They made a great name for themselves, producing excellent peripherals and gaming accessories, including some of the world’s finest gaming mice and keyboards. It looks like the company decided to agressively reboot its gaming business and first of the products with the new concept was the G303 Deadalus APEX mouse.


The Logitech G303 Deadalus APEX mouse, is a smaller version of one of Logitech's flagship mice. Our general idea is to test many of Logitech mice in order to answer the eternal question: Which Logitech gaming mouse should I buy? The G303 was the first of many.

The Logitech G303 Daedalus APEX is a lightweight, compact gaming mouse that features Logitech's latest sensor, and a flexible braded cable. If this is not enough it features RGB lights on the top and sides of the mouse. With its six programmable buttons, it might not be the first choice if you are after a highly customizable mouse, but six buttons will be enough for most FPS players.

Design

The G303 Daedalus APEX is an almost symmetrical mouse. There is no thumb rest and with its weight of 87 grams, it is a really compact and light. The mouse itself weighs 87g, while the mouse and cable get you to 127g. Some will like the fact it is light and small, others won’t. The good thing is that Logitech has a large gaming mice portfolio to choose from.

Personally, I use a palm grip while playing, and if you are the same like me, you might not feel too comfortable with this compact mouse. The G303 Daedalus APEX is too small to have my hand over it all the times. Despite the fact that G303 has pointed angles and long design, I would personally like to see it a bit longer. I preferred the G502 over this one, but at the same time some of Fudzilla team members would prefer a smaller mouse such as G303 Daedalus APEX.


The claw grip fits small handed users who will find this mouse very comfortable. The APEX features thumb buttons on the left side only, so it is a right handed mouse. Lefties will have to skip this one as it won’t work for them. The surface coating of the mouse feels comfortable. I like the fact that the surface is not rubberized, because it won’t wear out over time.

The programmable RGB lighting on the sides is interesting, and you’ll either love or hate it. The dotted pattern might not be the best for everyone, but you still have colors that can make things look better. The G sight in the middle looks really nice.

Specification

System Requirements

• Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 or Windows Vista
• Powered USB port
• Internet connection and 150MB hard drive space (for optional software download)
• Package Contents
• Mouse
• User documentation
• Technical Specifications
• Most accurate sensor on the market
• 32-bit microcontroller 3 onboard profiles
• Primary buttons rated to 20 million clicks
• Mechanical microswitches
• Braided cable with hook and loop cable tie 6 programmable buttons
• On-the-fly DPI Switching
• Metal spring left/right button tensioning system
• 1 millisecond report High-speed clicking
• Tracking Resolution:
• 200 – 12,000 dpi
• Max. acceleration: >40G*
• Max. speed: >300 ips*
• Tested on Logitech G240 Gaming Mouse Pad
• Responsiveness
• USB data format: 16 bits/axis
• USB report rate: 1000 Hz (1ms)
• Microprocessor: 32-bit ARM
• Glide
• Dynamic coefficient of friction:* 0.11 ? (k)
• Static coefficient of friction:* 0.17 ? (s)
• *Tested on wood-veneer desktop.
• Durability
• Buttons (Left / Right): 20 million clicks
• Feet: 250 kilometers
• Physical specifications
• Height: 4.53 in (115 mm)
• Width: 2.56 in (65 mm)
• Depth: 1.46 in (37 mm)
• Weight: 4.48 oz, mouse plus cable (127 g)
• Weight: 3.07 oz, mouse only (87 g)
  
  

Features

The G303 Daedalus APEX relies on Logitech Gaming Software. There are six programmable buttons on the G303. You will find the right and left click button, clickable scroll wheel, DPI button and two thumb buttons. The mouse has an advanced optical sensor, the best optical sensor that Logitech has to offer at the moment. The sensor in question is designated PMW3366 and it uses Delta Zero technology. It delivers exceptional tracking while minimizing speed-related accuracy variance, commonly known as “mouse acceleration“. This will allow quicker reactions and more consistent targeting.

With Logitech’s metal spring button tensioning system, this mouse delivers really impressive gaming performance. Logitech claims that a professional gamer who “trains” 10 hours a day, every day for two years won’t be able to break the left of right button. The company has tested that this pro gamer mouse can sustain 20 million clicks without breaking. This is a lot of hours and lot of clicking. You can save three profiles of your DPI settings on the mouse.

You can switch between them on-the-fly with the DPI switch / button. This is a very practical feature for many FPS players. The DPI setting can range from 200 up to a mind-blowing 12.000 DPI. We tried to play with the switch and we found that we prefer around 750 DPI. For some games we preferred a bit higher, and when editing text on the website sometimes we used the 1500 DPI or higher. It just gets you around faster, especially on 27-inch or bigger monitors. Some people who like to play really fast will go as crazy as 6000 DPI or even 12000 DPI. You just need to find what fits you the best.

