Logitech MX Revolution - mouse

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I CONTACTED LOGITECH WHO FIRST ASKED ME TO RE-INSTALL THE SOFTWARE (THIS MADE NO DIFFERENCE) THEY THEN SENT ME OUT A BRAND NEW MOUSE, CHARGER, RECEIVER ETC. I HAVE GOT TO SAY THAT THE LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE I RECEIVED FROM LOGITECH WAS OUTSTANDING.

I JUST THOUGHT IT WOULD BE USEFUL FOR POTENTIAL BUYERS TO GET AN INSIGHT INTO LOGITECH'S CUSTOMER SERVICE, JUST IN CASE THEY EVER NEED TO USE IT.

ALSO THE NEW ...
...You would expect that with Logitech providing a 3 year warranty, that they would make one of the most used parts of the mouse more robust and longer lasting.


I was very disappointed because the MX Revolution was a fabulous mouse when it was working.


I suppose I could have been unlucky but not twice with the same fault, this is more likely a case of the scroll wheel (FREESPIN FRICTIONLESS) having either ... more

UPDATE
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THE MOUSE'S FREESPIN FUNCTION STOPPED WORKING (BASICALLY THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THE SCROLL WHEEL, I.E. IT HAD LOST ITS FRICTIONLESS OPERATION).

I CONTACTED LOGITECH WHO FIRST ASKED ME TO RE-INSTALL THE SOFTWARE (THIS MADE NO DIFFERENCE) THEY THEN SENT ME OUT A BRAND NEW MOUSE, CHARGER, RECEIVER ETC. I HAVE GOT TO SAY THAT THE LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE I RECEIVED FROM LOGITECH WAS OUTSTANDING.

I JUST THOUGHT IT WOULD BE USEFUL FOR POTENTIAL BUYERS TO GET AN INSIGHT INTO LOGITECH'S CUSTOMER SERVICE, JUST IN CASE THEY EVER NEED TO USE IT.

ALSO THE NEW MOUSE SCROLL WHEEL FEELS DIFFERENT (BETTER, MORE ROBUST) TO THE FIRST MOUSE SCROLL WHEEL WHEN THIS ONE WAS NEW.

TO UPDATE FURTHER
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The replacement mouse I mentioned above has also developed the same fault in just 3 months.

The fault is the freespin (frictionless) scroll wheel function has stopped working, due to basically wearing out.

You would expect that with Logitech providing a 3 year warranty, that they would make one of the most used parts of the mouse more robust and longer lasting.

I was very disappointed because the MX Revolution was a fabulous mouse when it was working.

I suppose I could have been unlucky but not twice with the same fault, this is more likely a case of the scroll wheel (FREESPIN FRICTIONLESS) having either a design flaw or not been robust enough for the job in hand.

I will praise Logitech on their customer service as they quickly sent me out a full kit, which included the mouse, charger, transceiver stick, box and basically everything else you would get if you were buying it brand new. But sadly this didn't last and I have since been on to Logitech to raise the problem with them again, and yet again Logitech's customer service came good sending me another mouse kit out as before. What I am going to do with this one is to sell it on Ebay as brand new and un-opened, so I should get a good price which should cover the cost of my new mouse (Microsoft wireless Laser Mouse 7000). Sorry Logitech but I couldn't be on with having to get the mouse replaced every 3 months until the point where the mouse would have run out of warranty and I would have had to pay for the fix or the replacement, I thought it best to get a new mouse (which I have mentioned below).

I must say I was particularly disappointed in Logitech's range of mice that didn't have the Freespin (frictionless) feature, as I wanted to stay away from this feature due to the trouble I have had with it, so in the end I decided on the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000, I find this a fabulous mouse.

Admittedly the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 doesn't have the frictionless freespin scroll wheel of the Logitech but this was the Achilles heel of the Logitech in my opinion. I find the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 to be a lot better mouse than the Logitech and also around £10 or so cheaper, the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 I find is a lot more precise/sensitive with its tracking than the Logitech. The scroll wheel of the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 doesn't have the usual click to click that we are all familiar with, instead Microsoft have opted for a notchless scroll wheel which may seem strange at first but believe me with a day of use you will be used to it, I find the notchless scroll wheel a lot better than the click to click that I was used to. This was my only concern before purchasing the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000, but in use I am now preferring it to the usual click to click that I was used to, I find the notchless scroll wheel of the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 to be a more precise way of scrolling, I would be very surprised if anyone were to find the notchless scroll wheel a problem.

