The Hero sensor turns a fairly plain mouse into a proper contender, with eSports credentials.
- Manufacturer: Logitech G
- Model: G403
- Price when reviewed: £59.99 MSRP
- Supplied by: Manufacturer
The Logitech G403 is designed to be a tournament-ready mouse, giving gamers an option for competitive performance at a more reasonable price.
It’s a fairly conservatively styled mouse. At a glance, it shares more in common with a standard office mouse than some of the more distinctive and aggressively styled mice that are available. Aside from the illuminated G logo, it has a very understated design. It’s when you get to the gaming performance that the G403 shines.
Design and build
Smooth contours give the G403 an ergonomic design that fits comfortably in the palm. Finished in a matte black plastic it’s very smooth, but along the sides, there are tactile rubber panels that give you a solid grip. It’s bigger than it looks, with quite a wide profile, but the sculpted shape means it fits really nicely in your hand.
The smoothly rounded body transitions seamlessly into contours towards the end of the left and right mouse buttons, guiding your fingers towards the centre of the buttons. For such a simple design, I love how natural the grip is. It instantly gives you a familiar and solid feel.
Build quality is excellent. The panels all fit perfectly and it feels very sturdy. At just 87 g it’s quite a light mouse, but there is an included 10 g weight that slots into a disc in the base. The lightness means movement can be very precise, and the smooth feet provide minimal friction, allowing you to make sharp snappy movements without judder or stuttering.
The braided cable on the G403 is very heavy-duty, which is desirable for durability. At 2.1 metres, there’s plenty of cable length to reach your computer or laptop and leave a bit of slack that should suit most gamers setups. When paired with the lightweight design, though, the thick cable can cause the mouse to pull a little when you take your hand off it, but it never troubled me.
Buttons
For a gaming mouse, there’s a surprising dearth of buttons on the G403. It’s in keeping with the minimalist design, and they are assignable with G HUB software, but it falls short of what you might expect.
The left and right mouse buttons have a low actuation depth, and they feel very responsive. There is a good level of resistance that helps to prevent misclicks, and they provide a satisfying click when activated.
The mouse wheel is very good and provides tactile feedback across the notching. It offers smooth performance, and I didn’t accidentally over-scroll like I sometimes do if the wheel is too loose. The scroll-wheel button is a little on the stiff side, though, which did occasionally cause me to scroll while pressing it. I am also surprised that they didn’t include left and right scroll buttons on the G403, as I use these frequently on the G502.
Underneath the scroll wheel is the DPI switch. It’s a single button switch, so to choose your desired setting you’ll have to cycle through the available presets. The DPI switch sits in a dedicated groove, and it is easy to locate without risk of accidental actuation.
The final two buttons are the forwards and backwards buttons, comfortably located just above your thumb. They look a little chunky, and I’ve used similar-looking buttons that have awkward hinging to them and unreliable response. On the G403, however, these buttons are very solid, and they are extremely reliable regardless of where you press on the switch.
Performance
Logitech has fitted this version of the G403 with their remarkable Hero sensor. It’s a magnificent sensor, and it’s what turns this mouse from Plain Jane into an eSports contender. A polling rate of 1000 Hz gives the G403 snappy responsiveness, and the Hero sensor can handle huge speeds of movement and rapid transitions without any jitter or spin-out.
I tested the G403 on a soft mouse mat and a hardwood desk, and it worked perfectly on both, responding accurately to tiny adjustments. This was helped further by the lightness, and minuscule corrections while sniping were easy to make.
The Hero sensor supports settings of between 100 and 16,000 DPI. I prefer around 3200 DPI while playing FPS games, and the performance and reliability were just as good as on the G502 (one of my favourite mice). It lacks the flexibility of the G502, though, as there is no sniper button to drop the DPI temporarily, and only having a single DPI switch meant I couldn’t quickly adjust to suit what was happening in-game.
It’s a very pure gaming experience, and if you’re used to having numerous buttons assigned to the mouse, it can take some adapting to the limited controls. You can’t knock the performance of the mouse, though. The comfortable grip, tight button response and lightness makes the G403 a brilliant mouse for competitive FPS games that don’t rely on complex controls.
As a testament to the quality and reliability of the G403, it’s frequently spotted on the pro circuits. The G403 is remarkably similar to the G Pro mouse, and they have similar shapes and button layouts. Size is the main differentiator here, with the G403 being slightly larger, which should suit those who prefer a palm grip. For me, I prefer the slightly larger G403, although I’d quite happily take either if consistency and reliability were paramount.
Customisation
The G403 uses Logitech’s G HUB software, and I’m a big fan of its user-friendly design. Within the software the illuminated G logo can be customised to show static colours, breathing and colour cycle effects, or utilise Lightsync to match any other Logitech hardware you have connected.
The polling rate can be adjusted, although there’s no point changing it from 1000Hz. The DPI settings can also be adjusted within the software, with your chosen presets conveniently saved to the onboard memory.
Finally, you can program the buttons, but with such a small amount, there’s not much flexibility in how you assign them. It’s still fully-featured, though, and you can assign each button to a specific key, function or macro. It’s just a shame there weren’t a few more buttons to make it worthwhile.
Pricing
The G403 retails for £59.99 MSRP, which puts it in the mid-range for gaming mice, and makes it very reasonable for a tournament-ready device. It’s highly refined, and what it does, it does very, very well. The problem is it doesn’t actually do all that much.
When its competition at this price is adding extra buttons and added functionality, this bare-bones approach feels a little lacking in comparison. If you don’t need or want the extra buttons, though, or just appreciate the more natural and familiar feel of the design, then the G403 is an excellent choice.
Summary
The Logitech G403 is a superb mouse for eSports gaming and the phenomenal Hero sensor won’t ever let you down. Build quality is excellent, and the ergonomic shape will still be comfortable even after long gaming sessions.
When other mice offer similar performance with more buttons or features, it can feel a little under-specced, but if you’re new to competitive gaming and don’t want to commit to spending over £100 on a mouse, it’s an excellent introduction to premium hardware.
