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Best viewed with IE 4.0 or later, 1024 X 768.
Introduction Some would argue that the mouse is the most important part of a computer. Sure, it isn't the most expensive component, by far, and it sure can't inspire hype like the latest and greatest videocard, but one could surely say that along with the keyboard, the mouse is a bridge of sorts, acting as an interface between you, the user, and your computer. A fast computer is just that - without an easy to use interface, most users could care less. Along with other input/output peripherals such as your monitor and speakers, you probably won't be upgrading or replacing your mouse too often, and that is why you should invest both time and money to get the best one available. With the advent of optical mice some years ago, it was inevitable that all new mice would eventually go the way of a poor football player, and drop the ball. After all, the improvements were obvious - no ball meant no contact of moving parts with the mousing surface, and hence less cleaning, and possibly less chance of failure. Optical mice were also a godsend to public computers, where infantile users would often steal the balls of mechanical mice. But early optical mice suffered from poor tracking due to optics that just weren't adept at recognizing fast movement, especially a twitch movement from rest. With the two main mouse companies, Logitech and Microsoft, in a tough battle to win customers from one another, these optical technologies soon improved with next-generation sensors. Logitech recently introduced their newest line of MX mice late last year, sporting new and improved optics, in an effort not only to win customers from their rivals, but also to encourage stubborn mechanical mice aficionados to make the jump once and for all. Today, I'll be looking at the flagship corded mouse from Logitech's MX lineup, the MX500. Specifications As with any new lineup of products featuring a new technology, there has been a lot of market hype about the MX engine in Logitech's newest mice. This is not to say that I despise marketing (I don't mean to use "hype" in a negative fashion); I understand the need for marketing to explain new things to people in a positive manner, however, most of you will probably want to know exactly what all the terms surrounding the MX optical engine mean and how they affect performance. And, of course you'll want to know whether the MX engine translates into real-world results and performance.
The first figure, an 800dpi sensor, relates to the resolution of the image taken by the mouse's CMOS camera compared to a real-world measurement, in this case, one inch. So, for a given sensor size of say, 20x20 pixels, an 800dpi sensor will see a smaller area than a 400dpi sensor, and hence, be able to track finer movements better. An increased DPI count also makes the mouse easier to use at high monitor resolutions. For example, if the mouse speed of a 400dpi sensor is set with a 1:1 ratio with no acceleration, for every inch the mouse is moved, the cursor will move 400 pixels on screen. This can be too slow for higher resolutions such as 1280x1024, so increasing the mouse speed in software is the natural solution - but since the DPI of the sensor remains fixed, if one were to double the mouse's speed, then for every real-world "dot" moved, the cursor would move two pixels, resulting in less accurate movement. With an 800dpi sensor, there is none of this - and if the cursor movement is too fast, turning down the speed in software does not yield any negative effects like turning up the speed does. The next number, 4.7 megapixels/sec is a bit confusing. I've never heard of megapixels being used to describe a mouse before, only cameras and other imaging devices. But since the optical mouse uses a CMOS sensor like other imaging devices, it would seem to have some merit, and surely "4.7 megapixels" is an impressive marketing term. What it means, is how much image data is processed by the hardware onboard the MX500 mouse, per second, in order to determine mouse movement. For those of you who've played with a digital camera, you'll know that a 1.3 megapixel image are the results of the dimension of that image, that is, 1280x960. So, this rating must have something to do with the size of an image, multiplied by how many times that image is taken during the course of one second. This image is the one that is captured by the MX500's optical sensor. The mouse will compare each image with the previous one; in this way, movement can be tracked. If, for example, a reference point in the previous image has since moved upward in the current image, it can be inferred that the mouse is moving downward. Then, with a larger sensor size, movement will better be gauged (as there will be more reference points to compare with one another); with a higher DPI and greater number of images taken per second, movement will be more precise, as finer detail and smaller movements will be noticed. I did some searching around, and found that Stéphane Kauffmann of Tom's Hardware did an excellent study into this figure, and reported the findings in an issue of Tom's Hard News. In the issue, it is reported and confirmed by Logitech that this MX engine has a sensor size of 30x30 (80% larger than others, Logitech claims), and takes 5250 images/sec, giving you the 4.7 megapixel rating, 60% higher than others, as claimed by Logitech. I do suggest that you read the article, as it gives a much better explanation of the MX sensor technology than I ever will be able to. The next two terms, an acceleration of 10g and a top speed of 40 inches(~1m)/sec are somewhat confusing, the latter less so. "10g" sounds like a term used by astronauts, or some other group of smart, adventurous people, but what I believe it means is that the MX engine can continue to track movements up to an acceleration, or change in speed, of 10 times the acceleration due to Earth's gravitational field (9.8m/s/s), which turns out to be ~98m/s/s. Now, you're not likely to move your hand for one second at this acceleration, (as then it would be speeding at ~350km/h at the end!), but this type of tracking enables the MX engine to operate during fast twitch movements from rest, which aren't common when using regular applications, but are essential to survival in a FPS game. The top speed rating, is just that - the mouse can track accurately at a speed of up to ~1m/s. These ratings are not "pure" ratings, in that they are not concrete measurements, but rather derived from the performance of the aforementioned optical sensor. With these improvements, the MX Engine hopes to forever solve the initial problem that gamers and other fastidious people had, that is, the inability of optical mice to track very quick and sudden movements, resulting in erratic cursor movement. As it represents the years of experience and research Logitech has had to improve their mice, Logitech has much riding on the performance of the MX Engine. The MX500 comes in a somewhat new style of packaging for Logitech. As before, there is the ability to put your hand over the plastic shell that conforms to the shape of the MX500. A nice feature, but you can hardly truly get a feel for the mouse this way, and the design is probably more for an eye-catching appeal, than anything else. (You should always feel the store demo before buying a mouse - or read my review ;) ) The back of the box has an opening that allows you to see the vaunted sensor of this MX mouse, and although the picture doesn't show it too well, the clear plastic allows the bottom of the mouse to show through.