Judge for yourself with the MX Revolution, but in my opinion if you want a excellent cordless laser mouse, then I don't think you will get much better than the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000. I will be writing a review on this mouse when I have had time to find out the time between charging and the battery going flat.

I just thought the update to this review with my experience of the MX Revolution may be interesting and or useful to other potential buyers.

I have left my initial review of the Logitech MX Revolution intact (SEE BELOW).

I have owned a Logitech MX1000 laser mouse for approximately 4 years and it has always served me well, I will add that it was still going after 4 years of heavy use, but I fancied a change and decided on the
Logitech MX Revolution, I paid £49.99 for it from Amazon.co.uk.

Firstly, for all the people that say you cannot use the scroll wheel as a third mouse button by pushing it down, well you are wrong, I am using this very feature. I would suggest that you download the latest version of the software from Logitech's web site rather than using the software that is included with the mouse as this will be out of date. To get the use of the third mouse button by pushing the scroll wheel down, I did the following,

1: Download and install the latest software for the mouse from Logitech's web site.

2: Once installed, go into the Logitech setpoint software, in the number 2 column called "SELECT BUTTON" click once on third option (3), next you will see under the number 3 column an option called "SELECT FUNCTION" click on this once with the left mouse button, next thing you will see is a little window that will open, on this little window you need to click the down arrow once with the left mouse button,from the list choose MIDDLE BUTTON, next click on ok, then on the main SETPOINT window you need to click on APPLY then on OK, this will now close the SETPOINT SOFTWARE WINDOW. You now have the use of the third mouse button (MIDDLE BUTTON) by pressing down the scroll wheel. This is ideal for opening a new tab in Firefox for example. You also have to make sure that you also have the following options selected, in the setpoint software. Click on the scroll wheel symbol that you will see down the left hand side of the setpoint software window, under the section called "LOGITECH SMARTSHIFT TECHNOLOGY" you need to have this enabled, starting mode CLICK TO CLICK, tick the box for AUTO SHIFT TO FREE SPIN WHEN WHEEL SPEED IS, I select the speed at around a quarter, DO NOT SELECT THE "DISABLED (OVERRIDES APPLICATION SETTINGS).

All these instructions are needed if you want the use of the middle (THIRD MOUSE BUTTON) otherwise you can just leave these settings on their defaults. You can also download an additional piece of software called UBER OPTIONS, this program allows you to add other additional features to various buttons on the mouse, I will add though that the UBER OPTIONS software is not an official Logitech piece of software.

I will now describe all the buttons on the mouse and what they do.

Firstly, we have the usual left and right mouse buttons, these perform in the exact same way as any other left right buttons on any other mouse. In between the left/right mouse buttons is the scroll wheel,
this is somewhat different to a normal scroll wheel, small slow turns of this scroll wheel make it perform in the normal way to which we are all used to, i.e. scroll in small amounts upwards/downwards
through whatever you are viewing on screen, but the other mode this wheel has is the "FREE SPIN MODE" to get the scroll wheel into this mode you simply give the scroll wheel a strong flick, in this mode the
scroll wheel disengages its normal click to click (ratchet) operation that we are all familiar with and goes into a frictionless spin mode where the scroll wheel will spin for several seconds, this mode is
VERY USEFUL for when you have a large Excel document or other similar item on screen that is very long and several pages long. For example, I have a Excel document which has over 2600 entries, with a strong flick of the scroll wheel, the scroll wheel goes into free spin mode and I can scroll from the top to the bottom of the document in just over 2 seconds. So you can see from this just how fast the scroll
wheel performs when its in its free spin mode. The scroll wheel feels very well made as it is made of metal and it also has a rubber grip on it that goes round the whole of the scroll wheel.

The scroll wheel also has other functions, if set up by the method I have described towards the beginning of the review, where by pressing it down makes it perform as a 3rd mouse button (MIDDLE BUTTON). For example, if you use Mozilla Firefox, you can press this button down and it will open another web page up in another tab, this is a very handy function in my opinion. The last function the scroll wheel has is the horizontal scroll, this basically means that if the web page, document or whatever you are viewing on screen is too wide to be shown on screen, you simply then press the scroll wheel to the left or right and you then have your document or whatever you are viewing on screen move in that direction, I find this a very useful feature.

