Review of the Logitech G303 Daedalus Apex Gaming Mouse – The best mouse sensor I’ve used

Pros: Accurate sensor, lightweight, customisable colours
Cons: Lack of buttons, no weight adjustment, no dedicated physical profile button switch, ergonomics for medium/large hands

Build Quality: 10/10
Design & Looks: 4/10
Performance: 10/10
Software: 9.5/10
Value: 8/10
My final Rating: 9/10

Purchase Date: October 2015
Purchase Price: £50

Logitech G303 Mouse - Box

First of all I would like to thank Logitech for sending me the mouse for review. The mouse can be found on AmazonUK for around £50 & AmazonUSA for around $50 – as I am a UK based reviewer I will be reviewing it at the £50 price tag.

After previously reviewing the SteelSeries Sensei [RAW], the Razer DeathAdder Chroma and even the Steelseries Sensei Wireless, I was interested to see how the Logitech G303 would compare and furthermore if it could dethrone my Anker mouse, which is my daily mouse, whereby the other mice weren’t able to dethrone it.

Here’s my video review of the mouse:

Now let’s get into this written review!

Full specification and a description of the keyboard can be found on Logitech’s website.

Build quality

The build quality of the mouse is excellent, from the switches found under the left and right buttons to the USB cable. The mouse is terminated by a braided USB cable – the added touch of the braided cable is nice when using the mouse on various surfaces.

Logitech G303 Mouse - USB

The mouse itself is quite light, in fact according to Logitech it weighs only 87g without the cable, meaning the mouse is extremely lightweight. This can be a good and bad thing for some, depending on how heavy you like your mouse to be. Unfortunately the G303 doesn’t come with any weight adjustments, which to me is a let down given its price tag of £50. On the plus side, due to it being light it can be easily flicked across your mouse mat without the need of much effort. Speaking of which, under the mouse you’ll find small rubber bits that allow the mouse to slide around almost any surface – this is standard on almost every mouse, but thought to mention that these small rubber bits look very small, meaning over time I’m sure they’ll wear out.

Logitech G303 Mouse - Underneath

Speaking of surfaces, the mouse has a matte coating on it, meaning it’s non-slip and doesn’t pick up fingerprint marks all over it – unlike other mice I’ve previously reviewed.
I should also mention that there are three lights found on the G303, the two on the side of the mouse and one on the Logitech “G” logo. I’ll speak a little more about the lights in the design section of this review.

Logitech G303 Mouse - Contents

Finally, I would like to mention the “mechanical microswitches” and the “metal spring left/right button tensioning system” found under the left and right buttons. These two buttons are rated at “20 million clicks” which is quite a lot of clicking you’ll need to do to wear out this mouse. However to me the specs aren’t what’s interesting, but the actual feel of these switches. I felt that with the G303 my one-tap shots in Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO) became a lot better. This was the result of those switches being accurate and precise on the click. It might seem trivial to some, but when gaming at a competitive level that minor difference in a click can make a huge difference and for me it was very much the case. It’s hard to describe, but to put it simply: The clicks were precise and on-point with what I was trying to do.

Logitech G303 Mouse - Front view

This might not be particularly interesting for most, but for those gaming in MMORPG or RTS games, such as Dota 2 or League of Legends, the clicks per minute you can achieve is insanely high with the G303. I should also note that the mouse clicks weren’t loud or sharp sounding.

Overall, the build quality of the G303 is very good and I was impressed by the fast click rates I could achieve via the left and right buttons.

 

Design

Now the design part of the mouse is decent, but unfortunately to me isn’t that great – this can be seen as subjective (read on to find out).

Logitech G303 Mouse - G Logo

First of all I would like to talk about the lighting system. I do like the fact that you can change both the colour and way the colours are illuminated on the mouse. Both the G logo and the sides are independent from each other, however you cannot have two separate colours illuminating the mouse. I think it would have been a simple thing to include, but unfortunately this isn’t that case with the G303.
Another thing I wanted to mention is the actual heat that comes out of the lighting system – I found that after 2-3hrs of gaming, the G logo would feel too hot for my palm. Whereby it came to me switching off the G logo all together when setting the mouse on my gaming profile, as I didn’t want to feel uncomfortable during my longer gaming sessions. Again, this was only noticed with a long period of usage, so do bear that in mind.

Logitech G303 Mouse - Side

Moving on from the lights to the actual buttons found on the mouse itself. I was disappointed to only find 3 extra buttons to use. I understand this mouse isn’t like its brother the G502 which has a lot of extra mouse buttons, but I felt the G303 was really lacking buttons at its £50 price tag.

Another thing that was disappointing was the lack of a dedicated profile switch button. On my £25 Anker mouse there’s a very small button found under the mouse to allow you to switch between profiles. This simple inclusion is fantastic for those like me who use the mouse for different purposes – for media and gaming. Others might use it for different game profiles, which again it would prove to be useful.
Despite being able to switch any of the buttons to anything you desire via the software, including having a dedicated “Switch profile” button, it still takes away a button that would previously be used for something else. In other words, instead of having 3 buttons you would now have 2 buttons and a profile switch button. To me I need 4-5 buttons ideally and I’m an FPS gamer – so having 3 is already starving my needs. Logitech will say you can customise 6 buttons, but the other 3 buttons are the left and right buttons and the scroll wheel button, which are mandatory for me.

Logitech G303 Mouse - In-hand

Finally on the buttons as a right hander I have no problem using the mouse, but if you’re left-handed then you’ll find the two buttons on the left-hand side completely useless. I feel due to the shape of the mouse, Logitech could have included another two buttons on the right-hand side of the mouse, allowing left-hand suers to actually be able to use the mouse too. Again, a simple inclusion that wouldn’t have hurt the mouse’s design. Furthermore, if it is considered a obstruction by the designers, then the buttons can safely be disabled by users from the software.

