First we'll go over the G5. Here's everything you get in the box. The weights used to customize the feel of the G5 come in a very nice stainless steel case and are inserted into the neon orange cartridge you see here.

There are sixteen weights in all in the case, & they come in either 4.5g or 1.7g weights. The weights are very well labeled, & differentiated by color. Each weight is surrounded by a rubber o-ring which helps it slip in & out of the cartridge. The cartridge can fit a total of eight weights in a 3 - 2 - 3 configuration. The image below shows four of the 4.5g weights on the corners with the rest of the slots filled with the 1.7g weights. After a short time of using this configuration, I quickly switched to using all 4.5g weights. I prefer my mouse to be solid & heavy, but the choice is yours, & the configurations are countless.

Once you've got the weights in the cartridge, the cartridge is inserted into a slot on the bottom of the mouse, towards the rear. The cartridge's shape makes it so that it can only be inserted in one direction, & it snaps into place via the pop-up clip you see below. Releasing the cartridge is as simple as pressing the release button, & the cartridge will pop right out, no problem. Also in these shots below, you can see the mouse feet close up. Logitech's moved on from the five-foot configuration of the MX series, & has even changed the material to Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which delivers a smoothness I've never experienced without buying teflon mouse tape & Pledge™

The G5 is also different from the G7 in that its body is textured, like the MX500 I used to use. The mouse's silver/black/rust color scheme is actually much more "grippy" than that of the G7's, which is smooth, glossy plastic. The cord of the G5 is also unique in that it's covered by braided nylon cording. Useful? Not really, but it's a nice touch on a part of the mouse that's usually overlooked. You can also see in the photo below that Logitech dropped the second side button on this new series of mice. I honestly never used it on my MX500 until I bound it to the NVG's in BF2: Special Forces. Now I'm really missing it being there, but I'm getting used to it again.

You adjust the DPI of your mouse via the '+' & '-' buttons just beneath the mouse wheel, which, as you can see, also allows for side-to-side scrolling once the SetPoint software is installed. The DPI level is visible on the top inside of the mouse via a three-way LED display.