A Skeptic’s Opinion

As a skeptic of “high-end” input products, I was a little amused by the sticker price of the Logitech MX Duo — $100.00 or more, at many retail outlets. I have never owned a keyboard worth more than $4 and a mouse worth more than $30.00, so I did not expect very much with the Logitech MX Duo. Just a bit of background.

Design of the Duo

I plugged in the MX Duo’s cradle. From what I can gather, it includes both a PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard as well as a combined USB mouse/keyboard. In other words, there are two plugs: a USB one that can use a keyboard adapter, and a PS/2 Mouse plug. I opted for USB on both mainly because I could. I also know that USB is a whole lot faster than PS/2 anyway, although I don’t really see how it makes a difference. After the USB was plugged into the computer, I plugged the power adapter into the USB cable and into the power outlet. The adapter is strangely designed and takes up too much space, in my opinion.

At first glance, I noticed that the wireless keyboard requires AA batteries that are obviously not recharged through the cradle. I do not think that the keyboard is a power-hungry device; however, for a definite conclusion, I will have needed to test this keyboard for much longer than I did. When depressing each key, you feel a sort of light resistance at the top and a soft spring at the bottom. When you look at the keyboard from the top, you can see the reflective plate that is the holder of all of the keys. Another thing you will immediately notice is the number of “specialty” keys on the board; luckily, all of these can be turned off or configured. There are your standard system volume control, mute, play, rewind, fast forward, etc. buttons. There are also many others, such as a Search button and a Shopping Button. Generally, if you are a gamer, you will probably find these more annoying than useful but for certain simulations, these “hotkeys” may actually help you out a bit. If you look closely at the picture, you may see that the “/” key on the 10-key pad is depressed. For some reason, this model is defective in that way, but I do not think this is a rampant problem.

When looking at the mouse, one must wonder why in the world there are so many buttons. This mouse is extremely comfortable to hold and looks pretty darn cool. The scroll wheel has that “soft” feel of high-quality products, as it should have. After all, this is a very expensive mouse and keyboard set. The LED of the mouse is always on (it doesn’t blink on and off like any other annoying optical sensor). This is something that I like. Also, it is positioned differently. The batteries are placed in an obvious position at the bottom, which definitely adds weight to the mouse. Yet, the mouse still feels dubiously lightweight and easy to move. Of course, I did test this on a RatPadGS, one of the best mouse pads available, so you may experience slightly different results.