Now moving on to the shape – which is a hate it or love it part of the mouse. The mouse is small and extremely low-profile, it’s specifications read:
Height:  115 mm (4.53 in)
Width:  65 mm (2.56 in)
Depth:  37 mm (1.46 in)

As you’ll be able to read, or potentially see from my video above, the mouse is very small in comparison to my Anker mouse (which has a similar ergonomic feel to the Razer DeathAdder). This means if you have medium or large sized hands the Logitech G303 is going to be a little awkward for you to use, not only due to its smaller size, but also due to its very flat structure.
To me this meant I was naturally uncomfortable using the mouse, but was able to re-adjust my hand placement to make it feasible to use. For your reference, from the top of my middle finger to the bottom of my palm it’s around 17-19cm.

Overall the design was disappointing, there were very little thing I would say that were that positive about its design, which is a shame as you’ll be able to read below, its performance is sensational.

Performance

For me this was the most interesting part of the mouse – I had read that the sensor inside, the Pixart PMW3366 sensor is regarded as one of the best mice out there, for various reasons – the main one being due to the close-to-null acceleration it has. Making the G303 and its brother the G502 which share the same sensor, one of the most accurate sensors on the market today. An impressive title to have, especially coming from mice enthusiasts, that test the mice to death.

As I am no professional mouse tester or one that will be able to go into a lot of technical details about the sensor, I would just like to share my personal experiences and how I felt it compares to other sensors I’ve come across.

Logitech G303 Mouse - Design

The Logitech G303, to me, felt like the best mouse I’ve ever used. It not only helped my tracking to be perfect, but also really improved my responsiveness as I could, for the first time ever, fully disable all types of mouse acceleration, both in-games and in Windows. Something I’ve always wanted to do, but never truly been able to, due to the mice I’ve had. The DeathAdder was the closest mouse that made me want to switch off all acceleration, but lacked that little bit of tracking that the G303 possesses.

Logitech G303 Mouse - Windows Acceleration

I never thought I would have been able to move off my Anker mouse to a mouse that’s less ergonomic and fundamentally badly designed ergonomically, but purely down to its performance the Logitech G303 became my go-to mouse and as I’m typing this the Anker mouse has found itself in a cupboard, whilst the Logitech G303 sits as my primary mouse. Maybe I’ll be able to take a look at the G502 in the future, which seems to be better built design wise for my needs, but for the time being, the G303 is the king of the desk.

Logitech G303 Mouse - Primary Mouse

 

Just to re-iterate what I’m trying to say above, the mouse’s performance is excellent, the tracking from left to right (with quick swipes) and the tracking on a lot of surfaces is excellent. The Logitech G303 also hold over 12,000 DPI for you to use, but I personally use it at 1,450 with a sensitivity of around 40% in Windows and in CSGO of 0.6. To me that’s more than enough and a lot of pro gamers even play at 400-600 DPI as they don’t really need more from their mice. This is all subjective, and I even know a friend who uses his mouse on a ridiculously high DPI – so 12,000 DPI is there for you to play with.

Overall, if it isn’t obvious already, the mouse’s performance is sensational. It’s something that’s really changed my gaming habits and even my general PC usage, by having mouse acceleration completely disabled (some would argue there’s still a minimal amount of acceleration in Windows, even with the settings disabled). Either way, it’s extremely impressive to see the G303 really do so well.

 

Software

The software that’s bundled with the G303 is the Logitech Gaming software, which works alongside other Logitech Gaming products, such as my Logitech G710+ mechanical keyboard. The software is excellent from top to bottom and does everything you would want it to – from changing the RGB colours to assigning custom macros per button. What’s even better about the software is that it changes the settings of your mouse in real-time, without you having to hit save or anything, which is something really intuitive in comparison to its competitors’ software. I am running on Windows 10 64-bit too, and didn’t experience any sorts of problems when using the software with my operating system.

I should mention one thing that I would have liked to see – due to the lack of a dedicated profile switch, it would have been great to be able to right click on the taskbar icon found in Windows to switch profiles quickly. In other words, without having to open the software to switch profiles would have been extremely handy and useful for those wanting to keep those 3 buttons that I had previously mentioned.

Logitech G303 Mouse - Taskbar

Overall the software works great and complements the mouse well.

Conclusion

 

Logitech G303 Mouse - Design

Overall, the Logitech G303 is a fantastic mouse, mainly due to the Pixart PMW3366 sensor that’s found inside it, without it I feel the G303 would have also ended up in my drawers as “yet another mouse” – as without the flawless sensor, the G303 doesn’t really offer much. It’s ergonomics are awkward, its lighting customisability could be better, has limited buttons and doesn’t have any customisable weights.
Even without all these things included, simply due to its performance, the Logitech G303 has become my favourite mouse – it’s hard for me to think it, because several years ago, I felt my Logitech MX Revolution couldn’t be de-throned as my multimedia mouse, then came the Anker mouse. Now, due to me gaming more competitively, the G303 has taken the throne.
In conclusion, if you’re looking for one of the best performing mice out there, you should get the Logitech G303 – do bear in mind its flaws and especially its ergonomics though!

Hope you enjoyed my review!
TotallydubbedHD

2 thoughts on “Review of the Logitech G303 Daedalus Apex Gaming Mouse – The best mouse sensor I’ve used

  1. Peter

    Very lovely little mouse looking to upgrade my mouse for my fps games especially for battlefield. This cheap little thing i got form ebay is actually not bad but i’m assuming ones like thi would improve my gameplay overall (not that it needs it 😉

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *