Logitech G309 LIGHTSPEED Mouse Review

Logitech G309 LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Mouse

design

At a time where gaming mice are getting more flamboyant with outlandish shapes and impactful RGB lighting, Logitech has gone simple and classic with the G309 Lightspeed. I’m tempted to say boring, but I won’t go quite that far, it’s actually quite an old-school design with a nearly symmetrical shape. The main point of interest comes from the negative space across the middle which despite looking tailor made for an LED glow, serves little other purpose than collecting dust and I suppose saving a little weight. Unlike some of Logitech’s other mice that offer more outlandish colour and design options, you’re down to just a choice between white or black with the G309 – I’ve been testing the latter.

The Logitech G309 Lightspeed is both light and small but without being the lightest or smallest thing going around, landing it in a slightly awkward middleground. I have reasonably large hands and found it a little smaller than my usual palm grip would prefer, but not so small as to be uncomfortable. With a single AA battery fitted, the Logi G309 weighs in at 85g – putting it well above other lightweight options but keeping it at quite a reasonable level for general use. You can trim this down to just over 68g with Logitech’s clever Powerplay wireless power system, but that’ll also set you back another £120. 

It’s a pretty standard 6-button layout on the G309 with two reasonably-sized side buttons, a top button and clickable scroll wheel joining your standard left and right clicks. It’s a neat and compact layout but despite the G309’s symmetrical design, it’s noticeably right-hand favoured. While the mouse is just as comfortable to hold left-handed, and the primary clicks can easily be reversed in Logitech’s G Hub software, the placement of the side buttons would probably end up more of an annoyance than anything else. They’re too far back to be realistically useable, even with some finger gymnastics, and more likely to be accidentally clicked than deliberately.

The fixed PTFE skates do a nice job of offering low resistance and are holding up impressively well, through a few weeks of testing on a hard desk surface they’re showing no signs of scratches or marks. These would show up pretty clearly too because bizarrely, despite an entirely black mouse body on the Logitech G309, the feet are brilliant white. You don’t see them and it’s a complete non-issue, I just found it a strange design choice. It’s nice to see pre-cut grip stickers included in the box though, along with a USB extension cable for the USB receiver.

performance

Logitech has been my go-to mouse for a while, in various forms actually. For day to day productivity and office work I use the Logitech MX Master 3S and for gaming and streaming it’s the G502 X Plus, both of those are larger mice with a greater overall footprint so the G309 Lightspeed took a little getting used to. One thing that was familiar however was the baseline performance of the G309 because the HERO 25K sensor is the same as you’ll find inside the jazzier G502 X Plus. I’m far from a pro gamer and not going to try to claim I can feel the intricate differences from one sensor to another, but I was impressed by the responsiveness and reliability of the Logitech G309 Lightspeed.

There are two connection options for the Logitech G309 and while each were equally easy to set up, they both come with their own pros and cons. To get the maximum performance with minimum latency then the Lightspeed USB receiver is the way to go, for more than 600 hours of battery life and to save a USB port – go Bluetooth. You’ll find a button on the bottom of the G309 to quickly switch between the two, great for sharing the same mouse between two setups. It’s also worth noting the G309’s firmware can only be updated via the Lightspeed receiver and you’ll be locked out of making customisations in G Hub until you update. With no onboard storage space for the dongle I left it behind when travelling overseas and was unable to tweak anything while I was away as a result. 

Using the Logitech G309 Lightspeed for a few weeks has been entirely fine but equally unimpressive. It’s a perfectly good mouse for both gaming and general productivity but for me, lacks a real standout feature to make it one to go for. The primary left and right button clicks are snappy and responsive with quite a light actuation force. The side buttons are a little softer and require a more deliberate push but I appreciated this and it prevented misclicks while still being easy to fire off when I meant to.

The G309’s two central inputs aren’t quite as strong however again both are entirely OK. While the scroll wheel is nicely textured, there’s no infinite or smooth scrolling option here and the ratcheted steps are a little far apart for my liking. There’s a small amount of wobble side by side, though not enough to cause a major problem, and it takes quite a firm push to press it down so no risk of accidental presses. The same is true of the standalone middle button which is pleasantly low profile and takes a deliberate press to trigger. It’s not in the most easily accessible place though, I wasn’t able to click it without moving most of my hand so the quickfire options of this button are limited.

As with most of its other G branded devices, the Logitech G309 is nicely customisable using the G Hub app. Sure, there might not be quite as many actionable buttons here as you’ll see on other gaming mice but there’s full flexibility to bind things to your liking. The G Hub app is unsurprisingly simple to use and the ability to save full maps is a nice touch. 

summed up

Ultimately the Logitech G309 Lightspeed doesn’t do a whole lot wrong, it’s a perfectly acceptable gaming mouse that will do the job when it comes to productivity too. The disappointment for me is that the G309 does little to stand out or set itself apart in a very competitive market.

The design is simple but bordering on boring, sensor performance is snappy without being standout while the customisation potential covers the basics and not much more. It’s all good without being great and while I’m sure the Logitech G309 Lightspeed won’t let many people down, it’s unlikely to be a mouse worth shouting about.