Logitech G240 Mouse Pad: review

Hardware provided by the manufacturer

Remember back in the days when tables were made of nothing but splintered wood and mice rolled along on primitive balls? Uneven surfaces, less than satisfactory ball movement and the threat of dust and hair clogging up your precious ball port made a mouse mat essential. But we live in the future now! Desks are smoother than oiled silk and mice hover on magical lasers that translate physical wrist wiggles to screen movement that’s more precise than ever. Do we even need mouse mats anymore? Logitech argues that we do with the G240.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when the roll arrived in the post, with the hexagonal tube looking nothing like a mouse mat as I knew it. I’ll admit, it had been a while since I’d used a mouse mat let alone unpackaged one. Inspecting it closely, I noticed that one end invited me to “Touch Sample on Bottom”. After a childish giggle to myself, I ran my fingers across the base and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t the redundant desk-like or overly squishy foam padded surface I was half expecting, but instead it was smooth and cloth-like. I opened up the tube to find the mat itself rolled up, ready to unfurl on my desk.

At just 1mm in thickness, this seriously lightweight piece of mouse furniture is very portable and ideal if your computer desk away from home is less than desirable for mousing. Not only that, but as the profile is so low you’re not going to nudge it out of place by accident and upset the feng shui around your personal space. The grippy padding on the base also helps secure it in place, just as you’d expect from any good mouse mat.

Compared to using the mouse on a hardwood surface, the difference is immediately noticeable. Things feel a lot smoother, as you’d naturally expect, with none of the slightly gritty grindy sounds you get for dragging a mouse all over your work space. The immediate difference I noticed was a surprising amount of friction, but not in a jarring way. As I tend to prefer heavier mice with the DPI settings turned up, the increased friction translated as a slight improvement in precision. It’s barely noticeable, especially after you’ve used it for two minutes, but it’s still there. It might be an issue if you’re using a less sensitive mouse, especially for gaming, but it’s not something that will throw up major barriers or break down the walls to gaming utopia either way.

An interesting note on the back of the box states that the surface has been matched to Logitech G sensors, like those found in the G303, G502 and other recently released gaming mice from the manufacturer. With mice that feature Logitech’s surface tuning detection technology, we’re sure that the G240 mouse pad provides the optimum surface for the sensors. I’ll admit, I didn’t notice a dramatic change in performance when tuning my Logitech mice to the cloth surface, but they already agreed with my desk anyway. If you’ve experienced any kind of trouble before, this pad should remedy that.

As far as design is concerned, I must admit I’m a little disappointed. The mat is all black with the exception of the Logitech G logo in the bottom right corner. You could argue that a mouse pad doesn’t need any bling other than the rodent that scurries around on it, but the solid colour and logo combo feels a little corporate. Even a subtle design would have added a bit of variety.

The other issue that a black surface throws up is that it’s a total dirt magnet. As a relatively new beard owner, I’m only just discovering the joys of wiping loose whiskers from my desk on a daily basis. But my stray facial hair appears to form colonies on the silky smooth surface of the G240, regularly partying with bits of dust and small particles that I really hope are just leftover crumbs from lunch. Within a week the pad is already dusty and speckled with the daily detritus of computer based living.

This dirt issue isn’t exactly helped by the size of it. Despite being 34cm wide, I only really use the central 15cm, even in the most extreme cases of sweeping the cursor. That means there’s more than 50% of the width that remains mouse free during regular use. It has however left plenty of space to publically display how infrequently I dust my computer space. There’s oodles of room that makes it feel a little excessive, especially considering the range of hyper sensitive gaming mice Logitech have launched recently. Reducing the size by 20 to 30% would certainly make it a lot more practical.

So do you need the Logitech G240 mouse pad? It’s handy if you can’t trust yourself to keep a portion of your desk quarantined from clutter to ensure you mouse has ample space to roam around. Likewise, it performs all of the duties from a mouse mat you would expect (for example, there are no lumps in it) and it performs them well. If you’ve never experienced an issue with your plain old desk surface, then we’d file the G240 under the ‘nice to have’ category. It won’t make a huge difference to your mouse activity and will take up more space than you’d typically use. If however you’re after something to add to the clean aesthetics of your gaming space, then this all-black number nicely identifies your designated rodent roaming area. There’s nothing flashy about it, but it’s practical and provides you with an ideal surface and a clean look (with regular dusting) if you’ve been lacking one.