Why You Can Trust CNET Logitech G500 review: Logitech G500
If you loved the G5, you'll continue loving the G500, the natural evolution of Logitech's classic gaming mouse. Though Microsoft brings stiff competition in the form of the SideWinder X8, which may be more appealing to some.
It's no small secret we're fans of Logitech's G5, and so it was with alarm that we noticed stock dwindling, and with trepidation that we heard of a successor. Thankfully, there's nothing to fear — unless you're a lefty, in which case you've once again been left out in the cold.
Logitech G500
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
At first glance the Logitech G500 retains a near identical form factor to the G5, and for the most part feels almost the same. The thumb rest has been flanged out slightly more, and more smoothly becomes part of the base. The laser has moved from mid body higher towards the front, the textured black surface feels a little more grippy, the scroll wheel has been updated and a few other buttons and minor tweaks have crept in. Still, if your G5 is on its last legs, this is a near perfect swap-in: it even retains the little custom weight cachet underneath the mouse should you wish to add a little more heft to your movement.
A few things have been shifted around — the on-the-fly DPI switching buttons are now along the left edge of the mouse, which after a period of adjustment, is better than the previous solution of placing them under the scroll wheel. Instead, you'll find a single button there that switches the scroll wheel between detents and spinning freely — and spin freely it does, a not particularly ambitious flick of the finger can send it spinning for around 12 seconds. In fact, it's perfectly easy to spin the wheel fast enough to freak out your system with too much input, causing it to beep repeatedly in complaint. Fortunately, in reality you should never have to spin this much.
The back and forward buttons on the lip of the thumb rest have been redesigned again, and it's possible to determine only by touch which is which. They still don't quite hit the mark for comfort though — Microsoft has offered the best version of this with its SideWinder X8, and we've yet to see it matched.
All of the redesigned elements, G5 2007 refresh vs. G500. (Credit: Logitech)
Underneath these buttons is another, which by default is assigned the charming moniker of "Generic Button" — what we'd usually assume would be assigned as execute macro. Thankfully it can be assigned as this, or indeed almost anything, as Logitech's SetPoint software allows a high level of configurability for pretty much every button.
As is all the rage these days, it stores all the settings in profiles, of which you can keep several, but can only store one on the mouse itself. These can either be switched to manually, or when a specific application is launched, allowing you to create a custom config per application if you like.
DPI settings can go up to 5700 (although it should be pointed out this is the same laser as the G9x, not Logitech's new "Darkfield" technology), with the ability to set the sensitivity on the X and Y axis separately. You can turn angle snapping on or off (which attempts to figure out if you're moving a mouse in a straight line, and compensates by "snapping" the movement to that straight line), adjust the USB polling rate up to 1000Hz, and adjust vertical and horizontal scrolling speed.
The on-the-fly DPI settings can be customised for each point, and unlike the G5's three built in settings from slowest to fastest, the G500 can be customised to have anywhere from one to five settings available. While there's only three stacked indicator lights on the mouse itself representing the DPI level, it still does well at highlighting what level it's been switched to. At the lowest setting, only the bottom light is lit, the second the bottom two, at the third all three, the fourth the top two, at fifth only the top one.
The rest of SetPoint is great, but the macro editor needs an overhaul. (Credit: CBS Interactive)
The macro editor sadly leaves much to be desired, and isn't as nice as Microsoft's. It does record up and down strokes of keys and mouse buttons, and can measure delay too. Sadly it falls down in the editing stakes — apart from delay, you can't just edit individual instances in the editor if you get something wrong. You have to right-click on where you want the change, then record again. We'd much prefer the option to be able to double click an entry and just change it.
On top of this if you record a macro but choose not to record delays, you can't insert delays after the fact. This means you can't create a macro and then insert a single delay at a critical point — you have to create the whole macro with delays, delete all the unwanted delays, and then insert the single intended delay.
If you loved the G5, you'll continue loving the G500. The landscape has changed a bit though since the original, and Microsoft now provides stiff competition in the form of the SideWinder X8, especially with the wireless capability, Bluetrack tech and superior macro editor. We'd suggest seeing which one best fits your hand, and going from there.