Logitech’s $80 supercapacitor gaming mouse is the most versatile it’s ever made

I haven’t thought astir charging my Logitech wireless gaming rodent successful 2 and a fractional years, because I person a magic mousepad that does it automatically. But Logitech mice that enactment with the Powerplay mousepad are expensive, heavy, oregon both, and nary of them treble arsenic a Bluetooth rodent truthful I tin wirelessly brace them to my laptop, handheld, oregon phone.

Today, Logitech is changing that with the Logitech G309, an $80 rodent that astir does it all. It’s the archetypal Powerplay rodent this inexpensive, the archetypal with Bluetooth, the archetypal that lets you usage a AA artillery erstwhile you’re connected the spell — and the archetypal Logitech wireless rodent with a supercapacitor wrong truthful you don’t necessarily request a artillery astatine all.

Even without Powerplay, the G309 is simply a dual-mode wireless gaming rodent that promises up to 300 hours of artillery beingness utilizing its Lightspeed wireless dongle, oregon up to 600 hours implicit Bluetooth, portion you’re slinging astir its 86-gram frame.

But if you’ve got that $120 Powerplay pad, you tin region the AA artillery to scope a full rodent value of just 68 grams, astir arsenic airy arsenic the 60-gram, $160 Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 that gave maine superior rodent envy past year. It’s imaginable due to the fact that the supercapacitor acts arsenic a tiny artillery perpetually being wirelessly charged by the Powerplay mousepad underneath. “It’s ne'er going to dice astatine all; it’s endless artillery life,” promises Logitech elder planetary merchandise manager Nicolas Métral.

It’s not the archetypal wireless gaming rodent to trial the waters with a supercapacitor — but when Mad Catz and Razer tried that successful 2018, those pricey wireless powerfulness mice didn’t person immoderate other mode to charge. You had to usage them connected their bundled pad oregon with a wired cord. Until now, Logitech’s utilized interior rechargeable lithium cells to fto you marque its Powerplay mice somewhat portable; here, a AA artillery picks up the slack.

Despite being connected the fund extremity of Logitech’s gaming mice, the G309 besides has the aforesaid Hero 25K sensor and hybrid optomechanical switches the company’s been shipping successful premium mice for a while, some of which mightiness beryllium invited upgrades implicit the $60 G305 rodent it’s based upon.

But it’s inactive missing the 1 Logitech rodent diagnostic I’d person a hard clip doing without — the company’s dual-mode ratcheting/free spinning scroll instrumentality that I’m perpetually utilizing to zip done documents and webpages erstwhile I’m utilizing my gaming rodent for work. Among gaming mice, that’s inactive exclusive to its G502 and G903 from what I tin tell.

And, it’s a spot of a shame Logitech inactive sells its Powerplay mousepad for $120 with lone the rarest and smallest of discounts. If the institution truly wants to fulfill the G309’s committedness of “Wireless Play for All” — that’s Logitech’s tagline — I’d urge making the implicit bundle much affordable.

Logitech says it volition support selling the G305 alongside the G309. The G309 tin besides stock a azygous Lightspeed wireless dongle with a clump of Logitech’s wireless keyboards, including the caller G515 TKL, G715, G915, G915 TKL, Pro X 60, and Pro X TKL.