Today I’m excited to announce the launch of our latest gaming mouse, the Logitech Optical Gaming Mouse G400. It is the successor to the MX518, our best-selling gaming mouse ever.

When we started working on the G400, we had only one goal in mind – to take everything that was right with the MX518 and make it even better. We were very careful not to mess with the shape, tracking consistency, button layout, or legendary durability that millions of customers have grown to love and rely upon over the years – we even kept the suggested retail price the same. All we wanted to do was make a legendary FPS gaming mouse work even better.

To accomplish this, we started by upgrading the 1800 DPI sensor to a higher-resolution 3600 DPI version. This makes it possible to accomplish high-speed turns without wide hand sweeps or losing fidelity by turning up cursor speed in the Windows control panel. DPI levels are still adjustable on the fly (to 400, 800, 1800, and now 3600 DPI) with no software required. And since we’re using an upgraded version of the MX518 sensor, you still get the same tracking consistency (<0.5% cursor to hand movement variance at up to 140 IPS, depending on surface) you’ve come to expect from the current product.

Next, we increased the report rate from 125 to 1000 reports per second. This is as fast as USB can communicate, and it means that all movement and button clicks are interpreted by the computer as close to real-time as is possible – so there’s never any lag between your hand movements and what you’re seeing on the screen. And to help you move the mouse more easily, we also changed the USB cable – making it thinner and 25% lighter.

The last major change is to the optional button programming software. Even though the mouse works great out of the box with no software whatsoever, we know that many of our users like the extra edge our button and tracking configuration capabilities can give them. That’s why we’ve integrated the G400 into the same software used to program the G-Series keyboards and the Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard – so you can create a macro once and use it on either your G-Series keyboard or your G400 Mouse. This change gives G400 users access to Logitech Gaming Software’s easy-to-use drag and drop interface, as well as its robust automatic game detection, macro, and scripting capabilities. Logitech Gaming Software v8.0 includes profiles for 210 games, and creating new profiles for games that aren’t on our list is quick and easy.

The Logitech Optical Gaming Mouse G400 will retail for $49.99 and will be available in the US at Best Buy beginning June 19, elsewhere in the US in early to mid July, and in the rest of the world beginning in mid-July. For more information, please visit the product page. And feel free to let us know what you think in the comments section.