Logitech G305 Lightspeed - Wireless is Now

[jiyeon]

 

Hi, and welcome to my review of the Logitech G305 Lightspeed. Spoiler alert, it's one of the best mice I've ever used and I even see it succeeding my G502 if and when that happens.

 

I got this mouse for £35.40 from Amazon UK, a far cry from the £51.99 RRP of the white version of this mouse. I've had it for a week and it's already grown on me as a mouse, having used a Logitech G502 as mentioned before, so I was familiar with the shape and size that Logitech would go for this mouse.

 

What attracted me to this particular mouse was the Logitech HERO sensor, that's the High Efficiency Rating Optical sensor, and is supposed to be the most efficient and accurate sensor to date, and it certainly does live up its name. I'll be writing this review solely focusing on the G305, and compare it to my G502 near the end for a clean, subjective mouse review.

 

 

When I first saw the mouse, it was actually a lot smaller than I originally thought, and that's mostly due in part to its minimal, simplistic styling, particularly with its nice rounded backside. It comes with the basic left & right click and scroll wheel buttons, as well as two additional back & forward buttons, these two extra thumb buttons can be mapped to different keys in the Logitech Gaming Software should you wish. I would've liked to perhaps see some more buttons but for the price of the mouse, I can't complain, especially since it's such as nice looking mouse.

 

 

From the top-down, the mouse looks slick indeed. The Logitech G logo in silvery white is a nice contrast to an otherwise all matte black mouse. I love that the symmetry of the mouse as well as the spacing between buttons. The scroll wheels feel nice and rigid, and doesn't rattle. The left & right buttons click a ton and make a fair bit of noise but it's nothing to complain about. My one gripe with the shape is that towards the back, it tends to feel a bit too cambered which makes it uncomfortable for long periods of time in my experience. Other than that, it's a solid shape which molds to hands nicely.

 

 

 

The back piece of the mouse can be taken off through pulling off straight from behind to reveal the battery and the USB dongle. This is super convenient and I'm impressed at how Logitech managed to fit both the AA battery and the USB dongle in here, given the space and total volume of the mouse.

 

This mouse fits a single AA battery, or if you're feeling freaky, you can fit a single AAA battery plus a conventer, to make the mouse even lighter than if you had used a standard AA battery.

 

The dongle fits snuggly to the bottom left of the mouse, and to get it out, simply pull straight up. I also particularly like that the dongle has the Logitech G logo on it, nice attention to detail and will make distinguishing it from other wireless peripherals a step easier.

 

 

The bottom of the mouse is where you'll find the power switch - blue for on; red for off - which nicely lies flush with the rest of the bottom as to not interfere with tracking. You shouldn't need to use this much unless you're taking the mouse away from your device, as Logitech claims the HERO sensor will make this mouse "delivers up to 250 hours run-to-die on just one AA battery" or a groundbreaking "9 months of typical use in Endurance mode, which can be selected via Logitech Gaming Software". Now that is some extreme battery life claims.

 

 

On topic of the Logitech Gaming Software, here is where you will find all the controls and settings for this mouse. Simply navigate to Logitech's website to download the software, and you're good to go.

 

I have mine set to 1000Hz polling rate, and two DPI levels, 650 and 1250, with the forward & back buttons default, and the DPI button set to cycling between my selected DPI levels.

 

I have full trust that the HERO will allow my G305 to go the full 250 hours in performance mode, and so I don't feel the need for endurance mode. Battery can be monitored in the top-left of the application. Alternatively there is an option to set one button to battery level to indicate how much battery is left inside the G305.

 

Spoiler

 

 

This mouse, is absolutey excellent for the price. You get a nice-looking mouse with a comfortable shape, high build quality, excellent wireless dongle and battery placement, as well as that HERO sensor, all for under £60 depending on where you shop, and what color you choose...

 

The size itself still feels a bit small, and the weight took a bit of time to get used to, especially since I've been using my Logitech G502 for over a year, it's a heavy and large mouse which is super over-designed in the best possible way.

 

The sensor is the best part of the mouse, it is supremely accurate at everything, and has not hiccuped in my time using it. I played games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, and Fallout 4 using this mouse, and on all three games, it felt equal to or smoother than my Logitech G502. This sensor is no joke.

 

The wireless aspect is honestly mind-blowing how good it is, I had an existential crisis mid-way through an Overwatch match questioning why I had never tried a wireless Logitech mouse before. I felt so free and unrestricted by a cable. Wireless mice truly are the future and the Logitech HERO sensor is at the captain's wheel.

[Techstorm970]

How was the wireless connectivity on this mouse?  You say that the sensor never hiccuped, which is great, but did you ever see any signs of interference at all?  My Razer Atheris is riddled with connectivity issues and it's gonna give me an aneurysm one of these days...

 

By the way, the G305's shape and construction (and presumably its build quality) is literally identical to the G203/G302 Prodigy.  It is literally that exact mouse except without RGB or a cord, and somehow with a better sensor (according to Rocket Jump Ninja).

[jiyeon]

5 minutes ago, Techstorm970 said:

How was the wireless connectivity on this mouse?  You say that the sensor never hiccuped, which is great, but did you ever see any signs of interference at all?  My Razer Atheris is riddled with connectivity issues and it's gonna give me an aneurysm one of these days...

No wireless connectivity or interference issues at all. The dongle and the mouse are at most 60cm away from each other in my setup, so there's little chance of intereference. I wholeheartedly meant it when I said it never hiccuped, it's such an optimised wireless mouse.

 

8 minutes ago, Techstorm970 said:

By the way, the G305's shape and construction (and presumably its build quality) is literally identical to the G203/G302 Prodigy.  It is literally that exact mouse except without RGB or a cord, and somehow with a better sensor (according to Rocket Jump Ninja).

Yeah, I too watched RJN's review on it. This shape appears to be Logitech's thing. Not that it's a bad thing, it's comfortable and appeals a lot of hand shapes and grip styles.

[Techstorm970]

2 hours ago, seoz said:

it's such an optimised wireless mouse.

Just as I suspected; an integral part of a good wireless mouse is optimization.  My Razer Atheris has had fewer problems (but still a lot) ever since I did a driver update for it.  Of course, it is still becoming increasingly finicky in physical ways, such as getting flimsy on the sides and its scroll wheel is starting to wear out.

 

I've only had it for 6 months.

 

G305 Lightspeed will absolutely be my replacement!  Should never have left Logitech's mice!

[jiyeon]

8 hours ago, Techstorm970 said:

Just as I suspected; an integral part of a good wireless mouse is optimization.  My Razer Atheris has had fewer problems (but still a lot) ever since I did a driver update for it.  Of course, it is still becoming increasingly finicky in physical ways, such as getting flimsy on the sides and its scroll wheel is starting to wear out.

 

I've only had it for 6 months.

 

G305 Lightspeed will absolutely be my replacement!  Should never have left Logitech's mice!

For sure, I fully believe Logitech's wireless mice technology is the future.