Digital Trends

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser August 3rd, 2007 | by Josh Norem

Use and Testing

Installation of the MX 3200 could not be easier, which is something we’ve seen with all Logitech devices — just plug them in and they work. Of course, you can install the Logitech software if you’re interested in re-mapping keys and so forth, but in testing, we found that all of the mouse and keyboards’ features worked as soon as we plugged them into a PC. And, once we installed the software to see if there were any secret goodies, we found there were none. Unless you want to re-map keys, don’t bother installing the Set Point software.

The Keyboard

We’ve used Logitech keyboards for years, and generally love them, but we did not like this keyboard’s feel at all. We know that a keyboard’s tactile feel is an issue of personal preference, but we found the MX 3200 keyboard to be way too squishy. Rather than having a definitive “click” when you press a key, the MX 3200’s keys are very quiet, and feel as if they are traveling through some sort of viscous oil or something. We did not like typing on the keyboard, and once we were finished testing, we were extremely happy to go back to our Logitech G15 keyboard. Of course, since we didn’t like the feel of the keys, it’s a deal breaker, but we should also examine the included shortcuts and doo-hickeys Logitech added to the keyboard’s outskirts. 

On the left side is a zoom bar, which is actually useful when looking at images or Word documents. You cause it to zoom in and out by grazing your finger up and down the slider bar, which is sensitive and works well. Next to the slider bar are pre-set search keys for searching the web, your PC, your pictures folder, or closing a window. There is also a button that triggers Flip3D in Vista. Overall, these are handy shortcuts, and they are useful. They stand in contrast to almost every other shortcut on the keyboard, however.

The shortcut keys that run around the edge of the too-hard-to-see LCD display are way too small, and all the function keys are too small for our tastes as well. The far right side of the keyboard has shortcuts to Calculator, Sleep, and V0IP, which are useful, but will be rarely used. 

The Mouse

The “swoopy” mouse is very comfortable and uses an 800 dpi laser sensor. Though the mouse is reasonably accurate, when you are used to a high-res mouse like the G7, which scans at 2000 dpi, the MX 3200’s sensor seems sluggish and lazy. It’s the typical “cordless mouse” feel of lag; like the cursor is “floating” around. Regardless, we like our mice to be very accurate, and we did not get that feeling from the MX 3200’s mouse. It’s not inaccurate, mind you, to where we are missing clicks and can’t control it, but it’s not “locked on” the way we like a mouse to be to our hand movements.

So, what about the fancy extra buttons? We honestly didn’t find them terribly useful, and their small size and close proximity made for numerous instances of accidental clicking. The problem is the entire “zoom” zone on the mouse is only about a half an inch, whereas on the keyboard it’s several inches, so it’s incredibly sensitive on the mouse. And, right at the end of the zoom zone is the search button, which is tiny and easily pressed. On more than one occasion we pressed it by accident and saw a dozen new instances of Firefox open.

The scroll wheel is standard Logitech fare and is easy to scroll and easy to click. It features left and right maneuverability too, in case you need to scroll left or right on a webpage. Logitech states that the middle click button can also perform what is called “Doc Flip”; it works in both Vista and XP and is actually useful. When you press the middle-mouse button in Vista, Flip3D activates. In XP, it presents a window similar to the Alt-Tab window, but we found on occasion that the window would be empty, despite the fact that we had several apps open at the time.

Flip Screenshot