Logitech v400 Notebook Mouse Review

By A.W., Toronto, Canada

Logitech is well known for their peripherals, whether it be Trackballs, Webcams, Speakers, Steering Wheels or Game Pads, but one of their most well known products is the line of mice. From their original mx500 series, to their award winning mx1000, their products are always, top of the line.


The Logitech V400

The Following review is on the Logitech v400 Notebook mouse, which comes in 2 flavours, Storm Grey, and Freerider Orange.



What was included

The Specifications of the mouse is listed below, as on their site:

Introduction

The v400 is a notebook mouse, one fit for easy travel without the wires, and the size/weight. The 'sibling' of the v500 mouse, which was a very nice mouse(though, the virtual scrolling to some, was quite annoying), the v400 is that mouse - and then some. In this category of mice, there is basically two options, wired notebook mice, or optical notebook mice. Then into the fray is the v400, a wireless dual laser optical notebook mouse.

Why I bought it

I was looking for a notebook mouse to go, before I owned the v200(refurbished, got it for a couple of bucks, and it met a fatal fate.), mx 700, the mx1000 and currently, the G5. All from Logitech, and all of them were awesome. I never had a problem with it. Though when I travel, go out, etc. the mx1000/G5 is not a mouse to go out with, as its overly large and space consuming. So I went on an adventure to find a perfect notebook mouse. But after looking around, there was nothing, I wanted a wireless optical mouse. With forward/backward buttons that I was so used to on the mx700/1000/g5. But none had it. This was back in September. Then, out of the blue in early October, Logitech released a bunch of new peripherals, one being the v400. I was in love - it was perfect! A month passed, and no word on it, and a few other forum go'ers also expressed interest in this mouse. One of them being Stickman, and in a thread here, which spawned over 950+ posts and 85000+ views, and one of the first things you see when you Google 'Logitech v400', marked towards me, the first line of that thread,

He's my online brother

Anywho, back to the story, it was Mid November when, on my random 'Google for v400' visit, I saw a place where they had the v400 in Canada - for preorder. So, naturally, I paid for it, and waited. The thread grew on, as people came in, excitedly, about this new mouse. With Logitech's reputation of great mice, we all had high hopes. Of the mice, and of Logitech actually releasing the mouse. It was listed as October 21st 2005 as the ETA. Then the 3rd week of October. Then the jump to December 10th 2005, then back to the 5th. Stickman then found a Pop Sci article with the v400 in it, it couldn't be more hyped up, can it? Another forum member, marcopolo joined the thread, he phoned up and emailed places, and mid December was their reply. Yay, more waiting! But with December around the corner, dates were fixed back, to December 5th 2005. With credit cards ready to go, the forum'ers met their first 'troll' in the thread, who happened to be a classmate of marcopolo, whom saw him browsing the thread in class, so he wanted to have some fun. A fellow European then entered the thread, mentioning the v400 is avaliable there. A few more Europeans chimed in, and well, we were jealous, but estatic! Note, this is still in November, and when December rolled around, no word, no mouse. A few Canadians mentioned they've seen the sign instore of Staples stores, so, I decided to check it out. And indeed the Logitech v400 was there. I mean the v400 sign was there, with an empty stock sticker. There was also discussion of why it was delayed, one being that the laser , Philips 'Twin Eye' laser was, being delayed, along with this article. It was the start of December, and there was already, 12 pages. Our fellow Super Moderator SouthernGirl asked us one thing upon visiting the popular thread. Our answer? This!
Actually, I was wrong. This was the real answer.

Perhaps we even have her now

A fellow Swiss user commented on the thread, how its out and its a horrible mouse, how the tracking was pretty poor, though everything else was fine. More users chimed in, in this period, and most were Europeans, and stated how, the mouse is perfect, but it had two fatal flaws. The horrendous tracking and the sleep mode, how it would take forever to awaken.

It was now a few days before December, and no word on the mouse. I had awesome customer service with my dealer( http://www.cdromshop.com/) and they were of great help, emailed me back quickly on updates. The date was pushed to January 6th during mid December. Another user posted a review comparison done by TrustedReviews
and the date was pushed back to Janurary 9th-11th. It was a few days after mid December, and another review was posted, by VTR, a French site.

Christmas Eve, alot of use had been hoping for a early Christmas present. Well, back in November anyways. Marcopolo said one phrase, and we all agreed.

With the mouse being pushed back and back in North America, and the Europeans already being able to purchase it, we were wondering what was up. The issues were one thing we believed, but did it take this long? It was already mid January, then the bomb hit. A new user, ashleytowers came into the thread, with the mouse, a small review and pictures. The mouse was physically and looks great, but then it ends there. More users agreed, the tracking was bad. The hibernation was also bad. They advised not to buy this mouse, as a few mentioned they returned it, it was that bad. The end of Janurary was near...

