The Logitech G PowerPlay charging mouse pad was my baby, but I’m a little disappointed after seeing the second version just announced

When I was first bestowed a Logitech G PowerPlay mouse pad I was sceptical, but I very soon realised its ability to keep my mouse charged without me having to lift a finger was a significant quality-of-life boost. PowerPlay never really caught on, though, and that’s probably thanks to its ginormous price tag ($120 MSRP). So you can probably imagine how excited I was when I heard a second version is in the works, and it’s set to be cheaper.

Not only that, but it’s here soon. The Logitech PowerPlay 2 mouse pad will be available for purchase on March 11, 2025, and has “built-in compatibility with over 10 mice and counting”. These mice are:

• Logitech G309
• Logitech G502 X Plus
• Logitech G502 X Lightspeed
• Logitech G502 Lightspeed
• Logitech G703
• Logitech G903
• Logitech G Pro Wireless
• Logitech G Pro X Superlight
• Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2
• Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 Dex

The PowerPlay 2 will cost less at $99 than the first version, and it’ll be slimmer at 3.5 mm (vs the original’s 4 mm) with a wider charging area.

It’s not all sunshine, though, because in many ways this iteration seems more like a sidegrade than an upgrade. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s have a look at what exactly PowerPlay is and why I liked mine so much, and then I can let you know why this announcement tastes just a little bittersweet.

The idea is you take a compatible Logitech mouse, slap a lil battery puck in the bottom, and place it on top of the PowerPlay pad to keep it charged while you game. The PowerPlay pad itself is a base that sits underneath a supplied mouse pad, and it creates a “low-frequency electromagnetic field” that is “captured” by the charging puck inside your mouse to keep it charged just by having it sit on top of the pad.

One of the things I loved about the original is that the pads it came with are essentially Logitech’s G240 (soft) pad and a slimmer version of its G440 (hard) pad, which were two of my favourite mouse pads to use anyway. Together, they covered both speed and control gameplay scenarios perfectly—for Counter-Strike I’d use the soft pad and for games like Quake which require constant tracking I’d use the hard pad. I still reckon these are some of the two best mouse pads around for the money in terms of feel, durability, and simplicity.

There’s no mention of whether the new version will use the same pads, but I struggle to believe Logitech would use worse ones for its new PowerPlay.

There was nothing really wrong with the original PowerPlay by my reckoning, but I moved away from it because I wanted an even bigger mousepad for ultra-low sensitivity gaming in Counter-Strike and Valorant, and the PowerPlay’s 321 mm x 344 mm didn’t cut it.

And therein lies the bittersweet aspect of the PowerPlay 2: its size. It’s set to actually be smaller, at 284 mm x 344 mm. That’s 37 mm knocked off the width (from front to back, not left to right). Not only is this bad news for low sensitivity gamers like myself, but it’s also bad news for value for money. This version costs about 16.6% less (about $20 less) than the original did at MSRP, sure, but it’s also 11.5% smaller—not quite the reduction we might initially think.

Plus, $100 is still pretty expensive, especially considering the original PowerPlay was going for just $87 last year.

So while I’m very glad it’s back and do hope it catches on, I can’t help but be a little disappointed. I suppose we’ll have to see what the winds of retailer discount fate have in store for us, but as it stands I can’t help but feel Logitech might be dropping the ball on this one.