I’ve by no means reviewed an ideal product, however Logitech’s Powerplay Wireless Charging System comes shut. For over three years and counting, I’ve by no means even needed to suppose about charging my wi-fi mouse. It’s so lifeless easy, it seems like magic, and it’s disgrace that most individuals most likely can’t afford it at $120.
The excellent news: Logitech is releasing a brand new $100 model in March, referred to as the Powerplay 2, and it’s simply as straightforward 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 unhealthy information: It’s solely $20 cheaper, but it seems like Logitech made its mousepad greater than $20 cheaper to hit that objective.
The mousepad does include enhancements. Logitech boasts it has a 15 % wider charging space and is thinner at simply 3.5mm, and that’s what I see with my evaluation unit. Now, so long as the whole lot 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.
But my calipers additionally present the charging base is strictly the identical 2.7mm thickness as earlier than, and the previous 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 allow your mouse all the way in which on the corners of your mousepad? Again, I’ve spent over three years charging this mouse on the previous mousepad with out even occupied with it. I by no means hassle to reposition my mouse on my previous Powerplay to verify it’s charging; I simply drop it after I’m finished 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 previous micro-USB cable, we’re not getting USB-C. Instead, Logitech’s opted for a fastened cable, so I can’t as simply take the mousepad off my desk on days I would like more room on my desk.
The large one: there’s no extra wi-fi mouse receiver constructed into the Powerplay 2, a characteristic I discovered useful with the unique. Now, my mouse requires two full-size USB ports as an alternative of 1 as a result of I nonetheless have to depart the mouse’s dongle plugged into my PC, too. I can’t go away the dongle stowed within the mouse for grab-and-go journey, and I can’t go away it in my laptop computer and change 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 emblem. I don’t terribly miss that, since I don’t sync up gamer lights. But the boring black Logitech G feels cheaper; earlier than, the RGB was no less than 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 to be 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 onerous, one fabric) within the field. Now, you get the one.
(Also, simply as FYI, the brand new Powerplay 2 charging coin doesn’t appear to work with the unique pad and vice versa. You can’t combine and match these elements.)
I attempted onerous to get Logitech to indicate me extra advantages, as a result of the unique’s one among my favourite merchandise. Perhaps this one’s a lot simpler for Logitech to supply that it’ll supply some nice reductions, or promote wonderful bundles after launch? Or maybe that 15 % bigger charging space will turn out to be useful for doable further 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 advantageous 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 might be providing bundles shortly after launch,” in accordance with Logitech senior world advertising supervisor Andrew Siminoff.
The unique Powerplay is now not in inventory at main retailers, so I count on it would quickly fetch a premium value on eBay. But the Powerplay 2 nonetheless looks as if product that achieves the core objective. Fingers crossed that come Black Friday, we’ll have the ability to purchase a combo pack with it and Logitech’s most cost-effective appropriate mouse — that G309 — for beneath $100 in whole.
The Powerplay 2 ought to be out there on Amazon and Logitech’s website on March eleventh.
