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- Verified Buyer
There is much to say about this mouse, though most of it has already been elaborated upon by other more verbose reviewers on this site. I will say that I personally bought this as a "replacement" for my MX Revolution mouse that I have had for a couple of years. Seeing as that mouse still works, it was a purchase of desire rather than need. The Performance Mouse MX (listed henceforth as PMX) is, afterall the spiritual successor to the former Logitech flagship that was the Revolution (listed henceforth as MXR), it seemed to be the next possible step.In the interest of fairness, I'll explain why I decided to "upgrade" the MXR. For a couple of years, its been a fantastic mouse with a few glaring issues. First, I was a victim of the notorious charging cradle problem. Basically, the MXR sits in a standalone charging cradle and has two connection points that conduct the charge. Between the base having poor components in it, and the fact that the regular usage of the mouse dirties and corrodes the two points on it, it comes to the point that placing the mouse in the cradle no longer charges it, making it a giant paperweight. As I'm fairly hands on with these kinds of things, I found a guide about changing the conductive properties of the base and sanding the points on the mouse that I was able to do that solved the problem. So that was good, but was also something I shouldn't have had to do with a $100 mouse. Regardless of that, the other issues I had are more personal pet peeves that glaring mistakes in design. The MXR uses a receiver, like many wireless mice and with that it takes up a USB port. This would normally be fine, except in my particular instance, my desktop has all of six ports, and I sit roughly seven feet away from the screen. While this qualifies as an HTPC setup, and while I doubt the MXR or similar mice are designed for that, this is also my primary desktop which I use for video editing and work-related program usage. The MXR receiver not only takes up that port, but has issues receiving the mouse signal from the (not excessive) distance of seven feet. This results in noticed lag, double clicks, and other inconsistencies. That said, it's still a great mouse, but one that had personal issues I was growing weary of and wanted to try the hot new thing.Enter the PMX. Now, as I said, this was a purchase of choice rather than necessity, so I had the time to fully research and look into the ups and downs of the "upgrade." So going into the purchase, I knew the much-talked-about shortcomings of the PMX. That said, it still is the premiere wireless mouse on the market now (and a "new" MXR is about $200 from resellers), so the choice was already made for me.Ordered the mouse, came in a day, set it up (which, by the by, you HAVE to have another working mouse to get this up and running) and was off and running.The good:Darkfield - Logitech's new laser tracking tech, Darkfield, is something I don't understand but most likely is conceived and powered by some voodoo magic. Basically, the mouse can be fully usable on virtually any surface. Pants? Check. Couch? Check. Hair? Check. Mirror? Check. Glass table? Check. It's wonderful to have that flexibility, and regardless of whether or not I know how it works, it just does. Believe me, I tested it first.Unifying Receiver - As a personal pet peeve, this was an awesome addition. Logitech's Unifying receiver tech allows you to hook up five (six?) Logitech wireless devices using a single, low-profile USB input. This, for me, is huge. Having just bought the Logitech K800 wireless illuminated keyboard, which ALSO has a unifying receiver, I just turned on the mouse, navigated through the sync software and was done. Not only is this a lifesaver by only taking up one port for numerous devices, but it also has an expanded range over previous receivers. Logitech claims a thirty foot range, but seeing as my house is nowhere near big enough for a 30 foot line-of-sight test, the best I can offer is that there is NO lag and NO inconsistencies at 10 feet. So good for you, Logitech, for coming up with such an elegant solution.Omni-button - I don't know if that's what the thumb button is called or not. If it isn't it should be. It's a stupidly smart design choice, and something I frankly use all the time. For those confused, the thumb rest on the PMX is, itself, a button. A programmable button at that. One that allows you to use a formerly useless (in the mousing sense) digit to replicate many computer tasks with minimal effort. Again, stupid awesome and totally noteworthy design choice with that one.Battery - MINE came with an eneloop battery. I love eneloops. In an effort to not make this