GGL Wire

I wasn’t initially aware of the Logitech G9’s existence until GGL user lunkhead (fill out your profile, slacker!) dropped me a note about reviewing the mouse. A few e-mails later, I had the G9 in my grubby palms. Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect from this mouse, which is the best way to be going into a review.

The test system:
AMD 64 4000+
Asus A8N-E Motherboard
GEForce 7800GT
2GB RAM

Packaging/Unboxing

Packaging is irrelevant, but we generally include a picture just to get things going. It doesn’t affect the score or anything. Feast your eyes on this baby:

The Shape and Feel

The G9 is unique among gaming mice in that the shell can easily be swapped out. You really have three options here: the smooth shell, the rough shell, and using it naked.

The smooth shell features a rubberized plastic that that is fairly non-slip, and a small protrusion that sits under your thumb. The rough shell, meanwhile, has a slightly pebbled surface and no exaggerated thumb grip. The naked mouse is the most symmetrical of all, and doesn’t feature the high back of any of the shells. It’s still asymmetrical, though — it’s slightly raised on the left side.

 

On the underside, we find a very large amount of polytetrafluoroethelyne (teflon for you noobs), stuck to the mouse. The smooth shell also has a smaller teflon strip under its thumbgrip, while the rough shell has no additional teflon.

When using the shells, the G9 resembles an inverted Wingman Gaming Mouse. Instead of being narrow at the bottom like the Wingman, it’s wider at the bottom than it is at the top.

Overall, I’d say that the shells are best for using the G9 in a palm grip. Naked, it’s best to use a finger grip.

Dimensions and weights (sans cord and additional weights)

Naked G9 = 4×2x1.5 in (10.16×5.08×3.81 cm) Height at highest point: left side.
Smooth Shell G9 = 4×3x1.5 in (10.16×7.62×3.81 cm) Width includes thumb grip, height at highest point: back hump.
Rough shell G9 4×2.75×1.5 in (10.16×6.9×3.81 cm) Height at highest point: back hump.

Naked weight = 3 oz./85g
Smooth weight = 4 oz. / 113g
Rough weight = 4 oz. / 113g

Buttons

The G9 sports five buttons and a rocker switch to change DPI (we’ll get to that later). None of the buttons are on a hair trigger, and the wheel does tilt. I’m not and never have been a big fan of tilt wheels, as they can lead to missed or difficult clicks in game.

The side buttons are satisfyingly solid; you won’t be hitting them accidentally, that’s for certain. The same goes for the DPI switcher, as your fingertip shouldn’t come anywhere near it while holding the mouse.

Drivers

The G9 is all about customizability, and the drivers are no different. You’ll have to download SetPoint 5.0 to set up the G9 and any profiles you may want, but after it’s set up the way you like, you can take the mouse to any PC and just plug it in and go.

The drivers let you change everything from X-Y sensitivity and DPI to the actual color of the running man LED. There are a lot of different colors/shades to choose from, including pink (you guys who use the pink rail trail in Quake 3 might be interested)!

I’ve confirmed that you can set up the DPI levels on a driver-equipped PC and then take the mouse to a random PC and switch through them. You can go all the way up to 3200 DPI on the G9, which is somewhat useless (it’s far too fast) but I suppose it’s a selling point.

Courage Under Fire

Ah yes, the meat and potatoes of the review. Let’s just be very clear on a few things. First, I try my best to be objective when writing this portion. Second, it is impossible for me to be 100% objective about any mouse I am using. My own preferences color the review. Any opinions I offer will be clearly marked.

The first thing I noticed about the G9 is that the shells felt a bit uncomfortable to me. This is because I prefer to use a finger-style grip with the palm off the mouse. The back end of both shells forces the mouse into your hand, so it’s hard to use a finger grip. Some people will hate it; others will love it.

The differences between the shells come primarily via positioning of the thumb. With the smooth shell, your thumb rests entirely on the mouse. It’ll never touch the mousepad. Again, this is good for palm-style users who use their entire arms to move the mouse. The rough shell allows some leeway in that regard, as you can drag the left side of your thumb across the mousepad if you so choose.

In my opinion, however, the best use of the mouse is with no shell at all. It’s slim, short, and very easy to manipulate with no shell. Sure, it looks a bit naked, with frankenstein electrodes sticking out of the back (just kidding, they’re to hold the shells on and don’t get in the way), but it’s really quite a dream to use. You can still hit the side buttons in this configuration; they’re just smaller.

With regards to the sensor position, it is off-center. Some people had serious reservations about the mouse due to this, but, again, it all comes down to how you hold the mouse. If you hold it with the front end pointing straight away from you, it won’t be a problem. If you hold it slightly angled, you’re going to have some issues moving the cursor straight up and down. If you use the shells, it probably won’t be a problem as it’s hard to hold the mouse at an angle. Using the naked G9 is when it really comes into play. For what it’s worth, I didn’t find it to be a major issue, and I did put some major playing time into the mouse.

At very low sensitivities, the mouse will skip if moved quickly. When I say very low sensitivities, I mean low in-game sensitivity, perhaps combined with a low DPI setting. I did not measure this out or do the McFly test, because, frankly, I think it’s overkill. A scientific measurement is best left to Sujoy Roy’s disc-spinning contraption. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you absolutely must use a very low sensitivity, stick to an older mouse. Most laser mice can’t keep up and aren’t made for that kind of crazy swiping.

It’s worth saying that the middle button is tough to use in games thanks to the tilt-wheel. Why this was included is beyond me, but it’s hard to hit when real human players are trying to kill you. The wheel button doesn’t have much travel, and is almost too hard to press down in my experience. The wheel itself can be switched from clear, defined notches (detents) to free-scrolling (one flick makes it scroll forever) with the press of a button.

The weights can add a nice touch to the mouse, with a maximum of 28g available or any mix of four 7g and 4g weights you wish to muster. Using the naked G9, some weights might be handy as a smaller mouse can get hard to control in pinpoint situations.

Outside of the nuts and bolts, the mouse performed admirably in the games I tested (Quake 3, Counter-Strike: Source and World of Warcraft, though this can literally be played with no mouse).

Conclusion

The G9’s announcement was met with much trepidation and scorn thanks to its unconventional shape and cost. At $100, it’s not going to be cheap, but you do get a huge amount of customizing options for the money. The weights, grips, and drivers are worth the price of entry. It’s basically a tuner mouse, as ridiculous as that may sound to some of you.

Those of you who like vanilla, simple mice can safely stay away from the G9. If you want to tweak the weight of your mouse, set five different DPI levels, change out the shells, etc. it’s a good buy. It’s also good for players that travel often because drivers aren’t necessary once it’s set up.