Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum review: Who needs cables anymore?

You can get rid of that mouse bungee now

The Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum is a mouse that exists to please everyone. But most times, the problem with products like these is that by trying to do too many things right, they end up doing something – sometimes a very crucial something – wrong. Having said that, I was apprehensive when I first heard about the G900, a mouse that promised so much, but which left so much room to bungle things up as well.

But let’s get things straight now. The G900 doesn’t mess up. It delivers, and its aim – quite literally – is true. In typical Logitech fashion, the company has created yet another stellar mouse to satisfy mad fraggers everywhere. This is a mouse hell bent on dispelling all the negative notions associated with wireless mice. Too heavy? The G900 is uncannily light. Laggy performance? Logitech’s latest flagship performs faithfully in wireless mode. Perhaps battery life is bad then? Nope, Logitech is claiming up to 30 hours of continuous use.

Wireless performance that just works

But all that aside, the biggest promise of the G900 is its supposed ability to deliver wireless gaming performance on par with regular cabled solutions. And in this respect, it delivers admirably. This is probably the biggest selling point of the G900 as well. If you’re going to buy the G900 and use it in wired mode all the time, you’re better off saving your money and going for a fully wired solution instead.

As a gamer, I’m instinctively wary of all things wireless and the inherent latencies they introduce. But after using the G900 for a week, I’m pretty much sold that technology has advanced to the point that wireless mice can now perform more or less the same as their wired counterparts. Most of my time was spent in fast-paced first person shooters like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Blackshot, and the newly-released Overwatch (games where twitch reactions can often make the difference between life and death), in addition to regular desktop use of course.

In that one week, I can count the number of times the mouse cursor behaved erratically – a grand total of one time. Make no mistake, I spend a lot of time in front of my computer, so that’s a single instance in a lot of hours. I had wireless devices in the vicinity as well, like my phone and laptop, both of which were connected to a 2.4GHz wireless network, the same frequency spectrum that the G900 transmits in.

This is obvious, but you’ll want to place the wireless dongle as close to your mouse as possible. In my case, I plugged the dongle into one of my front USB ports (my PC is located on my desk, right next to my monitor), and this setup seemed to work well enough. But if your PC is located on the floor, the mouse cable helpfully doubles as an extension cable that will allow you to bring it closer to your mouse, a nice touch.

And after an entire evening of gaming, the battery level had only dropped by around 15 percent. I also deliberately left the mouse on overnight – after checking the next morning, the battery level hadn’t budged at all. Clearly, someone’s been sleeping well.

But you’re probably more concerned with how much perceived latency there is in actual gaming, if any. The good news is, none, as far as I can tell. I had no problem hitting all my shots, and at no point did I feel like the mouse was letting me down. My regular mouse is the Logitech G303 Daedalus Apex, which uses the same PMW3366 optical sensor as the G900, so I’m pretty familiar with how that sensor performs in a wired mouse.

Suffice to say, it felt equally responsive, which is really quite impressive. There was also no noticeable jitter or acceleration, and tracking performance remained reliable even at high DPI settings like 8,000DPI (my preferred DPI was 800, but you can set it anywhere from 200 to 12,000DPI).

All in all, Logitech is making some big claims with this mouse. It provided us with documents that drew attention to two things – click and motion latency, or the time taken for the computer to receive the signal after you click or move the mouse. In fact, the company says not only does the G900 seemingly perform on par with its wired counterparts, it actually outperforms them and responds faster. We don’t have the equipment to properly evaluate these claims, but suffice to say, Logitech is pretty confident with what it has created, and I’m inclined to agree that they have good reason to be.

A lightweight, customizable mouse

When it comes to design, there’s a lot to like about the mouse as well. First off, its weight, or rather the lack thereof. At a mere 107g, it is freakishly light, and I found myself half wondering if I had forgotten to install the battery (it’s a built-in unit). So if you favor heavier mice because they give you better control, you’ll probably want to think twice before getting the G900.

