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As with all of the mice we test here at KitGuru, we figure out how good the product is by putting it through our patent pending “play-with-it-for-a-week,” test, which puts it through its paces in a variety of scenarios.
It's used for general day to day ‘office,' work, Photoshop tasks, general web browsing and of course, gaming. This gives us a good idea of what it would perform like if you bought it brand new. Of course this is all subjective, so if you can, have a try with one before you buy.
Logitech's button remapping and options software is fully featured and incredibly easy to use
Using the Proteus Core was a bit of a mixed bag for me, not because it's a bad mouse – it's actually great – but because it's very different from what I'm used to. My day to day mice tend to be quite light, often ambidextrous designs, so I'm used to flicking them around with a claw/finger grip. However that's quite hard to do with the Proteus, so I adapted myself before judging it as the first few days I will admit, were a little uncomfortable.
The Proteus Core is a heavy mouse, even without the weights added – 121g without the cable drag. It's not like a brick of course and you can flick it around easily enough, but it's on the weighty side, so if you're used to using a small, or low-weight mouse, then you will feel it.
There's a bit of fatigue in the wrist and in the hand for the first few days at least. It took me almost a week to feel comfortable and forget I was using something different from the norm.
Through my testing, I found that the Proteus Core can actually accommodate all grip styles, but not necessarily equally. It is clearly designed with palm grippers in mind and that's where you will find yourself most comfortable, though as I mentioned, if you're switching from an alternative, you will need some adjustment time.
Claw grips are possible, but due to the side button placement, especially if you have smaller hands like me, you'll struggle to reach the sniper button. Likewise, the DPI switches will be easily out of reach if your fingers are bent upwards.
Fingertip gripping was actually my favourite, which I didn't think was possible when I first begun using the Proteus, as the shape forces the palm into full contact – making it a palm grip whether you want to or not. That said, over time I found myself angling the mouse slightly to the left, about five to ten degrees and it made all the difference. I could reach everything, could use my fingers to control the mouse's movements AND it was comfortable.
With that long pre-amble on gripping out of the way, you are probably wondering how this rodent performs in a game?
Well let it be said, that you always have sensitivity to spare. At 12,000 DPI, the G502 Proteus Core is the most sensitive mouse on the market and it shows… with the fact that you don't ever use it! I have played fast twitch shooters, RTS games and puzzlers and I have yet to push this mouse over 9,000 dpi, it's just not really manageable
I suppose you could go in and change the Windows sensitivity to its lowest setting and then go for 12,000, but until we're all gaming at 4k+ resolutions, I just don't feel like I need to go that high.
9,000 dpi with a very low Windows sensitivity was more than enough for me. I won't begrudge Logitech for adding the extra few thousand, as DPI is the only real ‘numbers game' peripheral makers get to play with. In reality however there simply is no need for 12,000 dpi.
As with the comfort of this mouse, its sheer sensitivity takes some getting used to as well. I often found myself in the first few days of testing overshooting icons in Photoshop, or spending aggravating seconds trying to select specific letters in a word I was attempting to correct.
This gave me pause for thought initially as I was worried Logitech had sacrificed accuracy for speed, but after tweaking the DPI, Windows Sensitivity and after setting the software to customise the sensor for my gaming surface (a slightly ropey looking Mionix Sargas 460) it was pretty much spot on.
Despite its bleeding edge performance though, there was one thing that slightly annoyed me. The scroll wheel. While quite an innovative idea and certainly very functional in shooters… itcan be so irritating. You either have it set at the loudest, clunk, clunk setting I've ever had on a mouse, or you have it on freespin.
To stop myself tearing out the little hair I have left, I tended to opt for the latter. Controlling that sometimes can be very difficult, because unless you stop it, it will spin on and on – meaning your control has to be near perfect. It is a minor gripe, but I've noticed it a handful of times over the past week and found myself wishing for a more ‘traditional' scroll wheel.
