Summary
The Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse is an all-around fantastic mouse! If you’re looking for a great, versatile wireless mouse that will still give you the performance and functionality that we’ve all come to expect from wired gaming mice, look no further…
Performance, Features, & Functionality
Having used the Logitech G602 now for several weeks, I can say that it has definitely lived up to my expectations and has performed wonderfully.
The mouse has two modes, Endurance and Performance. Endurance Mode (green LED) is meant to give you the longest battery life (up to about 1400 hours, or 60 days according to Logitech) by sacrificing a little bit of performance and locking in the report rate at 125Hz. Performance Mode (blue LED), a.k.a. Gaming Mode, is, as you may have guessed, meant to give you the best performance by allowing you to increase the report rate to 500Hz. This obviously takes its toll on the battery life leaving you with 250 hours, or about 10 days per the specs. I have not had the mouse long enough to confirm or deny the battery life claims, but through my usage of about 3 months at the time of writing which includes a mixture of Endurance and Performance modes, the Logitech Gaming Software estimates my batteries on the mouse as only half depleted. If I only need to change the batteries once every few months with my same usage, I would call the battery life on the Logitech G602 a win for sure! If you do a lot more gaming than I do (about 10 hours per week I’d say) you’ll notice the battery life lessen accordingly. You’ll want to be sure you remember to switch to Performance mode before starting your gaming session, particularly if you use a lower DPI level, I’ve grown fond of the 500 DPI setting. The reason I say this is because you can notice the difference in performance between 125Hz and 500Hz, especially at lower DPI settings. I don’t think this is any fault to the mouse, I think it just makes sense that if the mouse if only reporting its position 125 times per second versus 500 times per second, you’ll notice the difference at the lower, more precise DPI levels.
The mouse has 11 buttons, all of which can be assigned custom functions, more on this in the next section. The buttons are all located in convenient places and easily accessible with minor thumb or finger movements. All buttons are very responsive and satisfyingly clicky, not obnoxiously clicky (this is often a fine line).
The overall build and feel of the mouse is fantastic. It is mostly matte and textured plastic, but feels great in my hand. The mouse glides perfectly over my Corsair mousepad – it also works just fine on my wooden desktop as well. I couldn’t be happier with the performance and functionality of the Logitech G602 so far!
Software
I’ll start by noting that you do not need any additional software to use the mouse – it will plug and play with Windows just fine, but I would obviously highly recommend you download the Logitech Gaming Software to be able to take full advantage of the features the G602 has to offer. Once the Logitech Gaming Software is installed, all that’s left is to plug in the nano receiver to a nearby USB port or use the provided dongle extender for optimal placement. If you have a wired mechanical gaming keyboard, chances are you have a nearby pass-through USB port on the keyboard so I found this to be a great home for the G602 nano receiver.
I won’t go too deep into some advanced features of the gaming software with the G602, but I’ll at least cover the basics here. The first thing you’re greeted with in the Logitech G602 ‘Home’ settings is the option to choose between customizing the mouse via its ‘On-board Memory’ or via ‘Automatic Game Detection.’ I recommend opting for the latter as it gives you more customization and control.
If you do choose the ‘On-board Memory,’ the good news is that the customization options you choose will, as the name implies, same to the on-board memory of the mouse allowing the customization to travel with you even if you switch computers and/or don’t have the Logitech Gaming Software installed. The trade-off is that you’re limited in the customization options available. You are able to edit the pointer settings to choose up to five levels of DPI sensitivity from 250 DPI to 2500 DPI, but only in 250 DPI increments. When switched to Performance Mode, you can also select the desired Report Rate of either 125, 250, or 500Hz. As mentioned above, Endurance Mode locks your Report Rate in at 125Hz. In terms of button customization, you can edit each of the 11 buttons and select various mouse functions such as left click, back, DPI up/down, etc. and/or predefined keystrokes like copy, paste, etc. You do also have the option to create your own keystroke(s) to assign to a button as well.
Choosing ‘Automatic Game Detection,’ opens the door to a bit more customization options, but you are dependent on the Logitech Gaming Software instead of utilizing the G602’s on-board memory. The pointer settings are just about the same, however, you do get a few more ‘Advanced’ options. To be honest, though, I ignore the advanced pointer setting options and leave them all unchecked anyway (even Logitech recommends leaving them unchecked on the G602 support page). The real advantage comes in the button customization options. The Logitech Gaming Software will scan your computer for all games and load in known profiles where applicable, but even if no ‘known’ profiles exist, you can create your own for each game. This will then allow you to fine tune your button customization for each game you play (or you can set one persistent profile). For games with known profiles, you can get very specific with the commands that can be assigned to each button. For example, for Counter-Strike, you can choose ‘Buy Menu,’ ‘Flashbang,’ ‘Scoreboard,’ ‘Rebuy,’ and many more commands. As mentioned, if no ‘known’ profiles exist for a given game, you can still customize your buttons specifically to that game, but your limited in your command options to more standard keystroke and mouse commands. I’ve done my best to provide relevant screenshots of the different customization options in the slideshow gallery above.
Wrap-Up
Overall, I definitely consider the Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse a great mouse and I highly recommend it! It’s hard to beat the G602’s performance and customization options in a wireless package at its price point. My completely subjective rating would be an 8.5/10.
