Well whilst I'm studying I thought i'd reward myself with some new hardware. I figured my 3-year old Logitech dual-optical mouse was due for a replacement, so I went searching hardware sites for the latest and greatest in mouse tech. Seems that the Logitech G5 is the mouse of choice for most people, despite it being on the market for almost a year now.
I let my fingers do the walking and found that Landmark Computers, a relatively decent shop, was selling it for $99 AUD. There were a few online sites selling for about $80 but they didn't quite establish my trust. I also wanted it asap and didn't fancy waiting the 3-4 days for shipping, not to mention it was the weekend!
However it turned out that Landmark didn't have any stock. So i rang around only to find out that most places didn't stock the G5, probably due to the price. Eventually found out that Harvey Norman stocked it, would price match the Landmark price, and were open till 5pm. Sweetness! Whilst I was there, I also picked up a supposedly 'flat and quiet Logitech' keyboard for $40 bux. A regretful purchase which I may return, as the tactility of the keys is lacking.
Anyhoo, I got home and unpacked the mouse. This is the back of the box, which pretty much summarises the main features:
It's safe to say that this is the fanciest mouse I've ever owned. The mouse is capable of a maximum 2000dpi resolution, thanks to it's new laser technology (as opposed to optical LED). This is the main reason for my purchase, as I am forever battling the inferior tracking ability of optical mice. My old mouse would just randomly move to the corner or some other random place on the screen, and was just plain annoying. Interestingly, it does away with the red beam of optical mice as well.
Now 2000 DPI is a lot by anyone's standard. Well-informed geeks out there will know that the more DPI you have, the less you have to move the mouse. This translates to insane sensitivity. So now Logitech gives the user the ability to switch the sensitivity on-the-fly from 400 to 800 to 2000dpi, all without any driver software installation. That's where the two buttons below the scroll wheel and the little running man display come into play. Plug-in and go!
The other bragging-rights feature is the adjustable weight cartridge. Basically, they give you this orange plastic cartridge which can hold 8 different weights, thus allowing a plethora of adjustability. You then insert this cartridge into the base of the mouse to give a totally different feel.
The other handy feature is the scroll wheel. In addition to the normal back and forth scrolling, this one can also scroll sideways (left-right). This is where my main gripe with the mouse is - the scroll wheel also acts as the 'middle-button' click by pressing 'down' on the wheel. This is very hard to press accurately, and often results in side-scrolling instead.
The solution? Bind the left and right scroll functions to middle-click as well. It actually makes middle-clicking infinitely easier, especially when opening multiple-tabs in Firefox or IE7. The relative in-frequent use of the side-scroll function makes this a worthwhile trade-off.
All-in-all, if you've got $90 odd dollars burning a hole in your pocket, you can't go wrong with the G5 =)
Now can anyone recommend a decent but quiet keyboard???
