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Logitech MX Revolution Review

Chaszmyr

Chaszmyr

macrumors 601
Original poster
Aug 9, 2002
4,267
87
Years ago, I bought the first Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer, and later upgraded to the "2.0" IntelliMouse Explorer. For a very long time, I continued to use that mouse, despite having bought various other mice (including an IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 and a Logitech MX 1000). Today, though, I'm sitting here using an MX Revolution, but it's not all good. Here's what I think:

Comfort: The MX Revolution is the first mouse I've ever used that is as comfortable as my Intellimouse Explorer 2.0. I really have no complaints about it. I thought the thumb wheel would feel in the way, but while the mouse might be mildly more comfortable if it weren't there, it does not feel in the way.

Appearance: Normally, when reviewing a mouse, I wouldn't put this category, but I am a big fan of the appearance of the MX Revolution.

Ergonomics: The ergonomics of this mouse are good but not great. The "forward" and "back" buttons arguably stick out a little too far, and the one-touch-search button requires me to reposition my hand a little to press. My largest complaint about ergonomics is that the thumb wheel is a little bit stiff, and I often can't hit it without bumping the mouse a bit. Size and weight are excellent, in my opinion.

The New Scroll Wheel: I love it. You can press it in to make it "click" the way old wheels did, or press it again and it freely rolls, such that it continues to roll until you stop it. I often scroll past what I am trying to scroll to, but I just love spinning the wheel around, and it is great for scrolling long documents. Keep in mind, because you press in the wheel to change functionality, it cannot be used as a button the way it is on most other mice.

Battery Life: The MX Revolution has a rechargeable battery, and is designed to be put on the recharger each night. I find that the battery life is more than adequate, however, and if you forget to put the mouse on the recharger one night, it will still work when you come back to it the next day.

Software: This is where the mouse is hurt. The most advanced Logitech software is for Windows only, I don't know if it would solve any of these complaints or not, so I'll write this section specifically for Mac users. Here are my complaints:
1. Like every other mouse I've used, horizontal scrolling (with tilt wheel) is too slow to be worthwhile, and cannot be adjusted to make it anywhere near fast enough.
2. The "forward" and "back" buttons don't have a real forward and back command programmed into the software, rather they type the keystroke cmd+left arrow and cmd+right arrow. Effectively, this makes it work the same as my Microsoft mouse in a web browser, but makes it not work in the finder. If there is a key command I can use to make it work in the finder, I do not know what it is.
3. The thumb wheel can only be used to switch application or to zoom. It cannot be assigned a keystoke or anything like that. Furthermore, I don't feel like it works well for switching applications, so it is completely useless for me. I would be much happier with this mouse if I could assign it to perform any task, like I can with a button.


Overall Rating: 8/10

Final Thoughts: I feel like the 8/10 rating is misleading. In many ways, it deserves a 10/10. Normal use of this mouse is very pleasant due to exceptional appearance and comfort, as well as good ergonomics. However, I docked it due to inadequate software.
 
Thanks for your "hands on" review. It's clear that you put a lot of time into capturing your impressions and presenting them in ways that readers would find useful.
 
I would never get this mouse because you can't use the scroll wheel to click (mouse button 3). Otherwise looks like a great mouse for those who don't need that function.
 
Logitech Control Center was just updated for the Revolution MX and VX mice. Apparently, it will have to be fixed, as there is a problem configuring a keyboard now.

You can change the button assignments to fit your needs. I noticed that the 510 MX worked back and forth with Firefox but not with Finder. Changing the keystrokes fixed the problem and it now works with both equally well.
 
I bought one as well, and I like it alot. I would say that the PC software is not perfect either, as when I use the one click search, it opens up two google tabs in Firefox. Hopefully when I get my new Mac it won't do this. It does take a bit of getting used to, but it gets very comfortable and seems really well built.
 
orangezorki said:
I bought one as well, and I like it alot. I would say that the PC software is not perfect either, as when I use the one click search, it opens up two google tabs in Firefox. Hopefully when I get my new Mac it won't do this.
Click to expand...

With OSX, the default for one touch search button activates Spotlight, not a websearch. If I set it to Google websearch it only opens one tab, but I am using Safari.
 
Hehehehe, i just recently also wrote a small review about the rev. mx/vx and my old mx1000. i agree w/ the point that the side scroll is a bit stiff unless the ball of ur thumb rests directly on the highest point of the side scroll. my hands aren't avg american sized, so the vx fits me better than the mx.

imo, w/o a mousepad, the mx feels better than the vx because of its larger/longer size to fit the ball of the palm.

my cousins who have slightly longer fingers (5'8" tall) felt the mx was very comfortable as opposed to the undersized vx.

i still love the rev. mx, it puts less stress for endurance laptop uses.
 
I never like the MX Logitech Wireless mouse because it run out of battery too fast. Everyday I have to recharge it if I forgot to put it in a charger hub. The Bluetooth Apple one people are claiming it last them months without recharge. Now that is what I want when considering Wireless.
 
my friend actually had the opposite exp. his bt drained much faster than the cordless.
 
Actually, I found some reviews that say that on the Revolution the scroll wheel can be set up to switch scroll modes on click or to middle click.
 
cube said:
Actually, I found some reviews that say that on the Revolution the scroll wheel can be set up to switch scroll modes on click or to middle click.
Click to expand...

Completely false. I don't see how it would be possible, because it is a mechanical operation that makes it switch scroll modes. Strangely, the scroll wheel "button" does appear in driver preferences, but at least in the OSX drivers it doesn't allow you to assign any functionality to it.
 
I'm sure there are reasonable drawbacks to using BT, otherwise Logitech would use it more often on their mice. It is extremely unlikely one of the biggest mouse/keyboard companies are shying from it for no reason.

