Like many competitive Counter-Strike players from the 1.6 era, I have a history with Logitech mice. And I still remember the exact time and place when I swore I stopped using them: it was in the middle of a tournament, during a crucial round. The mouse decided to fail on me, doing 360 degree spins in the air instead of shooting the one guy that would have won the match for my team.
I raged, then and there, and it’s been almost a decade since I’ve used Logitech mice. Fortunately, I’ve returned to the fold at a good time: barring a couple of quirks, the Logitech G Pro Gaming Mouse is a fantastic, lightweight option for your fragging needs.
What Is It?
Released internationally last year and finally having made its way to Australian shores, the Logitech G Pro Gaming Mouse is effectively a modern reboot of a classic Logitech design. It’s reminiscent of the original Optical Wheel Mouse and more recently the G100 or G100S, featuring a small oval shape that’s suited to fingertip or claw grips.
Available locally from $79, the G Pro has a Pixart 3366 optical sensor with minimum and maximum DPIs of 200-12,000. The shell weighs 83g without the cable, and there are six buttons in total: two main ones up the front, the mouse wheel, a button underneath that which defaults as the DPI rate switcher, and two side buttons. As for the size of the shell, you’re looking at 116.6 x 62.15 x 38.2mm (h/w/d).
Like Logitech’s recent peripherals, the G Pro also supports the Logitech Gaming Software. It’s a suite that controls the RGB lighting on the logo of the mouse and an outer strip, while also controlling custom binds for the mice, the polling rate, and even calibration for different mouse pads.
The main characteristics are physical, though. The sides of the G Pro have a slightly textured surface, and the mouse buttons are fairly sensitive to the touch. The side buttons and mouse wheel are much stiffer, especially if you’re trying to use the mouse wheel as a third button. The G Pro’s cable is also braided, and the underside of the mouse has five separate mouse feet (four on the corners and a small ring around the sensor).
What’s It Good At?
Logitech has had plenty of hits and misses over the years, and part of that journey has resulted in them receiving a lot of feedback – some of it brutal. The company has taken that on board, however, and the G Pro mouse really is an exemplary piece of kit.
Most mice live or die by the quality of their sensor, and the 3366 is one of the best on the market today. There’s no in-built smoothing, making it perfect for gamers who prefer low sensitivities and low DPI settings (particularly in games like Counter-Strike.
The simple construction makes it great for gamers with smaller hands or, as an example, players who tend to prefer smaller, lighter mice that can be whipped around a lot more easily. Fans of Age of Empires or StarCraft will also appreciate the lightness of the clicks, given the amount of actions per minute those games can demand at high levels of play. Fans of shooters can get something out of the G Pro mouse as well; the lighter clicks can result in slightly faster reactions, although gamers with slightly less steady hands might prefer a larger mouse that requires more force to move around.
The Logitech software suite isn’t too bad either. It’s not as gaudy or insistent as Razer’s tools, and the onboard memory saves your settings just fine if you use your mouse on a new PC without the software.
What’s It Not Good At?
There isn’t too much to fault, but I would have liked to try a prototype of the G Pro Mouse with side buttons that were embedded in the shell of the mice more. Zowie’s mice are quite good at that, although their side buttons are lighter and consequently much easier to hit. But the consequence of Logitech’s design here is that you often use the side buttons as a ridge for your thumb. That’s not a bad idea, and it’s not uncomfortable – but to support that, the side buttons have to be stiffer than most mice. They’re not as rigid as pushing in the mouse wheel, however, which takes a surprising amount of force.
Packaging for the G Pro line is fairly minimal, and there’s not much that comes in the box. I would have liked to see an extra set of mouse feet, especially since the G Pro’s offerings are quite small. The feet also don’t glide as well as what you’d find on other gaming mice, and grabbing a spare set of Hyperglide skates goes a long way.
One technical problem: after calibrating the G Pro to my mouse pad using the tools in the Logitech software, the mouse began to behave a little erratically. Going back to default settings, however, corrected any issues I had.
