Enthusiast gaming keyboard tech has made the jump to gaming mice — well, to one gaming mouse so far. The $179.99 Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike is the first to feature analog sensors that use induction to register clicks faster than microswitches used in many mice.
Those sensors allow for a host of cool features beyond just lower latency. There’s a rapid trigger setting, popularized by Hall effect keyboards, that lets them quickly reset after being pressed to receive another input. The sensors in this mouse also let you customize how much you need to press each of the main buttons to send an input, requiring almost no pressure at all, a click that requires more effort (great if you’ve got an itchy trigger finger), or something in between.
One of the Superstrike’s most interesting changes is that it has haptics in place of switches under its buttons. They simulate the sound and feel of a click with surprising accuracy, and unlike tapping on an unmoving MacBook trackpad, the mouse’s main buttons move and bounce back up as you might expect them to. If their default click sensation isn’t doing it for you, you can make it more intense (at the expense of battery life), or remove it altogether for silent operation (at the expense of, well, knowing when you’ve clicked at all).
I’ve felt jaded over the years by numerous features introduced in gaming mice that claim to be more beneficial in competitive games than they feel in real-life use (shrinking weights, 8,000Hz polling rate, optical sensors did nothing for me, personally). But the Superstrike feels like the start of a big change in gaming mice, and Logitech got a lot right here, even though its design isn’t radically different from its past models.
If you’re wondering whether this mouse is for you, let me put it this way: The Superstrike, with its analog sensors and adjustable actuation distances, is far easier to recommend than a Hall effect gaming keyboard that offers the same features. The difference comes down to Logitech’s haptics; they feel like the real thing, but you can tweak the feel if you’d like to. On the other hand, Hall effect switches in keyboards have a certain feel — quiet, almost no resistance — and that can’t be changed.
I’ve been using the Superstrike for a few days for my work at The Verge and to play some games. Unsurprisingly, flexing its haptics and analog sensors in Google Chrome isn’t that exciting. They were fun features to tweak in Deadlock, however. With many, many button presses required to defeat creeps and player enemies — not to mention frequently clicking around in menus to buy upgrades — lowering both the haptics intensity and the actuation distance for the left mouse button felt right. With rapid trigger, I could more quickly get locked in to land more shots. The boost in responsiveness felt more noticeable with characters that can quickly burst automatic weapons (like Haze) than those who shoot one round of ammo at a time (like the archer Grey Talon).
I don’t envision many scenarios when I’d want to increase the actuation distance of the buttons. Although, it seems handy in extraction shooters, where your success can come down to keeping quiet at the right times. I’m prone to misfiring in games due to being nervous about making a play, so requiring more effort to click could aid me there. Regardless, it’s nice to have this flexibility afforded by the analog sensors.
I’ve watched and read a lot of coverage regarding the Superstrike since it launched, and my favorite was Dave2D’s video in which he comes to the conclusion that its lower latency and faster sensors de-aged his gaming chops, making him feel like he was in his prime again. As we age, our response time generally worsens, which explains why there are many, many young people in their teens and 20s who play games professionally, but not many who are older than that. The Superstrike is, unsurprisingly, proving to be popular with younger pros, like esports player Yigox, who recently used the mouse to win a Guinness World Record for most clicks in a minute at 760.
The Superstrike is not a magical youth serum for gamers. It doesn’t help you with aiming or provide unfair shortcuts to success. But its features aren’t gimmicks. Assuming you’re putting in the practice to get better at games, Logitech’s new mouse with its faster, more customizable clicks might help you hang with the competition a little longer.