If you're planning on taking your mouse elsewhere, you should be aware that the PowerPlay isn't the fastest way to charge it by a wide margin. After racking my brains and consulting my co-workers, the best we can come up with is that the PowerPlay could alleviate a pain point for a small but dedicated contingent of competitive players — especially those on the burgeoning esports scene. You don’t even need to pair the mouse manually the first time—whichever one you power on and set on the mouse pad, works. The PowerPlay system does one thing and one thing only: it charges your mouse while you use your computer. There's no Mac compatibility listed, for one thing, and the idea of the wireless charging causing no interference to the wireless data transfer for the mouse to communicate with a PC certainly needs to be tested.

Logitech’s new Powerplay technology, centered on a mouse pad that charges your wireless mouse while you’re using it, has made me a wireless believer. PowerPlay isn't one particular product, but rather refers to a line of Logitech accessories that all share a specialized form of wireless-charging technology. The base is rubberized, so your chosen surface shouldn’t slip around—I’ve tried, and at least with the cloth, it’s pretty much impossible under normal conditions.Thanks to the deduction and decades of experience from our engineers and designers, we were able to work through the many challenges and make POWERPLAY a reality. You can also swap out the rechargeable batteries for tunable weights, if you prefer to let the mouse discharge. Continuously charge your compatible Logitech G gaming mice: G703, G903, G502 LIGHTSPEED, G502 X LIGHTSPEED, G502 X PLUS, PRO Wireless, PRO X Superlight and more. With the built in LIGHTSPEED wireless receiver, your compatible Logitech gaming mouse can pair directly with the POWERPLAY base, eliminating the need for an additional USB data receiver.

I'm not quite sure if I'd recommend the PowerPlay to anyone but the most dedicated esports enthusiasts.

The ability to wirelessly charge a device both at rest and in motion is a feat in electrical and mechanical engineering that has never before been achieved. Once the base is plugged in, your chosen mouse pad surface is applied, and Powercore is inserted, that’s it. This field projects a few millimeters above the pad, which is where components two and three come in—a pair of alternative surfaces, one cloth and one hard plastic, mimicking more traditional mouse pads. Powerplay simply fills this same hole with the aforementioned Powercore, another bit of plastic with a pair of visible metal contacts. In the end, there's nothing else quite like the PowerPlay, but "it works well" is the only cogent analysis I can make of it.