ABOUT eneloops let me just say they are the single best rechargeable battery you can buy. Period. With that out of the way, the fact that this uses batteries may seem regressive, but actually affords many more opportunities. Mouse dies? Pop in another AA battery. Charging cable not working/lost charging cable? Just swap batteries. After some thought, I prefer this to the embedded/non-removable approach as it provides versatility. With the batteries, let me also mention how the charging port/cable idea works really well too. The top of the mouse has a port for charging. This can be either from a wall outlet or from the USB port on a computer. Essentially your mouse can become wired temporarily whilst charging, letting you continue to use it (something the MXR never did).The bad:Aesthetic design - This thing is a monster. To my hands, its TOO big. I understand that this mouse does a lot, and I understand that adding the removable AA makes it a larger form factor, but there is a significant disparity between the PMX and the MXR of yesteryear. Not only that, but the look of the mouse itself is...meh? The silver/chrome accents can go away and never return for my money. The button enormity and just...bulk take away from it. Just...not an ugly mouse, but not as pretty as it could be.Overall regressiveness - This is where I lose some of you. I understand that many people are buying or considering this mouse having never used the MXR before. This is probably a majority of the people in the market for this. That's fine, but here me out: this "upgrade" to the MXR is a downgrade in a ton of ways. Again, you may not care, having never used the other mouse, but it still provides a bit of confounded disbelief as to why Logitech went in certain directions.Button layout - Comparatively, the PMX is abysmal. That zoom button? Put in on top. I don't care if you use the forward/back buttons as designed or with other keystroke assignments, the zoom button being underneath is utterly pointless. It makes you move your mouse pretty far to get to those keys, and really adds nothing to the efficiency of the mouse. SScroll-shift button - What a letdown. For comparison, the MXR introduced a smart-shift scroll wheel. Basically the function of it was an interior mechanism that, with software detection, would notice HOW you were scrolling the wheel and automatically shift from interval scrolling to an "infinite" scroll, allowing you to get through documents in a breeze. With Setpoint, this function could be tweaked (how fast must you scroll before the wheel goes infinite), or turned off entirely. It was elegant, useful, and a huge step in the right direction. For reasons unknown, however, Logitech ditched the smart-scroll for the PMX in favor of...an ugly button. Yes, that massive, garish, unwieldy nub on the top is the ONLY way to change the scrolling on the mouse. Setpoint offers no tweaking. Its either one way or the other. It's a terrible step backwards, and something I'm simply dumbfounded by.Cheap build - This is not something I was expecting. This mouse, the current flagship, feels...cheap. For clarity's sake, I actually had to ask Amazon for a replacement, because it "squeaked" out of the box. Any time I hit the left click, there was a...grinding inside that made the mouse emit a terribly annoying chirping noise anytime the button (THE button, on a mouse at least) was clicked. The replacement unit is working fine thus far, so I have to chalk that up to a defect. I didn't deduct a star for that because of this. However, the mouse does feel regressive in this department as it seems to lack the heft, rigidity, and just overall build quality of the MXR. For a mouse at this pricepoint, it should FEEL like a solid expensive piece of tech, but it ends up FEELING like the first Logitech mouse I ever bought, which was a cheapy laptop unit. Again, it WORKS fine, but the feel leaves much to be desired.Needless to say, I'm really torn on this mouse. On it's own merits, its the best mouse you can buy right now, period. But when viewed against its predecessor, I'm completely confused as to why Logitech took certain steps forward, but totally lapsed in others. For that, I bring the current champion down a peg, giving it four stars. I'd almost give it a three, since I'm personally debating whether I too want to regress to the older MXR, but I found that to be unfair. Again, this is the best wireless mouse you can buy right now, and it really innovates in a lot of interesting ways. I just wish they would have adhered a little more closely to the design aesthetic and build quality of the older series. So "upgrade" may not be the best term in this case.If you are still interested, I actually posted a fairly extensive video review on Youtube. As Amazon's video service leaves much to be desired (and compresses the hell out of everything) I'll just point you over to that. My channel name is Alfeetoe and the video title is "Product Review - Logitech Performance Mouse MX." Not advertising, just offering a visual aspect for those of you still curious about what I meant by some of the points mentioned here.