About a year ago, I was using a basic wireless optical mouse that came in a keyboard set with my computer from Dell. I loved being free from wires but there was always the frustration of forgetting to keep batteries charged and ready should they need replaced.
So I began to look for rechargeable mice. My searching turned up a lot of different designs and manufacturers. The most popular kind was a small laptop mouse with a detachable wire for USB charging. Having already suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome from using a tiny laptop mouse, I knew that this wasn’t what I wanted. And besides, wouldn’t a charging base be more practical for someone that worked mostly at a desk rather than on the go?
Logitech Mouse Hunt
This greatly helped me narrow down my search. As I continued, I realized I needed to pick a reputable manufacturer if I wanted quality. As I looked around at the peripherals I was using on a regular basis, there was a blaring answer to this question: Logitech.
Logitech only makes one mouse that has a charging base: the MX Air Mouse. Now, this mouse retails for ~$150, but being the bargain hunter that I am, I found it for ~$69 and snatched it up. When it finally arrived, I was in for an experience I never though possible.
Lasers Make Everything Better
Now, the main feature that is offered with the Air Mouse is the fact that you can pick it up and continue to control the cursor while holding the mouse in the air. It’s extremely responsive and works great.However, this isn’t something that’s all that important to me. I’ve never used it in a practical way, only tested it or played with it from time to time. What really rocks my world besides having a charging base, is the laser precision.
Three Kinds of Mice
Three Blind Mice
The ball and trackball kind – These are the early leaders in detecting two-dimensional motion on a surface. They get the job done, but every once in awhile you have to remove the ball and clean out the fuzz, grease, and other particles that can mess up the connections to the two rollers that detect motion.
The optical kind – This is what you get in a standard mouse nowadays. It uses a light-emitting diode and photodiodes to detect movement relative to the underlying surface 1. These are nifty because there’s no more cleaning involved, except the occasional buildup on the plastic coasters where the mouse makes contact with the surface below; it doesn’t usually interfere with the mouse’s performance.
The laser kind – Now we’re getting somewhere. The laser mouse uses an infrared laser diode instead of an LED to illuminate the surface beneath their sensor 2. This gives you ultimate precision. Couple that with a smart design, and you’ve got an amazing mouse experience.
Why This is a Big Deal
For a lot of people, mouse precision might not be that important. Afterall, UI designers across the globe agree that there should be a generous clickable area for elements such as buttons, links, and menus. But for those that deal with pixel perfection such as web designers and Photoshop wranglers, being able to quickly zero in on an exact point on your screen is something we need to be able to do hundreds (maybe thousands) of times throughout a normal work day. Add to that the fact that we’re normally using at least 2 monitors with around 3800 pixels of width to span in a blink of an eye, and there you have it: the need for smooth precision.
For me, the Logitech MX Air Mouse met my original needs and gave me so much more. There are other dazzling features I could mention, but these have been the most important to me. I didn’t even know I needed laser, but now that I’ve found it, I’ll never go back. The touch-sensitive scroll panel (instead of a wheel) is pretty nice too since the inertia it gains is enough to scroll for dozens of thousands of pixels with one flick of your finger.
An Affordable Wired Backup
This mouse has been so faithful to me in the last year or so that I’ve been using it, but sometimes I can be a little bit neglectful and forget to give it some juice at the end of a long day of pixel pushing. Although it’s great not to have to keep batteries on hand, you still have to remember to actually use that charging base. When it’s just ready for a break, I’ve had to bring in my backup: a $10 Logitech wired optical mouse. But this goes against all of my (new) principals! So I went back to my pals to see if I could find a comparable wired mouse in case such a mishap should occur.
I found the Logitech Corded Mouse m500. Not only does it use lasers, but it also has a comfortable form factor and a pretty nifty scroll wheel. Depress the button in the middle, and you get a normal “clicking” feel when you scroll up and down. Release the button, and you can give it a spin, literally. You get the same inertia-like scrolling action as the scroll panel from the MX Air Mouse. It also clicks right and left for horizontal scrolling if needed.
In Conclusion
You know the saying “you don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it”? For me, it was “I didn’t know what I needed until I used it.” And now that I’ve used these two mice, I know I don’t want to lose them. Think I’m crazy, or that I’m missing something else? Tell me about it with a comment, or tweet me!