Features/Pictures
Here is our first look at the G500s. My initial thoughts were that the mouse doesn’t really look different than its older brother the G500. I’m very curious to dig in a little deeper to see what Logitech changed. In this picture we can see the sleeved USB cord, I was actually a little surprised to see this sleeving considering this is the one issue that I have constantly heard from people about their Logitech mice. In cases where this cord has the chance to rub up against anything it will fray. From a close examination it’s a decent weave but looser than the SteelSeries Sensei. It is still possible that Logitech has improved on the material itself though.
Once we are able to look past the new striped design, up top we can see the scroll wheel is metal with a grooved ring up the middle. The button directly behind the scroll wheel locks and unlocks the scroll wheel from a freewheel or clicky style scroll. Here you can also see the DPI up and down buttons on the left side of the trigger. These can also be programmed to be used for anything you would like as well. I have heard these are great for things like grenades in an FPS that you need to access quickly. I should also point out that the scroll wheel also clicks when you push it left or right and both of those are programmable as well.
The left side of the G500s houses our three side buttons and an area for our thumb to sit. I love the layout that Logitech went with for the three side buttons. Generally I’m not a fan of buttons being this close together but by using different heights they managed to define each buttons while still keeping them tight together.
Right on top of the G500s is where we can see the new striped design. Logitech promotes what they called the hydrophobic palm surface, dry grip side panels, and fingerprint-resistant button coatings. I will test that out in our performance section, but I will be honest. Just from looking at it I couldn’t find a difference between the G500s and the G500 in materials here. That is beyond the new styling of course.
The right side of the G500s doesn’t really have anything going on. I feel like they could take advantage of this and include at least one button over here, maybe even two if they are well placed. If you look closely the side does have a slight edge for you to grip on when lifting your mouse if you are like me and lift.
On the flip side the G500s is one of the cleanest looking mice on the bottom. Most mice will have their serial number and a sticker with all of the regulatory information here; it’s interesting that Logitech is one of the only companies that don’t do this. It does leave more room for two large gliders on each end and a small one on the left side of the mouse (right side when looking at it from the bottom). The button on the bottom will let us pop out the weight tray as you can see. The weight tray has 6 holes for weights, you can use this to add to the overall weight of the mouse or if you put the weights on one side or the other you can slightly change the overall balance of the mouse. Personally I go with no weights, I feel that keeping everything as light as possible is the best option for me and my wrist. Something else that is interesting on the bottom of the G500s is the small pry points on each of the gliders. Its nice to see that they have tried to make replacing your gliders easy, to me this makes me think that Logitech hopes to see the G500s last its users a very long time.
When you get the G500s next to the original G5 you can really see where things have improved. We have moved on from the single side button to a triple button design as well as the DPI buttons have moved to a more useable location as well. The scroll wheel is noticeably different as well with the G500s having a metal design with just a small rubber ring over it over the glossy all rubber design on the old G5. The overall shape of the mice is similar but the left side of the G500s is a little more defined as well. It’s really interesting to see how much things have stayed the same while still changing.