Should You Buy It?
The software also has monitoring tools that can track how often you click each button and for how long, although it’s largely superfluous
It’s tricky to recommend mice because the experience varies so much from person to person. Your hands might be larger than mine. You might prefer a palm grip instead of a claw grip. You might want more than six buttons, or a non-ambidextrous shape. There’s a lot of personal preference involved.
Take a look at the mice you use on a day to day basis. How much space in your hand does it take up? How high does it rest in your palm? Do you like the shape? Where do your fingers rest most of the time?
You need to answer those questions for yourself. For me, the G Pro Gaming Mouse is the mouse I wish I had almost ten years ago. The sensor is great, the light texturing on the shell feels good to hold in the heat and the cold, the software isn’t a pain in the arse and the RGB lighting is nice, but not overstated.
It’s not perfect, but it’s very, very bloody good. As long as you don’t mind your mice on the smaller side, the G Pro is a solid choice.
Comments
18 responses to “Logitech G Pro Gaming Mouse: A Little Beauty”
Logitech stuff has never failed me honestly, been using it for 20+ years. They are my preferred brand when it comes to peripherals. I type this on a logitech mechanical keyboard while using a logitech gaming mouse, a logitech webcam, and a logitech 2.1 speaker system.
That’s interesting to hear, I know my friends and I have the opposite experience. Every Logitech product I’ve ever had fell apart or otherwise failed much quicker than any similar product from other brands I’ve used. Four mice, one keyboard, one steering wheel, two joysticks and a gamepad, over the years.
I’ve since switched to a Ducky keyboard, Roccat mouse, no steering wheel, Thrustmaster joystick and standard Microsoft X360 controller. Every one of them has lasted twice as long so far as the Logitech ones I had.
I stopped buying Logitech about five years ago because of all the problems. I wonder what experiences others have and whether they’ve picked up their game in recent years. Probably not enough to bring me back to them but I’m curious to see anyway.
They’ve improved markedly over the last few years. Their 2.1/5.1 speakers have always been an affordable low-end option, though.
I don’t think I ever had Logitech speakers so I can’t compare, my low-end sets have usually been from Creative.
Logitech all the way here. Got the blue G15 keyboard when it came out, and because of it I got the orange G15 as soon as it came out – It died over xmas on me, but I got 10 years out of it. Now have the G910 Orion – Took a bit to get used to, but I like it. Plenty of time to fail on me though
Used to run the original Microsoft laser mouse for a long time, until I got a Logitech …something… (Won it – Wireless, had a dock, slight orange color on the top*) wasn’t bad, but I didn’t like the slight delay in the wireless, so went to the MX518. Used it for a long time before getting a Cyber Snipa Stinger. Stinger died on me after less than a year, so tried out a Razor Naga – Had to keep cleaning the laser underneath twice a day, otherwise it would stop responding and kill me in-game, so recently ditched it and got a G502 – I can’t fault it
Also have the Logitech G633 headset – I like it, getting used to it. The mic is absolute trash on it, but I have a Rode NT-USB mic anyways.
Never used logitech game controllers, so can’t comment. for gaming, the above logi KB and mouse, or if I use a gamepad, I have a XBox controller. For flight games though, I’ve always run Saitek (Which from what I understand, will soon be Logitech as well anyways) – Started with a Cyborg 3d, then a FLY 5, and now an X52 Pro. I’ve been lucky and never had an issue with them
Also have the Logitech G13 keypad thing. It’s been going for a long time too (I have it between my joystick and throttle for custom commands in game)
* Remembered: Was the MX700 which was wireless and I didn’t like. The orange mouse was the G5, which I got after the MX518
I had a G35 headset which wore out pretty quickly and just decided to fall apart one day, poor build quality in the hinges I think as I look after my stuff very well. The harmony remote I bought recently has a few bugs trying to sync my profile. Other than those issues, Logitech have been pretty good. Old MX510 mouse was amazing. Force feedback Steering wheel is still good after a few years as well, although the motor smells likes it working pretty hard after a long session. In recent years I’ve switched to steelseries for M & K, but Logi are my second choice.
