choongster's Full Review: Logitech MXâ„¢ 510 (931162-0403) Mouse
I've been a heavy-duty business notebook user for 5+ years. The pointing stick (found between 'G' and 'H' key in many notebook computers) has been my favorite weapon of choice, as I don't have to move my right hand away from my normal typing position to move the cursor. For a business user who type away endlessly on Word or create crazy financial models on Excel (in other words, spend most of the time on the keyboard rather than mouse), this works pretty well. Alas, over the years, I've developed some serious Carpal Tunnel syndrom on the right index finger, no doubt, due to the heavy usage of pointing stick, and decided to get a mouse.
The first choice I considered was a 'traveller' mouse that is compact in size; I've seen many colleagues using this type of mouse. The only problem with this mouse is that it often sacrifices ergonomics, accuracy and features for the size. For example only a few, if any, has extra buttons for forward/back. Plus, although I'm a road warrior, I spend more time on my laptop than most people who don't travel; the convenience of small size is not worth it when I spend 50-60 hours using the mouse. Ultimately, I've decided that the little difference in size does not warrant the compromise in features.
The next choice was wireless mouse. This seemed to be a pretty good choice, except that I've seen users of the same brand of wireless mouse often causing interference with one another when they are seated nearby. Again, not a good choice for a road warrior who often works in war rooms with 10 people crammed into a conference room.
I happened on MX 510 on a recommendation from my brother, who uses MX 700 for games; after a little searching, I got MX 510 for > $30 from Amazon.com with $10 mail-in rebate. After a week with the mouse, I've discovered that the mouse has a lot more going for it than just high accuracy and rapid response that I've heard gamers rave about.
Ergonomics:
The footprint is comparable to a typical mouse, but it's slighty higher; it's higher on the left side of the mouse (where the left mouse button is) versus the right side to be a more natural fit for right-hand users. This eases any manipulation done with the thumb and index fingers while hand is on the mouse at a slope (as opposed to being parallel with the desk surface); this makes pushing of the forward/back buttons a lot easier and natural, and the most heavily used button -- the left button -- is also a lot more effortless to push. It takes a little bit of adjustment to normal uses to get used to the position of the hand that is right for your hand's size; but I found that once I got used to it, it's a very natural position. Also, the red color is a nice break away from the monotony of grey and black business computer peripherals, and it's a very elegant hue; it's not out of place at the office.
Features:
The mouse has five additional buttons on top of the regular 2-button mouse with scroll wheel; the forward/back buttons, scroll up/down buttons and an app switcher. Forward/back is great for web surfing, but I also found that when pointer is positioned about the tabs in MS Visio, you can tab between the different worksheets! The scroll up/down allows me to page through lengthy documents without using scroll wheels; it's very comfortable. The only button that doesn't work as well as intended is the application switcher. It's set too far back, so to push it, you have to lift the hand and pull it back a little for your index finger to reach it. Otherwise, you sometimes accidently push it if you intended to press scroll down button instead. Also, there's no way to cancel out of the app switcher mode; you either have to press 'ESC' button or find your current app (which is not the highlighted default) and select it.
Optical mouse:
Ball mouse is terrible to travel with; the mouse ball gets dirty easily and mouse pads are luxury that few people travel with. Unless you're diligent about how you tote your mouse and have adequate mouse surface to operate your mouse on, you'll be frustrated by jumpy motion and inaccurate movements. With this mouse, I found that I could use this on any surface without seeing much detriment to performance. I did, however, find an old pouch that used to hold my old PDA to stow away my mouse.
Overall, I think that this is a great mouse. I've had a lot of colleagues asking questions about it -- no doubt, due to its unique color -- try it out, then look into purchasing it for themselves. You don't have to be a gamer to appreciate MX 510! (Hope this helps.)
Enjoy ultra-precise, ultra-smooth operation thanks to the improved MX Optical Engine Zip back and forth between open documents with the handy Quick Sw...More at Amazon Marketplace
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