Proteus in Greek Mythology is the god of the elusive sea changes, a versatile and adaptable god who was capable of assuming many forms. It's the perfect name for Logitech G502 Proteus Core, a mouse that looks equal parts an undersea weapon or submarine and a smooth black wave. Remember the book '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea'? the Proteus Core would fit right in, except at 12,000dpi under the sea. Alas, it is not available in India yet.
Build and design
The G502 brings physical form to the phrase "cutting edge." With a design so familiar and yet so alien at the same time, it's hard not to sit back and appreciate the design of the Proteus Core, with it's weaponized uneven front curving up into a back with a big mouse wheel holding the two shards together. Logitech has taken its tried and tested shape from the legendary MX518 and has transplanted it into a new body straight out of Tony Stark's bag of toys.
The body of the mouse is made completely of oddly shaped plastics cut in various polygonal shapes. While the mouse is plastic, it's none of that cheap, bendy stuff. This is serious, high-grade plastic in various finishes to aid in grip. Matte is on the top and back, in between are strips of glossy plastic, at the sides are rubberized plastic with a moulded triangle pattern. The black and grey are accented with streaks of electric blue on the thumb rest and on the lit up G and DPI indicators.
Apart from the usual left and right buttons, there are two on the side of the left mouse button, possibly for quick weapon switching. Then there are the Back and Forward buttons on the left hand side of the mouse within easy reach for your thumb. On the same side is also a Thumb Trigger button for quick DPI shift or additional button mapping in a function shift.
Up top, above the mouse wheel, there are three buttons. One is a toggle that frees your mouse wheel (more on that later). The other two are DPI up and down buttons, both at different angles so you can feel them out easily.
The underside of the mouse retains that triangle motif as well as the blue colour. The PTFT mouse-feet, instead of being at the four ends of the mouse, surround the sensor housing in an odd way, and in large chunks. This is mostly to aid the sensor in its all-surface features.
Around the sensor is the housing for the weights, which is secured in place by a magnetic cover. Open it and you'll see the odd pentagonal weight placement pattern. There's an ergonomic reason for this. The weights are cut in an arrow pattern, and you can place them in anywhere around that pentagon. Everyone's wrist is different, especially in the weight it exerts when using a mouse, so to negate lift on the left side, you can just anchor that side down with a weight to bring balance to the mouse, thus reducing strain.
The mouse clicks were silent, with a barely audible 'tik'. Great for night gaming sessions without waking up the household with your furious burst fire. Proteus Core gently glides across any surface. We tried it on glass, wood, a rough mousepad and on the couch. It did not falter at all, though playing on the couch was uncomfortable, but that's no fault of the mouse. The mouse was easy to configure: Just fire up the software, do a series of movements and your mouse is calibrated. The mouse is after all, named after the Greek god of versatility.
Remember the button above the mouse wheel? It's a toggle for the freescroll function. This disengages the brakes on the mousewheel, allowing it to continuously rotate. It's a great feature for when you want to scroll down long websites, like the ones found here. Just swipe the mousewheel once and you'll autoscroll through the comments easily. While playing games, you can cycle through all your weapons or powers Another great feature to have in a growing list for this mouse.
Setup and software
We took a bit of time to get the mouse up and running. It was quick to detect on a Windows 7 PC we tried it on, but on a Windows 8-based Sony Vaio, it refused to detect until we installed the drivers and software. It was smooth sailing right up until the latest firmware update was released. After that the mouse absolutely refused to update its internal firmware. This is fairly common with new technology. Logitech needs to iron out of few things on the software side.
The software itself is fantastic. Upon installation, it detected all the games we had installed, even the latest ones like Titanfall and provided profiles. All you have to do is drag and drop to assign mouse buttons to the functions. For the thumb button you can either set the mouse to drop the DPI down, allowing you to line up a shot or you can set a function shift. So all the buttons can get a secondary use when you hold down the thumb button. Great for keeping important functions out of the way but within trigger finger reach.
Ergonomics
The mouse was comfortable to use for those with medium-sized hands. However, in the bid to make the shape comfortable for both claw and palm users, the thumb button presented a bit of a problem. Palm users with big hands complained they depressed the button without knowing it as they gripped the mouse. Claw users had to shift their hands in front to reach the button, which was not comfortable as the hump of the mouse was propping up the base of the palm up.