[...]This is most definitely the best mouse I have used in my entire life. Granted, it is by far the most expensive as well (in the past I have used mice that cost between $20-$50 USD, so nothing quite this high end). The ergonomics are a thing of beauty and make this mouse an absolute pleasure to use. The DarkField Laser technology makes for a consistently great tracking experience over the gamut of surfaces, from glass to fabric to wood to plastic. Below you will find an intensive breakdown of the mice's features and what I think of them.(1) ERGONOMICS - This is an ergonomic mouse intended for right handed users only. I once read that the proper way to type on a keyboard is to position your hands as if there are bubbles underneath them. I'd imagine the same principal holds for mice. This mouse completely promotes proper holding posture through a combination of high-quality materials and novel design features. The way in which my thumb fits into the depressed left side of the mouse is great. However the right hand side of the mouse has an interesting surprise - it has these novel (though extremely subtle) depressions for my ring and pinkie fingers that are JUST in the right places. The curve of the mouse fits perfectly in the palm of my hand. Furthermore, both the left and right sides of the mouse are slightly rubberized, preventing slips in one's grip on the mouse. The result of all of these subtle features is that I can hold the mouse with perfect form/posture without it feeling forced or unnatural. The rubberized left and right sides allow you to hold the mouse without squeezing it, and the grooves allow your fingers to rest in comfortable and natural positions. One can hold on to this mouse whilst moving ones forearm up and down, forward and backwards, and side to side, all while exercising virtually zero squeezing.(2) MATERIALS - As mentioned before, the sides of the mouse are coated in high-quality black rubber material to promote proper mouse-holding form/posture. Unlike some rubber-like materials, this feel like an extremely high quality material and looks good. It doesn't show fingerprints either. The body of the mouse is made out of what appears to be a high-quality hard plastic. It is matte finish and also does a good job of masking fingerprints/hand oils. There are also chrome accents a couple of places on the mouse (around the left/thumb side of the mouse, and on the sides of the click wheel. Unlike the shiny chrome that we often see on mice, this is more of an understated gunmetal chrome which looks less gaudy and is much less of a fingerprint magnet to boot. The mouse has a comforting heft/density to it - it feels substantial and not at all flimsy in one's hand, but at the same time it is not obnoxiously heavy either.(3) TRACKING - Tracking, in my opinion, is the most important quality in a mouse. After all, that's what the whole pointer-based system of input is based on. As I see it, two things have the potential to affect tracking when one is dealing with a wireless optical/laser mouse. These are (A) the wireless signal and (B) the laser/optical mechanism used in the mouse sensor itself. In both of these areas, the Performance MX absolutely excels. The Unifying receiver is extremely tiny - so much so that one can "set and forget" it on a laptop or desktop computer. I am running both my Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminating Keyboard and the Performance MX off of one Unifying receiver. There is absolutely ZERO input lag time as far as I can tell (with either device). I can use both devices simultaneously and the Unifying Receiver doesn't miss a beat. Reception is great from my armchair, which is about 5 feet away from my computer tower (and thus the receiver). I have a 802.11N dual-band Wi-fi sensor in the same computer, in addition to an IR blaster and a Bluetooth 2.1 radio, yet there is no interference between the different wireless devices. I have my computer hooked up to my Vizio 42" 3D HDTV, and use my computer primarily while sitting in an armchair nowhere near a desk. I need a mouse that can track on the fabric of the armchair or my pants leg. The Performance MX does a great job of this. The tracking is amazingly smooth and precise on fabric, rug, even bare skin. My old Microsoft Laser Mouse wasn't able to track well on the arm of my armchair (where I primarily use my mouse). This mouse puts it to shame and then some. I swear by Darkfield technology - I have not found a single surface yet that it cannot track on excellently. Its kinda become a game for me to find SOME surface that it doesn't work on LOL. And BTW, the bottom of the mouse provides just a little friction allowing one to physically move the mouse itself easily and smoothly. You can customize Pointer Speed and Acceleration from within the Logitech SetPoint software and enable/disable Pointer Trails.