March 7, 2009 at 00:28Review Logitech MX 5500 Revolution
If you are a professional gamer who is able to distinguish the difference in sound from wires from oxygen-free and simple copper and positioning errors in games - it's just the fault of the computer, then you should not read this review;)
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Article for the contest .
This is not the first time I am writing about the products of this wonderful Swiss company - nevertheless, when companies are not dispersed in many areas, in some small field of activity it achieves excellent results. Today on my desk was the Logitech MX 5500 Revolution wireless kit . I hasten to share my impressions of work!
The full name of the product - Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution - now onlinehe is the last among the sets.
So, as usual, it all starts with the box. It is large and very informative in content:
In general, there are two :) One in the other. In this stylish black box you can store black caviar in a black pantry for a rainy day:
Inside the boxes are:
- Keyboard Logitech MX 5500 ;
- Mouse Logitech MX Revolution ;
- Miniature Bluetooth USB-receiver;
- Cradle for charging the mouse;
- Four AA batteries for the keyboard;
- A disk with drivers and other information;
- Quick start guide.
I'll start in the reverse order.
The last two points are stacked in one envelope. The operation manual is in several languages, including Russian. Despite the fact that everything is clear from the small drawings, I advise you to read the text - now I always do this - many questions disappear, sometimes interesting work features are recognized. The disk contains softwareSetPoint 4.24 , although version 4.7 is now available on the site - do not forget to upgrade! And also read the paragraph of the text below.
Batteries It's nice that these are not noname-batteries for the look, but the real Durasella! :) There are 4 of them and they will provide enough power for the keyboard for a long time - I have worked for a month and I'm sure that this is not the limit. In order not to recall the keyboard power supply at all, the batteries can be replaced with high-capacity batteries.
Charge for the mouse. It is made as follows - a plastic cradle, from the back of which a cable goes into the outlet through the adapter. The mouse rests on him in a unique way.
I note a small nuance that would hardly have been seen in any other review :) The fact is that for two years I have had the exact same mouse and the wire from its cradle is disconnected. This is convenient because the wire can be disconnected and inserted into another cradle (for my keyboard) - they have the same connectors. Thus, I got rid of one extra wire (which I already have a lot of). In the case of the cradle from this kit, there is no such happiness ... in fact, like there is no second wire - the keyboard does not charge in the dock, but is powered by batteries :) Otherwise, everything is exactly the same. So, I just noticed.
Bluetooth USB receiver. It is a device the size of a flash drive, made of translucent black plastic. On one side of the "flash drive" is the "red button" - yes, the same one. I did not have to use it - after I inserted the receiver into the USB port, the mouse and keyboard immediately showed up without any problems. If you do not want to squeeze all the juices out of the kit, you do not even need to install the driver - everything works without them. Stable at a distance of 6 meters (reinforced concrete floors) - at what maximum distance the kit works, I do not know. What is nice is that using the remote control via Bluetooth, you can connect other devices - a phone, a PDA. I was surprised that in the same range 5 devices worked without problems for each other - 2 mice, 2 keyboards and a communicator.
Logitech MX Revolution Mouse. I already did a very detailed review of this wonderful mouse ( one and two ).
But I can still add something, again from the nuances. I bought my mouse for myself almost on the first day it went on sale - which is strange, somewhat cheaper than it costs now. Comparing it and the mouse from the kit:
- They have a barely excellent body color, but both surfaces are pleasant to the eye and to the touch.
- In the mouse from the kit, the reconfigurable quick search button is not chrome, but black, next to it is a Bluetooth icon that I don’t have. My side wheel is metal, it looks like plastic on top. But this did not affect the work - absolutely everything is exactly the same. By the way, the delusion of many - DO NOT SCROLL under the thumb, but a joystick in the form of a wheel (back and forth + click).
And one more difference - if you turn the mice upside down. There is a red Connect button on the tested mouse , which I don’t have. I don’t understand why they did it - maybe in some cases someone’s connection disappears, but I’ve never had one. In a few years. Fair.
The optical sensor, in fact, is 800dpi, and not 1600, as many sources say :( But for all the time I have never felt any inconvenience - I have enough positioning accuracy (although sometimes there is pixel-by-pixel work in Photoshop).
The battery in the mouse is built-in at 600mAh and theoretically not replaceable, but as I wrote, it’s suitable for the Logitech G7 mouse . The operating time of the mouse depends on the intensity of use, for me it is 3 to 7 days. There is a charge indicator on the mouse, more precisely, the operating time is always can be viewed in the tray, if set to Ayvera.
