Logitech Performance MX Wireless Mouse (DISCONTINUED and Replaced by MX Master 2S)

This is most definitely the best mouse I have used in my entire life. Granted, it is by far the most expensive as well (in the past I have used mice that cost between $20-$50 USD, so nothing quite this high end). The ergonomics are a thing of beauty and make this mouse an absolute pleasure to use. The DarkField Laser technology makes for a consistently great tracking experience over the gamut of surfaces, from glass to fabric to wood to plastic. Below you will find an intensive breakdown of the mice's features and what I think of them.(1) ERGONOMICS - This is an ergonomic mouse intended for right handed users only. I once read that the proper way to type on a keyboard is to position your hands as if there are bubbles underneath them. I'd imagine the same principal holds for mice. This mouse completely promotes proper holding posture through a combination of high-quality materials and novel design features. The way in which my thumb fits into the depressed left side of the mouse is great. However the right hand side of the mouse has an interesting surprise - it has these novel (though extremely subtle) depressions for my ring and pinkie fingers that are JUST in the right places. The curve of the mouse fits perfectly in the palm of my hand. Furthermore, both the left and right sides of the mouse are slightly rubberized, preventing slips in one's grip on the mouse. The result of all of these subtle features is that I can hold the mouse with perfect form/posture without it feeling forced or unnatural. The rubberized left and right sides allow you to hold the mouse without squeezing it, and the grooves allow your fingers to rest in comfortable and natural positions. One can hold on to this mouse whilst moving ones forearm up and down, forward and backwards, and side to side, all while exercising virtually zero squeezing.(2) MATERIALS - As mentioned before, the sides of the mouse are coated in high-quality black rubber material to promote proper mouse-holding form/posture. Unlike some rubber-like materials, this feel like an extremely high quality material and looks good. It doesn't show fingerprints either. The body of the mouse is made out of what appears to be a high-quality hard plastic. It is matte finish and also does a good job of masking fingerprints/hand oils. There are also chrome accents a couple of places on the mouse (around the left/thumb side of the mouse, and on the sides of the click wheel. Unlike the shiny chrome that we often see on mice, this is more of an understated gunmetal chrome which looks less gaudy and is much less of a fingerprint magnet to boot. The mouse has a comforting heft/density to it - it feels substantial and not at all flimsy in one's hand, but at the same time it is not obnoxiously heavy either.(3) TRACKING - Tracking, in my opinion, is the most important quality in a mouse. After all, that's what the whole pointer-based system of input is based on. As I see it, two things have the potential to affect tracking when one is dealing with a wireless optical/laser mouse. These are (A) the wireless signal and (B) the laser/optical mechanism used in the mouse sensor itself. In both of these areas, the Performance MX absolutely excels. The Unifying receiver is extremely tiny - so much so that one can "set and forget" it on a laptop or desktop computer. I am running both my Logitech K800 Wireless Illuminating Keyboard and the Performance MX off of one Unifying receiver. There is absolutely ZERO input lag time as far as I can tell (with either device). I can use both devices simultaneously and the Unifying Receiver doesn't miss a beat. Reception is great from my armchair, which is about 5 feet away from my computer tower (and thus the receiver). I have a 802.11N dual-band Wi-fi sensor in the same computer, in addition to an IR blaster and a Bluetooth 2.1 radio, yet there is no interference between the different wireless devices. I have my computer hooked up to my Vizio 42" 3D HDTV, and use my computer primarily while sitting in an armchair nowhere near a desk. I need a mouse that can track on the fabric of the armchair or my pants leg. The Performance MX does a great job of this. The tracking is amazingly smooth and precise on fabric, rug, even bare skin. My old Microsoft Laser Mouse wasn't able to track well on the arm of my armchair (where I primarily use my mouse). This mouse puts it to shame and then some. I swear by Darkfield technology - I have not found a single surface yet that it cannot track on excellently. Its kinda become a game for me to find SOME surface that it doesn't work on LOL. And BTW, the bottom of the mouse provides just a little friction allowing one to physically move the mouse itself easily and smoothly. You can customize Pointer Speed and Acceleration from within the Logitech SetPoint software and enable/disable Pointer Trails.