Installation

   As expected, installation was easy. After putting in the included AA batteries and plugging in the mini-USB receiver, the mouse was instantly detected by Windows XP and within a few seconds, it was ready for use. Just using the mouse like this, five of the buttons will work: The standard left/right and wheel buttons plus the back/forward ones. However, in order to use all the buttons and get all the functionality out of the MX610, you'll need to install SetPoint, Logitech's mouse and keyboard control and customization software. While no one likes to install more bloatware onto their system, SetPoint actually does a pretty good job especially for the MX610. (The version of SetPoint used in this review was 2.60.606.)

Button configuration.

Movement controls.

Battery levels.

   Button configuration is made easy by a pictorial process that shows exactly what button you're changing, so there is no confusion - this is especially useful for the MX610's 10 button setup. The default configuration works well, so there is no real need to change it unless you like customization. For those that do though, Logitech has allowed per-program settings for the MX610, so that when a certain application has focus, different button settings can be used. This can be useful for controlling a media program from afar, such as when you're watching a movie, making the MX610 sort of like a remote.

But perhaps the best part of the per-program mouse button settings is its value in games. With all of the extra configurable buttons on the MX610, this mouse is begging to be put to use in games that require many key commands, such as RPGs. Previously, gamers could assign keystrokes to the mouse buttons to make them useful in games, but this would limit button functionality outside of a particular game. With the MX610, you can set up each game or program to use a different set of mouse button assignments than each other (and the default for the OS), and with ten configurable actions (eight buttons plus left/right scroll), this mouse is a dream in games - SetPoint will automatically detect which program has focus and use the assigned buttons for it.

Personally, in Guild Wars, I'm always finding I have to awkwardly press keys in order to bring up some screen in-game, but with the MX610 I was able to map all the functionality to the mouse buttons, greatly simplifying gameplay - once you get used to this feature, I doubt you'll want to be without it! This is definitely an A+ feature and I don't know why Logitech doesn't make it available to their other mice, especially the gaming ones - though I suspect this will change in the future with an update to SetPoint. (I had a Logitech MX1000 connected to the same test system as the MX610 Lefty, and the profiling/per-program settings were not available for it - perhaps Logitech wanted to make the MX610 stand out in its own way.)

Movement options provided were pretty much the basics, and you can also monitor the battery life of the mouse with SetPoint. Some additional gaming features were also provided, to set the behaviour of your mouse when games are in play. The SetPoint icon placed in your system tray also shows battery life as a tooltip, and will change to a flashing icon when battery levels are low and it's time for a replacement.

Game options.

Notification options.

   Despite one of the main features of the MX610 being its E-mail and IM notification buttons, the section for it in SetPoint is rather limited. Firstly, your choice of instant messenger clients seems to be limited to MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger; three clients is a pretty short list, even more so when you consider two of them are Microsoft products and connect to the same service and so are basically equivalent. I had AIM, Gaim, and Trillian installed on the system, and none of them showed up in the list; at very least AIM should have been included.

Logitech's site also lists that only Outlook and Outlook Express will work for the E-mail notification, a list again dominated only by Microsoft products - many people have switched over to Thunderbird or mainly use some webmail service nowadays. Despite this, it appears that the latest version of SetPoint supports whatever is your system's default e-mail client. I would have liked if Logitech could have provided for the checking of major webmail services such as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! mail since many people use these as well - or even some sort of system where people could write plugins for this support.

Beyond this, you can configure how long the notifications will last, and you can also set up filters so that only certain people's IMs or e-mails show up as notifications on the mouse.

Testing

   First of all, let me say that I am not left-handed. So, when Logitech asked me if I wanted to take a look at their left-hand only MX610, I initially declined - but then I thought that some readers might still be interested. After all, just because I'm not left-handed doesn't mean that everyone who might be interested in this mouse, (and how it performs), is.

So, I enlisted the help of a southpaw family member by letting him use the MX610 and getting his impressions of it. He was generally impressed by it, but keep in mind that he perhaps didn't care too much about mice and was coming from using a standard three-button wheel mouse. But one thing he was impressed by was the shape and feel of the mouse. Compared to a regular ambidextrous mouse, that most left-handed users have been stuck with, the MX610 felt a lot more natural and supportive - and the side grips were a definite bonus.

All of the buttons are easily reachable, for the most part. The tilt wheel worked well, and allowed for clicking without unwanted scrolling. The back/forward buttons were easily operated by the thumb, and there's a dip in between the two to prevent activation of the wrong one. The volume control button were also easily controlled by the index finger, however, the notification buttons are best operated by the thumb since they're further back on the mouse. This feels a little awkward since they're on top of the mouse. They might have been better placed closer to the edge, but not too close to the other thumb buttons. All buttons and actions provided decent tactile feedback, so there was never any wondering about whether something had been activated.

Movement precision and accuracy was also decent, likely indiscernible from a corded mouse. The extra weight of the two AA batteries powering the mouse didn't seem to bother, but I suspect you'll notice a difference at first that you'll likely get used to. I didn't note any problems with the 2.4 GHz wireless connection, and it worked great even at distances of more than 10 feet, as was the case with most recent wireless Logitech mice - and this was in the presence of an 802.11g wireless network, which operates in the 2.4 GHz range as well. However, in this review of the original MX610 at Everything USB they noted interference with a Walk-Free wireless headset. With more and more devices using the 2.4 GHz spectrum nowadays, this perhaps can be a problem to be aware of, even though I didn't have any problems with it.

Lastly, though I already noted it, the extra buttons work very well in a gaming environment, providing extra functionality at your finger tips. And, while the e-mail and IM notification are the "pimped" features of this mouse, I didn't find them to be too useful - though this could be the opposite of someone in a business environment who needs to keep tabs on important e-mails. If anything, the extra buttons are useful at quickly launching your IM or e-mail client. (They cannot be configured to do other things like other buttons can be.)

Conclusion

   I was quite impressed by the MX610 Lefty. Despite the e-mail and IM notification having limited functionality because of the lack of support for a variety of clients, this mouse still delivers the goods because of the strong suite of features it possesses besides the notification buttons. This is not just a left-handed mouse, but it is a good left-handed mouse designed just as well as any right-handed mouse. (This makes sense, since it's basically a mirror copy of the original MX610.)

The presence of 10 buttons might seem like overkill, but they are arranged nicely in an accessible way, and Logitech's strong SetPoint software, with its per-program button assignments, allows for this mouse to become extremely handy in games, or any application. The idea of a mouse customized for a particular program will quickly become useful to the power user, who I believe this mouse is targeted at.

This, combined with the comfortable shape and good design will make the MX610 Lefty a godsend to those feeling left out.

Pros:

• Good left-hand-only mouse

• 10 available buttons

• Comfortable

• Per-program button assignments (profiles)

• Plenty of functionality

• Good wireless connection

• Easy to install

• Accurate and precise tracking

• Power saving measures built-in

Cons:

• Notification doesn't work with a variety of clients

• Notification buttons a little awkward to press

   Many thanks to Logitech for making this review possible.