Logitech G9 Laser Gaming Mouse Review

Logitech G9 Laser Mouse Design
Logitech built the design of their newest gaming mouse around one clever concept: in a world where more and more, customization is the rule, not the exception, why not let users switch the size and feel of their mouse according to their needs? That's fundamental design concept behind the G9 Laser, which features detachable, molded plastic grips that fit on to a small central unit that houses all of the mouse's electronics and buttons. The Logitech G9 Laser comes with two grips: Precision (smaller profile and DryGrip technology that's supposed to keep the mouse surface from getting slippery with sweat) and Wide Load (larger size and a satiny feel), with additional grips available for order online.

The surface of the central unit holds most of the Logitech G9 Laser's seven buttons: the standard left and right buttons in the front, a scroll wheel that also tilts left and right for two additional buttons, and two buttons to change the DPI settings. On the bottom of the mouse, there are two more buttons: one to switch the mouse's saved profiles on the fly, and another to enable and disable the scroll wheel's micro gear option. All of the G9's custom grips include access to two more buttons, mounted on the right side for thumb access in the standard horizontal orientation.

The Logitech G9 Laser claims the crown as one of the world's finest mice for gaming.

Two custom grips: Wide Load on the left, and Precision on the right.

The Logitech G9 Laser also includes a weight box, with eight weights - four 7-gram weights, and four 4-gram weights - that you can fit four at a time into a detachable chamber mounted into the rear of the mouse to add up to 28 grams to the mouse's overall weight. Whether or not you'll need the extra weight is something you'll discover through experimentation, but I found the mouse handled much more effectively loaded up with an additional 25 to 28 grams.

The Logitech G9 compared with the other two corded mice: MS SideWinder Mouse & Razer Lachesis.

Logitech SetPoint Software
SetPoint is Logitech's mouse control software, and gives you access to all of the settings you'll need to program your G9 Laser effectively. The software, which runs from the Windows taskbar, divides things up into up to five profiles listed in a dropdown menu. These profiles are central to another one of Logitech's clever design concepts: they built memory into the G9 Laser that allows you to save five different profiles - complete with button configurations, DPI settings, and macros - to the mouse, so you can use the G9 Laser with other computers and have your settings on hand.

The built-in memory is a cool idea, and it provides a smart solution to any situation where you need more than one button configuration in the same program - just flip over the mouse, and use the profile switch button to change profiles. The Logitech G9 Laser has an LED on the top of the mouse that has bars to indicate DPI level and changes color to indicate profile, so you know which profile you're about to start using. As an added bonus, you can use SetPoint to choose the color for each profile, so you can match your mouse's LEDs to your case when you're gaming.

In addition to the LED color, each profile allows you to program one of a number of functions into almost all of the buttons (including the two DPI buttons), assign applications that can automatically select the profile when launched, chose the number of DPI levels (up to five), set the amount of DPI of those levels (between 200 and 3,200 DPI), set the report rate, and chose the number of lines of vertical and horizontal scrolling. Each option has a short tool tip that explains all of the available options; there's also access to a longer help file for additional information.

SetPoint includes a profile manager for arranging, deleting, and saving your profiles to the mouse's onboard memory, so you can pick and choose the profiles you want to take with you on the road. There's a default, catch all profile that you need to keep saved to the mouse's memory at all times, so the real number of customizable profiles that you can save to memory is four, not five, but the entire process of creating, duplicating, deleting and saving profiles is quick and easy, so you're not wasting gaming time customizing settings. Note that you can create more than the five profiles you can save to the G9's memory.

Finally, SetPoint includes a macro editor where you can create and string together new macros using the mouse and keyboard, or edit existing macros that you've downloaded or created in game. Programming the macros is a fairly intuitive process thanks to the clear design, but there's a help button that will take you right to an article on editing macros if you get lost.

Logitech G9 Laser as a Gaming Mouse
I put the G9 Laser's gaming abilities to the test through a week of testing using two games - Call of Duty 2 and Battlefield 2142 (with the Northern Strike expansion) - that have one big thing in common: they're both highly regarded multi-player first person shooters from the past couple of years; games where the extra features granted by a gaming mouse can mean a competitive advantage and a higher score. To start, I added profiles to SetPoint for both games, and enabled Application Detection so that SetPoint would switch to the right profile automatically when I launched each game. I also split time between the two custom grips to get a good sense of how each grip felt while gaming.

Both custom grips feature two horizontally oriented thumb buttons.

I've made extensive use of Logitech's G5 mouse in the past, and the first thing I noticed about the G9 Laser is that Logitech has significantly improved their tilting scroll wheel design; while the G5's scroll wheel button was never very easy to push because the wheel tilted too easily, the G9 Laser's scroll wheel is just the right height so the center button is still easy to use without interfering with the tilting. All of the Logitech G9 Laser's buttons were very easy to use, and the mouse's seven button configuration made it easy to find and make the button assignments I needed to have the most efficient gaming experience possible. The G9 Laser's macro editor was a straightforward experience, and in the process of taking the time to record and edit two macros that reduced complicated processes in Battlefield 2142 down to the click of a button, I found myself intrigued enough by macro editing to find other tasks I could simplify down to the click of a button.

I found both of the Logitech G9 Laser's customized grips to be comfortable to use over long periods of time, with plenty of wrist support and an ergonomic gripping surface. Users with smaller hands will definitely prefer the Precision grip, but after a week of testing I'm happy to report I found both grips to be equally effective in the online arena. The G9 Laser's 3,200 DPI sensor gives you the level of sensitivity needed for equal quicker movements across the screen, which can become critical when game physics slow certain objects - like tank turrets - down with almost fatally slow turn ratios, and I found I was able to use the Logitech G9 Laser to keep up with onscreen objects I could not track as well with other mice.

The Logitech G9 Laser's custom grips are both comfortable to use over long sessions.

Three things bothered me about the Logitech G9 Laser as a gaming mouse: first, while the placement of the DPI buttons - in a horizontal line below the left mouse button - makes them easier to access with the index finger than the vertical placement on the G5 mouse, it's difficult to tell the current DPI setting unless you look at the mouse, which means looking away from the screen. Some sort of tactile difference between settings would make for a better design. Second, enabling Application Detection disables the Profile button, so if you want to use two different profiles in the same application, you'll need to disable Application Detection and use the Profile button every time you launch. Third, Logitech built the Profile button into the bottom of the mouse, which makes it difficult to access every time you want to change your profile.

Additional Features of the Logitech G9 Laser
The G9 Laser includes a button that activates and deactivates what Logitech calls the MicroGear, which works with the scroll wheel. Turn it on, and the wheel acts like a standard wheel with individual clicks that's perfect for line-by-line scrolling. Turn it off, and the wheel becomes friction-free for scrolling through multi-page documents quickly and easily. The MicroGear is a great idea - turning it off really does make scrolling through long web pages much quicker - but because Logitech mounted the button on the bottom of the mouse, it's not particularly convenient. I would prefer a button on the top of the mouse for easier access.

Recap
With a few exceptions, the Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse runs from strength to strength. From the customized grips to the number of buttons, from the 3,200 DPI depth of the laser to the custom profiles, from the LED display to the onboard memory, the G9 Laser redefines the standard for gaming mice, and does so with innovative ideas that make it a lot of fun to use. The G9 Laser's flaws are few in number, and Logitech could fix one of them - the limitation on using the Profile button after enabling Application Detection in SetPoint - with a free firmware update. The Logitech G9 Laser is my new favorite gaming mouse, and highly recommended.