(4) BUTTONS - What can I say here. Left/Right clicks are very responsive, and the left/right mouse buttons are easy to click and make a very satisfying subtle clicking noise when you press on them. The scroll wheel also serves as a middle button if you depress it (I've never been very fond of this function, on any mouse). There are back and forward buttons right above the thumbrest, which is pretty much boilerplate on $30+ mice these days. There is also a zoom button right below the back/forward buttons. You use this button by clicking on it and then moving the scroll wheel either up/forward (to zoom in) or down/backward (to zoom out). I honestly don't use the function that much, but I can see how some people would. There is also a very neat application switcher button at the very bottom of the thumbrest that you can click with the side of your thumb simply by pushing your thumb downwards a little. Its useful and well-thought-out IMO. Going back to the click-wheel.... It has two modes - notch/line-by-line scrolling and free-scrolling/hyper-scrolling. You can switch between the two modes by clicking a toggle button located immediately below the wheel. You can also use the wheel to scroll horizontally. The wheel feels solid/well-made and is accurate in both modes. The toggle switch feels just a tad chintzy and makes a noise that is just a little to loud for my tastes when it is clicked. Most of the buttons can be re-mapped for different functions using the Logitech SetPoint software. Also, you can customize some of the behavior of the scroll-wheel using this software; you can even map buttons to behave differently in specific applications or when gaming.(5) BATTERY/BATTERY-LIFE - I have heard that some Performance MX's come with crappy rechargeable batteries. Mine didn't - it came with one of the second-generation AA Sanyo Eneloop batteries. The mouse included a USB charging cord and a wall outlet-USB converter. This allows you to continue to use the mouse (albeit with a wire) while charging it [which is its major advantage over a charging base]. Also, the battery is user replaceable if the one they included proves to be crappy or dies. You technically have the option of swapping out the included NiMH battery for an alkaline if you want too(just don't try to charge the mouse if you are using alkaline batteries lol). I have been using the included Eneloop since I got the mouse a few weeks ago and I haven't even come close to completely draining the battery yet. Mind you, I plug it into the charger at nighttime - I am not saying that you will get a 3-week battery life from this mouse! What I am saying is that you will easily be able to make it through 4-8 hours of daily computer usage in one day and then can just plug the mouse in until you return to your computer. There is an On/Off switch on the bottom, but I have never used it, save to turn the Mouse on when I originally got it. I just leave it on all the time. Sometimes I even forget to plug it in at night. Yet I haven't run into a problem with the battery dying on me yet. And the battery is fully rechargeable OUT OF THE BOX so you will never have to worry about buying batteries or anything. Unlike most NiMH batteries, Eneloops are low-discharge and have been shown to retain up to 75% of a full charge after 3 years in storage, so you really shouldn't have to worry about going on vacation and returning to find a dead mouse. Battery life can be checked from within the SetPoint software and the software will pop up with a low battery alert when your battery is close to dying.If you've read this far, congrats, you know everything about this mouse that I, as an owner of it, do. And you officially have no life. But then again, I wrote this so 'glass houses' right? Just know that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this product. Logitech has made one high-quality rodent right here!!

