Product Listing

Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse - Lag Free Wireless Performance

By James Lu - 28 Oct 2013
Launch SRP: S$109

Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse

There's a good reason you don't see many wireless gaming mice out there: while they're great for most tasks, and they certainly look more tidy on your desk, the last thing you want is even the smallest chance of your mouse dying on you in the middle of a close game - not to mention any potential lag caused by the wireless connection. For most gamers, the benefits just don't outweigh the potential drawbacks.

Nevertheless, Logitech has a well earned reputation for making solid gaming peripherals, so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they know what they're doing with their latest gaming mouse, the wireless G602.

Design

The G602 is 139mm long, 83mm wide (although 20mm of that is the oversized thumb ledge) and about 44mm tall. The right-click button is about 10mm longer than the left-click - which makes sense, since your middle finger is about 10mm longer than your index finger.

Sporting the kind of aggressive ergonomic style that you either love or hate, which includes one of the biggest thumb ledges we've ever seen, the G602 is unabashedly right-handed. As such, there's really only one way to hold it: palm style. With that in mind, if you're right-handed and use a palm grip (and your hands aren't unusually large or small) you should find the G602's ergonomic curves quite comfortable. The thumb ledge does seem unnecessarily big - it's about 20mm wide and sticks out like a wing - and is strangely mismatched by the opposing side, where the pinkie rest is actually quite shallow, but overall, we liked the feel of the mouse's medium-height arch and relatively long shape.

The one thing we didn't like was how heavy the mouse is, topping the scales at a hefty 152g. The majority of this weight comes from the two AA batteries powering it. With most gaming mice weighing between 90-130g, the G602 is definitely on the heavy side. At 152g, wrist fatigue definitely becomes a concern.

 

The G602 has a huge wing-like thumb ledge.

We don't normally like the use of so many contrasting materials and finishes, but the chaotic mix of lined rubber, smooth rubber, textured gritty plastic, glossy dark silver metallic plastic and matte light silver plastic somehow manages to balance out and look quite respectable on the G602. Furthermore, there's obviously been quite a bit of thought put into the materials used, as each seems to serve a functional purpose.

For example, the gritty textured plastic (it's quite similar to Roccat's No-Sweat finish) is used around the lower rear of the mouse and in the thumb and pinkie cutouts. These are the parts of the mouse that your hand makes the most contact with, so the gritty plastic ensures you maintain a solid grip. The lined rubber is the softest material and is found in the mid-section of the mouse, forming a nice, cushioned landing pad for the underside of your knuckles. Finally, the smooth, black plastic is only used on the left and right click buttons, letting you feel the exact length (and clickable area) of each button.

Features

Mice with multiple thumb buttons, such as Razer's Naga and Logitech's own G600 mouse, have become quite popular, especially with MMO gamers. However, they're not so good for other games as you just don't need that many buttons - and even for MMO gamers, it's not always necessary to have that many buttons at your thumbtip.

The G602 tries to find the halfway ground between a regular gaming mouse and an MMO mouse by having six thumb buttons in two rows of three. We're quite keen on this setup as it doesn't deform the mouse's shape with a huge thumbpad (such as with the Naga and G600) but still offers you more buttons than a regular two thumb button mouse. Additionally, the layout makes it much simpler to feel your way around as each button is either up or down, left, middle, or right. 

The G602 has six thumb buttons, two DPI buttons, and right, left and middle click buttons for a total of eleven configurable buttons.

As mentioned, the G602 is a wireless gaming mouse. Unlike Razer's wireless Mamba mouse, there's no option to plug in a cord so you'll have to rely on wireless all the time. The wireless receiver for the G602 is a small USB dongle. In the box, you'll also find a 1M USB to USB cable extender in case you don't have a convenient USB port right in front of your mouse mat. If you have a keyboard with a USB hub, we found this to be the perfect spot for the G602 receiver. 

The G602 uses a small wireless dongle to connect to your computer. You also get a 1M extender cable.

As with all wireless mice, the G602 is subject to the limitations of battery life. Furthermore, unlike some wireless mice, the G602 isn't rechargeable and uses two regular AA batteries so you won't be able to keep its power topped up between games with a recharge (you could always use rechargeable AA batteries and take them out each time of course).

The mouse does however have two modes: Performance and Endurance. According to Logitech, the G602 will get 240 hours on Performance mode, and a far lengthier 1,440 hours on Endurance (although we haven't had enough time yet to test those claims). The modes can be toggled with the small switch found below the thumb-wheel. The Up position will light up a little grid of blue squares and denotes Performance mode, while the Down position will show green squares, and indicates Endurance mode. 

Performance Mode activated

Installing Logitech's G602 software will also let you see a battery life indicator (as well as configure the mouse's eleven buttons), and you'll also get a reminder when your batteries start to run low.

An interesting feature of the G602 is that the mouse will actually run in both modes with just one AA battery inside. While battery life is halved in this setup, it functions a bit like a makeshift customizable weight system for those that want to reduce the weight of the mouse. Taking one battery out will cut it down to a lighter 130g - which is still on the heavy side, but certainly much better. It's also comforting to know that if you run out of juice, you can keep going as long as you can find at least one working AA battery somewhere.

 

The G602 will actually operate in both Performance and Endurance mode with just one battery installed.

Performance

The G602 uses a 2500DPI Avago optical sensor (most likely a ADNS-3090) This isn't the same one used in Logitech's popular G400 mouse, but seems to be just as good. The sensor is very precise, and there wasn't a hint of lag despite the G602's wireless connection. Logitech also seems to have learned its lesson after the launch of the G400 and we didn't detect any prediction or angle snapping with the G602. Additionally, the sensor tracks well on all surfaces, and the mouse's four large teflon feet let it glide smoothly over all types of mouse mats. We tried the mouse in both Performance and Endurance modes, and it definitely felt more responsive in Performance mode.

Fairly large teflon feet help the G602 glide over any surface.

DPI can be adjusted on the fly to as low as 250, using the silver G10 and G11 buttons on the side of the left-click button. You can also reconfigure the mouse's eleven buttons by installing the G602's driver software.

The G602's driver software lets you configure all buttons, as well as fine tune DPI and polling rate settings.

Conclusion 

The G602 is a thoughtfully-designed mouse that performs far better than we would have expected from a wireless gaming mouse. The battery level indicator and low battery warnings should give you ample warning time to switch in new batteries so you should never face a dead mouse situation mid-game, and the mouse's in-game performance is just as good as a wired connection. We still wouldn't recommend a wireless mouse for competitive play, but it should no longer be a concern for the majority of gamers.

The ergonomic shape of the G602 isn't for everyone, and it will only really suit palm grip gamers, but if you do like a larger mouse to wrap your hand around, the G602 is quite comfortable. Our only real complaint is the weight. 152g is just too heavy for lengthy gaming sessions - you really start to feel it in your wrist after a couple of hours. Even after removing one battery, the G602 still weighs 130g, which makes it one of the heavier mice out there. Just for reference, this reviewer is used to a 102g Steelseries Sensei at home and a 106g Logitech G400 at work. 

If Logitech were to release a wired version (it's the batteries that are adding to the weight), or a reduced weight wireless version, we would certainly consider the G602, but for now at least, it's just too heavy for extended use.

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8.0
  • Design 8
  • User-Friendliness 7
  • Features 8
  • Performance 9
  • Value 8
The Good
Accurate lag-free wireless performance
250 - 2500DPI Avago optical sensor
Six side buttons
Usable with just one battery installed
The Bad
Too heavy for extended use
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