(4) BUTTONS - What can I say here. Left/Right clicks are very responsive, and the left/right mouse buttons are easy to click and make a very satisfying subtle clicking noise when you press on them. The scroll wheel also serves as a middle button if you depress it (I've never been very fond of this function, on any mouse). There are back and forward buttons right above the thumbrest, which is pretty much boilerplate on $30+ mice these days. There is also a zoom button right below the back/forward buttons. You use this button by clicking on it and then moving the scroll wheel either up/forward (to zoom in) or down/backward (to zoom out). I honestly don't use the function that much, but I can see how some people would. There is also a very neat application switcher button at the very bottom of the thumbrest that you can click with the side of your thumb simply by pushing your thumb downwards a little. Its useful and well-thought-out IMO. Going back to the click-wheel.... It has two modes - notch/line-by-line scrolling and free-scrolling/hyper-scrolling. You can switch between the two modes by clicking a toggle button located immediately below the wheel. You can also use the wheel to scroll horizontally. The wheel feels solid/well-made and is accurate in both modes. The toggle switch feels just a tad chintzy and makes a noise that is just a little to loud for my tastes when it is clicked. Most of the buttons can be re-mapped for different functions using the Logitech SetPoint software. Also, you can customize some of the behavior of the scroll-wheel using this software; you can even map buttons to behave differently in specific applications or when gaming.(5) BATTERY/BATTERY-LIFE - I have heard that some Performance MX's come with crappy rechargeable batteries. Mine didn't - it came with one of the second-generation AA Sanyo Eneloop batteries. The mouse included a USB charging cord and a wall outlet-USB converter. This allows you to continue to use the mouse (albeit with a wire) while charging it [which is its major advantage over a charging base]. Also, the battery is user replaceable if the one they included proves to be crappy or dies. You technically have the option of swapping out the included NiMH battery for an alkaline if you want too(just don't try to charge the mouse if you are using alkaline batteries lol). I have been using the included Eneloop since I got the mouse a few weeks ago and I haven't even come close to completely draining the battery yet. Mind you, I plug it into the charger at nighttime - I am not saying that you will get a 3-week battery life from this mouse! What I am saying is that you will easily be able to make it through 4-8 hours of daily computer usage in one day and then can just plug the mouse in until you return to your computer. There is an On/Off switch on the bottom, but I have never used it, save to turn the Mouse on when I originally got it. I just leave it on all the time. Sometimes I even forget to plug it in at night. Yet I haven't run into a problem with the battery dying on me yet. And the battery is fully rechargeable OUT OF THE BOX so you will never have to worry about buying batteries or anything. Unlike most NiMH batteries, Eneloops are low-discharge and have been shown to retain up to 75% of a full charge after 3 years in storage, so you really shouldn't have to worry about going on vacation and returning to find a dead mouse. Battery life can be checked from within the SetPoint software and the software will pop up with a low battery alert when your battery is close to dying.If you've read this far, congrats, you know everything about this mouse that I, as an owner of it, do. And you officially have no life. But then again, I wrote this so 'glass houses' right? Just know that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this product. Logitech has made one high-quality rodent right here!!Excellent MX Mouse, this is my second, as I had to retire the first one after a very active and hard working life. I would recommend this product.Only downside is the price. And the fact you can't get the VAT back from this resellerGreat feeling mouse. Performing very well. No complaints.The most comfortable mouse I have ever used.Brilliant!
