Today Logitech has announced what it calls its "best gaming mouse yet", the Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum (warning: site content brought Firefox to its knees). The G900 is Logitech's flagship gaming mouse, with a price to match those aspirations, at $149.99, €179, £134.99. Let's have a look at what kind of rodent you get for such an outlay.
With the new G900 Chaos Spectrum gaming mouse Logitech promises 'professional grade performance'. Many gamers prefer wired mice for the certainty of connection, speed and latency. While Logitech says the equipped wireless technology offers a report rate of 1000Hz (1ms), equal to its wired USB connection, users have the choice of whether to actually go wireless or plug into and tether up the mouse's USB 2.0 port (6ft cable supplied). Another spec claimed to directly influence the responsiveness of this rodent is the 32-bit ARM microprocessor upon which it is based.
The sensor equipped in the G900 is the Pixart PMW3366 optical sensor. Logitech asserts that this is "widely regarded as the best gaming mouse sensor on the market". Within its DPI range of 200 to 12,000 the PMW3366 will apply no smoothing, filtering or acceleration – just provide accurate tracking and responsiveness. The max acceleration is 40G with a max tracking speed of over 300ips (using a Logitech G240 Gaming Mouse Pad).
Logitech has designed the G900 main mouse buttons with its own mechanical pivot button hinges. The left and right buttons use Omron switches, which combined with the tensioned spring hinge mechanism provides satisfying and distinct actuation feedback. Click pressure has been tuned to allow minimal force to be used with a very fast click recovery. In all there are 11 programmable buttons installed in the G200 including the one in the wheel. That provides plenty of scope for command and macro storage and retrieval.
Looking closer at the ambidextrous design, this mouse isn't exactly an ambidextrous object out of the box but the mouse can be transformed either way with its included magnetic button covers. The shape is said to work well with a variety of palm, claw and fingertip holds. As mentioned in the subheading for this story, the mouse weighs just 107g – which is impressive for a wireless example, usually weighted down by rechargeable batteries. On the topic of batteries, this mouse can go untethered, and without charging, for 24 hours with default lighting or 32 hours with lighting off. A full charge from empty takes two hours.
With RGB in its name, this flagship gaming mouse doesn't hold back on the lighting options. It offers 16.8 million colours with a variety of lighting patterns, all of which can be simply customised in the LGS software suite.
The Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum is expected to be available in Europe from April. The MSRP has been set at $149.99, €179, £134.99. It is available to pre-order right now direct, with free shipping in that price. Buyers get a two year warranty.
