a tech journal

One of the first things that always grabs my attention about a mouse is the physical appearance, and this mouse looks awesome.  I think it’s the low wide body wedge shape that captures my attention.  It almost seems shaped like a sports car, like a Lotus Exige, for example.  Maybe that’s a bit of a reach, but you get my point.

This mouse has some great features: Logitech’s awesome Hyper-fast scrolling that’s smooth and continues to scroll when you click it, the new Darkfield laser that works on glass, and the Logitech Unifying receiver that lets you connect up to 6 peripheral devices that user the same type of receiver.

The great looks made me inherently think that it was going to have a great feel too.  Unfortunately, the mouse didn’t feel as good as it looked.  I think my only gripe with it is the width of the front of the mouse by your fingertips.  I usually rest my ring finger on the outside of the mouse, and it would have been really nice if my finger hit a more curvy portion of the surface instead of the edge.  It seems that they made this mouse to fit three fingers on top of it instead of two which I’ll just have to get used to.  It still feels decent but I was just a little surprised.  It looks so awesome yet feels just normal…

The Darkfield technology piece of this mouse is truly amazing.  I can use this mouse virtually anywhere.  I can even use it on glass and rough uneven surfaces that make other mice cursors jumpy.  Another thing about the darkfield laser is that there is no visible laser shining out of the bottom, which is sort of eerie.  How does the darkfield technology work?  From the Logitech website:

Optical and traditional laser mice use irregularities in the surface to track the direction and speed of your mouse. The more irregularities on a surface, the easier it is for the sensor to track your movements.

But use your mouse on a smooth, glossy surface like clear glass, and there just aren’t enough imperfections for your standard mouse to work. This is where Darkfield Laser Tracking comes in. Darkfield uses the smallest possible details to create a micro-road map of the surface—so you get better precision on more surfaces.

The scrollwheel on the mouse uses the Hyper-fast scrolling that many other higher end Logitech mice have had in the past.  With a click of of the scrollwheel it toggles from Hyper-fast to the old ratchet type scrolling.  I prefer Hyper-fast for just about everything, but some like to play it old school.  This mouse will please either way.

One thing I love about Logitech mice is the attention that is paid to detail.  Not only am I buying a product that looks great on paper, but the build quality feels excellent too.  The solid construction and clean lines are always a welcome feeling.  The matte finish makes the mouse feel sort of industrial.  The two double A batteries also keep the Anywhere MX feeling weighty and solid, though the mouse can survive on just one battery, which could be good if you have to scrounge for batteries. Even the on/off slider on the bottom of the mouse has a very smooth easing feel to it.

There are two slight downfalls I can see occurring with this mouse after a little bit of wear and tear:

1. The bottom of the mouse contains a compartment that stores the batteries AND the usb receiver.  My gripe comes with the fact that you actually have to slide off the bottom of the mouse to package up the receiver, instead of the slide in receiver that has become so standard on Logitech’s nicer notebook mice.  I mean, the receiver is freaking tiny!  You’re telling me you couldn’t find a nice place for it to slide in from the outside of the mouse?  It’s not that big of a deal, but it means that I have to slide off the battery cover every time I want to package the mouse up – and everybody knows that sliding the battery cover off a million times eventually ends up in taping the battery cover on, just like that old TV remote. I’m sure their excuse here was that with the tiny receiver you’d just leave it in the computer all the time, but this isn’t the case for me as I use multiple machines and switch frequently.
2. The second gripe I have is with the cool little case that they give you.  It’s just a tad too small and not as well formed as it could be.  I feel like every time I zip it up I’m going to scratch the mouse with the zipper because it practically rubs up against the mouse while you’re zipping it up, no matter which way you put it in.

Overall I call this mouse a big win.  In some ways I miss my slightly older Logitech VX Revolution, but that’s alright – this one works on glass and looks sweet.  At 60 bucks (I got mine from Best Buy on sale) I consider this a slight upgrade from Logitech’s previous notebook mice, the vx nano and the vx revolution.

Logitech VX Revolution, for comparison.  Notice the nice curved area for your ring finger.  I wish the Anywhere MX had some sort of curvature on the right side.