First Looks: PowerLogic Armageddon G11 Gaming Mouse - HardwareZone.com
Great On Paper
PowerLogic's Armageddon G11 has great specs: ergonomic shape and changeable grips for maximum comfort, adjustable weight system, up to 5400 DPI, 10 programmable buttons, adjustable Lift settings, and macro script support. It certainly has the potential to compete with any offering from Razer, Steelseries, Microsoft or Logitech, but does it perform in person? In our opinion: not really.
Extreme Curves: Gaming Mouse Edition
Baffling Design
Sporting a super aggressive ergonomic design with a wide and high profile (125mm x 88cm x 48mm), the G11 is pretty much limited to right-handed, palm-grip users only. Claw and fingertip grippers will have to arch their fingers to uncomfortable levels to use the mouse with any success.
Additional weights can be installed behind the G11's changeable side grips.
The mouse weighs 125g (without cord), making it one of the heavier mice out there. Bizarrely, PowerLogic also includes six 4.1g weights, which can be installed to add an additional 24.6g for a wrist crushing maximum of 149.6g. Compare that to Logitech’s G9 mouse, which also offers weight customization, but weighs only 88g.
The changeable side grips.
As for the ergonomic design, theoretically, it’s been molded to fit like a glove, sitting snugly in the palm of your hand. Realistically, the excessive cut outs and curves make its shape too specific to be truly comfortable and while the mouse is supplied with two changeable side grips, the only difference between them seems to be the presence of an extra ridge for your pinkie finger to rest on. Again, compare that to the Logitech G9, where the changeable grips change the entire shape, profile and even texture of the mouse.
The ridge on the back of the mouse.
For some reason, the mouse also sports a nonsensical ridge down its back that serves only to jut out annoyingly into the middle of your palm.
The very deep thumb groove at the side.
Another problem with the over-ergonomic design can be seen with the side buttons, which are positioned directly over the thumb groove. Due to the excessive cutaway of the groove, the buttons are placed on an overhang above them, meaning you have to move your thumb out of the groove to press them - not a big deal, but quite annoying nonetheless. We also thought the side buttons could be a bit larger considering the overall size of the mouse.
Lift and Mode buttons can be found on top.
One more oddity of design, the two buttons on top - commonly used for DPI adjustment – instead adjust Lift and Mode (which lets you switch between saved profiles). The DPI adjustment has been relocated to behind the thumb groove in the form of a sliding switch. The new position for DPI adjustment works fine, but we don’t understand the reasoning behind having the Lift settings in such a precariously easy to hit position, considering you’re unlikely to want to change it on the fly.
Looks-wise, the mouse features a shiny metallic black finish (which PowerLogic calls Gun Metal) with grey buttons and trim. While the black isn’t too bad, we aren’t impressed with the grey buttons, which look quite cheap.
Performance
Once you get past the design, performance on the G11 is actually quite decent. Tracking on the mouse was smooth at all DPI settings and the buttons were responsive, if a little bit stiff. We did like the scroll wheel, which also rocks horizontally for sideways scrolling.
The G11 comes packaged with software that lets you manually adjust the DPI settings on the mouse (the onboard DPI slider only lets you switch between 450, 900, 1800 and 3600). It also lets you setup macro scripts, reprogram the buttons (first to go: Lift) and change the color of the lights. Unlike the mouse itself, the software is thankfully simple and easy to use.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we get the feeling that PowerLogic is trying to do too much with the G11. Overly complex design choices and poorly implemented features like the adjustable weight system and changeable grips make the G11 hard to recommend. A simple, more conventional shape without the restrictive overly ergonomic curves would also go a long way to improving the mouse.
First Looks: PowerLogic Armageddon G11 Gaming Mouse
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