A little cordless mouse from Logitech found its way to my desk last week. The VX Nano cordless laser mouse is specially designed for notebooks.
I immediately fell in love with the little mesh pouch it came in, but the really cool thing about the VX Nano is its tiny, tiny USB receiver, which is only half the size of the USB plug. Measuring 14mm by 18mm in total, the receiver plugs into your notebook and takes up so little space it can just be left there. Should you need to free up the USB port, the receiver can be stored away inside the battery compartment underneath the mouse — a very nice feature.
The mouse appears a bit flatter and wider than most normal mice, and even notebook mice, but it feels pretty good in the hand. And installation is as easy as inserting the minuscule USB receiver into your laptop. Wait a few seconds and it works. The mouse is powered by two AAA batteries and two of these are included. You can get up to six months of battery life, thanks to the on/off switch, according to Logitech.
The VX Nano’s performance is excellent. The laser sensor responds to movements on all sorts of surfaces, including sofas. The main mouse buttons feel responsive and are very much like those of a normal mouse. But the two “forwards” and “backwards” buttons are not logically placed. They are located on the left-side of the mouse and operated using your right index-finger. They work well, but using them feels a bit clumsy given that traditionally these buttons are on the side of the mouse and are operated using your thumb.
But an awesome feature is the scroll wheel, which shifts between super-fast and precise, “clicky-wheel” scrolling.
To shift between the two modes, you simply press down on the wheel. In super-fast mode, you can flick the scroll wheel and it will spin freely until you stop it or it runs out of steam. This brilliant feature gives you the best of both worlds and makes scrolling to the end of a long web page or document really easy.
The five buttons are programmable using the software included. And the symmetrical design of the mouse means it also works well for the 10% of us who are left-handed.
Recommended retail price is $149, including GST.