So it takes a bit of shifting around to get used to the Proteus Core, and a bit of a learning curve for some, and for those with smaller hands and a claw grip, a sacrifice of the front thumb button. Apart from that the mouse was comfortable for long gaming periods, and thanks to the PTFE glide, the weight distribution system and the sensor, the experience was fantastic.
Performance
The Proteus Core blows every other gaming mouse out of the water when it comes to specs. It does not just push the envelope, it slices right through and out the other side. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the world's first 12,000dpi mouse. That's Twelve Thousand dots per Inch, all surface sensor.
Most mice out there have reached 8,200dpi, and many of them cheat to get this number, by overclocking the sensor, which leads to messy movement. However, the Proteus Core is usable at that high a DPI. Granted, the cursor zips around the screen too fast, despite that, the movement was never once jerky. It was smooth, in control.
In real world gaming, it's all about your reflexes. With tweaks to the mouse sensitivity you can play perfectly at 11,000dpi. So the mouse moves slower at a pace you can control, but actually it's tracking at 11,000dpi. Most first person shooters compensate for high DPI letting you tweak the speed in relative to the gun and your mouselook.
Now this is if you're at a god-like gaming level. Mere mortal gamers can play easily at about 4,000-6,000dpi with the sensitivity down. Perfect for FPS. If you play strategy or multiplayer online games like DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) you can crank the DPI up to 8,000, making managing all those tiny units easy.
The Proteus Core was dead on target every time. Never faltering. Battlefield 4 headshots were so easy to line up. We played sans mousepad on the natural wood of the table, which not only felt great but also made the table look a lot neater. We enjoyed the experience in Titanfall a bit more as the game let us play around with higher DPIs as it seemed to correct itself.
In addition to playing games, we found moving around in Photoshop and 3D editing tools like blender a lot easier, especially in viewpoints, holding down the thumb button lowered the DPI so we can precision work on images or 3D objects. Fantastic.
Price and conclusion
Everything sounds fantastic so far. Well, here's the kick off this rollercoaster, it's not available here yet. Though Logitech was kind enough to send us one to play with, it currently has no plans for bringing this mouse to India. You can currently order this mouse online for $79.99 and get it shipped from the US.
The Logitech G502 Proteus Core is one of the best-looking mice out there, with bad boy looks in a futuristic suit packing one of the best sensors in the market today, and the only mouse currently in the market with an operating DPI at 12,000. Highly recommended.
Build and design
The G502 brings physical form to the phrase "cutting edge." With a design so familiar and yet so alien at the same time, it's hard not to sit back and appreciate the design of the Proteus Core, with it's weaponized uneven front curving up into a back with a big mouse wheel holding the two shards together. Logitech has taken its tried and tested shape from the legendary MX518 and has transplanted it into a new body straight out of Tony Stark's bag of toys.
The body of the mouse is made completely of oddly shaped plastics cut in various polygonal shapes. While the mouse is plastic, it's none of that cheap, bendy stuff. This is serious, high-grade plastic in various finishes to aid in grip. Matte is on the top and back, in between are strips of glossy plastic, at the sides are rubberized plastic with a moulded triangle pattern. The black and grey are accented with streaks of electric blue on the thumb rest and on the lit up G and DPI indicators.
Apart from the usual left and right buttons, there are two on the side of the left mouse button, possibly for quick weapon switching. Then there are the Back and Forward buttons on the left hand side of the mouse within easy reach for your thumb. On the same side is also a Thumb Trigger button for quick DPI shift or additional button mapping in a function shift.
Up top, above the mouse wheel, there are three buttons. One is a toggle that frees your mouse wheel (more on that later). The other two are DPI up and down buttons, both at different angles so you can feel them out easily.
The underside of the mouse retains that triangle motif as well as the blue colour. The PTFT mouse-feet, instead of being at the four ends of the mouse, surround the sensor housing in an odd way, and in large chunks. This is mostly to aid the sensor in its all-surface features.
Around the sensor is the housing for the weights, which is secured in place by a magnetic cover. Open it and you'll see the odd pentagonal weight placement pattern. There's an ergonomic reason for this. The weights are cut in an arrow pattern, and you can place them in anywhere around that pentagon. Everyone's wrist is different, especially in the weight it exerts when using a mouse, so to negate lift on the left side, you can just anchor that side down with a weight to bring balance to the mouse, thus reducing strain.