I'm going to split this review into a few sections.1. Ergonomics2. Features3. Value4. What Could Be Improved5. ConclusionErgonomicsThe PMMX is designed for righties (sorry lefties) and with that in mind, its designed for comfort. It forms to the hand perfectly, so well that you won't realize the size of the mouse. The mouse is big, and that is one downside, but then again this is a desktop mouse that I bought for my MacBook Pro. Either way though its still worth it (so if you need a notebook mouse, I DO RECOMMEND THIS). All of the buttons are placed very intelligently, though i will admit the back and forward buttons, along with the zoom button could have been placed alittle further down closer to the thumb, which would have felt more comfortable as I have to stretch my thumb up to reach the back and forward buttons (note my hands are fairly small for my age, so results may vary). Overall though the placement of every button is perfect and all feel very natural, which leads to a pleasant experience while on the computer.FeaturesWith the SetPoint Software you can customize EVERYTHING on this mouse. I mean it. The scroll wheel can be customized. The back and forward buttons can be changed. The right and left click too. The middle mouse button. EVERYTHING. The only thing that can't be customized is the laser itself (obviously) and the hardware toggle that turns on and off hyper scrolling. Users of the previous Logitech MX Revolution feel that this hardware based switch is a downgrade, but I personally feel that its an upgrade. I'd rather have a dedicated button for it than let software take care of that. Software is prone to fail on your one way or another, and though it can be debated that hardware can too (which it can) i'd rather have the security of doing it myself. Moving on, the mouse features a rechargeable battery, and it can be charged by plugging in the supplied micro-usb cable into the mouse, and plugging that into your computer. What this means is that you can use it WHILE you charge it. This is definitely a plus. Also this mouse has Logitech's Unifying Receiver Technology. Its a very small receiver that you can just plug in and forget about (literally, I always forget I have it plugged into my MacBook Pro), plus you can pair more Logitech Devices to it as long as they support the Unifying Technology. The star of the show, though, is the Darkfield Tracking Laser, Logitech's amazing tech that gives this mouse the ability to track on virtually ANY surface. Glass, marble, you name it this mouse tracks on it. I've tested it on glass and the results were very VERY good. The precision does not change AT ALL, which means that Logitech has definitely raised the bar on mouse limits.ValueThis is where things get alittle iffy. The PMMX is expensive. If you're serious about your experience while computing, like to customize your mouse to fit you, and basically have no limits on what you can use it on, this mouse is perfect for you. I personally think this mouse is worth every penny for what you get, but as always there are other, cheaper, solutions out there, though you will lose the tracking fidelity and probably won't have as much customization. But as I said before, this mouse has definitely been worth EVERY PENNY for me. I'm a college student that uses my MacBook Pro for school, so I need to get around fast, but I also like to game on it too and this mouse has not disappointed yet.What Could Be ImprovedNothing is perfect though and there are some things that I wish this mouse had. As stated before, the button placement of the back, forward, and zoom buttons are alittle too high for me. Also I wish this mouse had onboard memory to keep your customization settings intact, so that if you decide to use this mouse with another computer, you don't have to reset everything to your custom settings, it'll all be on the mouse from the get go. I also wish that this mouse came with a carrying case. It did come with a pouch for the cables it came with, but I'd like a carrying case for the mouse itself. As stated before this mouse is for my MacBook Pro, so I take it around ALOT. I also wish there was a way to change DPI settings on the fly. By default, you can select a button to change between two (2) presets of your choosing. but sometimes i'd like to change them more often (usually when gaming, as most games have different feels when it comes to sensitivity) and sadly you have to go back into the device settings to change the two presets every time. I wish I could just set the forward or back buttons to DPI up and DPI down that way I can keep going up or down on DPI until I find a good spot.ConclusionIn conclusion, the Logitech Performance Mouse MX is a 9.8/10. It has so many features, all in such a small package. Logitech is definitely one of the best companies out there when it comes to mice, and they always seem to raise the bar. Whether you need a gaming mouse (this mouse has a max DPI settings of 1500), a general use mouse, or a mouse for work, this mouse outperforms and decimates the competition. It can track on virtually ANY surface (i've tried it on so many surfaces and it has yet to fail me) and was designed with comfort in mind. I definitely recommend this mouse to anyone. If you're skeptical because of the price, don't be. It costs alot, but its well worth the price.OH before I forget, I got this mouse with Super Savers Shipping and got it EXTREMELY EARLY. Literally 4 days after purchase! The shipping info on Amazon still says its supposed to come in between June 8th and June 14th! I've had it for over a week now!