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Logitech MX620 Cordless Laser |
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Written by Petar Barisic
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Thursday, 18 October 2007 |
After the surprising introduction of G5's successor last month, another series of Logitech peripherals got a new-born. The MX 620 is not a direct descendant of the MX 610, which can be instantly seen from the lack of multimedia function keys and indicators. There are two details which dominate the new MX mouse: the “search” button and the freshly designed scroll wheel. This is very indicative of this mouse's target market – users who open long text documents on a daily basis, go through them, and have to search for different content and internet references within. In order to provide more efficient and intuitive working conditions, this model has a MicroGear scroll wheel, a successful feature seen on the Revolution mice before.
This wheel, owing to its precise mechanism, enables the user to quickly go through thousands of lines of text, as well as halt momentarily on any given line. The MicroGear works in a very simple way – you spin the wheel very fast and only touch it to stop. The wheel also uses the see-saw principle to scroll to the left and right, as well as the standard middle mouse button function. Unfortunately, due to the sensitivity of the mechanism and wheel position, it may occasionally happen that you don't get the desired result when attempting to press the middle mouse button – your finger will either slip and thus move the document or the mouse will not respond to your command at all, even though you felt the pressure, therefore forcing you to press the button even harder, and eventually move the wheel (and the document) to the left or right.
One important feature of the MicroGear mechanism is concealed on the bottom of the mouse. In the middle of the surface, just next to the laser sensor, there is a mechanical switch which determines the working mode of the wheel. By changing the switch position you can additionally accelerate the scrolling speed and document viewing by eliminating the rotation steps. The search button is located near the top of the upper side of the mouse, close to the left mouse button. This key's basic function is to, after you've selected a word or a phrase in a document, look up Google for matches. The functionality of this key is dependent on how you use the computer, but the SetPoint application can, naturally, change this key's function into whichever one you need.
The other couple of features of this model may not be as noticeable, but that doesn't mean that they won't ease your daily work on a computer. The first one is that (like all recent Logitech mice) the mouse has rough materials applied to the holding area. Also, there are two standard Back and Forward buttons at thumb position. Finally, you don't have to worry much about the battery consumption – the declared working time with a single set of batteries is up to one year (!), leaving you pretty much careless about this issue. Energy saving and small consumption do not, however, affect the response time or coming back from sleep mode – after only a split-second and a small mouse movement, the mouse is ready to go.
Taking into consideration that the mouse is powered by two AA batteries, the mouse is delivered with a mini-USB transmitter which you can connect to any USB connector. The mouse is set immediately after the (painless) installation of SetPoint drivers, which will show you all the available options. There is a large number of preset settings already for the most popular applications such as Adobe or Office ones. As we previously mentioned, you can also customize the function of the “Search” button, as well as define the function for a specific application (for example, you will want to disable this button if you intend to play games in order to prevent potential accidental presses).
As one can see at first glance, the MX 620 is not in the least a replacement for the MX 610, but a brand new addition to an already established series of successful wireless mice. The MX 610 was primarily targeting users who wanted to surf the net from the comfort of their armchairs, without having to get an RC. On the other hand, the MX 620 is meant for quite the opposite target market – users who have to sit at their desks, probably covered with papers, folders and books of all sorts, wishing that changing batteries or worrying about the cable position be the last thing on their minds. |
Peripherals 