The next feature is a little silver button called "ONE TOUCH SEARCH". What this does is, if you highlight a word for example on a web page, and then press this button, it will bring up your search engine and
show you the results for the word you have highlighted, at this present time in the UK, there is 4 search engines you can choose from within the Logitech setpoint software, which are: Google, Yahoo, AOL
search, Live.com search, I find that this is yet another useful feature that Logitech have added to this mouse. We now move to the left hand side of the mouse. On the left of the mouse is a large protruding
thumb rest which feels just perfect and is perfectly placed, the thumb rest is covered in a rubber finish. Also in this area is a back & forward button, in their default state, these allow you to go back &
forward in your web browser, which I also find very useful, it basically saves you having to move your mouse's arrow to the FORWARD & BACK buttons on you internet browser. The back & forward buttons on the MX Revolution can be re assigned other functions from within the Setpoint software, for example, you can have these buttons to perform CRUISE UP, CRUISE DOWN, PREVIOUS, NEXT, or you can assign a keystroke to these buttons. Below the back & forward buttons is the THUMB WHEEL, if you have Windows Vista, pressing the thumb wheel forwards or backwards brings up the 3D Flip feature, where you basically have what can be described as a page of a book representation of your open programs, anyone with Windows Vista will be familiar with the 3D Flip feature. Has I have not got access to an XP based PC, I cannot comment on what the THUMB WHEEL does, but if I am not mistaken, it brings up a document view window showing what programs etc you have open, again I find the THUMB WHEEL to be a very useful feature. The only criticism I have of the THUMB WHEEL is that with me having small hands, I find it just to be that little bit too far forward for me to reach comfortable, but this is just me been fussy, as I find the mouse on the whole to be Ergonomically perfect. The last thing you will see on the top of the mouse is a battery level indicator, this shows 3 segments which are green, these gradually go down as the battery becomes exhausted until the battery symbol at the bottom changes to red, regarding the battery level, you can choose to view the battery level as percent (100 percent would mean the battery would be full) or you can view it to show how many days are remaining until the battery would need to be charged/became exhausted, when fully charged the battery level in the setpoint software shows 14-15 days, however I found that to be a little bit optimistic; I managed to get 11 days out of my mouse before the critical battery level indicator showed up on the taskbar I dare say I could have got an extra day but I thought it would be best to pop it in its charger, I will add that I used my mouse for approximately 4 hours per day, so as you can see it certainly is not going to need charged everyday. The mouse takes a little under 2 hours to charge up.

The mouse is finished in a dark grey and black finish, which looks very stylish and will certainly not disgrace any desktop, I have read of some people commenting that the mouse is heavy, but personally I
don't find it is that heavy, you have simply got to remember that with the mouse been cordless that it is inevitable that the mouse will be heavier than its corded brother, due to the fact that the cordless
one will have the batteries in it. If you flip the mouse over, there is an on/off switch, this is a handy feature if you want to take the mouse for example to the office, because if the mouse were placed in
a bag and it didn't have an on/off switch, the mouse would move around and waste unneeded battery life. Also underneath are 4 large silicon pads which do an excellent job at keeping the mouse smooth running over your desktop. Last but not least is the little hole that the laser light shines out of, as this mouse uses laser light for its tracking movements. Has I have mentioned, I had owned a previous Logitech
mouse before purchasing the MX Revolution and this too used a laser for its tracking, I have had no problems with the laser light tracking in the 4 years or so of me owning it, the laser light tracking is a
well proven and reliable tracking method in my opinion.

Other things that come with the mouse are:

Charging stand, this basically can be plugged into any electric point at the time when the mouse needs to be re charged, this is a neat and compact charging stand and it doesn't take up any space at all, for
example if you wanted to place it on your desktop.

You get a CD which contains the Logitech Setpoint software, but my advice is to go on to Logitech's website and download the latest version, because you will probably find that the enclosed software is far out of date to the latest version on the web site, also the latest version can have addition features that the older versions of the software might not have on. I will add that there is no need to install
the Logitech Setpoint software if you do not want to (the mouse basically works straight out of the box) but in order to use the extra features of the mouse (Thumb Wheel, Free Spin etc) you will need to
install the Setpoint software. I have the Setpoint software installed on my Vista Ultimate PC and it works perfectly!

You also get a little dongle, that looks very similar in appearance to a USB Memory stick, this little dongle is about half the size of a stick of Wrigleys chewing gum, the dongle basically provides the
wireless connection between the mouse and the PC, this can be plugged into any USB socket but I would suggest that you have it plugged into a USB 2.0 port, although it may work on USB 1, but I am unable to try this as my PC only has USB 2.0 ports on it. I have my dongle plugged into the USB socket that my Dell monitor has on it, an idea if you have a similar type of monitor perhaps. My previous Logitech mouse had a charger come receiver, which I used to find a bit on the large side, I must admit that the separate charger and dongle are a lot better alternative.