Drivers are installed without problems. They weigh about 50 MB - I think it’s not worth considering this as a minus (in the next article about the universal remote, I will explain why). After installing the standard drivers, I advise you to install the add-in -
UberOptions - it will significantly expand the capabilities of standard software.
If you decide to spend a little time on a convenient and practical keyboard setup, you may run into the problem of assigning to the buttons such combinations as “ALT + F4”, “CTRL + W” and so on. How to solve this - see here . By the way, I wrote in the magazine Iron (# 046 issue) an article about the subtleties of tuning the MX Revolution mouse - an article without pictures is available on the Internet.
And the last one. Very important. I met people on the network who have “instantly peeling off logos, wiping buttons,” and whatever, just to throw an expensive mouse in the garden with a stone. You should not believe it - these guys are not buying Logitech, but something similar to a pair of Abibos and Adidas :) How many mice and keyboards Logitech I had - nothing was erased or wiped anywhere. It was scratched in places, but no one manufacturer of equipment is safe from this.
So imperceptibly I crept up to the most important thing that I wanted to tell about in this article - to the keyboard.
As I understand it, it is not sold separately.
I take it out of the box - the keyboard is somewhat unusual in shape, lightweight. Matte black. I twist and twist - as always - a very good assembly, no cracks, gaps and burrs. On the back of the keyboard is a compartment where the batteries included in the kit are inserted. Two legs - allow you to slightly increase the angle of inclination. There are several rubber inserts, but despite their presence, the keyboard is not difficult to budge.
On the other hand, all the fun. Below is a rubberized non-removable palm rest - similar to that used in many Logitech products. The pleasant sensations from touching can be reduced if you work with dirty hands - the “dots” on the rubber insert are just enough to clog.
3D image .
The keyboard layout is quite familiar, albeit with nuances - 119 buttons, 15 of which are optional.
On the left are two zoom buttons (+ and -), under which is the Flip 3D button for Vista. 3D flipping, something similar to Alt + Tab, is the same function that is assigned by default to the mouse joystick under the thumb. To the right of the column are 6 buttons for controlling the music player: Play / Pause, Next, Prev, Vol +, Vol- and Mute. If the first three are still convenient to use, then these 6 buttons, due to the fact that they almost do not protrude from the terrain, have left me almost without attention. However, they work :)
The F1-F12 buttons are located on the top row, on which the functions that work when you press the Fn key are applied with orange paint. I think that this was done in vain - not everyone will want to leave Word, Excel and so on on them. F9-F12 are designated as A, B, C and D - you can also hang anything on them in the settings.
To the right is the Insert button. This is what I do not like ... when they make a big Del, sacrificing the insert button. At the top, it seems to me that she does not belong, but for some reason, almost all manufacturers have taken this as a standard.
Still to the right is the calculator button, and instead of NumLock on the numeric keypad, there is a calculator reset button. But about him a little further.
The right button decided to become the PC button - it puts the computer into sleep mode.
Three more buttons, which I did not talk about, are located in a very unusual place - under the numeric keypad. They also practically do not stick out, so you can’t accidentally press them - they are designed to start the music player, open the folder with photos and open the widget panel in Vista.
Typing on the keyboard is very convenient, hands almost never get tired. The key travel is small, keystrokes are quiet, but louder than on diNovo Edge;)
In the upper part, on a noticeably protruding plastic part, there is a black and white (more precisely, black and gray) display, on which various information can be displayed. Under it are two buttons ("and") that can switch the screen functionality:
1. Launch the control panel, search, my documents, etc. - those functions that are assigned to AD;
2. Ambient temperature;
3. Information from the player;
4. Counter keystrokes;
5. The calculator;
6. Notification of new messages;
7. Time and date.
All this is set up in SetPoint.from the kit. Point 1 - completely reassigned. The temperature is displayed in Fahrenheit by default, but it can also be shown in the usual degrees Celsius (it would seem, who needs this temperature? For example, to someone who has a baby in the room [like mine] or at least air conditioning).
Information from the player was displayed immediately - I had Winamp 5.5, but it works with other programs. There are no problems with the Cyrillic alphabet. The keystroke counter is a very useful feature, but IMHO, there is not much practical benefit from it. I do not know if the number of digits of the key counter will decrease after a million clicks or will it stop its work at around 999.999? I recall one quote - “You have to marry me because of just the size of the history in ICQ” :)
New message notifications work with Outlook, but I'm not used to using them.
