Computer gaming mouse

Ultrapowerful Gaming Mouse

MANUFACTURER: Logitech

URL: www.logitech.com

PRICE: $49.95

Are you ready for a mouse that boasts better specs than your digital camera? With the ultrapowerful MX510 Performance Optical Mouse, Logitech has unleashed a gaming monster. Thanks to an MX Optical Engine boosted to 5.8 megapixels and a hefty 12-bit data path, you’ll see lightning-fast response times and accurate mouse-pointer movement—and you never know, it may just save your life.

While it’s potentially overkill for a strictly business user, the mouse is a shot of adrenaline for LAN-party junkies, giving you extra onscreen control and an alarmingly high degree of mouse-pointer speed. In fact, during testing, we had to lower the sensitivity gauge in the MouseWare driver because the 800-dpi MX510 was too much for our admittedly uncoordinated hands to handle out of the box. Once we configured it to our liking, an era of blissful gaming ensued.

Fashion and function?

With a unique holographic-swirl paint job, the MX510 looks like a tie-dyed T-shirt, so if you dress like a hippie, beware of potential color clashes. According to Logitech, a special magnetic painting process statistically guarantees each design is unique, although we couldn’t exactly test that theory out in our lab.

If you’re a serious gamer with $50 burning a hole in your pocket, you really can’t go wrong with the MX510. The megapixel uptick for this new breed of Logitech mouse provides an improvement in performance upon earlier models, notably the wireless MX700 and Bluetooth-enabled MX900, which both sport a 4.7-megapixel sensor. (A higher megapixel rating for a mouse generally translates into smoother, more accurate mouse movement.)

But should you throw out your old mouse? If it’s a ball-based design, yes (what are you waiting for?)—otherwise, think about it carefully. The MX510 is good, but if you already own a high-performance mouse, you probably won’t notice much of a difference…unless you really push performance boundaries.

Keep in mind that the MX510 is tethered to your PC via a USB cord, but also remember that wires are a frugal gamer’s best friend.

Verdict: 4.5 stars

Logitech’s paramount gaming mouse really takes the cheese.