I will now describe some of the functions that the Setpoint software has on it.

When you open the Setpoint software up, down the left hand side you will see 6 little tabs, the top tab has a mouse symbol on it, if you click on this, you will now be able to change what function the mouse
buttons do, for example you can choose what function you the scroll wheel has when it is pressed down, you can also change what function the ONE TOUCH SEARCH button has, you can also change what search engine you want to use when you press the ONE TOUCH SEARCH button.

The next tab down has a mouse arrow on it. If you click on this, this will then allow you to change how fast or how slow the mouse pointer moves, you can also choose pointer acceleration, this basically
chooses how fast the mouse pointer moves when you begin to move the mouse, you can choose between NONE, LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH.

The next tab down looks like a Rook on a chess board. This allows you to switch on GAME DETECTION, this mode allows you to have the mouse perform differently than it ordinarily does, but I cannot comment on this as I do not have any games to try it on. In here you can also choose whether you would like to use Window's own mouse settings, these can be accessed from within the Control Panel in Windows or for you to carry on using the Setpoint software to provide the mouse settings.

Next tab down looks like a magnifying glass. If you click on this, this allows you to change the ZOOM settings, this only applies when you are using a program that allows you to zoom, for example, picture
editing software when you are wanting to zoom in on a particular part of the picture, the ZOOM settings allow you to change how fast or how slow the zoom will be performed when you rotate the scroll wheel. I
have just left the ZOOM settings on their default settings as they perform how I like them.

Next tab down looks like the SCROLL WHEEL. This allows to change the various functions of the scroll wheel. For example, how fast or slow it will scroll when you are vertically or horizontally scrolling, you
can change the LOGITECH SMARTSHIFT TECHNOLOGY, this basically is the way the mouse performs when the scroll wheel is turned, in this mode the mouse determines what function the scroll wheel will operate in, i.e. FREE SPIN or CLICK TO CLICK depending on what program you are using, I find that the mouse chooses most of the time the best function for the scroll wheel, but you can override this and tell the mouse/software to perform a different mode depending on what program you are using, this can easily be altered by going into the SELECT PROGRAM column and choosing the program you would like to change from the drop down list. There is an option called AUTO SHIFT TO FREE SPIN WHEN WHEEL SPEED IS, this determines what speed the scroll wheel has to be turned in order for the CLICK TO CLICK option to disengage and to then engage the FREE SPIN OPTION, I cannot tell you enough how useful the FREE SPIN option is, it is an excellent feature that has been added to the humble scroll wheel. You can if you so wish, disable the LOGITECH SMARTSHIFT TECHNOLOGY, which basically means that you are choosing to use either the mouse in its usual CLICK TO CLICK mode or you can choose to have the mouse to always operate in the FREE SPIN MODE.

Next tab down has a battery symbol on it. If you click on this, this allows you to view your remaining battery life in either percentage or by remain life in days. There is also a symbol on the taskbar for
the set point software which if you hover the mouse arrow over shows whether the mouse's battery is FULL, GOOD, LOW etc.

The last option from within the Setpoint software is a tab at the top right of the program window called TOOLS, if you click on this, this will show you what version your software is, and also, there are two
other tabs down the right hand side, the first one has a circle with the letter i in it, this shows what version of software, what the driver version is, the next tab is the INDICATOR SYMBOLS, this will allow
you to have or not to have a icon displayed in the taskbar for the set point software. Last but not least is the WEB UPDATES, clicking on this will make the Setpoint software check to see if there is any
newer updates available.

I have heard of some people criticizing the Setpoint software, but personally I find it to be a really useful piece of software, I have used the Setpoint software (albeit different versions) for 4 years on
various operating systems and I have never experience any problems whatsoever. I think the criticisms are based on people not reading what the various features do or forgetting to click on the APPLY button
and the the OK button when they have performed the changes.

I have used Logitech products for at least 4 years and I always find that they are very well thought out/laid out products, well made, and the MX Revolution certainly ticks all these boxes, I find this to be the best mouse I have ever used and I defy anyone to not be impressed with the MX Revolution, the mouse is feature packed but this does not spoil the basic function of the mouse, i.e. moving the arrow around the screen and selecting things. The MX Revolution feels very precise and there is NO LAG WHATSOEVER with it, YOU WILL NOT NOTICE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A WIRED MOUSE AND A CORDLESS ONE NOW, the technology has come on a long way.

If you are in the market for a new mouse then I whole heartedly recommend the Logitech MX Revolution, you will certainly not be disappointed. 

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