Sometimes, you get your hands on a piece of hardware that just feels right. For me, that was the Logitech G502 Lightspeed Wireless – and now that mouse is reaching the end of its life, and while I won’t be hosting an actual Viking funeral for it, I genuinely am a little upset.
A fairly high-end gaming mouse with a comfortable ergonomic design and understated RGB lighting, the G502 Lightspeed Wireless has been my trusty desktop companion for more than five years, and is only just starting to show its age; specifically, the left-click switch is giving out, still registering most clicks but rendering click-and-drag operations almost impossible.
It’s fair to say that I’ve definitely put this mouse through the wringer over the past half-decade. Not only have I used it to put literally thousands of hours into all manner of games, but it’s also been my daily driver for work ever since the pandemic shifted me into working from home. It’s survived countless hours of frantic clicking, scrolling, and at-desk lunches (no, I’m not a ‘tidy desk, tidy mind’ sort of person).
It’s not an exaggeration to say that I love this mouse. It’s incredibly comfy under the hand thanks to the curved shape and thumb rest, and the underside features two magnetic panels that can be removed to add tiny metal weights to the interior – in other words, a little tweaking can create the perfect weight distribution for any user.
It’s also just a good gaming mouse in general: a 25,600 DPI sensor, long battery life, 1ms latency thanks to the proprietary Lightspeed USB dongle, and 11 remappable buttons all make it a stellar choice for any genre of PC game.
Consistency above all else
As heartbroken as I might be that my reliable gaming companion is beginning to fade from glory, there’s a definite silver lining here.
See, Logitech does something that I wish more PC hardware companies would do: a certain ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach to product design, meaning that I can still buy the exact same G502 Lightspeed Wireless mouse that I originally purchased over five years ago. Plenty of companies would’ve made the original product redundant in that time period, replacing it twice or three times over with new models (looking at you, Razer).
Hell, Logitech has been using the same design for its mainstream 1080p webcam – the Logitech C920 – for more than a decade, with only some minor generational improvements over the years. There’s a reason that cam still sits in the top spot of our best webcams ranking, is what I’m saying.
The G502 Lightspeed has been replaced in our best gaming mouse list by the newer, shinier Logitech G502 X Plus, but it’s still the same excellent mouse at heart – and gamers on a budget can always pick up the G502 Hero, which packs a lot of the great design and features found in my favorite mouse into a more wallet-friendly package.
But you can’t have too much of a good thing, so while I’m currently rocking a temporary replacement from NZXT, I can’t wait to take my paycheck to the Logitech G Store to pick up an identical replacement for my beloved G502 Lightspeed Wireless. There’s only one problem, and that’s the price: $99.99 / £139.99 (around AU$150, but it’s no longer available from Logitech in Australia). Why’s it so expensive in the UK, Logitech?
I guess I’ll be waiting for a Black Friday deal… unless the kind folks at Logitech read this and take pity on a poor tech journalist. Keep your fingers crossed for me, readers!
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christian.guyton@futurenet.com (Christian Guyton)
