Customer Reviews

Logitech V500 Cordless Optical Notebook Mouse

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Overall this mouse is a great product. Having used the Benq M310 and the Logitech Cordless Notebook mouse, which are similar notebook mice but with traditional scroll wheels, some comparisons can be made.

Pros:

- Sensor: The V500 has bar none the best sensor of all its competitors include similar offerings from Logitech. Unlike the M310 or even the Logitech Cordless Notebook mouse, the V500 works on every surface.

- No auto-power off: This might sound like a negative point but it's not. Mice that automatically shut-off the LED to save power will stutter or lag for a second when you move the mouse after a period of inactivity. This is really annoying to me and I'm glad that Logitech did not include this "feature". If I want to save power, I can use the built in on/off switch.

- Overall Design: The mouse is really comfortable to use and the expanding base makes it feel good in my hands. The slot for the receiver is a nice touch (though in fairness, other mice such as the M310 have this feature as well). The scrolling is very intuitive and feels better than a scroll wheel.

Cons:

- No middle button: This is probably the biggest problem with the V500. In mice with a normal scroll wheel, you can click the wheel as a third button. Unfortunately, this cannot be done with the V500.

- Side scrolling: As an earlier poster stated, side scrolling on the touch panel doesn't work in all applications. This is a driver problem that hopefully Logitech will correct in the future. It should be noted that aside from spreadsheets, I haven't found a whole lot of need to do side scrolling.

This mouse is unbelievably astounding!!! I'm a person who uses laptops a lot and so having a good mouse is very important to me. Well, I think I've found what I've been looking for in the v500. The precision of this mouse is uncomparable not to mention the sleek design.

A few things I really like were the fact that the USB receiver was extremely small. My USB ports are on the right side of my laptop and once of my concerns was having a receiver that stuck out too much and interfered with my usage. Well this receiver caused no such problem.

The scrolling was a bit different at first because it doesn't use a scroll wheel but it took me about a day and a half to get use to. Once you get then hang of it, you'll never go back to the tradition wheel. What I liked most is that it took the strain off of my hand and therefore is health conscious.

The retail price of $69.99 was a bit steep but if you can afford it, then it's worth it. I was fortunate enough to get it for about $50.00 on Amazon. I only wish the mouse came in other colors because I have a black laptop and I wanted something to match but I'm sure Logitech will modify the colors in the near future.

Overal, no complaints what so ever. Definitely an incredible mouse. I've tried several different mouse brands: Targus, Kensington, etc. I have to say that Logitech is the best in terms of quality and reliability. Hope this review helps!

I wanted a mouse because I need one while I'm Wi-Fing in meetings. I bought the V500 because I like that it's wireless, that it collapses, that it stores the USB receiver in itself, that it has 4-way scrolling, that it's small, and that it works on any surface.

Okay, but, initially I found that it hurt my wrist - less so over time.
I find that in meetings the left/right click noise is so loud it's a bit disruptive.
I'm constantly inadvertently triggering the scroll-up sensor. It usually doesn't effect my work but its repeating click noise is always going off, softly.
I think it's a decent power draw on my battery - so I don't last as long off AC in my meetings.

I didn't like the L/R-scroll response but all I had to do is adjust the setting in its SetPoint utility.

I would have liked having "back" and "forward" side buttons like the other Logitech mice have.

That said, I still use it because I still think it's the best product available - albeit embarrassingly expensive.

It gets a lot of attention and it serves what I bought it for pleasingly enough.

In general this is a very good mouse, with good portability features, like having a tiny usb adapter that fits in the mouse itself. nice. But it's plagued with a bunch of little problems:

1) The scroll pad-sounds like a fantastic thing, not only scrolls up and down, but side to side. But the thing is oversensitive, so if I barely brush it with my fingertip, I often find myself scrolling up when i wanted to scroll down. And often it starts scrolling upwards because I've rested my finger on the up arrow, so now basically i have to keep my finger completely away from that area if I don't want anything unexpected to happen. Conversely, i have a hard time getting it to scroll down just by touching the bottom arrow, it's very touchy going down. What a hassle.
The side to side arrows aren't much use at all, brushing sideways makes the horizontal scroll bar move about 3 pixels per stroke. What a hassle. I'd rather use the Mac's built-in shift-scroll feature to scroll sideways.