Time and date are short and clear.
The function of the calculator really liked not only me, but also my wife - she sometimes has to calculate something at work, and she is already used to typing on a numeric keypad.
The display colors can be inverted if desired - I personally liked the white text on a black background more. If the contents on the screen were visible in the dark, it would be just wonderful, but then it would significantly affect the operating time of the device. Everywhere compromises.
As I said, the set included a driver disk - SetPoint 4.24 . Naturally, I did not install it - a newer version was already in my system. And with it, the UberOptions add- in , which I wrote about above. Therefore, I can’t say for sure which settings are available initially. But I can safely say - now you can configure almost anything.
I’ll just give you a few images:
What I liked again is that the program correctly works with several devices at once. What does it mean? And the fact that not everyone has several keyboards and mice, but even so, Logitech programmers have debugged work with several devices, thereby stipulating that I will write this article :) Once again I am pleased with their software.
- The mouse is only for righties;
- The mouse is more suitable for office use, although under ALL my needs it is more than enough (I do not play, but in the schedule I use the tablet more often);
- The batteries in the keyboard with a single charge (like a mouse) would be more practical;
- Keyboard screen without backlight (minus?);
- High price (Is it a minus? While the buck is flying somewhere in the clouds - yes. If everything is rated, the kit will be much more affordable. Or have you not noticed a jump in prices for almost all equipment?)
- Excellent ergonomics of both devices;
- Excellent build quality, appearance;
- Huge functionality to configure devices;
- Great software;
- Bluetooth connectivity.
In total, as I expected, it turned out an excellent kit from a manufacturer who knows his job. That you do not innovation for 44,000 rubles do :)
kit suit a very wide audience of users - from novice users who are just learning to print desyatipaltsevym method to those who like a spider with lots of legs, crawling on the keyboard, blindly pressing one of the hotkeys to others. For those who are accustomed to style and comfortable work - the kit is also suitable.
The price, like many other types of devices, has now risen, but is still at an acceptable level. Having spent one day, you will quickly get used to the new occupant of the workspace and, like me, are unlikely to want to switch to something else. Once again, I advise.
In the near future I plan to slightly improve the quality of articles, in particular, get rid of smiles and improve the quality of photos. What would you like to read next time? I will try :)
Good luck!
Traffic!
Article for the contest .
This is not the first time I am writing about the products of this wonderful Swiss company - nevertheless, when companies are not dispersed in many areas, in some small field of activity it achieves excellent results. Today on my desk was the Logitech MX 5500 Revolution wireless kit . I hasten to share my impressions of work!
The full name of the product - Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500 Revolution - now onlinehe is the last among the sets.
So, as usual, it all starts with the box. It is large and very informative in content:
In general, there are two :) One in the other. In this stylish black box you can store black caviar in a black pantry for a rainy day:
EQUIPMENT
Inside the boxes are:
- Keyboard Logitech MX 5500 ;
- Mouse Logitech MX Revolution ;
- Miniature Bluetooth USB-receiver;
- Cradle for charging the mouse;
- Four AA batteries for the keyboard;
- A disk with drivers and other information;
- Quick start guide.
I'll start in the reverse order.
The last two points are stacked in one envelope. The operation manual is in several languages, including Russian. Despite the fact that everything is clear from the small drawings, I advise you to read the text - now I always do this - many questions disappear, sometimes interesting work features are recognized. The disk contains softwareSetPoint 4.24 , although version 4.7 is now available on the site - do not forget to upgrade! And also read the paragraph of the text below.
Batteries It's nice that these are not noname-batteries for the look, but the real Durasella! :) There are 4 of them and they will provide enough power for the keyboard for a long time - I have worked for a month and I'm sure that this is not the limit. In order not to recall the keyboard power supply at all, the batteries can be replaced with high-capacity batteries.
Charge for the mouse. It is made as follows - a plastic cradle, from the back of which a cable goes into the outlet through the adapter. The mouse rests on him in a unique way.
I note a small nuance that would hardly have been seen in any other review :) The fact is that for two years I have had the exact same mouse and the wire from its cradle is disconnected. This is convenient because the wire can be disconnected and inserted into another cradle (for my keyboard) - they have the same connectors. Thus, I got rid of one extra wire (which I already have a lot of). In the case of the cradle from this kit, there is no such happiness ... in fact, like there is no second wire - the keyboard does not charge in the dock, but is powered by batteries :) Otherwise, everything is exactly the same. So, I just noticed.