Included in the box, beside the mouse itself, are a USB-PS/2 adapter, a manual, an outdated catalogue and installation CD. The install CD came with MouseWare v9.7-something, but I went ahead and downloaded the latest version of MouseWare, 9.76 at the time of this review, and used it instead. I've heard many complaints about buttons and especially the wheel not working in games, so I wanted to give Logitech a chance by using their latest offering, to see if any of these problems had been addressed. The MX500 continues the tradition of Logitech's earlier MouseMan mice, as it is only to be (comfortably) used by right-handed mouse users, such as myself. Though the shape looks somewhat symmetrical, lefties will have to look to the MX300 mouse if they want to truly take advantage of the MX engine. There are a total of eight(!) buttons on this mouse; you have the standard left, right and middle(wheel) buttons, and additionally, two thumb buttons, two "Cruise Control" buttons, in line with the wheel, and a "Quick Switch Program Selector" button, also in line with the wheel. A nice grip-like soft texture goes almost all the way around the sides of the mouse, and there is a contour/indentation on the left side for your thumb, just below the thumb buttons.
Let me just say, right off the bat here, that this mouse is damn comfortable. I'm not one who's prone to outbursts, but I can't let this be hidden. As soon as I put my hand on this thing, I felt as if God himself, had, in some gracious fit, designed this mouse just for me. I knew, however, that this "god" represented Logitech's furious team of ergonomics engineers or whoever, that through much research, developed this mouse that seems to fit like a glove. This thing feels almost like letting your hand melt in a block of butter - not that I do that sort of thing on a regular basis. If you have fun childhood memories about squishing soft Play-Doh in your hand, then I've done my job of communicating to you how comfortable the MX500 is, well, for righties at least. The sleek curves and shape of the mouse seem to perfect to the rest shape of your palm, providing nice support, and not only that, but the smooth textured grip plays a big role in making your hand feel nice, along with the indentation for your thumb, which fits mine like a key.
Well, now that I'm done ranting and raving about the comfort I've experienced as the "hands" of the MX500, I'll get into more specifics. The two main buttons are connected with the top shell, as they are all part of the same piece. This creates an absence of a rift between the main mouse body and those buttons, and so results in less dirt/gunk being able to buildup in this mouse. About the only place where dirt can build up, is where the side texture meets the top, and near the wheel. There are three other buttons in the middle of the mouse along with the wheel. The "Cruise Control" buttons are meant to augment the scroll wheel. When held down, they scroll down or up a page, and by default they scroll a little faster than cursor keys do. The top-most button in the middle is the Application Selector. When pressed, by default, the MouseWare software pops up a list of running programs that you can switch between, very much like Alt-Tab does, and you can then select a program to jump to. Useful if you cannot Alt-Tab for some reason!
The thumb buttons, just above the thumb rest, serve as forward/backward buttons for your web browser. This is a fairly useful feature, as it's easier to hit these buttons, which are just above your thumb, than to have to move your mouse and click a button, your use your other hand to enter a keyboard command. These buttons are pretty easy to use, in that you don't have to reposition your hand to hit them, but they don't get in the way during regular usage, so you won't find yourself hitting them by accident. All of the buttons' functions can be reconfigured using Logitech's MouseWare software, and three fingers - your thumb, index or middle finger can operate all. As mentioned before, the left and right mouse buttons are part of the top shell that is somewhat lustrous, but still made of plastic as expected. This shell is smooth, but not glossy, and features Logitech's logo in the center-back.
Although the MX500 is for right-handed users only, as the previous MouseMan line was, the MX500 mouse did not feel bulgy to me, as other entries in the MouseMan lineup have. Instead, it had a fairly slim profile that sloped slightly away from your thumb, making it a little thicker on the left side, than on the right side. It's fairly long compared to most other regular mice, but not so big when compared to the MS Explorer series. This mouse will fit just right on most, if not all mousepads.
The bottom of the mouse has five Teflon feet to ensure a steady, almost friction-free movement across most surfaces. The labels cover up the screws holding the mouse together, and indicate that the mouse draws 100mA @ 5v. The bottom itself is made of a translucent plastic, allowing you to view the PCB and other components, something that seems to never go out of fashion. You also see the tip of the MX optical engine here. The LED projects its light at a pretty shallow angle, so that it shines out at maybe 30 degrees below horizontal. The optical sensor still sits directly above. One strange feature is that the LED's intensity remains constant regardless of whether the mouse is active, or being moved. This is probably a result of Logitech's new illumination techniques. Logitech claims this ensures even, bright lighting, and also reduces power consumption. The LED's constant intensity, however, was quite bright. As I'm not reviewing the MX700, the cordless version, I can't verify if this technique does in fact decrease power usage.
About the only maintenance you'll need to do, is periodic cleaning of the Teflon feet to cut down on friction due to gunk buildup, and perhaps some cleaning on the top of the mouse, especially where the rubber-like sides meet the top plastic shell. As with any mouse, sweat is always a problem and you don't want bacteria colonies thriving on or in the secretions of your hand.
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