Performance
With previous Logitech mice, I go in and have a good idea of what to expect. With the G502 I really had no idea. Not only is it a completely new design, but Logitech also went with a completely new sensor as well. The G502 uses a brand new sensor from Pixart called the PMW3366DM or for short the Pixart 3366. Pixart isn’t a name you have heard of before but you can expect to see more of it in the future. They purchased the sensor technology from Avago, so Avago sensors are now Pixart sensors. Given that history I really expected the G502 to track well but to run into a little acceleration, especially on a soft mouse pad. Surprisingly I wasn’t able to find a downside at all to the new sensor. The acceleration seems to be fixed and the tracking was perfect in all of my testing.
The new mouse shape fit in my hand well and all of the 6 macro buttons (not counting the scroll when and trigger buttons) are perfectly in reach for me. Logitech obviously spent a lot of time working on the G502’s design, I went in expecting it to be a little uncomfortable because of the new shape but it is actually more comfortable that the other Logitech mice that I have reviewed recently. Back to the macro buttons though, not only are they easy to reach but Logitech really packed them in considering this isn’t an MMO mouse. If that wasn’t enough they added G-Shift that doubles the number of macro keys you have.
The new all metal scroll wheel worked great for me and unlike other designs it didn’t collect weird nasty pieces of skin and/or dirt. The unlockable scroll feature that lets the wheel free spin is always great when browsing a long web page or flipping through a long word file. It may sound silly but this is the first thing I miss when I switch to any other mouse. The G502 also has left and right side clicking on the scroll wheel as well, I personally don’t use them but I know some people bind those to different in game abilities.
For the G502 Logitech added weight tuning back into the mix. When toying around with it swapping out the weights was quick and easy with the magnetic bottom cover. I’m glad they added the option but my preference is as little weight as possible so I don’t use any weights at all.