Logitech's G900 is meant to alleviate your concerns about wireless gaming mice

Wireless mice have gotten to the point where they're basically as reliable as wired mice, but people still don't trust them as much as they might want to. And they really want to; consider the gadget known as a mouse bungee, which elevates a mouse's cable to eliminate the possibility of it getting tangled up with the mouse. So if you're a serious or even professional gamer, and you could go wireless and still get the same level of performance — and if money were no object — why wouldn't you?

Well, you might say, a wireless mouse will always be somewhat laggy compared to a wired one. A more anxious person might respond, I'd be terrified of the battery dying during a close game, and what if I left the USB dongle at home? And the speed demons of the esports world might note, If there's a built-in battery, the mouse is inherently heavier.

To address all those issues, Logitech set out to make the ultimate wireless mouse: a device that would meet or even exceed the reliability of wired mice, and simultaneously dispel the myths surrounding wireless mice. A team of 75 to 80 people across multiple continents has been working on that goal for the past three years, and Logitech is finally ready to present the fruits of that labor to the world: the Logitech G900 Chaos Spectrum.

During a meeting with Polygon earlier this week, two individuals from Logitech explained all the work that the company put into the G900. Chris Pate, portfolio manager for Logitech's gaming products, and Andrew Coonrad, technical marketing manager, went through the three aforementioned concerns about wireless mice — latency, battery life and weight — and then discussed Logitech's efforts to tackle them all in the G900.

As for click latency — the delay between the moment a button is clicked and the moment a computer detects that click — the G900 handily bested two wired mice, the SteelSeries Rival 300 and the Razer DeathAdder Chroma.

"If a pro gamer tells me that he perceives lag on this mouse, the only thing I can think is that he wants to," said Pate.

Next, Coonrad and Pate discussed battery life and weight. The G900 contains a 720 mAh rechargeable lithium-polymer battery that lasts for 24 hours of continuous use with the mouse's default LED lighting scheme, and 32 hours with the lights off. Users can individually customize both the Logitech "G" logo on the back of the G900 and the set of three DPI lights in the middle with Logitech's mouse software, and the unit supports 16.8 million colors of RGB lighting.

The G900's battery takes two hours to charge, and while it comes with its own braided cable, it can be charged using any micro USB cable. When the G900 is plugged in and charging, it functions as a wired mouse, sending data over the cable instead of the usual proprietary 2.4 GHz wireless connection.

Two other wireless mice aimed at pro gamers, the Razer Mamba and the SteelSeries Sensei Wireless, are rated a maximum of 20 hours of battery life, according to their respective manufacturers. Both of them are also heavier than the 107-gram G900. Weight is a major concern for pro gamers — you don't want a heavy mouse, but one that's too light won't do, either. Some mice, for example, can be adjusted with internal weights, although the G900 doesn't offer that feature.

The G900 can be customized in a different way: It's a fully ambidextrous mouse. Like the Razer Ouroboros, it offers two buttons on each side. If you're right-handed, you can put the buttons on the left side and leave a plastic plate on the right side, and if you're a lefty, you'd flip that configuration. (You can also use all four buttons or none of them, if you want.) The mouse is otherwise symmetrical.

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I spent much of Wednesday using the G900 on a wood desk, and while it's definitely overkill for the purposes of navigating a workday as a journalist, I quickly got attached to the freedom of a wireless mouse. (I haven't yet been able to test it with any actual games.)

Coming from using a Logitech G402 Hyperion Fury — which, admittedly, is also overkill for my needs — I felt like the G900 nestled into my hand more nicely. I had no trouble getting it to work on Windows 10, especially since I already had the Logitech software installed. The G402 (without its cable) weighs about the same as the G900, but the lack of a cable made a huge difference in comfort, especially since my desk is pretty cramped.

Of course, all of that will cost you a pretty penny: The Logitech G900 will run you $149.99, and will start shipping in early April. Still, that's identical to the retail price of the Razer Mamba, and $10 cheaper than the SteelSeries Sensei Wireless. In other words, the kind of people who are in the market for a top-of-the-line wireless gaming mouse aren't likely to suffer much sticker shock here.