The mouse clicks were silent, with a barely audible 'tik'. Great for night gaming sessions without waking up the household with your furious burst fire. Proteus Core gently glides across any surface. We tried it on glass, wood, a rough mousepad and on the couch. It did not falter at all, though playing on the couch was uncomfortable, but that's no fault of the mouse. The mouse was easy to configure: Just fire up the software, do a series of movements and your mouse is calibrated. The mouse is after all, named after the Greek god of versatility.
Remember the button above the mouse wheel? It's a toggle for the freescroll function. This disengages the brakes on the mousewheel, allowing it to continuously rotate. It's a great feature for when you want to scroll down long websites, like the ones found here. Just swipe the mousewheel once and you'll autoscroll through the comments easily. While playing games, you can cycle through all your weapons or powers Another great feature to have in a growing list for this mouse.
Setup and software
We took a bit of time to get the mouse up and running. It was quick to detect on a Windows 7 PC we tried it on, but on a Windows 8-based Sony Vaio, it refused to detect until we installed the drivers and software. It was smooth sailing right up until the latest firmware update was released. After that the mouse absolutely refused to update its internal firmware. This is fairly common with new technology. Logitech needs to iron out of few things on the software side.
The software itself is fantastic. Upon installation, it detected all the games we had installed, even the latest ones like Titanfall and provided profiles. All you have to do is drag and drop to assign mouse buttons to the functions. For the thumb button you can either set the mouse to drop the DPI down, allowing you to line up a shot or you can set a function shift. So all the buttons can get a secondary use when you hold down the thumb button. Great for keeping important functions out of the way but within trigger finger reach.
Ergonomics
The mouse was comfortable to use for those with medium-sized hands. However, in the bid to make the shape comfortable for both claw and palm users, the thumb button presented a bit of a problem. Palm users with big hands complained they depressed the button without knowing it as they gripped the mouse. Claw users had to shift their hands in front to reach the button, which was not comfortable as the hump of the mouse was propping up the base of the palm up.
So it takes a bit of shifting around to get used to the Proteus Core, and a bit of a learning curve for some, and for those with smaller hands and a claw grip, a sacrifice of the front thumb button. Apart from that the mouse was comfortable for long gaming periods, and thanks to the PTFE glide, the weight distribution system and the sensor, the experience was fantastic.
Performance
The Proteus Core blows every other gaming mouse out of the water when it comes to specs. It does not just push the envelope, it slices right through and out the other side. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the world's first 12,000dpi mouse. That's Twelve Thousand dots per Inch, all surface sensor.
Most mice out there have reached 8,200dpi, and many of them cheat to get this number, by overclocking the sensor, which leads to messy movement. However, the Proteus Core is usable at that high a DPI. Granted, the cursor zips around the screen too fast, despite that, the movement was never once jerky. It was smooth, in control.
In real world gaming, it's all about your reflexes. With tweaks to the mouse sensitivity you can play perfectly at 11,000dpi. So the mouse moves slower at a pace you can control, but actually it's tracking at 11,000dpi. Most first person shooters compensate for high DPI letting you tweak the speed in relative to the gun and your mouselook.
Now this is if you're at a god-like gaming level. Mere mortal gamers can play easily at about 4,000-6,000dpi with the sensitivity down. Perfect for FPS. If you play strategy or multiplayer online games like DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) you can crank the DPI up to 8,000, making managing all those tiny units easy.
The Proteus Core was dead on target every time. Never faltering. Battlefield 4 headshots were so easy to line up. We played sans mousepad on the natural wood of the table, which not only felt great but also made the table look a lot neater. We enjoyed the experience in Titanfall a bit more as the game let us play around with higher DPIs as it seemed to correct itself.
In addition to playing games, we found moving around in Photoshop and 3D editing tools like blender a lot easier, especially in viewpoints, holding down the thumb button lowered the DPI so we can precision work on images or 3D objects. Fantastic.
Price and conclusion
Everything sounds fantastic so far. Well, here's the kick off this rollercoaster, it's not available here yet. Though Logitech was kind enough to send us one to play with, it currently has no plans for bringing this mouse to India. You can currently order this mouse online for $79.99 and get it shipped from the US.
The Logitech G502 Proteus Core is one of the best-looking mice out there, with bad boy looks in a futuristic suit packing one of the best sensors in the market today, and the only mouse currently in the market with an operating DPI at 12,000. Highly recommended.
