Seemingly endless scroll wheels and plenty of customisation are where pro-grade mice have been, but their next destination brings the vibes, almost literally.
Touchscreens may well be the domain of the tablet and phone, but chances are if you’re doing literally any other work on any other device, you have a mouse.
There are heaps of these, from conventional mice to trackballs to the touchpads and trackpads that occupy our laptops and have become the default choice for many of us working.
While trackpads are nice, typically a conventional mouse affords the most control, and in the past decade, Logitech has been refining what a pro-user and creative individual might want from that regular mouse.
Shaped to match the right hand (sorry lefties, which is also this writer), Logitech’s MX Master range has long featured scroll wheel control to let you jump between precision scrolling and more freewheeling scrolling, as well as extra buttons and even a horizontal scroll.
The feature list has gone beyond this point previously, with software playing a large part in the MX Master approach. You’ve been able to drag a mouse from one computer to another thanks to Logitech’s “Flow” software, while Logitech’s options software allowed mouse buttons to be customised specifically for different apps.
Previous models have been just about perfect for making the desktop mouse better, so how do you improve on that? It seems Logitech is about the bring the vibes.
The latest effort is the MX Master 4, a model that improves on the previous generations by adding the little vibrations your phone offers known as haptic feedback. It means as you scroll and select things, the MX Master 4 will offer subtle vibrations to let you know what you’re selecting.
The scroll wheel inside offers up to 1000 lines per second, the sensor in the mouse more accurate covering 8000 dots per inch, and the mouse can be paired with up to three devices at once, supporting Logitech’s options software, complete with a new “Action Ring” that offers on-screen customisable controls dependent on the app you’re using.
Helping this is a new chip in the mouse, an improved antenna to keep the connection solid, and support for a USB-C dongle to keep the mouse paired and connected to other computers.
Like the previous MX Master mice, Logitech’s MX Master 4 isn’t what you’d call an inexpensive mouse, priced at $199.95 in Australia and $249 in New Zealand. Keen PC users can find it in stores shortly. A Mac version is also being made available as well, which is more or less the same thing in white, but with optimisations for iOS and macOS.
