Logitech’s MX Revolution

MX Revolution

This past week I decided to join great bloggers like Paul Stamatiou, Derek Punsalan, Alex King, Glenn Wosley, Matt Brett, and James Mathias and purchased myself Logitech’s MX Revolution. I was planning on giving this mouse a thorough review, but judging from the number of bloggers who own this device, I think that’s been covered. Instead, I’m just going to go over my basic impressions of the mouse.

The Difficult Packaging

First off, no one seems to mention this; Logitech packaged the MX Revolution in the worst packaging they could find. Opening up my MX Revolution took nearly fifteen minutes due to the layers of cardboard and tape inside the box. The worst part of the whole ordeal was getting the mouse out of the airtight layer of plastic. Logitech gives instructions, but the instructions were not much help. I had to use excessive force on the plastic, praying that my new $100 toy would not go flying across the room.

The Horrible Mac Driver

After fighting my way through the packaging, setup was simple – until I had to install Logitech’s driver. While OS X recognizes the basic mouse functionality out of the box, all the extra buttons do not function without a driver. Logitech provides a Mac driver, but it’s the most horrible driver I’ve ever used. I found the Logitech driver does not recognize the receiver if it’s plugged into a USB hub, forcing me to plug the receiver directly into my MacBook. After recognizing the receiver, I had to configure the mouse quickly since the Logitech Control Center crashed often. Configuring it quickly was out of the question as any new application profiles had to be configured completely from scratch. Yeah, no default configuration here. Oh, I didn’t even mention LCC installs Unsanity’s Application Enhancer but hides the program from use. That would not be a problem if APE stopped recaching drivers on every reboot, and Logitech uninstalls APE with the driver.

SteerMouse

As you can probably guess, I hate Logitech’s driver. After realizing my mistake, I saved myself the trouble and purchased SteerMouse. SteerMouse recognizes the receiver no matter what USB port I plug it into and does not crash or install extra bloat like Logitech’s driver. SteerMouse also offers greater flexibility in configuration, allowing me to assign any button to anything. Not to mention it natively supports the MX Revolution, giving me full control over the MX Revolution’s scroll wheel. Yes, I know the software costs extra and Logitech should provide a working driver, but I paid $100 for this mouse. I might as well spend a little extra to get the mouse to function correctly.

Conclusions

Barring setup, this mouse truly is wonderful. I know that’s hard to believe after my long rant, but I only need to setup the mouse once. The MX Revolution feels comfortable in my hand, the redesigned scroll wheel is natural, and the wireless functionality offers no noticeable lag. As far as battery life, I seem to get 4-7 days of battery life. The included docking charger is simple to use, making recharging the mouse not an issue. As far as productively, I setup my mouse identical to Matt Brett, which offers me lighting fast application switching.

Sure, the MX Revolution is expensive, but if you spend as much time on a computer as I do, investing in your number one input device is worthwhile. Just don’t make the same mistake I did; ditch the Logitech Control Center drivers before they cause you pain.