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As far as delay due from a wireless mouse, or from the multi-step optical sensor, you won’t notice much at all under normal Windows usage. I’m a fairly discriminating mouse user so I can tell there is the slightest lag compared to a real mouse, but as I got used to the mouse the lag became nearly impossible to perceive. On the flip side, the added precision of the mouse is also something that you only feel if you really take notice, or if you do a lot of graphics work. Still, any of you using a regular ball mouse will notice an increase in overall performance under Windows. And those of you who use current generation optical mice may also notice that the Logitech Wireless Mouseman Optical is less prone to the common mouse tracking problems experienced when an optical mouse is moved around quickly and vigorously.

In gaming the mouse was less spectacular than it was in Windows applications. In nearly all games the mouse performed excellently, even in action titles such as Rune and Giants: Citizen Kabuto. RTS games, strategy games, and a good score of action games were handled superbly. However, in a very few twitch games that require superbly quick reflexes and excess movements of the mouse, you will notice a significant degradation in performance. Games like Quake and Tribes often require deftness and quick reactions that are hampered by even the slightest mousing delays, especially when one plays competitively enough online. In these scenarios, I was sorely aware that the Optical Mouseman shared the same deficiencies as the Cordless Mouseman that we had reviewed earlier: it simply was not fast enough when you weaved, whirled, and maneuvered in uber-high speed action titles. This can be partially attributed to the reporting frequency of the mouse. Reporting, or refresh frequency, is the measure of how often a mouse will report its position to the computer. On a regular USB mouse this is normally 120-125Hz, but even a USB cordless mouse is hard wired to only report around 40 times a second (40Hz), which is the Windows default rate for a PS/2 mouse. At 40Hz a mouse is not reporting frequently enough to eliminate mouse jitter in games and Windows, which would result in the slight gaming lag that I describe above. Using the rate reporting tool of PS/2 Rate Adjuster Plus, we found the Logitech Cordless Mouseman Optical to have around a 50Hz reporting rate. It’s not likely that all of you will even notice this type of performance difference, but the hardcore gamer will definitely feel some difference, especially in quick action shooters.

The range of operation of mice using Logitech’s palomar radio wireless technology has already been tested in one of our previous reviews. A casual inspection found the mouse to be operational up to, and beyond Logitech’s claims of a 6-foot range. This gives you complete freedom to place your receiver nearly anywhere that you want.

Longer Battery Life

The Cordless Mouseman Optical is powered by two AA batteries. That differs from the AAA batteries typically used on cordless mice with mechanical sensors. That’s the first hint of the power consumption of both a radio transmitter, and an optical sensor. This works out fine though, since most of the weight lost from the absence of a high quality ball is made up by the presence of the two batteries. This added weight gives the mouse the needed physical heft to make it “feel” right.

Although the special next generation optical sensor used in the mouse already consumes less power then current optical chips, it also employs several additional, special techniques for power conservation.

The first, and most important, is the multi stage operation of the LED. Depending on the current situation, the mouse will switch between 4 modes of operation. When the mouse is in active use, the LED strobes at over 1500 times a second, a rate comparable to 2nd generation optical sensors. However, the very moment you stop moving the mouse, the mouse will be put into GLOW mode, where the LED strobes at only 1000 times a second. Periods of inactivity exceeding 2 minutes will put the mouse into STROBE mode, where the LED flashes only 10 times a second. A further 10 minutes of inactivity will put the mouse into its lowest consumption mode, where only 2 images are sampled a second (FLASH mode). At any time, regardless of mode, the mouse will return to its full 1500images/second sampling rate should even the slightest motion be detected, without lag.

You can easily observe as the mouse goes into its different operation modes. I was most impressed with how quickly the mouse would jump from its highest consumption mode to the more conservative GLOW mode (1000 strobes/second). A quick look at current optical mice and you will see that the LED only dims down after about a second of inactivity. On the Cordless MouseMan Optical, there is ZERO observable delay between the time you stop moving your mouse and when the mouse responds by dimming into a lower consumption mode. And the return to full activity is just as quick. Amazing. And ingenious, considering a large amount of mouse using is actually, well, non-usage. You really only move the mouse so much during normal work, and even gameplay.

In use you won’t notice any of this fancy multistage power conservation other than by the changes in the LED activity, but you WILL notice that your batteries aren’t drained out too quickly by excessive use of the LED. Logitech’s estimation of a 3 month battery life is based on the usage of fresh Akaline batteries and a 40 hour work week environment.