I find this fascinating because everyone I know agrees with me that Logitech generally make the best peripherals if you want them to last.
Your experience does however mirror mine and my friends experiences with Razer products. I guess it just comes down to luck on the part of the buyer.
FWIW though, I bought all of my previous logitech gear about 10-15 years ago and haven’t needed to replace until this past year so the quality may have slipped and then come back up.
I like the mice and keyboards, but have had problems with their other peripherals and the software… oh god the software…
Currently I’m using a steelseries Sensei mouse because I was wanting an ambidextrous style mouse (I’m a leftie) and the logitech ones were either underwhelming or righties only. I actually used the MX518 for ages as a leftie, even though it’s technically a rightie mouse. But they stopped making them and the replacements weren’t quite right.
Had a G15 keyboard that was superb, but sadly it got old and started having problems. Currently on a G910 keyboard and it’s pretty nice. Mechanical with custom logitech switches instead of the cherry ones that every other keyboard uses.
Had Logitech gaming headphones and they caused no end of problems. For a little while they worked fine then I started getting weird glitches in the mouse or keyboard. Or the headphones would lose connection then reconnect and lagout my PC for about 10 minutes while they cycled back and forth between connected and disconnected. In the end I dumped the Logitech headphones and all the problems went away.
The software was a mess initially with problems installing, failing to detect hardware, detecting the wrong hardware, failing to update and so on. But for the last couple years it’s been pretty solid. I do kinda wish they’d provide two sets though – the full download with LGS and a cutdown one that is optimised drivers only.
And I will never go back to a Razer mouse again. I only bought one because the Naga had the buttons I needed to play WoW and my Logitech G9 had finally died (and by dying I mean one of the thumb buttons stopped working, everything else was still fine) after what would have 5-6 years of service. Naga went dead entirely in a little over a year. Went straight back to Logitech. My brother owns one of the older g500’s that I chose and that thing is similarly closing in on probably 4-5 years now.
I’m no fan of Razer either, for a few reasons. I never had one long enough to know how their build quality was though.
Your experience with the Razer sounds like my experience with two G9x mice though. Both had scroll wheel problems pretty early in their life, one eventually had to be replaced because of a collapsed thumb button and the other because the left mouse button stopped responding.
I just replaced, yesterday actually, a Logitech mouse that lasted less than a year before the right click started doing whatever it wanted… Made playing games really interesting as you can imagine.
Mouse before that was also a Logitech that developed a connectivity issue that basically acted as if it was unplugging itself randomly as far as any computer was concerned.
The only solid Logitech product I’ve had was my MX518 mouse, and fuck do I wish they still produced them. I want the 518 back, not something similar nor a so-called ‘alternative’.
I was beginning to think my group were the only ones who had issues, after the other replies here.
I’ve loved Logitech for a long time and they’ve proven to be tough as nails for my needs. It started with the MX510 mouse which lasted me until around 2014 maybe, so that’s a good 10 years worth. It still works, but has an occasional double click with a single click issue with the left mouse button. I’ve tried several mice to replace it, but didn’t find anything until they released the G400s. Pretty similar in form and features to the MX510. I’m also still using my G15v2 Keyboard from 2007. Hasn’t skipped a beat and the LCD screen makes for a great resource monitor. 🙂
bring back the G9X
Shout out to the G9X. I bought a second one and kept it sealed for years waiting until my original stopped working. It never stopped working, but I built a new computer so I opened the new one.
I loved that thing. It was so simple and elegant yet had all the required components to be a good long session gaming mouse. The weights, the custom grip plates. Revolutionary!
Look, we all know it wasn’t the mouses fault.
Man, you should have been there. It was some oldschool Ventrilo-level rage. And of all the people, it was bloody Miles who ran past looking the other way.
Fortunately, we still drew the game (was vs iM back in the day) but I did not forgive Logitech mice for a veryyyyyyyyyyy long time.