Logitech MX500 Optical Mouse

[Kareeser]

I believe that the Logitec MX500 is one of the last optical gaming mice that Logitech has to offer. Most of the high-end gaming mice now use "laser" technology, which apparently offers a higher scan rate/resolution.

I bought this mouse within the last two months because I needed a mouse for my "Age of Empires III" computer. At no point in this game would I be swivelling around in 180^o in-game arcs, so I was not particularly finicky about what mouse I chose.

I picked up the MX500 from a dealer on eBay for $5 Canadian, which seemed to be a very good deal, as a mere two weeks later, the price jumped 300%.

I first tested the mouse in a native windows environment, Firefox, managing folders/directories, etc, and installed the provided Logitech mouse software.

As it stands, the bundled software replaces the windows "mouse configuration" panel with one of Logitech design. It is more user friendly, although it took more time than was needed to do simple tasks such as re-assign buttons. The software also removed the "right-hand" to "left-hand" option, and the user is forced to manually change the right click and left click buttons, which is quite disorienting for one who is used to the windows menus.

The mouse also comes with two buttons, for their function as "back" and "forward" buttons in the browser. Natively supported by windows, these buttons work as described, and have no technical faults, although they will be awkwardly positioned for any southpaw (left-handed person).

The Logitech driver software also installs its own set of rules governing pointer acceleration and movement. The biggest (and unsolvable) gripe about this mouse is that in no way was I able to mimic native Windows mice's acceleration and movement speed. The mouse is either moving too quickly, or too slowly, and the slider provided has only 4-5 preset values, making the choice very limited. The acceleration options were presented in radio button format, with the choices None, Low, Medium, or High. Overall, the interface was cumbersome.

The second gripe I have with this mouse's driver software is its handling of the "third mouse button". Most applications have no use of this button, but Firefox is an exception. The third mouse button can click on links, and open them in tabs, yet this function does not work anymore.

Depressing the third mouse button brings up the "scroll ball" onto the screen (which, by the way, looks uglier than the semi-transparent Windows XP scroll ball), which can only be disabled by depressing the third mouse button, and only if the window is not scrolling. Getting rid of the "scroll ball" via left clicking only disabled the scroll wheel completely!

Thirdly, the mouse advertises "cruise control", which are two buttons to the top and bottom of the mouse wheel. They are advertised as a replacement to the scroll wheel, to which the latter is relegated to more precise scrolling (such as line-by-line scrolling). Positioned just out of the reach of my fingertips, I found very little use of them. Furthermore, using the "cruise" buttons for their intended function relied on further configuration, something which I am reluctant to do.

It is very likely that another user will have a differing opinion, and find the cruise buttons very useful.

The last button to be mentioned is an "application switch" button, located just under the "cruise down" button. Its function brings up an "alt-tab" like menu, which allowed me to switch between open applications. Its function is mostly peripheral, and is achieved already with the "alt-tab" command. Its button placement also makes it easy to be accidentally pressed, which I did on a number of occasions. Eventually, I had to manually disable this button, as I had accidentally depressed it one too many times.

The quick (and recommended) fix is uninstalling the Logitech software completely. Native windows drivers support 7 of the 8 buttons (the last one being the "application switch" button) and the acceleration and speed settings are set to their default values. Best of all, with the Windows drivers, my third mouse button worked perfectly opening tabs in firefox

The mouse itself performs admirably once you get past its faults. It works flawlessly in games, and has yet to lock up or underperform.

I give this mouse an 8/10, as I don't particularly value the the mouse software that highly.

[ztx]

Very nice review, I have a G5 myself, hows the scroll wheel? I found it very annoying to push down, to open tabs and such in Firefox; it seems that if you exit Logitech's Setpoint software, you will be able to middle click again in Firefox.

[Kareeser]

In my opinion, the third mouse button is a bit tougher to click down on, like you said. However, that's mostly minimal