2) The sound-the little clicking noise it makes when you scroll is kinda cool, but I'd like to be able to turn it off.

3)-The speed-I guess portable mice are supposed to move quicker to allow for better manuverability in small spaces, but the problem is that whatever settings were changed when I installed this mouse caused my old (Logitech) mouse to get slower! I can't just swap my old and new mice and have them move at the same speed, I have to go to the prefs and change the mouse speed ever time I switch mice. What a hassle.

4) The installation-did I mention I was a Mac user? Unfortunately for us Mac users this mouse didn't work right out of the box (unlike 99% of the other USB, 2-button scroll wheel mice out there, which work perfectly with MacOS X with no drivers needed), but had to have drivers installed, which *weren't on the CD*!! Had to be downloaded. What a hassle.

Overall this is fine optical mouse, but with new not-so-advanced technology which makes the scrolling experience frustrating. The Mac-specific stuff is frustrating, too, but not a deal-breaker. Overall a bit disappointing. I wish I could buy this mouse with a standard scroll wheel, and I wish Logitech wouldn't make the speed settings of their mice different.

My job involves doing a lot of public speaking and presentations. I just bought a 12inch P3 laptop for that very reason. I wanted a mouse small enough to carry around and also can be my presentation remote. So I was looking at a Bluetooth mouse, with costs over a hundred dollar, until I saw the V500. Long and behold, it does everything I wanted! In short, now I use it as a remote for the slides plus a mouse to move around files, it has an excellent range. For example, I can be on this side of the room and control the slides on my laptop about 15-20 feet away. Saving me a lot of money buying a remote, especially the remote comes with the projector is horrible and never worked when I wanted but always changes slides when I don't want it to.
P.S. I did cover the "laser eye" with a tiny post it notes to avoid distractions from blinking of the laser. (I am already boring enough, no need for secondary distractions.)

Now About the mouse itself:
Pros: Outstanding laser tracking power, about .2 nanometer sensitivity, so it's powerful enough even to play some of the first person shooter games. (A bit small though)
Sleek design, very attractive shape and rises up when in use. I never understood how that worked when I tried to read the reviews. Ok, now I have it, I can explain better, think about it this way: a match box with the bottom cover open, now when you lift the outer shell, it exposes the inner box, and that's where the tiny receiver hid in. Push it and it pops out, push again, it goes back in. If you put the shell down, the mouse turns off.
Long battery life, I had a pair of dying AAAs, and now it's been almost two and a half week. Still going strong, I don't even close the shell (turn it off) most of the time. One note, the mouse will function even with just one battery.
Last but not least, and this is really a double edged sword, the touch surface. Four directions movement, I only had the up and down now `cause I am afraid that the driver will use too much of my scarce system resource. It even makes a clicking sound to simulate the scrolling of wheeled mouse. Another note (can you tell that I used to be a programmer? Notes here and notes there...), someone mentioned that this mouse won't rapid scroll, if you just lightly press and hold the upper or the lower sections of the touch pad, it will scroll pretty fast with out moving your finger.

Cons: Touch pad, it first takes a while to get used to, and some mis-scrolling will happen occasionally, you might have to tweak a lot of the settings to get it right. If you rest your finger on the little bump on the pad, sometime it will scroll downward unexpectedly.
Not P/S 2 compatible, my laptop has only one usb 1.0 port and one P/S 2 port. I tried to plug this mouse's receiver to a USB to P/S2 adaptor but wasn't able to get a movement. I would really like to hear if someone has a solution for that problem. So unless you carry around a USB hub, you can't use the mouse and your pen/flash/thumb drive if you only have one USB port. Not a big problem for newer multi USB port laptops.
No back and forward key, again, not a major issue, but after using Logitech MX for years, this feature surely will be missed.
Not sure if they let me say this but I am going to do it anyways: What a BUTT-UGLY CASE! My goodness... it's like putting a diamond ring in a cardboard box, an iPod in a walmart's plastic bag, or a Koenigsegg on an old no rim Studebaker Truck. Shame, Shame...