Logitech has been quite creative when it comes to reducing the weight of the G900. This boils down to the small things, like the thin wall molding and scroll wheel that ditches the conventional solid design in favor of a hollow design resembling bicycle spokes. The weight is even more striking when you consider the mouse’s size. This is not a small mouse, and you’ll need fairly large hands if you want to palm it.

And speaking of grip styles, Logitech says that the mouse will take to a variety of grips, including palm, fingertip, and claw grips. There’s some truth to that, seeing as the G900 has a rather generic, oblong shape that doesn’t prefer one grip over another, but fingertip gamers may probably prefer a slightly shorter, more compact mouse.

The mouse shape was also one of the few areas where I wasn’t too satisfied with the G900. As someone who prefers smaller mice – I’m a big fan of the Logitech G100S – the G900 could be a tad bit unwieldy at times. So although I can’t fault the tracking of the mouse, gaming over long hours could get a little tiring because I wasn’t used to such a large mouse. But if you prefer big mice, the G900 is right up your alley.

This is also an ambidextrous mouse, with options to cater to both right-handers and southpaws. There are actually painfully few mice out there that left-handers can use, and the selection of good mice numbers even fewer. Now, those ranks have been bolstered by the G900, which features modular side buttons that can be swapped out according to your dominant hand. They click in place with magnets, and even though they are easy enough to remove, at no time did I feel like they were in danger of falling off. Logitech has also included blank pieces to block out the buttons on the other side, to prevent you from accidentally pressing them with your ring finger.

In the way of buttons, there are a total of 11 programmable ones, if you count the scroll wheel that clicks from side to side as well. Two buttons below the scroll wheel serve as DPI buttons by default, and the adjacent three LED indicators help show the current value you’re at. Above that, a separate button can be toggled to activate the “hyper-fast” scroll wheel, so you can tear through reams of digital documents with little trouble.

The left- and right-click buttons utilize a metal spring tensioning system with metal pivot hinges for a nice clicky feeling that has just the right amount of resistance. I’ve never enjoyed buttons that were too light to click, like Razer’s Hyperesponse buttons, and the G900 provides a judicious amount of feedback. If I were to nitpick, I’d say that the side buttons can feel a little mushy, but it’s not really all that big a deal.

Finally, the matte material that the G900 is built out of proved wonderfully adept at resisting dirt and grime. One of the most annoying things with gaming mice is to have to continually wipe down their glossy surfaces, and it’s always nice to have a mouse that holds up well under long hours.

Software

The Logitech Gaming Software itself offers its own share of customization options. For starters, you get to pick the layout of the mouse, that is, whether you’re using it in left- or right-handed mode, or with all side buttons in place. It goes without saying that each button can also be programmed with a custom command of your choice.

In addition, you can tweak the PMW3366 optical sensor in steps of 50DPI, which should be a small enough adjustment for most folks. You’ll also get to set a maximum of five DPI levels at any one time, which you can cycle through with the DPI selection buttons.

When it comes to the RGB illumination, you can customize two different lighting zones independently – the scroll wheel and the Logitech logo on the mouse’s body. There are just a few effects to choose from, like color cycle or breathing, but you can also tweak the brightness levels and the speed at which the colors change or pulse.

After you’re done making your adjustments, you can save your settings, which are then stored on the G900’s onboard memory. There’s room for up to five profiles, so you can preserve your settings even on a different PC.

And if you’re wondering how much charge is left on the mouse, clicking on the battery tab will provide quite an accurate estimate.

Conclusion

The bottom line is this: If you want a zero-compromises wireless mouse for gaming, the G900 Chaos Spectrum is the way to go. Despite its light weight, build quality and construction feel impeccable, as does its tracking performance.

There’s only one downside – price. At S$249, the G900 borders on exorbitant. Even with its wide range of features, that’s still a lot to pay for a mouse, even a very good one. Ultimately, it’s probably only those who want the best possible wireless gaming experience that will go for the G900.

But if you do decide to get the G900 after all, you’ll find it well worth your money. In this case at least, you do get what you pay for. We're just looking forward to the day when this level of wireless performance doesn't command such a high premium.

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