Digital Trends

Logitech VX Revolution February 9th, 2007 | by Brandon King

Features and Design

Logitech holds the crown for the best mice and keyboards available for Windows today. The endless array of choices, from the corded to cordless and gamer to casual user, has made us ask, “What else is left?” How can something as simple as a mouse undergo so many revisions and still offer something fresh? Enter the Revolution MX and VX laser mice. Differences between the MX and VX versions are discussed at the end of the review, as we had both on hand to tinker with.

Out of the box you get the stingray-shaped Revolution MX mouse, USB receiver dongle, charging station, rechargeable batteries, and software. The dongle is the size of a small flash drive and offers a decent range of about five feet. The charging stand seats the mouse comfortably and has only a power cord connected to it. (In the past, the charging station doubled as the receiver, which required both power and USB cables. This unnecessarily tethered the station close to the PC and limited the placement options.)

The Revolution MX mouse uses Logitech’s laser technology and sports an impressive 1000 dpi resolution. Keep in mind that this mouse is not marketed toward gamers, though with this level of sensitivity, it makes the MX a great jack-of-all-trades. The bottom surface sports large, low-resistance pads and an on/off switch. The battery indicator on the top surface satisfyingly fades in and out as the mouse is moved, and the wake-up from sleep mode is darn near instantaneous. The inset which fits the user’s thumb has a rubberized, textured covering.

The mouse itself is designed solely for right hand users, despite Logitech's claim of being compatible with left hand users. In addition to the usual suspects, there are two thumb buttons, a thumb zoom rocker, and an application fast switch button below the scroll wheel. Also, the scroll wheel is tilt scrolling enabled for horizontal scrolling. The application switch button pulls up an Alt + Tab-like list of running programs, and can be reassigned via the included software. The thumb buttons are meant for browser back and forward commands, but they can be reassigned as well. The thumb zoom rocker can be used to adjust the zoom level in any Microsoft application. And then, there is the scroll wheel…

Image Courtesy of Logitech