“We had cordless in mind since 2010 for gaming,” said Francois Morier, head of sensor design at Logitech. “When we designed the sensor, we had in mind that we wanted it to be cordless. So we understand that we have to be power-frugal, in a way. We cannot waste power in every direction. So we made observations on the first generation cordless sensor we made ... we say we'll improve this point, this point, but we didn't want to waste any kind of power on items that were already good enough. The goal was really to understand what makes sense to be improved, that this would be observable, something that the user needs, and what is just putting a higher number on the box, which is just stupid.”
A common practice in gaming mice is pushing a sensor to support higher DPIs than it was originally designed for. New gaming mice proudly emblazon higher DPIs on the box than the previous year’s model, but the sensor’s performance will often degrade at those higher settings. While some mouse companies like Logitech will set the specifications they want the sensor manufacturer to deliver (Pixart is the big name, and the maker of the PMW-3366), others will go for an off-the-shelf solution. Factor in custom firmware, and two mice with the same sensor aren’t guaranteed to actually deliver the same performance. This is a vital part of mouse design consumers have little insight into.