Back to the positive side, overall a great mouse with amazing tracking power and excellent range. Can be a remote control for a lot of applications, even multimedia contents. I use my computer (tower) as a media PC, and sometimes I plug my mouse in the front USB port to change channel on my TV turner card, while my significant other tries to do the same with the low grade TV turner remote or the other MX wireless mouse, I always beat her with my range and responsiveness. Sci/Fi 1, Lifetime 0. BOOYAH

Have fun!

I originally purchased the logitech V500 to for bling value to clients (wireless, metal, touchpad wheel).

I found the touchpad wheel surprisingly easy to get used to, but I didn't care for the flatness of the mouse. So I also picked up the MS Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse. That felt great in my hand in the store and I liked the finger indentations on the top.

Ultimately, the V500 was the better mouse. Mostly I found the rubberized sides on the MS mouse to be slippery and build quality of the MS mouse felt cheap. The MS mouse does cost less than the V500 but, in my mind, the MS mouse wasn't so much cheaper that is justified the cheap feeling.

Now surprisingly, the logitch v500 with its metal side felt more secure. The V500 has smaller indentations for your thumb and fingers on the sides (compared to the MS mouse), which kept the mouse in a better position for me. Of course, this also means that there is less flexibilty in the hand positions the v500 would accept - but it worked for me.

PROS:
- Bling value
- Feels surprisingly good in my hand
- small dongle which fits inside (not just underneath) the mouse
- good range

MEH:
- The scrolling sounds doesn't bother me at all, though others have commented on it.
- The horizontal scroll may be a "pro," but I haven't tested that yet.
- The locking mechanism for the dongle isn't so hot. Push to release, sure, but the dongle doen't pop out very far. Just about 2mm, so then you tip and shake the mouse to get the dongle to fall into your hand. I would prefer the dongle to pop out halfway so I could easily grab it.

CONS:
- I wish the mouse opened higher. One of the pluses of the MS mouse was its height.
- The flat touchplate means I am scrolling with side of my finger, which actually becomes unconfortable after a while, because the skin is pushed into the nail. I know "eww" and TMI, but there you are. On most mice, the fact that the wheel sticks up from the face of the mouse means you are scrolling using a slightly different part of your finger than you are with this mouse.

I'm on day 2 with this mouse, but it is probably a keeper.

I'll admit, I was a skeptic. Why would anyone pay BIG $$ for a mouse that you can almost get for free at most discount stores. OK, so it's wireless, Big Deal. But the optical part intrigued me because, I'm tired of cleaning mouse balls!!!

So I gave it a try, thinking I'd return it if I was diasppointed. MISTAKE!! I am now converted. Absolutely simple to use, and with my laptop, it is so small it doesn't take up any space to pack. I've read those reviews that say the ergonomics are bad. I suppose if you had your hand on it 8 hours a day that might be the case. But I have no problem with it or discomfort of any kind.

And the slide wheel is gone. I thought this would be a problem. But the area where a slide wheel normally appears contains a group of 4 arrows (up,down, left and right) that function as a touchpad. Not only can you slide your finger up and down but you don't have to slide your finger to move the on-screen pointer. Just put your finger on one arrow or the other and the pointer (screen) moves vertically just as it you had moved a slide wheel. It takes a few practice strokes to get used to it, but it eventually becomes intuitive and is sensational once you get it. The only downside is the movement left and right seems erratic and I found neither the vertical or horizontal movement work in Adobe pdf and perhaps Powerpoint. Works well in Word, Excel, Explorer and most other programs though.

It also comes with a nice carry pouch, and Duracell batteries (not those cheap things that last 2 weeks. I've had mine for over a month now and no problems with battery life and it is on 8 hours a day, sometimes overnight. One clever feature is that when you pack it away you can't help but turn it OFF because the same switch controlling the power allows the mouse to retract to its packed position so you can stick it in the carry pouch. I suppose if you don't pack up a laptop at the end of the day you could mistakenly leave it on. It doesn't have an automatic turn off feature, at least I haven't found one yet in terms of configuring it to do so. The small USB transceiver packs away in the end of the mouse and has good range, at least 5 feet. Being packed in the end of the mouse is both a plus and minus - a plus because I won't lose it but a minus because sometimes when moving my laptop I forget to remove the USB transceiver before I packed the mouse up. One thing that was confusing is how to get USB part out of the mouse once you put it in. Well, it's SIMPLE. Just push on it and it pops out (DUH!).

