About two weeks ago I purchased a new Logitech MX Performance Mouse. To be absolutely honest I’m not entirely sure why. I put it down to the cumulative effects of marketing to which I and most other people on the planet are subject:

• We will be happier if we buy stuff.
• The stuff we have is not as good as the new stuff.

I had a major problem with the Logitech MX Performance Mouse but even aside from that I decided it wasn’t as good as the mouse I am already using.

The MX Performance Mouse is at the top of the Logitech range and scores highly in many areas. It is very solidly built and looks like a lot of care and attention has gone into its design.

Design features:

1. Scroll wheel can be set to spin freely
2. Four thumb buttons
3. Accurate, precise cursor control on virtually any surface
4. Sculpted shape for the (right) hand
5. Wireless operation
6. Can be used while recharging the battery

Before I address items in that list I want to just describe the major problem I had with it.

On my Mac with OS 10.6.1 the mouse would freeze the screen while in “Open…” or “Save As…” dialogues. This freeze would last for about five or six seconds. Obviously it was quite a nuisance. I did a lot to check if it really was the mouse. I also checked out the Logitech forums where there was much discussion about problems with the Logitech Control Centre 3.1 software. So, after two weeks I had to stop using the Logitech mouse.

I’ve never used a wireless mouse before at home though I have used them in other places. I’ve often wondered why people do use them. I don’t see any problem with the wire and it means that the mouse doesn’t need a battery. The Logitech is, of course wireless and a big appeal was that it can used while the battery is being charged. The cable for charging attaches at the very bottom of the front of the mouse, so it does make the mouse feel slightly strange while it is charging. However it is better than having to use a different mouse while it charges.

I just left the mouse switched on all the time and the battery seemed to run dry once every 24 hour period. I’m not sure if that is how it is supposed to be. Maybe I should have switched it off when I wasn’t using it, but it is the kind of thing I would forget all the time anyway.

Behind the scroll wheel is a button that will remove all resistance to the wheel spinning. It does this by mechanically freeing the wheel from resistance. This is a great idea, for long documents, or long webpages, like blog pages you can just scroll through them very fast, you can even take your hand off the mouse, they keep scrolling. You have to be aware of it because you can forget that the wheel is scrolling. If you are at one window which is at the end of its scrolling then you move the mouse to another which can scroll, then that window will start to scroll if the wheel is spinning. It can take you by surprise. This can be a problem when using FileMaker Pro. If the wheel is spinning unnoticed and you put the cursor over the status area then you can accidentally scroll through loads of records. However I think the advantages of the free spinning scroll wheel outweigh the disadvantages. If you push the scroll wheel to the left or to the right it will scroll in that direction. It takes a while to get the hang of this left/right movement but when you do get the hang of it, it is easy.

There are four thumb buttons. The least good thing about the Logitech MX Performance Mouse imho is that the Zoom button is in the way of where I would normally put my thumb.

Default thumb button assignments:

I found the position of that Zoom button to get irritating after a while. I hardly ever wanted to actually use the Zoom button during my two weeks with the mouse. Cheaper models in the Logitech range don’t have that Zoom button and I think they are worth looking at. I do think that it would be ideal to try these Logitech mice, or indeed any mice, before purchase. The other buttons were fine in their position. During my time of using it I never tried re-programming the buttons but this was possible with the software. In fact it looks like the software offered great flexibility in configuring the mouse. However I never checked any of that out because my time was spent trying to sort out the problem created by the software.

The thumb button I found I used most was the one for “going back” in a browser window. However I didn’t get into the habit of using it a lot. This “go back” button didn’t seem to work in Apple’s Finder windows. I never used the “go forward” button but that is because I hardly ever use that in browser windows anyway.

I use my mouse on a black mat with a gel rest for the wrist. This meant that I didn’t get any idea of the ability of the mouse to work on optically difficult surfaces. If I took the mat away and put it on the wooden desk surface then it was absolutely fine.

That it has a sculpted shape for the right hand didn’t really impress me. I don’t think it was any more comfortable than a normally shaped ambidextrous mouse.

So, even if it had worked properly on the Mac I don’t think I would have ever liked it very much. Even if there hadn’t been a problem with the Zoom button I don’t think I would have found the four thumb buttons to be any advantage. There isn’t any advantage that I can see to a mouse being wireless.

Now I’ve returned to using my Contour UniMouse I’m not missing the Logitech one at all. I think the Contour UniMouse is far more comfortable and more controllable. It doesn’t have any software so that can’t go wrong. The only worthwhile advantage I think the Logitech has over the Contour is the free spinning scroll wheel, but I find the scroll wheel on the Contour to be such a pleasure to use, with resistance just right, that I think I prefer it anyway.