Here’s why I do not recommend a Logitech Bluetooth mouse.
Optical mice work by taking microscopic pictures of the thing the sensor is pointing at many times a second (sample rate) and compares it to previous snapshots to determine how far and how fast you’ve moved the mouse. Taking these snapshots consumes battery life.
Power-Saving, Power Irritating
Some models, including the Logitech V270 and Logitech V470, go into an extremely annoying power-saving mode after 30 seconds or more. When this kicks in, the sample rate is drastically lowered such that moving the mouse causes the cursor to jump from point A to point B, instead of gliding smoothly across.
This causes users to overcompensate their mouse movement because they don’t get any feedback from their actions. This has made me to click on things that I didn’t intend to click on, and some other desktop disasters that I won’t recount here, less my expletive button gets pressed again.
This power-saving mode is fine, if it kicks in only after 10 or 15 minutes, not in less than a minute.
Sleeps at the Wrong Time
To add to the frustration, the mouse automatically disconnects itself from the computer after about 10-15 minutes if it is not moved.
This action will somehow “wake” the computer and do things like turn off screen savers if they are running, and also turn on your monitor even when it was turned off by the energy-saving settings configured on the computer.
After this happens, moving the mouse will not produce any response because the mouse is completely off until you press the buttons. After pressing a button to wake the mouse, it takes up to 5 seconds to connect to the computer so the user can’t do anything but sit there and wait.
Playing the Specs Game
It seems that Logitech is so desperate to tout the highest “x hours battery life!” on their packaging that they’re willing to punish those who have been suckered into buying their mouse, since they’ve already made the sale.
What’s more appalling is that the complaints have been far and wide with the V270 model released many years ago (search Google and Amazon), and they still included the same power-saving “features” in the V470 which came out in 2007.
Bad Drivers
Like Razer, Logitech can’t get their act together when it comes to functioning Mac drivers.
Who could forget the debacle when some users of Logitech mice found that their Macs could not boot after upgrading from Tiger to Leopard? Apparently Logitech chose to install a system extension into the OS, into a system directory that should not contain any 3rd-party files.
Bottom line: Don’t install Logitech drivers on a Mac.
By extension, don’t get an expensive Logitech mouse that has fancy features that requires drivers to work.
Battery Wastage
On my V470, which uses two AA batteries, only the right battery is drained while the left remains full, even after the mouse stops working and indicates that its out of power. Exchange the position of the batteries and presto! The mouse works again.
I’m not sure if this is isolated to this unit that I have, but its really strange. If its widespread, most folks would be throwing away pairs of batteries without knowing that one of them is actually unused!
