I’ve by no means reviewed an ideal product, however Logitech’s Powerplay Wi-fi Charging System comes shut. For over three years and counting, I’ve by no means even needed to assume about charging my wi-fi mouse. It’s so dead simple, it feels like magic, and it’s disgrace that most individuals in all probability can’t afford it at $120.
The excellent news: Logitech is releasing a new $100 version in March, referred to as the Powerplay 2, and it’s simply as simple to arrange. Plug in mousepad, snap a magnetic “Charging Coin” into the bottom of your mouse, then put mouse on mousepad to repeatedly cost.
The dangerous information: It’s solely $20 cheaper, but it looks like Logitech made its mousepad greater than $20 cheaper to hit that aim.
The mousepad does include enhancements. Logitech boasts it has a 15 p.c wider charging space and is thinner at simply 3.5mm, and that’s what I see with my evaluation unit. Now, so long as everything of my G502 Lightspeed mouse is resting inside any nook of the mousepad, the charging indicator lights up, which wasn’t fairly true of the unique. My calipers do learn 3.5mm after I’m measuring the charging base and its skinny material mousing floor collectively.
However my calipers additionally present the charging base is precisely the identical 2.7mm thickness as earlier than, and the outdated mousepad wasn’t all that a lot thicker: simply 4.3mm earlier than vs. 3.5mm now, a distinction I don’t really feel. And do you permit your mouse all the way in which on the corners of your mousepad? Once more, I’ve spent over three years charging this mouse on the outdated mousepad with out even enthusiastic about it. I by no means hassle to reposition my mouse on my outdated Powerplay to verify it’s charging; I simply drop it after I’m accomplished utilizing it, and I’ve by no means as soon as run out of cost.
What will we lose with the Powerplay 2? First, whereas Logitech has ditched the outdated micro-USB cable, we’re not getting USB-C. As an alternative, Logitech’s opted for a fastened cable, so I can’t as simply take the mousepad off my desk on days I want extra space on my desk.
The massive one: there’s no extra wi-fi mouse receiver constructed into the Powerplay 2, a characteristic I discovered helpful with the unique. Now, my mouse requires two full-size USB ports as a substitute of 1 as a result of I nonetheless have to depart the mouse’s dongle plugged into my PC, too. I can’t depart the dongle stowed within the mouse for grab-and-go journey, and I can’t depart it in my laptop computer and swap between laptop computer and desktop anymore by turning the mouse on and off and yanking the Powerplay’s plug.
There’s additionally no extra programmable RGB mild contained in the Logitech G brand. I don’t terribly miss that, since I don’t sync up gamer lights. However the boring black Logitech G feels cheaper; earlier than, the RGB was at the least a pleasant reassuring reminder that my mousepad was correctly receiving USB energy and prepared for motion.
And, whereas I do like the brand new thinner mousepad that comes with the Powerplay 2, which seems prefer it may not delaminate from its backing as simply as the unique (it’s the one piece of my Powerplay that has deteriorated over the previous three years), the unique Powerplay got here with two mousepads (one exhausting, one fabric) within the field. Now, you get the one.
(Additionally, simply as FYI, the brand new Powerplay 2 charging coin doesn’t appear to work with the unique pad and vice versa. You possibly can’t combine and match these elements.)
I attempted exhausting to get Logitech to point out me extra advantages, as a result of the unique’s one in all my favourite merchandise. Maybe this one’s a lot simpler for Logitech to supply that it’ll provide some nice reductions, or promote wonderful bundles after launch? Or maybe that 15 p.c bigger charging space will turn out to be useful for possible additional supercapacitor mice that’d react worse than battery mice in the event that they aren’t getting reliably fed, although the present supercap G309 appears to work high quality with the unique Powerplay in my early assessments.
Logitech wouldn’t touch upon future supercap merchandise, wouldn’t trace at gross sales, and wouldn’t promise its personal bundles — although Logitech does “anticipate retailers can be providing bundles shortly after launch,” in line with Logitech senior world advertising and marketing supervisor Andrew Siminoff.
The unique Powerplay is not in inventory at main retailers, so I anticipate it’ll quickly fetch a premium worth on eBay. However the Powerplay 2 nonetheless looks like an excellent product that achieves the core aim. Fingers crossed that come Black Friday, we’ll have the ability to purchase a combo pack with it and Logitech’s least expensive appropriate mouse — that G309 — for below $100 in whole.
The Powerplay 2 needs to be accessible on Amazon and Logitech’s site on March eleventh.