Let’s go back to the software. The first thing you will notice is that it you can upgrade the firmware on your mouse. We did it the first time when we connected the sample. It takes less than a minute to do. In case you previously owned a Logitech mouse, the software will detect the new one and it will offer to upgrade itself.



The software supports per-game software profiles, which will allow you to use custom settings for different games. It will allow you to store settings on the onboard memory and, as we mentioned, it will allow you do adjust the lighting or do surface tuning. The software also supports saving up the three different profiles. It will even let you like Logitech G on Facebook or follow them on Twitter, and of course it will let you record functions for further analysis.

The Daedalus APEX lighting can be customized from a palette that supports up to 16.8 million colors (24-bit). Do we need that many shades? Probably not, but it is nice to have them. It definitely give us an impression we will have no trouble matching the color perfectly with the rest of our desktop. There is no way you won’t find the color that matches your personal setup. The best thing with this mouse is that it can match your favorite T-Shirt.

Performance

During my testing, the mouse performed flawlessly. Switching DPI on the fly was very easy and the scroll wheel button is very usable. As you can imagine, this was a great tool to have in some of my favorite FPS games including Counter Strike Global Offensive, Battlefield 4 or Bioshock Infinity. Don’t worry, it will run your favorite FPS game just fine. If you are not the FPS lover you can try the mouse with games like DOTA 2, but as we mentioned earlier, you will be limited to six buttons. Some other mice from Logitech have more programmable buttons.

Two thumb buttons may be not enough for some hard-core players. This symmetrical and overall small design was a little bit interfering with my game play, but that’s a matter of personal preference.

The scroll button gives you almost perfect resistance, so you won’t initiate the scroll accidentally. We played with the button on the on G502 Proteus Core and we found it much more sensitive than on the G303. We prefer the G303 scroll over the previous model, as the G502 scroll would just scroll to eternity and it might skip your favorite weapon as it would just run over it too fast. The fact that you can click the scroll button and do it with much more precision is very helpful. The Logitech G303 has a top notch sensor and great in game performance. The PMW3366 sensor is the same one that Logitech used in the G502 Proteus Core mouse. It was well accepted and with the release of G303 Daedalus Apex, Logitech decided to reveal additional details about the sensor that were previously not made public.

The sensor features the exclusive Clock Tuning Technology, Delta Zero Technology, Zero Smoothing, Zero Filtering, No Pixel Rounding, No Pixel Doubling and Sensor Surface Tuning. The sensor can track maximum of >40G with maximal speed of >300 ips. These are the numbers tested on Logitech G240 Gaming Mouse Pad. The mouse features a 32-bit ARM processor, 16 bit per axis USB data format and USB report rate of 1000 Hz (1ms). You can adjust the report rate between 125 and 1000 in Logitech Gaming Software.

The sensor in G303 Daedalus Apex has zero smoothing or filtering across the entire DPI range for maximum responsiveness. This works even at high sensitivity settings. Smoothing is a comparison of multiple cycles of sensor data to smooth out cursor movement. Smoothing introduces a delay that can cause mouse pointer movement to visibly lag behind hand movement. The sensor in the G303 Daedalus Apex has absolutely zero smoothing or filtering for maximum responsiveness.

Clock Tuning is an exclusive technology available with the PMW3366 sensor in Logitech mice. It allows mice like G303 Daedalus Apex to reach higher speeds. Clock Tuning also prevents degradation of speed and acceleration characteristics throughout the life of the product.

We would like to see this mouse in some XL version, as it would fit people like myself a bit better, along with people with slightly larger hands in general. For all enthusiast this mouse is definitely worth checking and as you probably know by now, you should try it out before you buy it.

Verdict

The G303 Daedalus APEX is yet another great mouse from the house of Logitech G. It delivers great performance with a clean exterior.

But before you buy it, I really think you should head to a hardware store and to take it into the hand to see if it fits. This is especially true if you happen to be upgrading from an older and bigger Logitech. For me personally, the mouse is a little bit too small, but as we said there are some larger mice from Logitech that will do just fine.

The price of $69.99 doesn't make it the cheapest kid on the block, as we are talking about a relatively simple design with six buttons. It is definitely targeting people with slightly smaller hands. Since the G303 mouse now sells for sub $50 or around €55 it is much easier to recommend this gaming mouse.

On the other hand, it offers a top of the line sensor and switches with perfect resistance. There is a lot of technology behind this mouse and it is definitely worth considering. We have proven with weeks of fragging people that the technology works great.

Overall if you are looking for a new mouse, and if you want a compact mouse, the G303 Daedalus APEX is a good choice.

Pros

• Compact, sleek design
• Performance
• Top of the line sensor
• Small

Cons

• Small