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Ever wished to own a Logitech MX class of mice, but just kept wishing and never been able to afford one???? Well, there is a chance for all the wanna-bes to get your claws on one. Here's an alternative to it, the Genius Ergo 520. We had recently reviewed their top-of-the-line laser mouse, 'Ergo Genius 525 ,and today we take a look at their yet another high end mouse 'Ergo 520', the only difference being that the Ergo 520 is an optical mouse, where as the Ergo 525 is a laser mouse. 
De'ja vu The Ergo 520 and the Ergo 525 are identical in terms of dimensions and physical features. The mouse has a matt gray colored finish on the top and flaunts a black finish on the sides. The bottom has four plastic feet that has a smooth feel. The mouse design and ergonomics are quite similar to the Logitech MX 518's design. But, this one is even more comfortable as it can accommodate the last two fingers very easily; thanks to the finger divider design. It is a light weight mouse, easy to navigate. The mouse has a total of seven buttons and a scroll wheel. The scroll wheel features the tilt wheel feature, first introduced by Microsoft. The tilt wheel allows horizontal navigation through the windows. The Sensor The Ergo 520 is a direct competitor to the Logitech's MX 518 not only in terms of design but also the technology used which is totally ditto. It incorporates the same sensor used in the MX 518, the ADNS 3080 manufactured by Agilent. It is a 5.8 Megapixels sensor capable to track at 1600 dpi with a capturing rate of 6500 frames per second at a max acceleration rate of 15g. This optical sensor is a perfect one for users who favor extreme high sensitivity. Besides that, it has the ability to downshift to 400 dpi that makes sure that any person using anything from low sensitivity to high sensitivity is comfortable with the mouse. The Genius Ergo 525 has four different dpi settings, which can be selected at a click of the mouse. The dpi selected is displayed at the bottom of the screen. 
It interacts with the PC through the USB bus at the speed of 125 reports per second. But it seems to be a limitation of the USB bus than the product itself. However, there's also a freely available application that allows you to enable 500 reports per second on USB port with any USB mouse. But, it can also damage your mouse. So, make sure of what you are doing before you try any stunts. We did increase our USB sampling rate to 500 rps and the mouse was working perfectly under that condition. 
Software The software bundled along is a very user-friendly one. They just took the default control panel of the mouse and added more tabs to it. These tabs are used for advanced configuration of the mouse such as dpi selection. The software resides in the taskbar, and has an icon of a person who looks at your pointer's direction. You can change the dpi on the fly with a click of a particular button on the mouse; the dpi selected is displayed at the bottom right of the screen. 
Another interesting and quite helpful feature is the commonly accessed program circle, which can be found by clicking the scroll wheel. It has all the common functions and programs located, which can help one to speed up his work. 
Performance Evaluation Well, we evaluated the mouse through various games, more notably multiplayer based FPS games such as Counter Strike and UT2004. The mouse just performed great and I found this mouse more comfortable and easier to handle than Logitech MX 518. I myself being a long time user of the Logitech MX 5xx series, for once I found this to be better. But, it doesn't give enough advantage to upgrade your MX 518 to it, but if you have to buy a new mouse and choose between the Logitech MX 518 and the Genius Ergo 520, the Ergo 520 is a better option. Final Verdict The Genius Ergo 520 sells for a street price of Rs1,400 with a three-year warranty. It makes this mouse a way better deal than the Logitech MX 518 and G1. However, if you throw in few extra bucks, you can go for the Ergo 525, which is not only a better mouse in terms of functionality but it also bundles a Steel Pad QCK with it, which makes the deal fully vasool, compared to this one.
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