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Logitech Performance Mouse MX is the desktop cousin to the company mobile Anywhere Mouse MX, and it is each bit as fabulous. Mice feature Logitech’s beautiful Darkfield Laser Tracking, which allows them to perform accurately on nearly any floor, including glass, and both devices makes use of Logitech Unifying wireless technology, which permits a single tiny USB-powered wireless receiver to control a number of peripherals. For this review, we ran the Performance Logitech Performance Mouse MX alongside Logitech’s new Wireless Keyboard K350 to see how it would carry out – read on to search out the outcomes.
How It Works
Logitech Darkfield laser technology, which the corporate tells us has been in growth since 2005, is derived from the principles of dark field microscopy. Darkfield microscopes have been invented to enable scientists to look at specimens that do not produce sufficient contrast when illuminated, similar to microorganisms that live in water. To solve the issue, these devices illuminate the object with light that will not be collected by the microscope’s objective lens. This results in an image of a shiny object on an almost black background.
Light emitted by a conventional laser mouse strikes no matter surface the mouse is resting on and scatters. The mouse’s lens collects this scattered light and directs it to an image sensor, which creates a stream of images of the surface. An onboard processor then analyzes the stream to find out the mouse’s direction and speed. Conventional laser mice have trouble operating on shiny and clear surfaces because these surfaces do not mirror enough light for the image sensor to function.
A mouse using Logitech’s Darkfield technology operates very similar to a conventional laser mouse when used on an opaque surface. When used on a clear surface, similar to glass, the mouse deploys a second laser that illuminates the surface at an angle. On this scenario, the one light that reaches its lens is that which is reflected from dust particles and surface scratches. The image sensor sees these objects towards an almost black background and the onboard processor makes use of them to find out the mouse’s direction and speed, just like a conventional laser mouse would.
The result’s remarkable. The Performance Mouse MX, just like the Anywhere MX mouse earlier than it, worked flawlessly on glass tabletops, granite countertops, and even mirrored surfaces. It would probably work on water, too, but we did not take a look at that theory for obvious reasons.
Performance and Design
The curvaceous mouse not only feels nice within the hand, but the zoom and application-switching buttons built-in into this surface are fantastically useful. You possibly can customize any of the mouse’s button using Logitech’s Setpoint software, but we found little reason to stray from the defaults.
Pushing your thumb down into the groove shrinks every window on the desktop to a massive tile, so you’ll be able to see everything at a glance (each window is identified by a banner headline across its middle). Hovering the mouse over a window enlarges it slightly; clicking it renders it active. Elevating your thumb up against the top of the groove activates a zoom function. 2 buttons above and outside the groove default to shifting backward and forward by your web-browsing history, but we found the rearmost button to be simply a little awkward to reach.
The mouse body curves barely to the right, rendering the left major button slightly shorter than the right. Pressing a small button behind the scroll wheel toggles the wheel between an index and free-spin modes. Most mice that offer this feature put the button on the bottom, perhaps assuming users prefer one or the other and barely switch. We suppose having it on top makes sense, although we are the type who never swap; in any occasion, it did not get in our way.
Logitech’s Unifying technology renders device pairing a lot simpler than it’s with Bluetooth. Single or bundled products (a mouse and keyboard, for example) come pre-paired, but including device to a Unifying receiver is a simple matter of toggling the device on and off again. There is no button mashing, listening for beeps or monitoring flashing LEDs involved it simply works.
Unlike the Anywhere Logitech Performance Mouse MX, which depends on two disposable AA batteries, the Performance Mouse MX operates on a Li-Ion battery that may be charged either with a USB cable (together with while it is in use) or with the offered AC adapter. Logitech additionally offers a USB extension cable, in case your mouse is outside the Unifying receiver’s range and a carrying pouch. Oddly sufficient, the carrying pouch isn’t only too small to accommodate the mouse, but it additionally has holes at both ends that are massive enough for the Unifying receiver to disappear through. Yes, we know this from experience.
Conclusion
Between its Darkfield Laser Tracking technology and painless connectivity choices, there is a lot to love about the Performance Mouse MX. As such, the enhanced computing experience it gives more than justifies a purchase if you are out there for simply such a peripheral.
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