Reviews

Logitech M600 Touch Mouse Review

 

Touch-controlled mice are slowly becoming standard offerings nowadays.  The mechanical versions are still admittedly the cheaper and more reliable options but touch mice are also becoming more affordable and just as reliable.  Apple and Microsoft each has touch mice offerings but Logitech, one of the biggest names when it comes to computer accessories and peripherals, just joined the fray with the Logitech M600 Touch Mouse.  Read the rest of the review to find out if the Logitech M600 Touch Mouse is any good, and if it is worth your hard-earned money.

Design and Features

The Logitech M600 Touch Mouse is a winner in terms of looks. It has a superb design that’s both aesthetically pleasing and functionally sound.  The M600 Touch Mouse actually looks like at a work of art, not just a simple computer mouse.  It looks like a pebble freshly fished out from the river because of its shape, although one could say that it also drew inspiration from a sea creature of some sort.  The print pattern on the surface is what elicits this impression, especially when you see that the grey bottom adorned by lines on the side.   Whatever you imagine it to be, the M600 Touch Mouse is undeniably one of the best looking-mice around and could even hold its own against the Apple Magic Mouse and the Microsoft Touch Mouse.

The Logitech M600 Touch Mouse has a very good profile – it’s neither too high nor too low.  The Logitech M600 has a very nice ergonomics, translating to a high level of use comfort.  Holding the Logitech M600 is never a burden.  It feels very natural and very comfortable, with just the right amount of arch at the base and the perfect reach at the top for touch functions.  You might want to know that the Logitech M600 is ambidextrous, so it can be used both by left handed and right handed users with equal ease.

 

In terms of weight, the Logitech M600 Touch Mouse manages to be lightweight, yet heavy enough to give it just the right amount of heft for more natural dragging action.   It weighs only 3.84 ounces with the two AA batteries inside. However, you can make it lighter by using just one AA battery.  Yes, it works with just one battery if you wish.   The Logitech M600 weighs only about 3 ounces with one battery installed.

 

The Logitech M600 Touch Mouse connects wirelessly via a USB nano receiver with 2.4GHz signal.  The receiver is surprisingly small, too small that you’d even forget it’s there.  This nano receiver in fact uses Logitech’s Unifying Receiver technology.  This means you can connect up to five additional wireless Logitech products through this receiver, which means less USB ports used and more freed up for other peripherals.

Performance

The Logitech M600 is easy to use and install.  You just need to insert the batteries on the mouse, plug the nano receiver to the USB port, then you turn on the mouse using the power switch located at the bottom.  The driver is instantaneously installed, and you are good to go.

The Logitech M600 mouse excels, not so much because of the things it tries to do but because of the things it does, and does well.  The Logitech M600 does not aim to do everything, and maybe this is the reason it is so useful and effective.  Most touch mice have failed, and failed miserably, because they attempt to include all multi-touch functionalities, like pinch to zoom or rotate.  The Logitech M600 keeps it simple.

The touch gestures of the Logitech M600 are limited to scrolling up, scrolling down, going back, and moving forward.  The up and down functions are achieved by simply swiping the upper part of the mouse upwards and downwards, either by a single finger or by two.   The back and forward functions are achieved, on the other hand, by swiping to the left and to the right.  Left and right click functionalities are achieved by clicking on left and right part the mouse, respectively, the same way you click on a mechanical mouse.  For left-handers, there’s a software called Logitech SetPoint that needs to be downloaded to reassign the right and left-click buttons.

The gestures are fairly easy to master and there’s a very low learning curve needed.  I was using the mouse as comfortably as a mechanical mouse after just a couple of hours of use.

What’s good about the Logitech M600 is it lets you use the entire upper surface of the mouse, without being constrained to a small touch strip, as in other mice in the market.  And with the fairly simple and basic gestures, it never misreads them.  With mice with multiple touch features, gestures tend to get misread and the small surface makes it hard for the user to execute the gestures.  With the Logitech M600, the gestures work and they work every time.

In terms of touch response, the Logitech M600 did not disappoint.  I was skeptical at first, thinking that the touch response would be slow, or there would be a little lag because it connects to the computer wirelessly.  I was proven wrong in just a few minutes of use.  The touch response was very fast, almost instantaneous.  Swiping up and down is very accurate, even the left and right swipes immediately command the browser to go back or forward.

The back and forward functions work when using browsers and when viewing photos.  For browsing, the Logitech M600 has what it calls the Logitech Flow Scroll software which can be downloaded right after installing the device driver.  What the Logitech Flow Scroll software does is it improves browser scrolling.  I was so impressed with this feature since it made browser scrolling buttery smooth. On normal mice, scrolling is a bit choppy but on the Logitech M600, the scrolling is very fluid it is comparable to scrolling on a touchscreen phone.  You just need to install the Logitech Flow Scroll once, and it automatically adds the functionality to all browsers in your computer including Chrome, Firefox and the Internet Explorer.  This greatly improves the scrolling function of the mouse, although it already functions well even without the software.  The Flow Scroll is installed on the browsers as extensions, so you can easily disable it you’d rather have the normal browsing experience.

It must be also mentioned that the Logitech M600 delivers precise optical tracking.  Dragging the mouse on the surface is effortless, and the response is very precise.  Logitech uses laser-grade precision tracking, and it shows in the M600’s performance.  Even on smooth surfaces, I did not have any difficulty getting the mouse work.

Battery life on the M600 is quite impressive.  Logitech promises three months of battery life with one AA battery and six months with two AA batteries.  I’ve yet to see if this is accurate as I have only been using the mouse for a couple of weeks.  So far, the M600 is still working so i guess the estimate is accurate.  As to range, Logitech had it at 33 feet but in my experience, I was able to use the M600 even at a farther range.  The M600 is therefore ideal if you have a setup that connects to your large TV because you can be anywhere in your living room and still be able maintain control over your computer.

Wrap Up

The Logitech M600 Touch Mouse is quite impressive.  After using the device for a couple of weeks, I didn’t really see anything to complain about.  It does not offer the same set of features as an Apple Magic Mouse or a Microsoft Touch but this is what makes it highly effective.  Logitech offers the most needed touch gestures and made it work.

The Logitech M600 works as advertised – it is stylish, it is comfortable to use, and most importantly, it works well as a touch mouse.  Logitech has obviously made a solid device, and I don’t see myself changing my mouse anytime soon.

The Logitech M600 Touch Mouse is now available in the Philippines with a price tag of P2,775.  If you are looking for a touch mouse and you have money to spare, go get the Logitech M600.  You might want to catch Logitech’s ongoing promo for its wireless products running from August 17 to September 16 at Silicon Valley Megamall, Silicon Valley North Edsa and Silicon Valley Trinoma.

Rating: 8.9/10

 

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3 Comments

  1. I got mine for 20 bucks at refurbished resale stores.
    It would be nice to be able to deactivate the page scroll left to right swipe feature because so many times now it changes pages on me and I have to back to Facebook and scroll all the way down to where I left off..

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