Logitech MX 1000 Laser Cordless Mouse - mouse

The humble mouse. First introduce by Apple in the 80's and is now and integral part of everyday life. They work so well that most people don't even think about the mouse they use on a daily basis or realize that the mouse has evolved significantly.

When looking at your PC it's always worth considering the humble mouse and keyboard. After all, it's something you will be using constantly and you want to make sure your hand has something nice to hold. If it helps you with your day - even better.

Bring in the Logitech MX1000. Although it was released over a year ago, it's still worth your consideration. Here's why:

Build Quality

I've used the mouse for over a year and class myself as a power user (2-3 hours a day, plus my wife and kids use it). Basically, the mouse gets used - a lot. It's been dropped (I'm clumsy), it's been thrown across the room (massive fight with wife..), it's been in the fridge, been sucked on and put down the back of the radiator (I have a two year old and it's cordless) and finally been slept on by the cats.

After a year of use and abuse it looks like it just came out of the box. The buttons work fine and there is no visible wear. It looks like new!

Looks and Feel

The mouse looks good. It's black, grey and silver. The finish is of high quality plastic and looks smooth. It is constantly commented on and is very desirable.

The shape of the mouse is very comfortable and lets your hand wrap round it smoothly. Your thumb has a nice rest and all the buttons are placed in easy to reach places. However, it is right hand only so you're out of luck if you're a lefty.

Battery Life

The MX1000 comes with a set of internal lithium batteries and can be charged via the base station. Once fully charged they run for about two days. They charge extremely quickly and are fully loaded in about 20 minutes. This is very handy if you do run out as you can put it on the base station for a few minutes (tea break) and the mouse is good to go for a few more hours.

The mouse also has a very handy set of three LEDs that indicate battery level so it's really easy to gauge how much you have left.

Accuracy

The MX1000 uses a laser rather than a standard LED making it 1000 times more accurate (apparently). From a real world perspective, the mouse works extremely well and can be used on almost any surface. Using it on a mouse mat, table top, jeans, couch, chair, cat, all work fine. As with most optical mice it does struggle on glass.

Wireless

The mouse itself is cordless and I'm pleased to say does NOT suffer from lag. (well non that I've ever noticed) This means it can be used in a wide range of tasks including standard desktop work and games. The lack of a cord is very useful as you don't have to worry about it getting tangled up with anything.

The mouse has a range of about 3 meters which means you can use it from the couch if you are using your PC to watch movies.

Buttons

The standard mouse has two buttons and a mouse wheel and is put to shame by the MX1000. It has a total of seven buttons! It has the standard back and forward thumb buttons to make browsing easy. The thumb also has a third button which can be used to bring up a program menu function like the 'alt-tab' windows feature. This is very handy to quickly switch applications. The mouse wheel features two scroll buttons which quickly enable you to move up and down pages without having to use the wheel. The wheel can be used to scroll left and right as it can be pushed on the horizontal axis. Very useful for editing large photos or excel sheets.

On top of all of this, these buttons can be fully customized and remapped to almost any button of feature. This means you can configure it to your unique needs.

Set Point - Software

The one let down with the MX1000 is that the Logitech software is quite clunky. It runs as a system resource and can be accessed via the system tray. The program takes up about 3 Megs of RAM which feels high for this program. The user interface of the program is all silver and shiny which is good in theory but doesn't really feel right. However, you rarely need to use it and it's a minor gripe.

Price

The Logitech MX1000 was expensive when it first came out costing nearly £50. I bought it as this price and have not regretting spending the money.

Logitech has recenlty released a new series of mice titled the Revolution. This are undoubtedly superior to the MX1000 but also cost between £60 and £70. As the Logitech MX and VX Revolution are now available it has driven the price of the MX1000 down and you can now pick one up for as little as £35. This is an absolute bargain and an excellent price for a mouse of this quality.

If you aren't after the latest and greatest and want a high quality, decently priced mouse, then this is definitely the rodent for you.