After examining everything the keyboard has to offer you almost forget that the Cordless Desktop MX 5000 Laser also includes a wireless Bluetooth mouse. The Desktop MX 5000 offers the MX 1000 Laser Cordless Mouse for Bluetooth, which was voted CNET’s 2004 mouse of the year.

The Laser

The MX 1000 mouse features the MX Laser Engine with 800 dpi resolution and 5.8 megapixels/sec. image processing. The major difference between this mouse and most other modern mice is the fact that the MX 1000 uses a laser instead of an LED to track movement. Laser mice are the next generation of optical mice, and according to Logitech the MX 1000 provides 20x improvement over the traditional red LED. The result is much greater tracking accuracy and the ability to be used on surfaces which would cause most LED mice to encounter problems. For instance, surfaces that are very smooth and have high-gloss, like glass. I’m not sure of the exact level of improved accuracy the MX 1000 offers over standard LED mice, but I will point out that I noticed the difference the moment I started using it. Unlike the bright red light your accustomed to with most optical mice, the MX 1000 uses an infrared laser, so there is absolutely no light that shows when the mouse is on.

Design, Style, and Comfort

When Logitech designed the MX 1000 they certainly made comfort their primary focus. The mouse is ergonomically designed to perfectly mold to your hand and provide superior comfort (note that it is designed for right-handed users only). The mouse has a deep-sculpted thumb groove that allows you to comfortably and securely grasp the mouse. The scroll wheel sits at an angle that is designed perfectly for one’s index finger to rest comfortably atop it. The scroll wheel offers four directions and allows you to scroll both vertically and horizontally. This is an excellent feature when scanning through large documents or over large pictures. However, I wasn’t able to scroll horizontally through some documents, like Excel spreadsheets. At the top and bottom of the scroll wheel are double arrow buttons, which allow you to quickly scroll up and down. I found the arrow buttons to be especially nice when working with exceptionally long documents.

Features and Functionality

Just like the MX 5000 keyboard, the MX 1000 mouse uses Bluetooth wireless technology to establish a connection with you computer. As previously mentioned, Bluetooth offers better range and response time than other wireless technologies. You may have noticed with other wireless mice, which use RF, that there is a second or so delay in tracking after being idle for a while. Well, with the MX 1000 I never once experienced any such delay.

Unlike the MX 5000 keyboard, the MX 1000 mouse is rechargeable. This is a great feature that many wireless mice fail to offer. It will save you a bunch of money on batteries. The mouse charges by placing it in a base station, which is plugged into an AC outlet. The MX 1000 mouse offers a built-in battery LED indicator that has a series of green lights to provide instant feedback on the devices battery level. Logitech claims that a full charge will last for up to 10 days. While I can’t guarantee this, I will say that it wasn’t until after 6 hours of use that the LED indicator went from three lights to two (this was after a full charge, which took just a few hours). When you place the mouse in the charging base the LED lights will flash incrementally, indicating the mouse is charging.