Logitech’s G900 Chaos Spectrum is the company’s flagship mouse and its latest and greatest wireless gaming peripheral to date. I say “greatest,” because it simply outclasses every other mouse I’ve used to date—including wired ones.
The G900 costs a pretty penny and sells for $149, but it’s worth the price for what it packs. In terms of technology, the G900 was built from the ground up to offer very low latency. Zero latency is of course impossible, but wireless signals over a short distance travel faster than wired products, and the G900 is optimized every step of the way. When I learned that the mouse itself was designed as a professional grade wireless gaming mouse at the start, I was eager to try it out.
[themify_box style=”light-blue note rounded” ]Technical Specs
Connection Type: Wired/Wireless
USB Protocol: USB 2.0
DPI (Min/Max): 200-12,000
USB Report Rate: 1ms
Sensor: PMW3366
Indicator Lights (LED): Yes, RGB
Buttons: 6-11
Other Features: Hyperfast scroll wheel, on-the-fly DPS adjustment, up to 5 onboard profiles
Physical specifications
Height: 5.12 in (130 mm)
Width: 2.64 in (67 mm)
Depth: 1.57 in (40 mm)
Weight: 3.80 oz (107 g) mouse only
Cable Length (Power/Charging): 6 ft (1.83 M) [/themify_box]
At first glance, the G900 looks bold with its matte surface and sharp angles. It looks good sitting on my desk, and it’s a far cry from the “dented” subsurface textures of Logitech’s older, popular MX518. I much prefer the direction Logitech’s taken with their new designs.
The G900’s design philosophy can be seen in how well it performs both wirelessly and in wired mode. Wireless mice carry a stigma due to poor efforts from other wireless products in the past. Speaking from personal experience, I can attest to how Razer’s Ouroboros mouse suffers from poor signal strength that results in severe tracking issues. I’ve had no such problems with the G900. Logitech intends to kill these misconceptions with raw, comparative data that shows exactly how well their mouse performs compared to the competition.
You can check out the slides below.
The G900 wireless is optimized, offering a stronger, more robust signal that doesn’t suffer from interference from outside sources like smartphones and WiFi. To put it in simpler terms, it’s about 100 times stronger than the Ouroboros.
In addition to never losing its signal, the G900 has a lower latency than its wired counterparts. It’s somewhat negligible at low latencies, and it isn’t something most people will notice, but it certainly dispels the myth that wireless mice always suffer from lag compared to wired mice. For those who do notice, the click latency of the G900 is an entire frame faster than the Razer Deathadder.
Beyond the performance, the G900 weighs at a light 107g, so I never got tired while using it even after long gaming sessions. It feels sturdy in spite of how light it is. Other mice, like the SteelSeries Sensei Wireless, weigh as much as 403g – it’s almost four times as heavy. The long periods of gaming are also made possible by the mouse’s maximum 32-hour battery life (provided you disable the lights). Whenever it dipped to less than 30%, I just plugged in the USB cord for a quick recharge. It only takes about an hour and a half to be fully charged.
The mouse is also designed to be ambidextrous despite its ergonomic form. The side buttons, which are magnetically attached to the body of the mouse, can be removed from the default setting and replacements are available for switching over to a southpaw configuration. The scrollwheel can also be switched at the press of a button if you prefer the wheel to spin freely instead of clicking in increments—especially handy when you’re scrolling down websites or documents. The scrollwheel can also be pressed towards the left and right sides for side-scrolling.
Finally, the G900 has two sets of lights—one in the middle to inform you of the device’s battery life (it’ll go red when it’s low) and sensitivity settings, and a bold “G” in the middle. Both color properties can be configured through the Logitech Gaming Software that you can download.
For keyboard users, the software isn’t quite as versatile as ones made by Corsair and Razer, in that you can’t import user-made configurations. This is something I’d like to see Logitech work on, with backwards compatibility for their existing RGB-lit products. But for the G900, the software works just fine. It allows you to switch between stored profiles on your mouse or ones on the PC, the latter of which has automated game detection. The mouse can also be tuned to specific surfaces so you’ll have no problem using it on a non-Logitech mousepad. Through the software, you can also disable lights to save battery life. Leaving the lights on color cycling mode will shave about 30% off the battery life. Here, it is also possible to disable the side buttons, switch between left- and right-handed mode, or use all four additional side buttons. You can also configure every button on the mouse. Beyond that, there are options to configure the polling rate and DPI, which ranges between 200 and 12,000. I never found myself using anything beyond 3,200 DPI, however and stuck to the 1,600 DPI setting.
Needless to say, the G900 performs admirably on the desktop, in applications, and of course games in both wired and wireless mode. I never, ever lost track of enemies or died due to complications with wireless interference or latency. With the G900, I can always be sure that any mess-ups are my fault, not any issue with my weapon of choice.
Would I recommend the Logitech G900? Yes. If your current mouse is looking worn down and you can afford the premium, definitely give the G900 your consideration.
