Logitech MX Revolution Wireless Mouse Review

Logitech MX Revolution side view

My hand holding the MX revolution

The left side of the mouse where your thumb rests is covered in a rubberized grip that makes it easy to grasp the mouse, even if you have sweaty palms. The MX revolution Wireless Mouse is a heavy mouse, which to me is a good thing. I would put it on par with the Logitech G5 using all weights placed in the cartridge.

Hyper-fast Scrolling
When Logitech says hyper-fast scrolling, they mean it. The scroll wheel is the source of the MX Revolution's mojo. The plain old scroll wheel gets reworked for Revolution duty with two modes. The first mode is the standard ratcheting mode we are all used to. The second scroll mode is a simple change that makes a huge difference in daily use by allowing the wheel to freely spin. The normal left and right horizontal scroll is performed by moving the scroll wheel left or right.

Logitech's new hyper-wheels...

Here you can change the mouse wheel scroll speed.

In free-wheel mode the scroll wheel can spin for up to seven seconds according to Logitech. In my testing of the mouse I saw longer spin times than that, up to ten seconds at a time was not uncommon at all. That allows me to plow through long pages scanning for specific content. I found it great to use on eBay and a spectacular way to move through long Excel documents. The super fast scrolling is very easy to stop as well, simply place your finger on it and it stops on a dime.

Logitech made the MX Revolution Wireless Mouse smart; it can change the scroll mode on-the-fly depending on what it sees as the correct mode for the task at hand. It does a pretty good job of it too. If you are scrolling slowly and little at a time it leaves itself in click mode, however, start scrolling faster and the wheel will automatically change to free-wheel mode.

The only issues I had with the free-wheel mode in testing was that for some reason free-wheel wouldn't work on all pages. It was particularity noticeable if you were scrolling a long page with text entry fields. The free-wheel worked fine on the long page, but when I would mouse over the text entry field scrolling would not work. To be able to scroll through the long embedded text entry fields I would have to change to click mode by pressing the scroll wheel.

A few pages simply wouldn't scroll in free-wheel mode at all. For instance while writing a review I was trying to scroll a Pricegrabber page in free-wheel mode and it simply wouldn't scroll, a quick tap of the scroll wheel to change the mouse manually to click mode and I was on my way. Not nearly the hassle it sounds to be, but curious nonetheless. The normal middle click function of the scroll wheel is replaced with the ability to manually change between scroll modes.

This is the main page for changing button assignments.

There is no function in the SetPoint 3 software to remap the scroll wheel click to another function. In PC games, the middle click can in some titles be mapped to in game controls such as jump or crouch. However, since that is the manual and unchangeable action to switch scroll modes, if you map the scroll wheel click to a game control you end up going from ratchet mode on the mouse wheel to free-wheel and vice versa. Free-wheel mode is not very user friendly in games making it nearly impossible to switch weapons quickly.

You can change the mouse pointer speed and enable pointer trails in.

One-Touch Search
Another particularly cool and different feature of the MX Revolution Wireless Mouse is the One-Touch Search feature. There is a little button right beneath the scroll wheel with a magnifying glass on it. When you highlight any word on a page and then click the search button you get search results pertaining to the word you highlighted. You can choose between three different search engines including Google, Yahoo!, and Yahoo! LiveWords. The results of your search will open in a new window.

While I found this a useful tool and feature, it could be much better if Logitech allowed the feature to work with a site like Dictionary.com where you could get real definitions of words and synonyms. As it is if the term you are looking at is very general you end up with quite a few extraneous words and returns that do little to answer question about the term you highlighted on occasion.

For instance I used the search feature to highlight the word "upscaling" which is a feature of some LCD HDTV sets. What I ended up getting was a wealth of search results featuring different TVs that had upscaling listed in the features and no definition of the word itself.

