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Over the years, Logitech has built itself into one of, if not the largest electronics peripherals manufacturers in the world. Known for offering quality products with innovative features, theirs is one of the first names that comes to mind when one considers accessories not just the for the PC platform, but consoles and even mobile phones as well. For the past few years, Logitech's MX, V, and G series pointers have set the standards to which other mice are gauged. Today we'll be examining the latest addition to Logitech's line of notebook mice, the VX Revolution. Based on the larger MX Revolution Desktop mouse, the VX promises exotic features in a portable package. Will the VX Revolution prove itself a Godsend to touch-pad weary road-warriors, or are the Revolution's features just marketing gimmicks? That's what we're here to find out!
| Tracking Resolution |
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| Interface |
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| Connection |
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| Hand Orientation |
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| Scrolling Capability |
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| Features |
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After tearing into the stylish packaging, we find the standard bundled utility CD, as well as the wireless USB receiver, and a Duracell (no off-brand here!) AA battery. Though it seems a little slim, there isn't really much else that could be included with a mouse, and the SetPoint3 software is quite a bundle in and of itself (more on that later).
The mouse is one of the most attractive we've seen yet. As the Revolution is intended for office/content creation activities and not gaming, they have forgone the mod styling that adorn mice such as the Razer Copperhead. The slightly textured grey and glossy black plastic housing is accented by black rubber, chrome buttons, and a metal scroll wheel. These come together in a very modern, elegant, and and quite frankly gorgeous package. This mouse oozes class, and is the perfect compliment to the sharp executive who sports a 1/2 lb notebook in an Armani carrying bag. On top of its sharp looks, the Revolution offers excellent ergonomics. While lefties won't be able to benefit from this pointer, it molded wonderfully with our right hand. Slightly larger than other notebook mice, its size actually feels more natural and intuitive, without sacrificing any portability. Because of its increased size and solid construction, the Revolution is somewhat hefty for a notebook mouse. However, the difference versus an average notebook mouse is minimal, and we appreciated the solid feel. As ergonomics are somewhat subjective, we had several people spend some time with our review sample to see how it worked for in various sized hands. All of them liked it so much we just about had to wrestle it away from them. Suffice to say the VX Revolution has now appeared on several Christmas lists.
Being a notebook mouse, Logitech has designed the VX Revolution to be as portable as possible. The wireless USB receiver pops easily and securely into a port on the back of the mouse. The mouse automatically turns itself on and off when the receiver is removed or inserted, improving both battery life and convenience. We were able to use the VX up to 50 feet away from it's receiver, making it excellent for presentations, as well as any other situation in which one might find the need to use their computer from a distance.
Flipping our VX over we can see the the polytetrafluoroethylene (say that four times fast) feet, which caused very little friction on most surfaces. The eject button releases the wireless receiver, which also activates the battery-life LED for a brief duration. Next we see the 848nm, 800dpi laser. With a list price of $79 and other mice boasting up to 2000dpi, we really expected to see a higher resolution laser, but it didn't impact performance as much as we anticipated. With many wide-screen laptops sporting resolutions as high as 1920x1200, moving the cursor across the screen with the default sensitivity settings can involve a lengthy arm gesture. However, this was not enough of an annoyance to tarnish our affection. Despite its low resolution, tracking was extremely precise, and control in applications such as photoshop was just about pixel perfect. Even at high speeds, the laser never lost track, and not for lack of trying on our part! Our best attempts to get the cursor to jitter during fast motion all failed. Though Logitech is clear that this mouse is not intended for gaming, we fired up Counter-Strike: Source just to see how it faired. After increasing the in-game mouse sensitivity, we were able to comfortably play without any real loss of accuracy, though our hand was happy to once again grasp our trusty MX518 after a few rounds.
Above the Laser we find one of this mouse's nifty features, the ratcheting switch, which allows the user to select between the traditional ratcheting scroll-wheel mode and the innovative free-spin mode.
Above the Laser we find one of this mouse's nifty features, the ratcheting switch, which allows the user to select between the traditional ratcheting scroll-wheel mode and the innovative free-spin mode.
