tch7's Full Review: Logitech MXâ„¢ 610 (MX610) Mouse
After a month or so of screwing around with me, my 1.5 year-old Logitech MediaPlay mouse altogether quit working, forcing me to revert back to a cheap, old-fashioned mouse. By the next morning I was already in withdrawal, seriously missing the optical sensor and the copious buttons that I had come to love. After a quick bit of research, I headed to the store to pick up a Logitech MX 610, which quickly filled the void that the MediaPlay had left behind.
Comfort & Style
Within 5 minutes of using the MX 610, I was perfectly adapted to the ergonomic shape and button placement – a far cry from the few weeks that it took me to adapt to the MediaPlay. If you’ve only ever used the cheap $10 mouse that came with your computer, the 610 may look a little awkward, but after you use it for a bit, you’ll be amazed how much nicer it is. The sides are made of a somewhat rubbery material that provide excellent grip.
It’s also one of the best looking mice, featuring an elegant black and silver motif. Of all of the mice around, it really has the nicest proportions and satisfies the superficial me.
Buttons The Basics
The left and right clicks require the right amount of force and are fairly quiet. The scroll wheel also allows for side to side movement, and clicking it down turns it into a zoom in/out wheel. The zoom function only works with some programs, but does just fine with many of the mainstream programs like Internet Explorer, Word, and Adobe Photoshop.
Forward/Back
There was absolutely no way I was going to settle for a mouse that didn’t have Forward/Back thumb buttons. They’re such a wonderful feature and make browsing the internet far more enjoyable. They are well placed on the MX 610, so accidental clicks are at a minimum.
Volume Up/Down & Mute
Next to your index finger you’ll find three buttons, defaulted for controlling the master volume. Using the included SetPoint software, you can customize all of the buttons to a variety of different tasks, so I changed these buttons to Next/Previous & Play/Pause, which have no trouble working with Windows Media Player. However, I've noticed that when I'm in Outlook Express, the buttons revert to the defaults, which is a major annoyance.
Email & IM Notification
Rather unique to the MX 610 is that it doesn’t just send messages to your computer – it also receives them. The final two buttons on the mouse will light up when you receive a new email or IM, and clicking on the button will take you to that new message. As nice as that sounds, it’s not that great of a feature. For one, only a few programs are supported. Secondly, those programs need to be running. Thirdly, clicking the buttons when the program isn’t running doesn’t do anything, when you’d expect it would open up your email or IM software. As such, I didn’t see much use for these buttons, so I reprogrammed the one to open my music folder, and the other to open Internet Explorer.
One neat feature that’s on some newer mice is the ability to highlight some words, and then press a button, causing your favourite search engine to search those words. I definitely would have liked to have had that ability with the 610 in place of the email/IM notifications.
Range and Precision
Logitech claims that the 610 gets 5 times the range of normal mice, but I haven’t found that to be true. When testing, the furthest away I’ve been able to get is 10 feet. That’s more than enough for my needs, but doesn’t live up to claims that you can get your email and IM notifications when watching TV on the other side of your house.
The MX 610 is my first laser mouse, which are supposedly more precise than optical mice. However, I’ve been a little disappointed with the 610. Generally, it is quite good, being nice and smooth when editing graphics and doing other precise things. However, whenever something is loading, whether it’s a program or a web page, the mouse pointer loses its fluidity, and behaves worse than an old-fashioned mouse with a ball in it. It’s really quite annoying at times, and I never had that sort of problem with my wireless optical MediaPlay mouse.
Battery Life
Because the 610 is capable of receiving information from your PC, this allows it to turn itself on and off in sync with your PC, saving the batteries without the need to fumble around with small switches. It’s not quite as proactive as the mice that’ll hibernate after 15 seconds of not being used, but it’s better than nothing. It also would have been nice if it was a rechargeable mouse instead of requiring AA’s, but with a supposed battery life of around 60 hours, it’s no big deal. Low battery notification is provided by a light on the top of the mouse, and also via the SetPoint software.
Installation and Software
Installation is simple. Put the accompanying batteries into the mouse, plug in the USB receiver, install the SetPoint software, and you’re good to go. You must install the SetPoint software if you want to make use of any of the non-standard buttons. The software is quite straightforward and makes it easy to adjust the functions, and it doesn’t seem to bog down my computer when it’s running.
Price & Warranty
I was taken aback at the prices of mice, with many of them costing over C$100. The MX 610 wasn’t much better, costing C$90. As nice as the 610 is, that’s a lot of money for a mouse, and it really should be closer to C$60. In any event, it was the cheapest mouse I could find that had all the features I wanted, and I wasn’t willing to settle with a crummy mouse for the sake of saving money. Fortunately, the 610 is covered by a 5-year warranty, and this time I’m making sure I retain all the pertinent information.
Yes? No? Maybe So?
I definitely recommend the MX 610. It isn’t perfect, but it is the most comfortable and thoughtfully designed [and most expensive...] mouse I’ve ever had, and I look forward to hanging onto it for many years. Hopefully it’s better quality than my MediaPlay mouse and won’t crap out after a year and a half, but I’ll just have to wait and see. There are a few kinks with the functionality, but it could be isolated to my computer for all I know. My main suggestion is that you simply shop around a bit and try to get a better price than I did.
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