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Logitech's Powerplay has got to be one of the most mismarketed products in history

Veliladon

Veliladon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,615
Three years this utterly fantastic product has been limping along. No real marketing, no price cuts (in fact since release it's had a price increase), still limited support across Logitech's line. It's basically being turned into a premium product when it should be a mass market commodity.

Why isn't there a larger version with a Qi charging mat? Why isn't there a 30 inch version for low DPI players? Why can't any of their Lightspeed or Bluetooth only mice be dual Lightspeed/Bluetooth with Powerplay support so you can use Powerplay at the desk and take a 90% charged mouse with you on the road to use with Bluetooth? Hell, this is a company that in the year 2020 still doesn't have a USB-C nano receiver.

What the hell is going on over there in Logitech land? I've used Logitech mice and keyboards since the Wheel Mouse Optical and Elite Keyboard (I even had the ill fated Wingman Warrior) and I feel like so much innovation and talent is being wasted there.
Ryan_09

Ryan_09

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 27, 2017
466
Fort Wayne, IN, USA
I absolutely adore mine. Shame the price is so high, because it's straight up the last mouse pad I'll need until it dies. Packaged with hard and soft replaceable top pads is a nice touch too.

Deleted member 1963

Guest
Couldn't agree more. I need a huge ass mat, and I need dual Lightspeed/Bluetooth so I can stick with the same mouse while I WFH. I currently use the G603 for the Bluetooth and just replace AA's, while my G915 keyboard recharges. Shit makes no sense.
Evolution of Metal

Evolution of Metal

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,960
Have you considered that... a wireless charging mat along with the wireless-charging capable mouse isn't a mass market commodity?

You are talking about $100+ as a cheapest mouse model, along with the $120 mat that no-doubt scales with the size. The reason you don't have more models supporting the wireless charging is that it would go to waste for most users, along with the increased production cost. There might be technical reasons why you cannot have a Piano-sized charging area.
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Veliladon

Veliladon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,615
This is Powerplay at its core:

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It's a copper wire sandwiched between two plastic layers, a microcontroller, a nano receiver, and an LED. There is nothing much to it and no reason it needs to be $117 or whatever it is right now.
Tito

Tito

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,030
I have a Logitech anywhere mouse and a Logitech keyboard and batteries on both last years.

Why would I want a charging mat?
Akela

Akela

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,048
I'm guessing sales haven't been particularly great. I'm not sure why someone would really need a wireless charging mousemat anyway when the amount of power a mouse consumes is so low they can last for months on a single charge. Is having to plug it in for a few hours every couple of weeks/months or so really that big of an inconvenience?

Maybe if it was bigger and supported phone charging I could sort of understand the appeal, but that's getting into the same limitations that Apple faced with Airpower so I doubt we'll see something like that any time soon.
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Veliladon

Veliladon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,615
Akela said:
I'm not sure why someone would really need a wireless charging mousemat anyway when the amount of power a mouse consumes is so low they can last for months on a single charge.
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Consumer grade gear with a 125Hz polling rate lasts months. The G series mice are 1000Hz polling rate and have lighting which makes them pull down 20x the power of a consumer mouse. My mouse will only last 25 hours fully charged off the mat. Plus the Li-ion rechargeable mice only carry 2.75Wh batteries while a pair of lithium AAs hold 9Wh, over three times as much.
Bony Manifesto

Bony Manifesto

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,334
Tito said:
I have a Logitech anywhere mouse and a Logitech keyboard and batteries on both last years.

Why would I want a charging mat?
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This is the real reason why it's not a mass-market product. It's only gaming mice, with their higher-quality processing and smaller batteries that it really makes sense for. Actual mass-market wireless mice prioritise efficiency over everything and can last for months on a AA battery.

Even in the world of gaming mice, I think the benefits of a charging pad over, say, a charging dock are pretty marginal. It's no great hassle to drop it on the dock before you go to bed once or twice a week.
Pargon

Pargon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,959
I liked the idea of this until I found out that it was causing all kinds of interference (apparently breaks Vive/Index tracking somehow), and wouldn't charge my devices when large metal objects (like my headphone amplifier/dac) were placed on/near it.
I didn't like having a cord stretched across my desk, or the receiver on the edge of the mat.

Veliladon said:
Why isn't there a 30 inch version for low DPI players?
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The mat can be placed under a standard mouse pad; though you'll want something underneath the rest to level it out.
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Bony Manifesto said:
Even in the world of gaming mice, I think the benefits of a charging pad over, say, a charging dock are pretty marginal. It's no great hassle to drop it on the dock before you go to bed once or twice a week.
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Until my Harmony remote stopped charging properly via its dock, I would have agreed with you about a charging dock.
I did prefer a dock in many ways (high-end mice all used to have them) as it keeps the cables at the end of the desk rather than being close to the mouse.
Now, I think I'd prefer a mouse that can charge via Qi when idle, rather than a specialized charging mat.
The main advantage of Logitech's system is that the battery could be much smaller - or removed entirely, but I don't think they actually did that for any of their mice, as they were designed to be used without the mat as well.
ZeroRay

ZeroRay

Member
Oct 27, 2017
436
The engineering of the Powerplay is pretty complex. The charging coils use the same tech as Qi but in a different frequency. They also work no matter where you place the mouse, instead of being relegated to a single spot. IIRC, the Canadian IC (their FCC) banned it from sale completely due to the frequencies used by the mat. Don't know if it's allowed now.

And from what I've heard, engineering a larger version of the Powerplay would be quite a challenge as making it the size it currently is has been a feat by itself.

Disclosure: Logitech was a client for a company I worked for.
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