Button placement is very logical, we never had to look at the mouse to find a function. The mouse features the obvious left and right mouse buttons, as well as two side buttons, a Zoom slider, a one-touch search button, and, what is arguably the most important and innovative feature, the MicroGear Precision Scroll Wheel (more on that below). The Zoom slider is a mildly handy feature, though we found ourselves reprogramming it for other uses (namely switching tabs in Firefox). The two side buttons default to Forward and Back while web browsing. The one-touch search button is a feature that we found ourselves using more than we anticipated. Simply highlight a word or phrase, press the button, and results from the search engine of your choice are loaded in your default browser. It's worth noting that the two primary mouse buttons feel natural with just the right amount of click.
Though we at HardwareLogic generally try to remain as objective as possible, we are officially in love with the Precision Scroll Wheel. One innovative aspect of this new wheel is that it rocks left and right for horizontal scrolling (or whatever function you might like) which makes web browsing that much more intuitive. The other innovative aspect of this wheel is its free-spin mode. With but a flick of the finger this alloy wheel will scroll for up to 7 seconds! Without any sensitivity adjustments, we scrolled down 3,500 rows in Excel with a single flick! This Precision Scroll Wheel almost instantly became a "can't live without" feature. We now loath the slow repetitive scrolling through long documents and web pages when we find ourselves away from our VX. Horizontal scrolling without our rocking wheel has become an annoyance. According to Logitech's press materials, years of R&D went into this scroll wheel, and it shows. Without a doubt, the free-scrolling wheel is a feature that other manufacturers would be wise to implement.
What good is an outstanding piece of hardware without equally good software to back it up? Logitech seems to have had this in mind when developing their SetPoint3 software. Though no software is required for the mouse to work, using this program, which runs in the system tray, allows you to customize every function of the mouse. Not only can all buttons, sliders, and rockers be customized to just about any function or keystroke binding, but specific functions can be assigned for any specific program. Several common programs are preloaded in the list, but one can also browse for the EXE of their choice in order to add it to the list. The SetPoint software automatically detects which application is currently focused and adjusts the configuration to that applications profile. One can also enable a gaming profile, which also works automatically when any full-screen 3D application is run. In addition to scroll and zoom speeds, the acceleration rates are also customizable. The software even displays the number of days of battery life remaining. Out of the box, SetPoint claimed the single AA battery would last 108 days, which, though a little on the generous side, gives a pretty good idea of what one can expect.
Hovering over the Setpoint icon brings up a dialog box displaying the battery status, and, for some reason, the number lock status. For those that are stingy with their system resources, the SetPoint software used about 12MB of RAM during our tests. Though this is a little higher than we would have liked to see for a system tray application, we can hardly fault it considering the massive flexibility it provides, as well as the fact that it is not even required for the mouse to work (minus the more advanced functions).
| Segment | Score | Comments |
| Feature-Set | 19/20 |
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| Construction | 20/20 |
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| Aesthetics | 20/20 |
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| Performance | 18/20 |
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| Warranty | 10/10 |
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| Price/Value | 7/10 |
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Our Recommendation
While more expensive than most notebook mice, the VX Revolution offers exceptional features that you simply can't find anywhere else. The free-spinning Precision Scroll Wheel is a feature that we hope will become standard in all mice, and performance was excellent all around depsite the low laser resolution. From an aesthetic standpoint, the VX Revolution is an extremely classy peripheral, which attracted a fair bit of attention (for a mouse at least) from fellow notebook users. We found the ergonomics to be outstanding, and the others who tried (with hands ranging from small to large) reported similar sentiments. With its list price of $80, the VX Revolution is an expensive mouse. However, the experience it offers will justify the price for those who do more on the road than simply check email. Also, those willing to shop around a bit should be able to pick one up for a much more reasonable $60. In a matter of days, the VX Revolution managed to supplant our Logitech MX 518 in daily use, minus gaming duties.
Other Reviews Of Note
It's always nice to have more than one opinion on a component before you spend your hard earned money. For one, we may see something others missed, or vice versa. As with all reviews posted at HardwareLogic, we'll not only give you our recommendation, but also point out some reviews from some other great sites around the web.
XYZ Computing
ExtremeTech
Aphnetworks
Anandtech