Monday, February 7, 2022

Logitech Mouse Follow-Up

 Well, I've had this Logitech G502 SE for about a year and a half now. I wasn't super sold on it in the first place, but there are some failings that have really stuck out over its lifespan which have finally made me desperate to move away from it to a different mouse. Sadly, I cannot move back to the Razer Lancehead that I loved so much, because it was poorly made and lasted less than a year before it stopped functioning correctly. I am not about to buy another Razer mouse at this point, because I don't have the money to do so. However, thankfully, I do have a few mice laying around. So I will be transitioning between them until I settle on the correct course of action. 

In reality, the mouse I've used the most over the past year or so had been the Logitech M590, which can easily switch between my laptop and my main system. I have also come to realize that, for whatever reason, I really love mice with silent clicks. I might have simply moved to the M590 as my main mouse except for the fact that it is much too small. I can only use it for a few hours before my hand starts to cramp from the tight claw-grip it forces me into. I didn't prefer large mice in the past, but after the Roccat Kone XTD showed me what I'd been missing, I've been enamored.

This brings me to the first failing of the Logitech G502: it's too small. I was wary of moving to an ergonomic mouse in the first place, since I've long preferred ambidextrous layouts. The ergonomic shaping has not been a large hindrance and I can even see how it might be nice to use, however the mouse is too small for my hand to get any real benefit from its angled shape. It is some relief from the tiny size of the M590, but not really very much.

The second failing for Logitech is their software. I originally complained about the trash software that Razer forces on all of its customers. I stand by that complaint. However, I had no concept that Synapse in all of its revolting bloaty spyware glory could possibly be BETTER than its competition. Logitech's G HUB is everything bad that Synapse is, plus it doesn't even work correctly. At least Synapse has the good grace to function as expected most of the time. G HUB seems to want to change my profile to useless defaults every time I press Alt-Tab. As if Logitech's software engineers failed to consider a world where computer users might switch between tasks. It is infuriating and frustrating. There's also no way to stop it beyond simply turning the software off. You can retain profiles, if you like going into G HUB settings any time you want to switch profiles to change the default to the one you currently deisre. It is clunky, unnecessary and disheartening. 

I will say that the G502 at least gave me what I expected: it has lasted. There's nothing wrong with the mouse on the hardware side. Well, at least nothing wrong with it that wasn't already wrong with it when I first opened the box. See, the G502 line has an incredibly annoying mouse button pullback issue (the button sticks to your finger and then snaps off, resulting in an irritatingly pingy slapback click after each press). It is atrocious. I've attempted to ignore it for a year and a half. 

I am so ready to be done with this mouse. Logitech is great, but their mice are just as big of failures as any other company's. 

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