Logitech MX Air Wireless Mouse Review

MX Air Mouse's Structure and Style
The Logitech MX Air wireless mouse perfectly blends the look of a mouse with that of a remote control. At first glance, it looks like neither but yet both at the same time. Because the MX air is designed to be used as a remote control for your HTPC, Logitech dropped the traditional ergonomic design typically seen in their mice. Unfortunately this means that your side buttons for forward and back are no longer there either.

To accommodate the mouse to be used as a remote control, all "extra" buttons have been moved to the center to the device so that you can hold it like any other remote and still use your thumb to access them. All of the buttons are illuminated so that even if you are using the remote in the dark and are unfamiliar with button locations they can be found quickly and easily.

Continuing with the latest Logitech MX tradition, the MX Air Wireless Mouse incorporates the Hyper Scrolling feature that has made the product line such a success. What is different with the MX Air is that it doesn't have a mouse wheel at all. Instead it has a touch sensitive scroll panel. This panel lets you simply slowly drag your finger across it for line by line scrolling but also detects a quick swipe of the finger as well for the super fast scrolling as well. To provide feedback to the user, the mouse also provides some faint audible feedback for the scrolling. While scrolling you can hear the clicking sound that the traditional wheel creates and the faster that you scroll the faster you hear the clicks.

Logitech MX Air mouse's side & top view.

Enter the scroll panel, successor to the wheel.

MX Air Mouse on the Desk
Maybe I have been spoiled over the past five years and have just come to love the "fits like a glove" feeling of the Logitech mice first introduced to me with the MX700, but I found the MX Air had an unnatural feeling in my hand on the desk. My hand tended to ride too far back causing the mouse to ride a wheelie and activate Air mode, or my hand was too far forward and caused me to accidentally click when moving the cursor up. Please note that this is my personal subjective feeling. I strongly believe that each user of any peripheral has their own opinions of what is perfect and what isn't, especially with keyboards and mice. Ultimately you are going to have to be the one that decides if this mouse has the perfect design for your hand or not.

The mouse was good enough for everyday use, but seemed to lack the precision for gaming. I quickly missed my back button at my thumb, and found it to be quite annoying. I'm sure that if you aren't accustomed to forward and back buttons that this won't bother you, but if you have them currently, you WILL miss them. The touch sensitive scroll panel performed flawlessly and was a pleasure to use, and the audible sound of the scroll wheel was a nice addition that I could hear unless there was a very loud source of audio around. After running out of surface and needing to pick the mouse up, I found no issues arising where it would enter air mode, even when taking my time to do so. This is due to the built in delay before it switches modes.

MX Air Mouse in the, eh, Air
To use the MX Air off the desk, simply pick it up and hold it like a remote control with your fingers under and thumb on top. This will work with or without the SetPoint software installed. If you have the software installed however, you will have a lot more options at your fingertips?err? thumb, such as control gestures, remapping of buttons, and sensitivity adjustments to name a few. After lifting the mouse off of the surface it is on, it will switch to air mode automatically in about one second. The same hold true for when you place it back on the desk.

Using the MX Air as remote was very simple as it seems to have a VERY short learning curve. If you have ever used a Wii remote, it is very similar except that it doesn't require the use of a sensor bar. Instead it Freespace motion control technology (or gyroscopic-like microelectromechanical systems sensors) to sense your movements. Basically it's all in the wrist. You don't need to move your arm at all to move the mouse. In fact, I found that doing so was quite ineffective. Instead, move your wrist in the direction you want the mouse to move and your cursor will follow. The faster you move, the further the cursor will travel. This acceleration proved quite useful for times when precise control was needed.

My hand holding the MX Air (top view).

For those of you that don't have a steady hand like me, you will be thankful of Logitech's forward thinking in the matter and you will find that your mouse stays steady instead of jumping around like a 5 year old kid with ADHD on a sugar high. In fact they have even incorporated a feature that freezes the mouse for 400ms when you click. This will prevent the inevitable movement of the mouse that happens when you double click, ensuring precise control and the reduction of frustration.

As the MX Air is primarily designed for those that use HTPC's, I spent quite a lot of time with the mouse using Vista MCE on my TV. I am quite confident when I say that you will find a large majority of users that have a HTPC for entertainment only use find it frustrating when they need to do something outside of Media Center itself since it requires the use of the mouse. The ball mouse that is incorporated into Media Center keyboards is hard to control precisely and the Media Center remote is useless outside of the application. Normal this leaves you with the option of connecting a mouse to your HTPC but wired mice usually aren't long enough to reach where you can comfortably see your TV and control it, while wireless mice give you the range but you often don't have a surface to use your mouse on while at your chair.

