"Alas poor Diamondback, we knew ye well!"

Those were the exact words I spoke a few weeks back, when my computer stopped booting one day. After much disassembling and swearing It turned out that the entire problem was a short in the cable on my Razer Diamondback mouse. I suspect it was caused by rolling the cable up twice a day and carrying it to and from work. I always liked the thin, flexible cable on the Diamondback as it didn't get caught up on the edge of my keyboard or desk, but in the end it was it's Achilles heel. So! After a day of using a horrible Logitech OEM optical mouse, quite possibly the most terrible torture known to gaming kind, I marched back over to our local big box store and bought myself a higher species of Logitech mouse, the G5. It was either than or another Diamondback as I did really like that mouse... but then I risked it meeting the same doom as it's ill fated predecessor, and I remembered the words of my good friend Pappy-R.... "I love this G5." And so I figured that if it's Pappy approved I'd give it a shot too. But could it match up to the latest reiteration of the long sought after Ubermouse?

I've never had weights for my mouse before. This is nifty!

A few observations upon deboxing the G5:

• The G5 is a sharp looker. I mean, really sharp looking. Not as much as the Diamondback with it's lit up wheel, but it's got a gorgeous gray to copper fade job that looks really sharp sitting on my desk.

I think the little read out for the sensitivity is neat. I like lights.

• The mouse cable is a little stiffer than most. It has a fairly tough looking sheath around it, which I hope will save it from the horrible and moosey fate that befell the Diamondback.

• The mouse is quite light and very quick to move around. Protocal really likes this. Personally I find a mouse that's too light is too easy to overshoot things when used, as well as not being very precise in my sometimes slightly shaky hands. Unlike every other mouse I've ever seen however, you can adjust the mouse's weight to fit you perfectly. More on this in a bit.

• The glide pads on the bottom of this mouse are huge. Most of the time you get four tiny little pads that gum up and need to be cleaned. On the G5 there's one small pad off to the left side and a large one front and back.

• There's a label on the bottom of the mouse that declares it to have a "Gaming Grade Laser". I'm not sure where this sits when compared to say, a military grade laser, but it made me laugh.

Installing the G5 was a snap: just plug it into a free USB port, let XP detect it and load the supplied software, with the exception of the Logitech Desktop Messenger, which seems to cause all sorts of delightful little problems and system slow downs. (ex. It's bad.) Also I didn't feel that I need the "Ebay shortcut" on my desktop. If I want to go to Ebay I'll bloody well type it into my browser's address bar. I really hate all the extra crap that seems to be bundled with everything I buy or download. The setpoint software, which puts a little icon in your system tray allows you to easily customize all of the buttons and wheels on the mouse, including mapping your side button to a keystroke, which is quite handy when you want to map it to your reload key, or something specific in a game.

The cruise buttons on the top of the mouse (Scroll up/down) on my previous Logitech mice have been on either side of the scroll wheel and therefore inaccessible to anyone without moving their hand around are now located back of the wheel, and by default control your mouse sensitivity, or can be remapped to other functions such as scroll. The sensitivity is perfect for me right in the middle, but some of my friends seem to like being able to alter it at will. The middle wheel scrolls up and down, which I've found is something I can't live without when I'm messing around on the internet. It also scrolls side to side, which I'm finding quite handy both on the web and in Photoshop. I found it interesting that Logitech has removed one of the small side buttons from the mouse, leaving only one large button. Some people have commented on this negatively but I actually like it. When I had my side buttons mapped to some functions in my games I've found it quite difficult to not hit both buttons with my big clumsy fingers, so I prefer the one big button.

The sides and front of the mouse are hard plastic and have a graveled texture that took some getting used to, but once I was accustomed to it actually provides excellent grip, even when my hands get a little sweaty from tense gaming situations. It's also much easier to clean than the rubberized surface on many other high end mice.

The G5 is quite comfortable to use, and during those long gaming or work sessions I don't find I'm getting any wrist or finger fatigue. If you're a lefty it's unhappy time as this mouse isn't ambidextrous in the least. It's extremely precise and sensitive enough for my pixel editing, and comfy and fast for all my gaming endeavors.

Ah! I almost forgot.... The weight thing. On the bottom of the G5 is a removable cartridge. In the carton that the mouse came in was a little tin box full of weights, eight 4.5g and eight 1.7g. They snap into the plastic carrier which then goes back into the bottom of the mouse. Adjust the mouse to any weight you want! I've got six of the 4.5g weights in mine, and it's got the perfect feel and balance for me. One thing I found quite odd is that there are LEDs that light up the orange plastic carrier... on the bottom of the mouse? I'd rather have some lights up top where they can be seen.

Weights and the carrier that snaps into the bottom of the mouse.

Overall, the Logitech G5 is an outstanding mouse both for gaming and general use. It's super comfortable, precise and looks great. I hereby declare the G5 to be the new Ubermouse. As usual, the wisdom that comes down from the all knowing and wise Pappy was correct. All hail both the G5 and Pappy!