Bluetooth USB receiver. It is a device the size of a flash drive, made of translucent black plastic. On one side of the "flash drive" is the "red button" - yes, the same one. I did not have to use it - after I inserted the receiver into the USB port, the mouse and keyboard immediately showed up without any problems. If you do not want to squeeze all the juices out of the kit, you do not even need to install the driver - everything works without them. Stable at a distance of 6 meters (reinforced concrete floors) - at what maximum distance the kit works, I do not know. What is nice is that using the remote control via Bluetooth, you can connect other devices - a phone, a PDA. I was surprised that in the same range 5 devices worked without problems for each other - 2 mice, 2 keyboards and a communicator.
Logitech MX Revolution Mouse. I already did a very detailed review of this wonderful mouse ( one and two ).
But I can still add something, again from the nuances. I bought my mouse for myself almost on the first day it went on sale - which is strange, somewhat cheaper than it costs now. Comparing it and the mouse from the kit:
- They have a barely excellent body color, but both surfaces are pleasant to the eye and to the touch.
- In the mouse from the kit, the reconfigurable quick search button is not chrome, but black, next to it is a Bluetooth icon that I don’t have. My side wheel is metal, it looks like plastic on top. But this did not affect the work - absolutely everything is exactly the same. By the way, the delusion of many - DO NOT SCROLL under the thumb, but a joystick in the form of a wheel (back and forth + click).
And one more difference - if you turn the mice upside down. There is a red Connect button on the tested mouse , which I don’t have. I don’t understand why they did it - maybe in some cases someone’s connection disappears, but I’ve never had one. In a few years. Fair.
The optical sensor, in fact, is 800dpi, and not 1600, as many sources say :( But for all the time I have never felt any inconvenience - I have enough positioning accuracy (although sometimes there is pixel-by-pixel work in Photoshop).
The battery in the mouse is built-in at 600mAh and theoretically not replaceable, but as I wrote, it’s suitable for the Logitech G7 mouse . The operating time of the mouse depends on the intensity of use, for me it is 3 to 7 days. There is a charge indicator on the mouse, more precisely, the operating time is always can be viewed in the tray, if set to Ayvera.
Drivers are installed without problems. They weigh about 50 MB - I think it’s not worth considering this as a minus (in the next article about the universal remote, I will explain why). After installing the standard drivers, I advise you to install the add-in -
UberOptions - it will significantly expand the capabilities of standard software.
If you decide to spend a little time on a convenient and practical keyboard setup, you may run into the problem of assigning to the buttons such combinations as “ALT + F4”, “CTRL + W” and so on. How to solve this - see here . By the way, I wrote in the magazine Iron (# 046 issue) an article about the subtleties of tuning the MX Revolution mouse - an article without pictures is available on the Internet.
And the last one. Very important. I met people on the network who have “instantly peeling off logos, wiping buttons,” and whatever, just to throw an expensive mouse in the garden with a stone. You should not believe it - these guys are not buying Logitech, but something similar to a pair of Abibos and Adidas :) How many mice and keyboards Logitech I had - nothing was erased or wiped anywhere. It was scratched in places, but no one manufacturer of equipment is safe from this.
So imperceptibly I crept up to the most important thing that I wanted to tell about in this article - to the keyboard.
Keyboard Logitech MX 5500
.As I understand it, it is not sold separately.
I take it out of the box - the keyboard is somewhat unusual in shape, lightweight. Matte black. I twist and twist - as always - a very good assembly, no cracks, gaps and burrs. On the back of the keyboard is a compartment where the batteries included in the kit are inserted. Two legs - allow you to slightly increase the angle of inclination. There are several rubber inserts, but despite their presence, the keyboard is not difficult to budge.
On the other hand, all the fun. Below is a rubberized non-removable palm rest - similar to that used in many Logitech products. The pleasant sensations from touching can be reduced if you work with dirty hands - the “dots” on the rubber insert are just enough to clog.
3D image .
The keyboard layout is quite familiar, albeit with nuances - 119 buttons, 15 of which are optional.
On the left are two zoom buttons (+ and -), under which is the Flip 3D button for Vista. 3D flipping, something similar to Alt + Tab, is the same function that is assigned by default to the mouse joystick under the thumb. To the right of the column are 6 buttons for controlling the music player: Play / Pause, Next, Prev, Vol +, Vol- and Mute. If the first three are still convenient to use, then these 6 buttons, due to the fact that they almost do not protrude from the terrain, have left me almost without attention. However, they work :)
The F1-F12 buttons are located on the top row, on which the functions that work when you press the Fn key are applied with orange paint. I think that this was done in vain - not everyone will want to leave Word, Excel and so on on them. F9-F12 are designated as A, B, C and D - you can also hang anything on them in the settings.
