I wanted to clarify some misconceptions in the press and on many of the forums regarding the conflicts between the new Agilent Laser Sensor and just about any rough surface mouse mat. An excellent example is this post on CoolTechZone published November 9 (as I write this it is November 11). Here’s the post:
 
Back when we published our review of the Logitech G7 laser mouse, we received quite a few e-mails from concerned readers who said that we had failed to find the main drawback in G7. All e-mails suggested that G7 (and G5), which are both based on the latest laser technology (an upgrade from optical) fail to work on all surfaces. Clearly, we wanted to replicate the issue internally, but unfortunately, after working with five mousepads from five manufacturers, we simply couldn’t get the mouse to not work in our lab. The interesting thing was, however, that some e-mails we received linked us to Logitech’s technical support forums, which had a decent number of threads that discussed this particular issue.
 
In hopes of understanding the apparent weakness of Logitech’s latest gaming mice, we talked to Logitech to see what the current status of the problem was and what Logitech was doing to correct the issue.
By now, it’s no mystery that the next step in gaming mice (or mice in general) is laser rather than optical technology. Keeping that in mind, Logitech pointed out that the first problem with G5 and G7 surface tracking is that the majority of the mousepads are not optimized for laser, but rather optical technology. This is one of the primary reasons why you are having problem with surface tracking with either G5 or G7.
 
Now the interesting thing to point out is that Razer Copperhead also uses the same laser technology as Logitech, but Razer fixed this issue by allocating more power to the laser by issuing a firmware upgrade. When we recommended Logitech to do the same, the company said it’s still working with mousepad manufacturers to solve the problem in their future products, and it’s still tracking surface problems in regards to the overall technology and its implementation. With that said, Logitech said it’s not interested in issuing a firmware upgrade that could negate the quality of their products; the company could also have problems with warranties and other such things. However, Logitech might consider the firmware upgrade in the future if the need arises, but unfortunately at this point, Logitech will not issue a firmware upgrade.
 
Razor guy