review Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Mouse

[givingtnt]

Back in April 2014, Logitech released the OG, the real deal: The G502 Proteus Core.
And since day one, I LOVED IT. It's by far my favorite mouse ever with a single downside: It's not wireless.
Luckily, the G502 Lightspeed is here to fix that.

[Click here to go to the Level1techs forum version of this review]

 

Part 1: The Originals

The G502 Lightspeed is easely mistaken for "just the same but wireless". However, that wouldn't do its other significant improvements justice.

Since 2018, the G502 has been gifted with Logitech's "Hero" sensor. Which takes the DPI from 12'000 up to 16'000.
The addition of RGB lighting to the Logitech G logo and DPI indicators is also important. Considering the majority of pc enthusiasts like to have their builds color-matched, 
It will definitively have played in the sales of the mouse.

 

Furthermore, the scroll wheel has been by far my favorite item on the G502. It's a heavy, metal wheel that has the added feature of Infinity scroll. 

That's right ! At the click of a button, you can send your mouse wheel into a notch-less spin, only to be slowed down by the axis' friction ! Perfect for those long thread scrolls or finding that one forgotten semi-colon in your 1500 line python script ! 
And at the press of a button : right back to that classic scroll.

Part 2: What's new
This time around, they made 2 major changes. The first being the wireless connectivity (which we'll get to in a minute) and that scroll wheel.

By far the best change this time around is the addition of the wireless feature. 
I wondered how much heavier the mouse would become once you add the batteries and the extra components to make it wireless, but to my surprise, it's even lighter !
Including all of the weights for both of my units, the G502 Proteus Core comes in at roughly 143 grams. The G502 Lightspeed however, comes in at 133 grams ! (yeah, I like em a bit heavy)
Another great thing is that right under the mouse, there's a place to store the tiny USB dongle within the mouse. 
At the front, you will find a (unfortunately not USB-C) Mini USB in for using the mouse wired and charge it. Speaking of charging, You could get the additional Powerplay Wireless Charging mat and never require a wire. Although at an extra 115$, it's a bit expensive.
The battery lasts quite a while, actually I typically plug it in before I go to sleep and never had it run out even on 10h+ working/gaming.

The one change I don't really like however, is the scroll wheel.
It's not functionally any different than the previous version as far as I can tell, but the full, heavy metal wheel has been swapped for a much lighter wheel with a ribbed rubber band on the outside.
In my opinion this is very much a downgrade compared to the full metal wheel which felt great. This one feels.. honestly cheap. (not to mention that the rubber will wear out over time)

 

 

Part 3: Summary
In the end, would I recommend it ? Yes and no.
I have fairly large hands and this mouse feels honestly great. But it might not be the best thing for you in terms of shape & size. 
However, the lag-free (I honestly can't tell a difference between the two in terms of input lag, it's that quick) sensor makes a compelling argument for this mouse (though this is likely equal for other Logitech mice with the same sensor)

The scroll wheel is not as good as it used to be, and it's honestly better with the wireless charging pad (esp if you're like me and take your mouse with you to college, being able to keep the dongle on my laptop and still have it work at home is something I can't wait to enjoy once I buy that).

 

Thanks for reading, please let me know what you thought !
More reviews to come  


P.S. photos are mine, please ask before use.

[TVwazhere]

50 minutes ago, givingtnt said:

The one change I don't really like however, is the scroll wheel.
It's not functionally any different than the previous version as far as I can tell, but the full, heavy metal wheel has been swapped for a much lighter wheel with a ribbed rubber band on the outside.
In my opinion this is very much a downgrade compared to the full metal wheel which felt great. This one feels.. honestly cheap. (not to mention that the rubber will wear out over time)

I though this exact same thing when I started using the MX Master 2s coming off my near 5 years experience with the G502, "Man i really dont like this scroll wheel". I'm not sure if the @s is a fully metal wheel but it does have a rubber texture, and after 3 months of using it, I'm starting to prefer the feel of the MX Master over the 502's wheel, which in a normal click mode feels like it's almost grinding, where as the 2S feels softer to move, but smoother. 

 

I still love my 502 and I'll use it till it dies, but I'd give the scroll wheel a chance (a few months) if it's anywhere near as good as the MX Master 2S's wheel. It might grow on you.

[givingtnt]

18 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

I though this exact same thing when I started using the MX Master 2s coming off my near 5 years experience with the G502, "Man i really dont like this scroll wheel". I'm not sure if the @s is a fully metal wheel but it does have a rubber texture, and after 3 months of using it, I'm starting to prefer the feel of the MX Master over the 502's wheel, which in a normal click mode feels like it's almost grinding, where as the 2S feels softer to move, but smoother. 

 

I still love my 502 and I'll use it till it dies, but I'd give the scroll wheel a chance (a few months) if it's anywhere near as good as the MX Master 2S's wheel. It might grow on you.

Don't get me wrong, I love the scroll wheel, but I prefer the metal & heavier feel of the older one.

 

I'm pretty much past that already tho lol