With its welcome drop in price and simpler design, the PowerPlay 2 should have been an easy win for Logitech. However, its stripped back feature set feels parsimonious. It still offers a unique ability to have a mousepad charge your wireless mouse directly, but its price is high for this single feature alone.
Pros
Saves having to charge your wireless mouse
Cheaper than old PowerPlay
Simple setup
Cons
No in-built wireless receiver
Doesn't work on ferrous metal desks
No RGB
Cheap, thin mousepad
The Logitech PowerPlay 2 is here, eight years since the original version of its clever wireless charging mousepad launched. This new version takes the idea of a mouse mat that continually charges your mouse and simplifies it to its bare essentials. Gone is the included wireless dongle for your mouse, gone is the RGB lighting, and gone is the reversible hard mousepad. Instead, the PowerPlay 2 simply provides its wireless charging ability, which it fires through a thin soft mousepad surface.
All that simplification has resulted in a welcome drop in price from the $119 of the original to $99 for the new model (recent tariff-related price increases notwithstanding). However, with best gaming mousepad guide. Let's take a closer look at what it offers.
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Specs
Logitech PowerPlay 2 specs
Dimensions
344 x 340mm
Thickness
3.5mm total, 1.3mm mousepad surface
Extras
Wireless charging base with attached 1.8m cord
Design and features
As a reminder, the Logitech PowerPlay 2 (and original Logitech G903.
This coin picks up the wireless charging and es it onto your mouse, adding 2g of weight but gaining you the ability to never again need to charge your wireless mouse. So far, so similar to the original PowerPlay, but from here on in, there are some significant differences.
Where the original PowerPlay included a wireless dongle for connecting your mouse to your PC, the PowerPlay 2 doesn't. This means you can, in theory, plug it into a USB wall charger, which could be more convenient for your setup. However, without one of those to hand, you need to use up two of your PC's USB ports – one for the PowerPlay 2 and one for your mouse dongle – compared to just one for the older model.
This alone I find a reasonably sensible change, as many modern mice include high polling rates that push beyond the capabilities of the previous PowerPlay's included adapter. Logitech could have added a high-spec 8kHz dongle to the PowerPlay 2, but this would have bumped up the cost for a feature many s won't need or want. Meanwhile, your mouse already comes with a wireless dongle, so aside from the USB port space issue, it's not really a problem. However, when combined with the other omissions, it's less of an easy change to accept.
For instance, gone now is the ability to detach the 1.8m (6ft) long cable from the pad, so if it breaks, you'll need to buy a new pad (unless you're feeling adventurous with a soldering iron). And it's not like Logitech has equipped this mouse mat with a particularly tough cable. It's thin and rubber-coated, with a surface that's just grippy enough that I can see it easily snagging on the edge of your desk, for instance.
As for the pad itself, this has also seen a downgrade. While the main wireless charge-delivering lower layer has a similar thickness as before, the actual pad has gone from being a rigid surface that can be flipped over to provide a hard plastic surface or a softer padded surface, to being an ultra-thin, flexible soft pad. On the plus side, the charging area of the pad has increased by 15%.
Another removed feature is the RGB lighting that used to be included in the plastic power adapter portion of the original PowerPlay. Now, this section is plain black, though there is a small white LED to indicate charging. Logitech's G Hub software will also show that your mouse is being charged (as reported by the mouse, not the pad), but it's useful to have the on-desk indication.
Performance
Setting up the PowerPlay 2 is simple. So long as you have a USB port that can deliver enough power (any powered USB 2.0 port), it will provide its charging service. Pop the coin into the base of your chosen mouse, and that's it.
The charging area covers the vast majority of the pad, with only the top 2.5-inches and bottom 1.5-inches of the pad not responding. I've indicated the areas of response in the image below.
With everything set up, the pad will merrily charge your mouse forever more, indicating that it's working via the white light on the pad or via the charging icon appearing for your connected mouse in G Hub.
However, one note of warning straight away is that the pad doesn't work on ferrous metal surfaces. So, for instance, if you own our Secretlab Magnus Pro, you cannot use this mouse mat. It simply doesn't work. I also confirmed that the likes of a steel central heating radiator and car hood similarly interrupt the signal, just in case you wondered if they might make suitable desk surfaces.
The pad itself has a surface coarseness that's close to the Balance version of the SteelSeries QcK Performance mouse pads. It isn't as fast-stopping as coarse-control mousepads (SteelSeries QcK Performance Control, LGG Saturn) but neither is it quite as slick as the very smoothest speedy mousepads (SteelSeries QcK Performance Speed, Corsair MM300). I prefer a slightly faster-feeling pad, but not so much that I felt hugely limited by using this pad. I also didn't feel overly limited by the relatively modest size of this pad, but if you prefer a very large mouse mat, this one won't be suitable. Logitech doesn't provide options for alternatives pad surfaces.
As for the thickness, cushioning, and general build of the included top pad, it is rather pathetic. It's just 1.3mm thick with a woven top surface, a 1mm (ish) thick layer of foam, and a sticky rubberized backing. The latter means it grips the surface of the charging pad reasonably well in of not sliding sideways from your hand movements.
However, the pad easily rides up and buckles (see above), and the non-stitched edge is already fraying after only a couple of weeks into using the pad I'm reviewing. The advantage is that the combined thickness of the pad remains low, at just 3.5mm, but I feel Logitech should at least include a second pad with the PowerPlay 2 to bump up the sense of value and potential lifespan of this product.
It's good, then, that the charging pad still works when used with other mousepads. I tried several other pads measuring between 3mm and 4mm thickness, and it worked fine with them all, and even worked through two layers of pad (above). So, it's possible to set up this charging mat under a larger desk pad, for instance, although you will get a slight bump in the pad, as shown below.
Price
The Logitech PowerPlay 2 price was $99.99 at launch, making for a $20 saving over the original version. However, its price now sits at $119.99, seemingly as a result of recent US tariffs. Even at its previous price, though, with all the downgrades in features, the PowerPlay 2 doesn't leap out as offering good value.
Alternatives
SteelSeries QcK Performance
Realistically, there are no true alternatives to the PowerPlay system. Logitech has this tech locked down. However, as far as mousepads go, the Steelseries QcK Performance lineup is worth a look for the fact that it offers three different choices of surface to suit your play style. Read our Steelseries QcK Performance review for more info.
Verdict
The Logitech PowerPlay 2 is a downgrade in nearly all ways from the original model, and despite a slight drop in price, it still offers poor value because of it. The decision to have a non-removable cable is particularly egregious, making this feel so much more like a consumable, limited-life product when really it should be able to last many, many years to come.
The pathetically thin and flimsy mousepad top is also an interesting choice. It works to make the PowerPlay 2 feel reasonably slim and like a normal mousepad, but it looks and feels cheap, and it doesn't leave me confident it will last very long at all.
Add in the unfortunate fact that the charging doesn't work when the pad is used on ferrous metal surfaces, and that Logitech has also removed the RGB lighting, the wireless receiver, and flippable two-surface mousepad of the original, and the PowerPlay 2 is decidedly underwhelming as an overall product. What it can do, by allowing you to never need to charge your wireless mouse again, is still a unique and hugely welcome feature, but you pay a high price for the privilege.
Whether you've decided to go with a wireless charging mousepad or not, why not check out our best gaming mouse guide.