To the right is the Insert button. This is what I do not like ... when they make a big Del, sacrificing the insert button. At the top, it seems to me that she does not belong, but for some reason, almost all manufacturers have taken this as a standard.
Still to the right is the calculator button, and instead of NumLock on the numeric keypad, there is a calculator reset button. But about him a little further.
The right button decided to become the PC button - it puts the computer into sleep mode.
Three more buttons, which I did not talk about, are located in a very unusual place - under the numeric keypad. They also practically do not stick out, so you can’t accidentally press them - they are designed to start the music player, open the folder with photos and open the widget panel in Vista.
Typing on the keyboard is very convenient, hands almost never get tired. The key travel is small, keystrokes are quiet, but louder than on diNovo Edge;)
LCD Display
In the upper part, on a noticeably protruding plastic part, there is a black and white (more precisely, black and gray) display, on which various information can be displayed. Under it are two buttons ("and") that can switch the screen functionality:
1. Launch the control panel, search, my documents, etc. - those functions that are assigned to AD;
2. Ambient temperature;
3. Information from the player;
4. Counter keystrokes;
5. The calculator;
6. Notification of new messages;
7. Time and date.
All this is set up in SetPoint.from the kit. Point 1 - completely reassigned. The temperature is displayed in Fahrenheit by default, but it can also be shown in the usual degrees Celsius (it would seem, who needs this temperature? For example, to someone who has a baby in the room [like mine] or at least air conditioning).
Information from the player was displayed immediately - I had Winamp 5.5, but it works with other programs. There are no problems with the Cyrillic alphabet. The keystroke counter is a very useful feature, but IMHO, there is not much practical benefit from it. I do not know if the number of digits of the key counter will decrease after a million clicks or will it stop its work at around 999.999? I recall one quote - “You have to marry me because of just the size of the history in ICQ” :)
New message notifications work with Outlook, but I'm not used to using them.
Time and date are short and clear.
The function of the calculator really liked not only me, but also my wife - she sometimes has to calculate something at work, and she is already used to typing on a numeric keypad.
The display colors can be inverted if desired - I personally liked the white text on a black background more. If the contents on the screen were visible in the dark, it would be just wonderful, but then it would significantly affect the operating time of the device. Everywhere compromises.
Software
As I said, the set included a driver disk - SetPoint 4.24 . Naturally, I did not install it - a newer version was already in my system. And with it, the UberOptions add- in , which I wrote about above. Therefore, I can’t say for sure which settings are available initially. But I can safely say - now you can configure almost anything.
I’ll just give you a few images:
What I liked again is that the program correctly works with several devices at once. What does it mean? And the fact that not everyone has several keyboards and mice, but even so, Logitech programmers have debugged work with several devices, thereby stipulating that I will write this article :) Once again I am pleased with their software.
Minuses
- The mouse is only for righties;
- The mouse is more suitable for office use, although under ALL my needs it is more than enough (I do not play, but in the schedule I use the tablet more often);
- The batteries in the keyboard with a single charge (like a mouse) would be more practical;
- Keyboard screen without backlight (minus?);
- High price (Is it a minus? While the buck is flying somewhere in the clouds - yes. If everything is rated, the kit will be much more affordable. Or have you not noticed a jump in prices for almost all equipment?)
pros
- Excellent ergonomics of both devices;
- Excellent build quality, appearance;
- Huge functionality to configure devices;
- Great software;
- Bluetooth connectivity.
TOTAL
In total, as I expected, it turned out an excellent kit from a manufacturer who knows his job. That you do not innovation for 44,000 rubles do :)
kit suit a very wide audience of users - from novice users who are just learning to print desyatipaltsevym method to those who like a spider with lots of legs, crawling on the keyboard, blindly pressing one of the hotkeys to others. For those who are accustomed to style and comfortable work - the kit is also suitable.
The price, like many other types of devices, has now risen, but is still at an acceptable level. Having spent one day, you will quickly get used to the new occupant of the workspace and, like me, are unlikely to want to switch to something else. Once again, I advise.
In the near future I plan to slightly improve the quality of articles, in particular, get rid of smiles and improve the quality of photos. What would you like to read next time? I will try :)
Good luck!