with a tightly sleeved cord. The cord is considerably harder than a usual USB cable, making it much less likely to get in your way. On top of the G5 there is (beyond the two standard buttons of course) a tilted wheel, which can also scroll sideways, and two buttons which adjust the DPI resolution of the mouse on-the-fly. Even without installing any software, you are given three standard settings, being 400, 800 and 2000 DPI. By changing the resolution you also change the sensitivity of the mouse, which means you are changing its speed. This is not of much use on the desktop as you will only make the cursor move faster or slower, but in games it can be fantastic as you can change from normal action to precise targeting. The on-the-fly DPI change will become the favourite of gamers, especially to those that are playing shooter games, as they can change the mouse speed to adjust to the game; being sprinting around fast, precisely sniping or any other given situation.

There is nothing specifically interesting at the right side of the mouse, no buttons or anything else, rightfully as it probably is way too hard to press a mouse button with your right finger. At the left side, there is a single thumb button, factory assigned to the ‘back’ action. I did not like the omission of the second thumb button, which the older MX series had and was assigned to the ‘forward’ action, as I found these two buttons very convenient myself. The missing second button left me perplexed quite some times while my hand was adjusting to the G5, as the shape of the mouse resembles that of the MX series and I am quite used to having two thumb buttons when using any similar Logitech mouse. Perhaps for gaming, one button will prevent any confusion between the two, but I never confused these two buttons myself.

At the bottom of the mouse, there is the weight cartridge slot, the laser eye and the PTFE feet. The weight cartridge slot is easily accessible and the cartridge is also easily removable by pressing the eject button, which will kick the cartridge out. This is the battery slot of the G7 cordless gaming mouse, as seen in our previous G7 review by Asmoday, the G5 of course does not need a battery and so the slot offers the space for the extra adjustable weight feature. The laser eye of the mouse seems much more advanced than the eye of the first laser mice from Logitech. The older models did not feel as precise as the G5, but also had the issue of reading the surface even when lifting the mouse a little. Even if you did lift the mouse high enough to change its position without moving the cursor, the older mice needed a couple of moments to start working again. As you can guess, this was entirely catastrophic for gaming, as the mouse needs to be lifted and move around fast. This is not an issue for the G5, as it will not work if lifted more than a few mm from the surface, plus it instantly works perfectly when set down to the surface again. The PTFE feet are another feature of the mouse. Unlike most other mice, which have small plastic feet around, the G5 laser mouse has three large PTFE (say with me, polytetrafluoroethylene) feet, which provide better contact with the surface and easier sliding around. They are durable enough and should stay slippery for years.

Finally, on the mouse there is the DPI indicator. As you can imagine, it will show you the DPI setting you are currently using. There are three LED lights for it, although by software you can set up to five DPI modes. In this case, the mouse will turn on two LED lights, the middle and either of the top or bottom LED lights, indicating the mode between the middle and the faster or slower setting you are using. The DPI indicator seems perfectly visible even while using the mouse with my hand all over it, but I am not certain that this will be true for men with larger hands than mine.