Forward & Back Buttons
While still missing on a number of new mice, Logitech has thankfully included a forward and back navigation buttons on the left side of the mouse. Once you get used to navigating with these buttons it is very difficult to use a mouse that doesn't have them.

While I had the buttons programmed to function for page forward and page backwards in the Logitech SetPoint 3 software, on occasion the buttons would refuse to function. Typically after hitting the buttons a few times, the desired action would take place but the occasional difficulty in getting the navigation buttons to work was curious.

Connectivity & Battery
The MX Revolution uses an integrated Li-Ion battery that is recharged on an AC powered base station you plug into the wall. The base station is the same exact base that Logitech uses for the diNovo Bluetooth Media Desktop. Connectivity for the MX Revolution is via full-speed USB (12 Mbps) wireless via 2.4GHz, like the Logitech G7 gaming mouse. The MX Revolution also features a laser engine that performed well on a variety of different surfaces from a fUnc mouse pad, to the plastic resin of my desk and the fabric arm of my couch.

I noticed zero interference with the MX Revolution while using home appliances such as the microwave nor was there interference from other 2.4 GHz gadgets like my cordless phone. Range was also very good, unlike some of the Bluetooth Logitech mice; I could easily use the MX Revolution from across the room without any issues.

Remaining battery life in SetPoint 3

Battery life is good, on a full charge Logitech quotes battery life in the SetPoint 3 software at about 16 days. I personally use a mouse way more than what might be considered normal, roughly 10-12 hours a day on average, with a minimum of four hours a day. I got about 4 days of use out of the battery before I was greeted with the red recharge me LED.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that when the mouse did run down, after placing it on the recharging dock for an hour the battery was recharged to full according to the battery level indicator on the left side of the mouse.

Gaming with the MX Revolution
As a pretty hardcore PC gamer, short of the Logitech G7, I am hesitant to use a wireless mouse for gaming due to the lag. However, I played several games with the MX Revolution and it worked decently. In Oblivion and World of Warcraft, the MX Revolution performed well with no surprises. I noticed no lag or other problems in either of those games. I also used the MX to play Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter as well where accuracy is much more important and found sensitivity was too low for my tastes.

For FPS games the sensitivity is too low and the inability to map the buttons to game controls is not good. The free-wheel scroll mode was a detriment to gameplay in my opinion, it scrolled too fast to allow the selection of weapons to be functional.

From here, you can set the button assignments to change for specific game titles.

I would have liked some increased sensitivity to the MX revolution for gaming, as it is I would put sensitivity on par with the MX1000 at 800 dpi, standard for most OEM mice, but all in all it still performed decently. The non primary buttons would not map to any controls in game for the titles I played with the MX Revolution. However, you can create profiles for applications and games in the SetPoint 3 software and make the buttons on the mouse perform other functions, including the ability to map buttons to keyboard strokes for most keys. You can't however, map the left and right main mouse buttons and the scroll wheel to other functions or keyboard strokes.

To my dismay the quick flip still functions in game, so if you are gaming with the MX and hit it accidentally you may find yourself in trouble in your game, unless you map it in SetPoint to another function like zoom, which is your only other option besides the default document flip. While not my first choice for hardcore FPS gaming, the MX Revolution will be perfectly adequate for casual gaming.

The Bottom Line
I have used lots of mice over the years and the Logitech MX Revolution Wireless Mouse is hands down the best general use mouse you can currently get. Add to that the fact that casual gamers can use it for gaming and what you end up with is a well rounded mouse that can perform most any duty. If you're not a gamer, this is the mouse to own and if you are a gamer it is still worth consideration if your tastes lean towards titles that don't need super high sensitivity. Accuracy is good as evidenced by the ease at which you can highlight specific letters in documents and lasso things in your favorite photo editing application. I guarantee that once you use the free-wheel scroll wheel you will wonder why they didn't make the wheel that way long ago and you won't want to go back to a plain scroll wheel.

By Shane McGlaun, Contributing Editor