Logitech iFeel Review

by Dave "Marauder" Kratky, Jan 10/01

 

It's different. It's blue and it vibrates. Oh, and it's a mouse. Weird eh? Marauder's quest for the perfect gaming mouse rolls on down that 'ol highway. Could he have finally found the holy grail, or is it just another wee bunny? :)

(Please note I'll be comparing this mouse to the Microsoft series of Optical mice quite a bit. It's inevitable.)

At first I was vaguely disturbed when I got this mouse from Logitech to try out. It's rather.. Welllll... Weird is the only word I can think of to describe it. It's pretty iMac'ish, with it's blue styling. The basic design of the mouse is very close to their classic Mouseman + design. (Or as I like to call it "Mouseperson" :) The box is the usual sexy Logitech box with some nice design. Normally I'd never even mention the box, since everyone just throws them away anyhows.... Buuuuuuuutt....... This box blinks. It's got a bright red LED (Light for you non-tech peeps out there.) As all computer type guys know.. Blinking lights are good. They are a symbol of power and speed. Therefore any item with a blinking light on it has a decided edge on the competition. Interestingly this light is powered by two AA batteries. Nice work really. I'm assuming they've put that on the box to catch attention. It worked. :)

Anyhows, enough with the boring stuff. On with the install:

Installing the mouse was a little weird, as it locked explorer up twice during the initial software load and once when I inserted the disc. I'm really not sure why this happened, but when I switched the CD over to my burner rather than my DVD drive it went in first shot. Possibility that my DVD was just being a little fussy about the disc, it's happened before. Three pieces of software are installed. The Standard Logitech Mouseware software, the users manual and the new Immersion Desktop software. (The manual and immersion software are optional.)

After loading the software, I had to reboot the machine and plug the mouse in. Windows picked the mouse up right away, and it worked great. The immersion software however did not work until I reset the computer again.

As a sidenote, I was very impressed by the Microsoft series of optical mice. They have asses that light up, which is one of the coolest features. The Logitech engineers made the logo on the back of the mouse glow dark ice blue when you power it up. The left side of the mouse also lights up.... Ohhhhhhhhhh... Sexy. I'd love to see one of these things in black with that blue logo. Man that'd look vicious. (Hey Logitech! Gamers version! Make it black!)

Then the fun began. (And I don't mean this in my normal sarcastic way either...)

The mouse is extremely comfortable to use, with it's shape just fitting into my hand perfectly. (I have large hands... and you know what they say about men with large hands...**) Very few mice I've found feel this nice. Both sides of the mouse have a rubberized coating, making it very easy to grip properly, and meaning that when I was in game my sweaty hands didn't slip off of the mouse. Very important as that's something I have a problem with, especially with those darned Microsoft ambidex mice. (Damn you Big Chief.) Nothing quite as annoying as trying to whip around a corner and finding yourself looking at the wall behind you because your hand slipped. Needless to say, a rail to the back of the head usually results from this. Since "rails to the back of the head"=bad, "mouse slippage" also=bad. Not going to happen with this bad boy.

(** They require large mice... What were you thinking I meant?)

I would like the buttons a little bit longer, but honestly that's not a problem once I got used to it. The side button on the mouse is excellent. I find the buttons on the Microsoft opticals to be a real pain to reach in games, as they are above the spot your thumb naturally comes to rest. The Logitech's side button is just a smidge under your thumb, and I actually find it to be very comfortable to use the mouse with my thumb already on the button. The scroll wheel has a nice feel to it. I've always like the way Logitech does their scroll wheels. They have a "harder" feel to them than the Microsoft or Mitsumi mice. You know when you've rolled it. One thing I was disappointed with was the inability to set the side button up as a specific key. Not a huge issue, as they have a large number of functions (Back, forward, esc, copy, cut etc) to choose from, as well as the ability to map it to certain keys (ESC, one of the F keys, backspace etc.) The wheel defaults to something new called a "web wheel" which I find a little annoying. I've reconfigured mine to be a normal middle mouse button. If you are a web surfing type person it may be useful as it has most of your normal functions in there, as well as shortcuts to your email, favorites etc. Honestly, I never use a mouse wheel as a button anyhows. I find it far to difficult to click without scrolling at the same time.

The final analysis

Well, for once I really don't have anything snarky or nasty to say about a product. Logitech pretty much got this guy dead on right. It's comfy, the iFeel software isn't annoying like I thought it would be..... The only complaints I have about the mouse, (and this is really getting nit picky) is that it's a tiny bit "wobbly" (This is likely just this mouse, my MS mouse did the same thing) and after a few days of use it should be running flat and smooooth. Nice job Logitech, you guys have a winner here. (Make it black though! Black is good!) This mouse would be truly excellent for people with visual disabilities and kids....... I'm neither, and it's still sweet. :)