Superb – if it fits your fingers.
Written: Feb 07 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Two “2nd generation” sensors, very accurate & smooth, reasonably priced, works on USB or PS/2.
Cons: Small buttons may be awkward, USB Mouseware can conflict with USB pen tablet mouse.
The Bottom Line: No more unclogging ball rollers. Comfortable shape let down by small buttons. Why buy a single sensor optical mouse that costs more!
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| petertr's Full Review: Logitech Man Dual Optical (930676-0403) Mouse |
I hated the ball mouse that came with my new PC (ball rollers needed unclogging daily) and the mouse that came with my 8x6 graphics tablet (Christmas present) was small and jumpy, so the time came to look around for something better.
Having had enough of taking balls out for cleaning I was keen on optical. Reading many reviews it seemed to be a choice of MS or Logitech and, that if using high screen resolutions, it was important to get a mouse with “2nd generation” optical pickup for twice the d.p.i or c.p.i ( dots/counts per inch). This narrowed the field down somewhat. Some mice now offer dual optical pickup these have 2 separate pictures of the surface underneath to work on so should be less prone to misinterpreting the surface and jumping.
The Logitech MouseMan optical dual sensor seemed a good choice – so long as you use the mouse in your right hand. It has a scroll wheel centre button, which I wanted, and a 4th thumb button which could be handy. Although cordless mice are fashionable, having to regularly replace the batteries seems more hassle to me than putting up with a mouse cable. With two sets of sensor lights the batteries will be running down even quicker.
Was amazed that I could get this mouse cheaper than many other Logitech single sensor types.
The mouse plugs directly into a USB socket or, via the short adaptor included, to a PS/2 socket. No installation problems except for USB install where the point at which you have to plug in the mouse seems critical, lots of re-booting to sort things if you get it wrong, so view the install text when prompted. I downloaded the latest MouseWare driver (mw9421enu.exe), from Logitech site, and installed this rather than use the CD which had an older version.
The MouseWare control panel allows the choice of function assigned to each of the four buttons. I chose Autoscroll as the middle button function, as I work with large graphics a lot, and double-click for the thumb button.
One thing I like is that wheel movement moves the window focus to the window or frame under the cursor (you don’t have to click in window to make it active first).
Another thing of importance to gamers is that MouseWare includes a PS/2 report rate control (refresh rate) adjustable from 40 – 200 reps./sec.
The Logitech mouse, even on USB, stays active when Windows 98 task manager is active, unlike some USB mice that freeze. USB isn’t supported by DOS so if booting to DOS or shutting down to “restart in MS-DOS mode” a USB mouse won’t work. On starting in DOS the Logitech driver produces long error messages if it can’t find a PS/2 mouse.
I initially chose to connect using USB but was getting interaction with my Aiptek 8000 USB graphic tablet that has it’s own feeble mouse (that I don’t use). In particular the mouse motion speed range becomes fast to very fast, instead of the normal slow to fast range, whenever the tablet was plugged in.
Couldn’t get fix from Logitech or Aiptek so decided to stick with PS/2 for the Logitech mouse – no conflicts plus mouse available under DOS.
In use the mouse is comfortable with great accuracy & smooth feel but unfortunately is let down, by the poor positioning and size of the right click and thumb buttons, which require a conscious effort to be clicked.
With mouse resting in the palm of my hand the natural position of my index finger is against the left side of the scroll wheel, which is good, but my middle finger is half on the right button and half on the shell so pressing here doesn’t produce a click. When doing a lot of right clicking I get used to keeping the middle finger in, but after not right clicking for a while the finger moves off the button again.
The thumb button is very low down so keeping your thumb on it results in your thumb rubbing along surface below. With thumb in it’s natural resting position in the hollow provided, only the bottom edge of the thumb rests on the switch. Without moving the thumb, just squeezing hard produces a click but most of the pressure is being wasted on the mouse shell. A thumb click can be produced with less pressure by pressing thumb down (sideways) as well as squeezing in, a sort of rolling motion, and this seems easier than moving the thumb.
The balance between wheel rotation stiffness and centre click pressure is just right.
Though the mouse works quite happily on the translucent surface of my pen tablet, or my beige desktop, it’s best on a fabric mouse mat - the silent glide is superb.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 41.75
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Epinions.com ID:
petertr
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Location: Knaresborough, N.Yorks, England
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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