HardwareCentral - Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse Review

Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse Review

Breaking the Scrolling Sound Barrier

November 17, 2006
By Eric Grevstad

Logitech doesn't beat around the bush when touting its new top-of-the-line MX Revolution: Right there on its elegant, near-impenetrable packaging it says, "The world's most advanced mouse."

(Pause for skeptics to say, "For $100, it had better be.")

But in this case, while Logitech may be exaggerating a bit, it isn't lying: Two years instead of the usual product cycle's six months in the making, the company claims, the MX Revolution brings some radical rethinking to the already highly evolved, ergonomically contoured, multi-buttoned, laser-precise, wireless mouse we all thought was the state of the art.

The difference you'll notice at first glance is the MX's left fender: While many mice have a thumb scoop or cradle, the Logitech has a jutting fin or thumb rest along with a secure, rubbery-feeling grip surface. (In addition to being for right-handed users only, the MX is for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.2.8 and higher PCs only -- Win 2000 users are out of luck.)

Curvaceous D

The shape makes the MX one of the most comfortable mice we've tried, especially in a palmed or fully-covered-by-the-hand position. We don't call it the most comfortable because, unless you have small hands or hold just the back half of the mouse, it takes a while to adjust to having your thumb press against not a plain surface but one of the Revolution's other innovations -- a horizontally mounted thumb wheel.

Instead of spinning it as you do the top-mounted scroll wheel, you nudge this wheel forward or backward a few times -- which, depending on your choice in Logitech's SetPoint software driver, either zooms in or out or performs a "document flip." The former expands or shrinks text in a Web page or spreadsheet or pixels in an image editor. The latter is an alternative to Windows' Alt-Tab for navigating a menu of open windows or applications (clicking the left mouse button or the wheel itself switches to the desired program).

Both are handy, though if you've spent years using Alt-Tab or clicking on the Windows Taskbar, you'll likely find yourself getting along without the document-flip feature. By contrast, the two buttons above the side wheel -- typically used for Forward and Back in a Web browser, but programmable as Cut and Paste, audio volume up and down, or other shortcuts -- are the nicest and best-placed we've seen, neither getting in the way of a resting thumb or obliging you to stretch or contort your thumb to click.

And Logitech has made excellent use of a top-mounted button behind the scroll wheel: Highlight a word or phrase in almost any application, click the button, and the MX launches a search engine to find out more about the topic. (If you haven't installed the software driver, the button brings up Windows' own search pane with the doggie in the window.)

Obviously you can't select just a few words from a browser hyperlink (since you're taken to the link with your first click), and unfortunately you can't add other search engine picks such as Ask.com -- your choices are Google, Yahoo, and Yahoo LiveWords -- but the feature is genuinely smart and convenient. Sadly, it's also a bit buggy, with occasional stumbles such as opening two Internet Explorer windows or Firefox tabs instead of one and alternately bringing the new search window to the foreground or just adding a blinking button to the Taskbar. Switching from the supplied SetPoint 3.01 driver to a downloaded version 3.10 helped, but didn't kill the glitches entirely.

Clearly, the MX Revolution is not your father's mouse. In fact, we've written six hundred words and haven't gotten to its main attraction or number-one invention yet.

Next: Faster, Pussycat! Scroll! Scroll! »

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