Logitech is all set to launch its latest gaming mouse innovation when the Logitech G Pro X2 Superstrike goes on sale soon. Packing in the company’s brand-new, haptic-based, switch-replacing button technology, the company claims Superstrike can save you 30ms of click latency compared to a normal mouse, potentially revolutionizing how all future gaming mice will work. Ahead of its launch, Logitech invited PCGamesN to tour its headquarters and Innovation Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, to see just how the company goes about designing, engineering, and testing its latest mice.
The likes of the G502 X Plus and G Pro X Superlight 2 feature on our best gaming mouse guide, as among the top options for those seeking an ultra-versatile mouse or esports-focused ultralight gaming mouse, respectively, and it’s the latter that Logitech is iterating on with its new G Pro X2 Superstrike. We got to see the test equipment behind how Logitech was able to take the novel idea of using a linear magnetic sensor and haptics to potentially change gaming mice forever.
As a Swiss company, Logitech’s headquarters in Lausanne is on the site of the country’s EPFL Federal Technology Institute. While the view from its door is mostly of other campus buildings, when the skies clear, a view of Lake Geneva and the French Alps on its far shore is clear to see. I’m not sure it helps design gaming mice, but it’s certainly an inspiring spot (the lake-shore view above was taken a few miles up the road).
Logitech has several design and manufacturing locations around the world, but the Lausanne site is its center for designing gaming mice, and is where it houses a host of specialized testing areas. After a briefing on what we can expect from the new Superstrike mouse and its button technology, we were shuffled along to the first test area, where we were shown how Logitech came up with and tested the tech.
Essentially, Superstrike (or quick-strike as it was originally internally named) is a technology that completely replaces the standard switches that sit under the left and right buttons on a mouse. While we’ve seen companies replace electronic switches with optical ones, Superstrike entirely replaces the idea of a standard off/on switch.
Instead, Superstrike uses a linear magnetic sensor that can measure tiny movements. Logitech uses this to offer the player ten different levels of button sensitivity, from one being the most sensitive to ten being the least. Set it to one, and the slightest pressure from your finger will cause the mouse to trigger a button click, while at ten it takes considerably more travel distance to trigger a click.
On its own, this linear, analog sensing could be useful, but it provides no feedback to the user, other than a response happening on screen. The audible and physical click of a switch just isn’t there. So, Logitech uses a tiny haptic motor to provide a click-like feel when the button press is triggered. This combined system, Logitech has dubbed Haptic Inductive Trigger System (HITS).
It sounds like an overly complicated solution to a problem that many people might think doesn’t exist, but it does work, and I’ll tell you how well in my review of the mouse, soon. However, not only are there some benefits in terms of adjustability and customization, but Logitech has some hard data to back up why it developed this tech as well.
Using a custom-made test rig pictured above, Logitech was able to show how, when the Superstrike technology is set to its fastest response, the reduction in click latency from a finger starting to press a mouse button and it actually triggering the click can be reduced by as much as 30ms.
For comparison, Logitech points to how increasing your mouse’s polling rate from 1kHz to 8kHz reduces its signal latency by a fraction of a millisecond, so the reduction with Superstrike is orders of magnitude more impactful.
This test rig uses two pretend fingers, controlled by precise motors, to click the buttons of two mice, sensing the exact moment the finger presses the top surface of the button (via the copper foil on the top of the button), then waits for the click response from the buttons as the motorized finger continues to descend. It also uses a high-speed camera to see the button move and track how the response relates to the position of the button.
Logitech also tested its new tech with dozens of pro gamers – the target market for a mouse like the X2 Superstrike – as well as some non-pro gamers to see how the click latency reduction worked with real fingers. Across all the data, everyone saw at least a slight reduction in click latency, with some non-pro gamers seeing as high as a 36ms latency reduction by using Superstrike, though in some cases it was as little as 8ms.
I also got to test Superstrike and was able to see for myself just how much quicker it can feel than a normal mouse switch. I tested a prototype of the mouse last year, when Logitech first announced the innovation, but had mere moments to try it then. This time, I was able to really compare the different sensing levels and haptic click intensities. Moreover, I was able to test just how fast the mouse can click, and sure enough, it’s immediately obvious just how much faster it feels. Whether it feels transformative in-game is something I’ll report more on in my full review.
Moving on to the next test area, we were shown how Logitech tests the sensors and tracking surfaces of its mice, using all sorts of custom-designed rigs that variously move tracking surfaces around underneath sensors (to test new sensors and different surfaces), move mice over spinning discs (to test for and optimize tracking speed), and pick up and slide a mouse back and forth (to optimzie lift-off distance and more). This lab and its gear are also used to optimize the sensor for ultra-fast tracking and 8kHz polling, while maintaining reasonable power consumption.
Logitech says that the 888 sensor (888IPS tracking speed, 8kHz polling rate, 88g acceleration) that it has packed into the G Pro X2 Superstrike is pushing the limits of what can be achieved with current signalling, though the actual sensors can run even faster.
Another crucial part of the design and testing process is the radio frequency (RF) optimization and validation, required to ensure that your wireless mouse signal works consistently at a decent range, but also that it complies with RF safety standards. To this end they use two anechoic chambers (acoustic and RF-isolating boxes) to set up their new gaming gear, then test for the signal intensity coming from them.
This testing includes using a fake hand to see how a hand can block the signal from a mouse. One Logitech engineer pointed out to me that an optimal antenna for the 2.4GHz microwave frequency used by gaming mice would be about 4 inches long, but they have to fit it into a few millimeters inside a mouse. This space also had several RF signal-intensity charts dotted around it, showing just how much some mice are much more significantly affected by the introduction of a hand to their signal integrity, and showing how optimizing this small, invisible feature can be crucial to reliable performance.
Ergonomics is another crucial factor for the design team, and when it comes to optimizing mouse and other peripheral designs to be comfortable, Logitech uses a host of sensing gear. This includes test subjects having their arms hooked up to muscle-sensing probes that track how much or how little certain peripherals use your different muscles. So, for instance, a trackball uses far fewer muscles overall, and with far less intensity, than using a mouse, showing why they are one of the more well-known ways to help reduce RSI for many users.
Other tests include pressure-sensing pads underneath your wrists to show just how much a soft wrist rest can help not just raise up your wrists for a better typing position, but actually reduce the pressure points on them, too. This is less applicable to gaming mice, which are all about speed and keeping your mouse nimble, but it’s good to see there’s really solid science behind some of the ergonomic best practices many organizations espouse.
The final lab location of our Lausanne trip was the design department. Here, the team tests new color combos, material choices – cork being the latest buzzword for sustainability, despite the lab identifying a tendency for it to go moldy – plus, of course, they test new mouse shapes and try out new pie-in-the-sky mouse ideas, like the one you see at the top of this article. This hollow mouse concept is nothing more than the 3D printing pen-created model, but I’m intrigued by the idea of not just a mouse with holes in it, but a mouse that’s effectively nothing but holes.
Speaking of mice with holes in, Logitech told me that the reason it hasn’t embraced the trend for mice with holes in the outer case is that there are a host of engineering reasons why it’s not the most practical choice. Dirt ingress, creating a product that doesn’t leave potentially dangerous components exposed to kids poking items through the holes, and simply the fact that once you add holes to a surface, you often have to use a thicker material in the first place. Without holes, you can often just use a thinner material to save as much weight.
True leaps in any technology tend to be unpredictable, but they often arrive on the back of the consistent, persistent, iterative hard work of teams solving a myriad smaller problems. The alpine air, chocolate, and good coffee probably help, too.
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