One other minor annoyance is when my laptop is forced to reboot (usually because of a crash) I think the Logitech SW is interfering with the default speed of motion of the laptop's touch pad. Sometimes, I still use this if I don't want to unpack the mouse and it just forces you to go to Start, Control panel, Mouse Settings to reset the speed.

All in all, while on the pricey side my opinion is it still worth money. Logitech just up'd the ante on mouse performance.

This is a great travel mouse.

I'm a Mac user, and as such, I value both form and function. This is a well-designed sleek unit. I love how it expands itself to be more comfortable in my hand, and how the designers took advantage of that space to store the USB receiver in the unit in such a way that it'll never fall out when not in use (because it retracts into the base when collapsed).

Also as a note to other Mac users, there is excellent OS X compatibility. The drivers don't come on the CD, but the manual clearly states where to download them from the logitech site. The driver is a native control panel and allows for the reassignment of the left and right keys as well as the scroll speed.

The scrolling is a little different, I need to get used to not having a wheel, but I'm starting to really like it. Probably makes the unit more reliable by having one less moving part to get dirty.

Let's see, what else... The range is good, I just pushed my laptop away and could more the mouse from 3-4 feet away. It tracks well on my table here, fits my hand well. The unit turns off when collapsed, so that'll help with battery life, but as I got the unit yesterday, haven't seen how long the included batteries (duracell's btw which is another sign of quality) will last.

Just a really, really well-built, well-designed mouse.

Cons. My only gripe is the packaging. I know everyone is doing it, but it's another one of the impeneterable sealed molded plastic cases. I almost cut myself a couple times trying to get the mouse out. Now don't get me wrong, the mouse looks great in the shiny plastic, and everything is secure so it won't get damaged in shipping, but I'd really love it if those cases were easier to open.

This mouse is really superb. Its size is nearly perfect for someone who travels and likes to carry as little as possible, with minimum weight. I like the way the receiver gets tucked away inside the mouse and how closing the mouse turns off the power to conserve battery life. Setup was very easy and the tracking is excellent on any surface I've tried it on. Overall, a highly recommended product from Logitech!

I have a big notebook computer- the HP Pavilion ZD8000. It's a desktop replacement, and although I have a Mac at home I use quite frequently, it's my laptop that's the workhorse. Before my ZD8000, I had an HP ZD7000 (they are both big 17" display monsters), and although I used 2 different wireless notebook mice with that one, I also wore out the touchpad. Literally. Needless to say, I use my mouse a lot.

Here are my issues with most wireless mice: They tend to be picky on which surfaces they are used. Most have that lag time between the time you start moving it, and the time the receiver registers that it's being moved (damned annoying, that one). Many, in lieu of the previous undesireable effect, have resorted to making the user click the reset buton on the receiver and/or the mouse itself. (I have a co-worker in fact, whose mouse reset button has pen ink all over it as a result of constantly resetting it with his pen because the mouse manufacturer made the reset button inpenetrable by human hands.) Additionally, the USB receiver dongle is so big sometimes, that you can't help but bump things into it, causing it to either break completely, or stop working temporarily. Sometimes, you just lose the thing all together. Quite frequently as well, notebook/travel sized mice are too small to be comfortable.

The Logitech V500 is a winner. The Reciever is housed in the mouse body for storage. Although it's pretty flat when it's turned off or stored in a briefcase, it gets larger, and more "mouse-like" when turned on, thanks to it's built in incline elevator (the mouse uncompresses). The optical tracking is SUPERB. It ALMOST works on glass- quite a feat. It tracks over carpet and shiny surfaces. You don't lose the dongle, because it is stored in the mouse itself, and you never leave the mouse on when stored, because you naturally compress the mouse to make it as small as possible, which also turns it off. There is no lag whatsoever, and I have never had to use the reset button. I have never been more impressed with a notebook mouse before.

One last observation: As I mentioned earlier, I have an HP ZD8000 notebook. On the right side of the notebook is a small bay for a USB flash drive. Turns out that the USB receiver dongle fits neatly inside of it, so now I never have to plug the dongle in, nor do I have anything sticking out onthe side of my laptop- I uncompress the mouse, and I'm instantly on. Highly recommended.