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Logitech VX Nano Wireless Notebook Mouse
Introduction
You go to a coffee shop, and you look around, and you'll see a little slice of laptop history. There are new Macs, old Macs that still look great, dressed up Dells, ugly fat Compaqs, and no mice in sight (except for maybe that crotchety old Linux dude (the beard tells all, Linux dude) who's spliced an honest-to-God PS/2 mouse into his "notebook"). People seem to accept touchpads, and yet I don't know anyone who longs for one for their desktop. Finally, when you decide, screw it, I'm getting a mouse for my machine, there're all kinds of options. Spendy Bluetooth mice, shrunken wired mice, and prices all over the map. Personally, I use a dinky wired mouse with a spring-loaded cable and never really looked back. But Logitech's VX Nano might have convinced me to start buying AAAs. A laser mouse that loves all operating systems (lest we forget OS X) that looks good, handles comfortably, and is rich with feature ore.   First Looks A satchel! It's got a mouse sack! As much as I trust that my nylon messenger bag to not destroy my electronics, the padded, lightweight zippered kit is an important inclusion for such a glossy mouse. It's two main buttons are extensions of the mouse's shell, with back and forward sub-buttons next to left click--I wish more mice included function buttons on the top and not the sides--with a real metal-with-rubber traction wheel. The wheel doesn't click for middle button, that action engages or disengages the feedback mechanism for the wheel. With it disengaged, you can freely spin the wheel, a feature that's grown on me instantly. Without middle click, you might feel you've lost a critical button, but there is a "document shift" button--essentially super/ Windows + tab--that you can assign other functions to (middle click damn it) using Set Point, Logitech's control panel. You can also tilt the wheel for left and right scrolling. The dongle, the reciever, is miniscule. It stick out of a USB port enough to grip and that's it. (2.4GHz wireless.) This is nice-ish; you'll have to be a little careful not to accidentally catch your laptop on things or, if removed, lose it entirely. But I'll gladly take dinky over hard to lose. One excellent feature is inside the mouse's battery hatch: there's a cradle for the dongle, along with an eject button. When you stick the dongle into the mouse, the mouse powers off. When you eject it, it turns back on. So not only is the thing safe and much harder to lose, when you've put it all away it just won't draw power. I wish that the hatch stayed attached to the mouse when it was open--the hatch comes off completely--but maybe that's better than breaking a hinge.   It uses two AAAs, and as a whole, is a little heavier than I like my mouse, but I'll deal. It's about average for a wired mouse, I'm just accustomed to lighter gaming mice. The sensor is on the right side of the mouse, so if your thigh is your mousepad, you'll have to hold it slaunchwise. The mouse has huge feet that aren't likely to gum up with flat surface crud, and a little tiny power button on the bottom if you don't intend on moving the dongle around a lot.
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Add Comment
2 User Comments 1 - Posted by
Craig Lloyd
on March 25, 2009 - 4:02 pm I hated how there was no true middle mouse button. Instead, it just changed the scroll mode. That stupid feature ruined that mouse. -Craig (http://www.tech-olive.com) 2 - Posted by
Max Slowik
on March 26, 2009 - 6:51 pm You can map middle-click to the button just below the scroll wheel in SetPoint.
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