Review of the Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse

Do you love first person shooters? Have you ever owned a corded mouse and in the heat of battle suddenly found your aim being dragged off target because the cord was hooked on something? I'll bet you died. I've been there. What about those times when the mouse buttons just seemed to stop working and you open it up and there's a dent in the button switch? I've been there too.

Imagine what it would be like to have a cordless mouse that never lags, can switch speed with the push of a button, has two rechargeable batteries so you never have to stop gaming, works on any surface (including your pants), still works after a year of hard-core playing and glides like it's on ice.

Stop imagining because that mouse exists and it's called the Logitech G7 laser cordless mouse and I'm here to tell you this mouse will last through the punishment you'll dish out.

The first thing you'll probably notice when using it is the lack of a cord. As I said, often, when playing in situations with a lot of action, you'll find a corded mouse getting caught on some object or another and it will mess up your aim. With this mouse, that's never a problem.

You might then notice the weight which is quite hefty compared to the cheap mice. It feels like a quality product. The weight lends itself well to the movements you'll need to make yet it's not so heavy as to be straining or stressful.

Finally, you'll notice, in awe and wonder if you've never had a quality mouse, that when you push the mouse it simply slides across the surface. It glides like it's on ice even on a rough desk surface. I can only imagine what it would be like on a premium gaming mouse pad.

The G7 comes with two batteries, a charger and a USB dongle. The charger takes up a bit of space on the desktop but is necessary for quickly swapping batteries. Two batteries means one is always in the charger and on boost mode the battery is always charged in time for the next swap. Swapping the batteries is simply a matter of hitting a button on the bottom of the mouse, another button on the charger and switching them around. I've done this in the middle of firefights and it is quick and effortless. You'll know when your battery is almost empty because there's an indicator light located on the mouse. Many times the change of the light caught my eye just in time to switch the battery.

The USB dongle strikes me as an interesting feature, one I've only had a reason to explore recently. Normally, the dongle is fit into the charger and the charger is plugged into a USB port on your computer. However, if you only need your mouse for a few hours in another room, you don't need to take the charger. Just pop out the USB dongle from the charger and plug it into any other computer. The mouse connects in seconds and you are all set.

Have you played a game in which some vehicles or parts of the game controlled slower or faster than others? Sniping, the ground defense cannons in Battlefield 2142 or other similar situations? A feature which is of more limited use but still interesting is the ability to change the speed at which the mouse moves. There's some technical stuff going on here which is beyond me, what matters is what happens on the screen and in the game. With the push of a button near the mouse wheel, you can dial the mouse speed down or up. If you dial it up, your crosshairs will move much more quickly on the screen. Dial it down and it'll be slower.

The downsides to the G7 are few but it does have them. It's definitely a right-handed mouse. The only extra button (four buttons in total) is on the left side near the thumb. The mouse wheel is a typical mouse wheel, something I wish someone would come up with a better implementation of. In the heat of battle it's simply too awkward to hit that wheel by feel. The mouse can get slippery when you first get it. It was like that for a month or two but I haven't noticed it since.

Now the most important part. How does the mouse hold up after a year of abuse? Extremely well. I'm not talking about a year of a couple point and click adventures one or two hours a day. No, I'm talking hard-core running and gunning in excess of 10 hours per day in games like Half-life 2, Battlefield 2142, Counter-Strike and so on.

The batteries have never given me a single problem yet. The mouse still slides with the simplest touch. I've never had a single hiccup during a game.

I've used this mouse for a marathon of 30 hours of Counter-Strike: Source gungame mod over the course of three days. If you've played this mod, you know that much of the time is spent single clicking over and over again on the pistol rounds. I was finally forced to stop playing when my finger gave out, I was in pain for a few days but my G7 never had a problem. The buttons are still as fresh as day one.

I can't imagine a better mouse.

One final note, the biggest downside of this mouse is the price. Logitech(www.logitech.com) lists it at almost $100. I bought mine for $70 a year ago and it seems to still be holding around that price. I can easily imagine spending $20 a mouse three times in the duration I've had this one, normal mice just don't last long and you won't get anything near the quality of the G7.

I recommend this mouse to anyone who loves gaming as much as I do.