This is where the MX Air really began to shine as I was able to fully control my HTPC outside of Media Center and use my PC with ease on my TV just as if I were sitting at my desk. I found that it let me get much more enjoyment out my HTPC for something other than just Media Center as I was able to control it without getting frustrated.

My hand holding the MX Air (side view).

Back inside Media Center, I found that the MX Air was not quite as efficient as Media Center certified keyboards and remotes, but was somewhat better than simply using a regular wireless mouse to control. As the button configuration is out of the box, it seemed like a horrid experience as I was missing all of the buttons from my remote that took me directly to recorded TV, the guide, the DVD menu, etc. I immediately went into the SetPoint software and was able to remap some of the buttons to tailor it a little more to my needs. Although it still wasn't the same, it was a great compromise between the mouse built into the keyboard and the standard wireless mouse. As a side note, my Microsoft Media Center remote has 27 buttons not including the numpad. A mouse simply can't have that many buttons readily available.

The one last area to explore is the one are that I was most skeptical about, the gesture system. I have always been a fan of mouse gestures as they can be a very intuitive way add control. If you have ever played the game Black & White, then you know what I mean since the game can be entirely controlled by the mouse, including all movement, interaction, and camera control with a simple two button mouse w/ scroll wheel. What worried me the most is that it would require interactivity much like the Wii remote, that is, require physical effort and that is the last thing I want to do when relaxing and enjoying TV or a movie.

Thankfully the insightful engineers at Logitech thought of this too and it still only requires wrist movement to perform the gestures. I was able to control the volume by simply holding the volume button and pointing the mouse to the left or right. Changing music or chapters in a movie was a snap as well. Just hold the play button and move the mouse in a circular motion either clockwise or counter-clockwise and this will change to the next or previous media respectively.

MX Air Mouse for Presentations
I found that the MX Air mouse was also useful for presentations for a couple of reasons. First, it doesn't require additional software to work. Second, since it is designed to work in the air, I could walk around with it and move the mouse as I pleased. Third and perhaps most importantly, was that I could freeze the pointer. Yes, Logitech thought of this as well. By simply hold the "Back" button on the mouse for two seconds, this will freeze the cursor and keep it from moving which is a great addition for HTPC's as well so you don't accidentally bump the mouse and have the mouse and menu buttons interrupt your media experience.

Logitech SetPoint 4.0 Software
Along with the launch of Logitech's G series of peripherals came the SetPoint software and since then it has underwent many revisions. Unlike Microsoft's IntelliPoint software which integrates directly into the mouse properties of the Control Panel, SetPoint is its own application and provides you with an abundance of options not normally available.

Button remapping is simple and easy, with plenty of options, and can be application specific.

The remapping of buttons on your mouse is intuitive and easy for anyone to use. Each button is highlighted to show you exactly what you are changing when you select it, and you are given a choice of several common options to change your button's function. If the given options are not enough, there is the "Other" option which presents you with a list of more than twenty different functions. The only practical function that isn't available is for a macro.

Separate movement settings can be assigned for on the desk or in the air.

If you prefer, Logitech allows you to control how the scroll panel works on the MX Air. You can change how fast the scrolling takes place, how fast the acceleration of the hyper scrolling occurs, or disable it all together if you do not like it.

The Scroll Panel tab is a new addition to the SetPoint software.

Connectivity & Battery
For connectivity, the MX Air uses a USB dongle that transmits via the 2.4Ghz range. This allows for use of the MX Air up to 30 feet away. While I didn't have a clear line of sight for operation at a distance of 30 feet, I was able to control my HTPC from about 20 feet away with a wall obstructing the line of sight utilizing the gestures to change the music I was listening to.

The MX Air has a built in lithium-ion battery and Logitech states that it should last for the life of the mouse. It takes about 2.5 hours to fully charge and 30 minutes of charging is said to be enough to provide power for a full day's use. Logitech also says that a full charge will last up to 5 days for most users. Note that they say "up to" and "most". I consider myself a heavy user for my HTPC as I use it for more than TV or a movie, and it is in use in some form while I am home and awake. The charge lasted almost a full 4 days for me, and a 15 minute charge was able to get me going for the remaining few hours in the fourth day.

Recap
The Logitech MX Air is a wonderful mouse that can be used to control your pointer in a number of different ways and has multiple uses. While I found that normal desk use was a bit awkward, and that it is far from being ideal from gaming, it was not designed with that in mind either. As it was designed as a wireless mouse to be used in the air rather than on a surface, it performs quite well. Consider desk use a benefit for those that use their HTPC as both their daily computer and a media center. For the HTPC crowd, you will be hard pressed to find a substitute, let alone one that performs as well.