From what I experienced and heard, BT sucks up a lot more power than the 2.4ghz cordless due to the fact that it doesn't auto power up and down as well as the cordless, so it needs a constant stream of power of some sort. Also, when it resumes, there is lag in responsiveness.

It'll be sweet once they work out kinks.

----------------------------------------------

After a few days of use, I have found the MX and VXs' free-spinning wheel to be AWESOME. Omg, I don't know what it is, but it's so.....addicting and feel so good. The only time I use the click-click wheel is when I play games to scroll thru weapons, but I use the free-spinning for all m document and net browsing needs. It really is pretty awesome, the feedback due to the weight is so nice. I have scroll speed on lowest, acceleration on highest, and turned on smooth scrolling on Firefox and now it's a DREAM! No more scrollin in chunks.

I think if ppl tried it, they would be impressed.:)
 
MX/VX Revolution's scrolling is slow

I just bought both MX Revolution and VX Revolution. The shape of both mice is good. For some reasons, the scrolling is not as good as my MX 1000 / MX 900 mice. MX1000/900's scroll was smooth and fast. MX and VX Revolution's scroll is somewhat slow even at the fastest setting. I installed Logitech's 2.11 Control Center (new one which recently released for Mac).
Are other users having the same problems?
 
The Setpoint for the PC does seem much more refined than the Mac version. But try playing w/ the mouse settings accompanied w/ the SetPoint options, that should give you a little more control.
 
n8236 said:
The Setpoint for the PC does seem much more refined than the Mac version. But try playing w/ the mouse settings accompanied w/ the SetPoint options, that should give you a little more control.
Click to expand...
I have tried VX Revolution with my Fujitsu Tablet. The scroll works perfectly and very smoothly. I think there is something not right with the driver for Mac. Both MX and VX Revolution's scroll function is not smooth with Mac. This is very strange as Setpoint V.3 is working for MX1000 Laser and MX900 BT without any problem.
 
i plugged my MX Rev in my MP, installed Setpoint. the whole thing worked great for about 3 days. then suddenly i couldn't config it at all. i mean, configing the mouse's buttons to my taste in System Preference. whenever i click on it, it just freezes.
i even tried to uninstall and reinstall it, but it never work again.
now, most of the extra buttons are useless. probably except the "back" button. when i click on it, dashboard shows up lol.

i dont know what to do now!
 
phuong said:
i plugged my MX Rev in my MP, installed Setpoint. the whole thing worked great for about 3 days. then suddenly i couldn't config it at all. i mean, configing the mouse's buttons to my taste in System Preference. whenever i click on it, it just freezes.
i even tried to uninstall and reinstall it, but it never work again.
now, most of the extra buttons are useless. probably except the "back" button. when i click on it, dashboard shows up lol.
Click to expand...
I think there is some compatibility issues between Mac-version Setpoint and MX/VX Revolution mice. My other Logitech mice with the same Setpoint are working well without porblem. I am going to check on Logitech's driver download page periodically in hope they will release the updated Setpoint for MX/VX Revolution.
 
I just picked up an MX Revolution today. It was on sale for $79.99 at Staples and I can never resist a good deal on a new toy. :)

Downloaded the newest software from Logitech. Its a little weird, I don't like the thumb wheel switching applications. I'd rather have it be my foward/back buttons but you can't set it up to do that. I tried to set up the thumb button click to do Expose but for some reason it keeps wanting me to switch applications.

**EDIT** Figured out why it kept switching apps. Seems the mouse has different settings for each application. I was in Safari and just had to apply the settings to each program. Now its working exactly how I wanted.

Scroll wheel is amazing. I've got it set to free scroll in Safari and I love it. It switches to click-scroll when I go to certain applications all by itself! Very cool.

Feel of the mouse is very similar to the MX1000 which I had been using since it came out last year. Slight improvements have been made but overall, it is just as comfortable if not a little bit more than the MX1000.

I think I'm gonna switch over to XP and install the Windows version of the software. I'll edit this post from there in a few mins.

**EDIT** From the Windows side...
Scroll is a LOT faster than on OSX. I had to turn down the speed in the control pannel to almost as low as it would go.

The control center is a bit better than the OSX version but the only real problem I was having was assigning a button to Expose. Since Windows doesn't have Expose, I really can't comment on if its better or not.

Overall, its a great mouse. Lots of buttons with a good amount of customization that can be done. Laser is the way to go. Been a big fan since the MX1000 and the MX Revolution is just as good if not a bit better. If you can get over the large price tag, grab one, you won't be sorry.
 
After much use of the VX, I did find the movement in XP to be noticeably smoother, but not by much.

Maybe it's just me, but the MX's auto switch between modes seem to be somewhat glitchy. After a reboot or wake from sleep, it appears that it requires a manual switch before it remembers its settings. Anyone else have this problem in XP & OSX? It's just a bit of an annoyance more than anything else.

As for the MX's side scroll, I found it useful to have it as zoom in and out. Quite handy.

For those who want Expose on a mouse button, look no further than using the One-Touch-Search button below the main main scroll. Not the perfect spot, but one of the best I found. You will have to shift your hand down to press it, but it's not really that much more work and it works wonders. Try it!

-----------------

To set it up, it's slightly tricky. To use ie. All Windows;

a) Change the default All Windows key (in my case F9) to something else.

b) Set the One-Touch button to F9 (or watever you want key you use All Windows for)

c) Reverse step(a)

---------------------

I found that by just trying to assign the All Windows key to the One-Touch button (via Logitech mouse menu), it doesn't work as it will just activate the All Windows function. Thus you have to undo the expose function b4 setting it back.

One thing I did notice is that it doesn't play well in FireFox as it brings up the SpotLight menu instead. On any other app, this works fine. Please let me know if anyone finds a fix.
 
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