Logitech’s $80 Ultra-Intense Gaming Mouse Is Its Most Versatile Ever

I haven’t thought about charging my Logitech wireless gaming mouse in two and a half years, because I have a Magic Mouse Pad that does it automatically. But Logitech mice that work with the Powerplay mouse pad are expensive, or heavy, or both, and none of them can function as Bluetooth mice so I can pair them wirelessly with my laptop, handheld device, or phone.

Today, Logitech is changing that with Logitech G309An $80 mouse that does almost everything. It’s the first affordable Powerplay mouse, the first with Bluetooth, the first to let you use an AA battery on the go — and the first Logitech wireless mouse with a supercapacitor inside so you don’t have to use an AA battery. necessarily Do you need a battery at all?

Even without Powerplay, the G309 is a dual-mode wireless gaming mouse that promises up to 300 hours of battery life using its Lightspeed wireless, or up to 600 hours via Bluetooth, while moving its 86-gram frame.

But if you have the $120 Powerplay pad, you can remove the AA battery to get the total mouse weight down. Only 68 gramsalmost as lightweight as the $160 Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 at 60 grams. This made me seriously envious of last year’s mouse. It’s made possible because the supercapacitor acts as a small battery that’s constantly charged wirelessly by the Powerplay mouse pad underneath. “You’ll never run out of battery life,” says Nicolas Metral, Logitech’s senior global product manager.

It’s not the first wireless gaming mouse to test the waters with a supercapacitor — but when Mad Catz and Razer tried it in 2018, those expensive wireless mice had no last Charging method. You had to use it on the included charging pad or with a wire. Until now, Logitech has used internally rechargeable lithium cells to allow you to make its Powerplay mouse somewhat portable; here, an AA battery makes up for the shortfall.

Despite being within the budget range of Logitech’s gaming mice, the G309 also has the same Hero 25K sensor and hybrid optical-mechanical switches that the company has been shipping in its premium mice for a while, both of which could be welcome upgrades over the $60 G305 it’s based on.

But it still lacks one Logitech mouse feature that I can’t live without—the dual-mode scroll wheel that I constantly use to navigate documents and web pages when I use my gaming mouse for work. Among gaming mice, this feature is still exclusive to the G502 and G903 in my opinion.

It’s unfortunate that Logitech is still selling the Powerplay mouse pad for $120, even with the smallest and rarest discounts. If the company really wants to live up to the G309’s promise of “wireless gaming for everyone” — Logitech’s motto — I recommend making the entire package more affordable.

Logitech says it will continue to sell the G305 alongside the G309. The G309 can also share a single Lightspeed wireless adapter with a range of Logitech wireless keyboards, including the G515 TKL, G715, G915, G915 TKL, Pro X 60, and Pro X TKL.