Sorry early adopters, Logitech is releasing an improved Superstrike making the original all but obsolete just months after launch

It's fair to say I was pretty taken by the G Pro X2 Superstrike when Logitech launched it earlier this year. It was the first mouse I'd seen in a long time that did something genuinely revolutionary. But, just seven months later, it is being rendered all but obsolete by the new G Pro X3 Superstrike.

The revolutionary part of the original was that it made its switches analogue and paired this with haptic feedback to replicate the feeling of a click. This allows for adjustable actuation, meaning you can set it low for less time between deciding to click and actually clicking, and the haptics make sure you feel the click exactly when you should, whenever it's set to actuate.

That being said, it's far from a perfect mouse. I was thoroughly enamoured by it during my testing, and I still think it deserves a heck of a lot of credit for that revolutionary tech alone. But over time its flaws have come to feel more pronounced to me.

It's pretty much the same as the Superlight 2 in other respects, from the shape to the weight, side buttons, and scroll wheel. The side buttons are pretty mushy, the scroll wheel has problems with long-presses, and most importantly—and specifically in the case of the original Superstrike, not the Superlight 2—it's quite top-heavy thanks to those new internals.

The worst problem for a lot of people was that front-heavy weighting, as that can cause drag and, well, just not feel very smooth when picking up and moving the mouse. Given it's such an expensive mouse and is aimed squarely at competitive gamers who need great balance and weighting, and although it hasn't bothered me too much, this has been a big issue for many.

So, these seven months later, stepping up to the plate is the X3 Superstrike, which fixes this weighting issue and has a couple of other benefits, but it makes me wonder why Logitech didn't just wait and release this version in the first place.

It's basically the same weight, with a couple of grams shaved off only if you're outside of Europe, but battery life has been improved by 50% up to 135 hours at 1 kHz polling, assuming you're clicking just shy of once per second. It's also got a slightly upgraded sensor, with a bump to DPI, acceleration, and max speed—but nothing major.

In terms of what it actually feels like to use, it feels almost exactly the same as the original X2 Superstrike—except the weighting is more balanced. I've been using it for the past few days and most of the time I forget I'm not just using the X2 Superstrike. Occasionally I'm reminded of the better balance, but apart from that both feel about the same to use, whether for work or gaming.

You do get different colour choices with the X3, though: Midnight Black or Magenta Eclipse (pink and black). I'm not sure why the original white-and-black combo isn't available for the X3, but the black version I have under my palm looks good enough to me.

Details

In other words, just seven months after the X2's launch, the X3 launches—for an extra $20 at $200/€190, mind you—and very much feels like the X2, but improved in a couple of simple ways.

X2 Superstrike vs X3 Superstrike

X2 Superstrike

X3 Superstrike

It's the time frame that makes this a little difficult to swallow, because Logitech must surely have known back in February that a new version was on the cards before very long. Which, if so, means it was hyping up and selling a very expensive mouse it knew would very soon be superseded by a slightly more expensive one that essentially matches it but eliminates a couple of pain points.

Don't get me wrong, it is a better mouse. It just feels like Logitech could have waited a few months and delivered a much more well-rounded product.

That being said, I'm aware that Logitech wanted the Superstrike and its tech out on the market ASAP. Its engineers told me as much when I spoke to them back in February

Logitech G's Head of Engineering Regis Croisonnier told me:

"Usually when you start to talk about the technology or prototype, between the time we have the prototype and the time we implement it in a product, I would say the average time is between two to three years. Here, we knew we had a golden nugget in our hands, right? We wanted to move fast, so we took all the shortcuts we could."

So, Logitech probably thought it was important to get the tech in the Superstrike out as fast as possible, even if it could make a more well-rounded product just a few months later. But it still leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth, because what about all the people who bought the X2 Superstrike and might now be kicking themselves that they didn't wait just a while longer?

Logitech has been keen to express that the tech is bleeding-edge, so anyone buying the X2 must have had at least some inkling that they were paying a fee for tech which might become cheaper or be put into different mice before long—we're already seeing some from niche brands, and the Chinese market is never too far behind cloning popular mice. But that doesn't mean they were to know that there'd be essentially an 'X2 Superstrike but more finished' just seven months later.

It's difficult to say where the line would be, however, that would make the X3 Superstrike easier to swallow. If it had been a year, or a year and a half later, would that have felt better? For my palate, I think so. Which, again, isn't to say Logitech should have delayed the X3, but perhaps it could have not released the X2 and waited until it was in X3-like shape.

To be extra charitable, perhaps Logi wasn't sure whether other big brands might beat them to the punch with analogue tech if they left it. No other big brand has launched anything similar yet, but Keychron could have beaten Logitech to the punch in being the first to announce such analogue mouse switch technology, which I suppose would have stopped Logitech from being able to say it came up with the idea first.

Whatever the reasons and however much sense they made to Logitech, it doesn't quite get this taste out of my mouth.