Digital Trends

Logitech Bluetooth Cordless MX Duo

July 14th, 2004 | by Nino Marchetti

Setup and Installation

Setting up the Cordless Desktop MX for Bluetooth was fairly painless and straightforward. A detailed installation sheet with directions in four languages, along with illustrations, guides the way.

The first step is to take the wireless hub and hook it to your desktop or laptop, as well as plugging it into a power source. The Bluetooth wireless hub includes a PS/2 and USB 2.0 hookup. While only USB is needed, the PS/2 is available to provide access to the BIOS of computers that don't natively support USB. According to Logitech, the desktop setup only works for Widows 2000 and XP (and presumably Windows Server 2003) so those with older operating systems, Mac or Linux won't be able to enjoy the product's benefits. Connecting through a USB hub caused the keyboard/mouse not to work and it is recommended to avoid this. While most users should have enough USB ports available and won't need a hub, we did find the cord to be a bit too short for some setups.

An install CD, AC power adapter, and batteries are included along with the mouse, keyboard and basestation.

After putting the four AA batteries into the keyboard and pulling the yellow label from the mouse compartment where the two NIMH rechargeable batteries are stored, the mouse should be placed on the wireless hub so it can get a full charge of several hours. Logitech says that the mouse should reach a full charge, after a complete discharge, in four to six-and-a-half hours. A full charge should last, on average, about ten days for a standard office user. Some "heavy" users might need to recharge the mouse more often. Charging the mouse for 15 minutes gives the mouse enough power to operate for one day of standard use. The company recommends that you fully charge the mouse as often as possible.

Logitech also says that the device will let you know when it is about eight hours away from a total discharge by flashing a red light on the top of the mouse. When this happens,  you should recharge the mouse. Once the mouse has been charged past the eight hour warning point, the light will no longer flash red. While the mouse is charging, the light should flash green. When it is fully charged, the light will stop flashing.

With the hub now hooked up and detected by your computer, the basic Bluetooth functionality on the keyboard and mouse should work, as it did during our tests. Installation of the software provided on the CD is next in order to gain full usage of the different keyboard and mouse features. Via the software, you can assign specific operations to the buttons besides the default, check the battery levels and more. Users that like a minimal amount of programs running in the background may not like the fact that these applications are required to use the extra features, and it takes up a few megabytes of memory while running. Also included in the installation is mobile phone software so you can synchronize your Bluetooth cell phone with your contacts list, or be notified on your computer screen of SMS messages and incoming calls.