Of the 8-10 user comments on this mouse, only 1 had some sort of positive spin on it, we were all pretty disappointed, and people started disappearing, and the thread started dying. February 24th, a little bit over a month later was the new ETA. It was gone, dead, blah.

With the ETA pushed to, May 1st, well, people gave up, went back to their lives, and for the forumers.....waiting for the mouse, no matter how bad it was, or went with other options. Though, good news was on the way. There was an shareholder of Logitech article, it mention the backorder of the twin lasers, so hope was pushed back in. So, if Logitech releases a 'version 2' of this mouse, everything will be fixed! The tracking couldn't get worse then this

It was April, and the mouse finally was released in the North American market. It wasn't that bad of a 7~ month wait. But is the mouse worth it? And more importantly, was it fixed?

Design and Build Quality

Aethestically, the v400 is a cute little mouse. Not only that, it looks very nice, and the one I own is the Free Rider Orange, and the grey and orange outlines are really well designed, and very sleek looking. The mouse is fairly light, less then 200 grams. That lightness however, made the mouse feel cheap. It is all plastic with some rubber, mainly the casing(grey), as the orange bottom outlines and silver top are both plastic. However, it only feels cheap in the begining, later on it feels solid and unbreakable.



Side view with USB Stick and Battery



Front view with USB stick and Battery


Definately not a hand model...

The mouse is unlike any other notebook mouse, let alone wireless, you've ever seen. It has forward backward buttons, something which was exclusively on larger desktop mice, and it is a first in the market. It also has a scroll wheel, which I found good, but it did not have that familiar clickity sound and feel, it was there, just not as much. The scroll wheel also had 4 way virtual scrolling. Powered by Twin Lasers, at 832nm-853nm(No clue what this means...), it screams to have powerful tracking. The USB is high speed 2.0 with 2.4ghz wireless, unlike the traditional 800mhz wireless. Not only that, the USB stick itself is very small and sleek, which does not hog any space which may be needed for larger USB inputs, such as USB memory sticks.



A Back view



Bottom View



The small and slim USB stick

On the back of the mouse, there is a place where you put in the USB stick, as storage and to turn the mouse off. Beside it is the battery life LED, when it turns on, it means the battery is low. On the underside of the mouse, the 1x AA battery goes underneath the bottom shell which is easily removable. There is also 3 small glide pads, which I found little, and could of been improved(and made larger). Also underneath is the reset button, for resetting the connection between laptop/PC and mouse.



The USB stick goes here, for storage and to turn the battery off

Usablilty

The mouse is good. At times. Upon further testing, it seems that, if it is used under a white mousepad/table it works great. But on a dark surface, tracking is bad, not horrible, but some jumps every once in a while. There will be more testing upon completion of this review, and I'll add onto it as time goes by. I also, have not installed anything, it was all plug and play, as well as no firmware updates. I updated firmwares for the Logitech Client, tried other surfaces, and overall, I would say that the mice works on 80% of all surfaces, which isn't that high but for a portable one, it isn't much to complain about.

As well, I have not tested it, but apparently new versions for the mice have been released, version 2, review 2, or whatever. I have not tried them, so I can not speculate if the tracking has been reviewed and fixed.



Behind the mouse, with the Low Battery life LED



Size comparison to the Logitech G5

But on a white surface(right now, a large white envelope ) it works like it should, and I have no complaints. The range is pretty amazing as well, I went as far is 4-5 meters, before i stopped as I could not see anything from there.



Philips Twin Laser technology.

The battery life is mediocre, and I'm being very pessimistic, it lasts about a good 2 months with quite a bit of usage, every day for a few hours, 3-4 in class, then it died. The mouse automatically 'sleeps' after 30 seconds to 1 minute of no use. Or at least thats what I think, as there is no way of telling.

Final Thoughts



Was it worth the wait?

It's not fair to comment on it so early, so I'll leave this open. First impressions for this mouse is hard to say, it worked great at first, definiately 10/10, but when I moved from a painted white wood surface to a Razer eXactMat mousepad, the tracking got pretty bad.

Pros
-Cool and Sleek looking, with slim mouse body and USB stick
-Great reception
-Speedy 'resume' from hibernation
-Solid and Rugged
-Front and Back buttons
-Tracking(on white surfaces?)

Cons
-Tracking(On dark surfaces?)
-Lack of bag(like the v200/v250/v500)
-Smoother click wheel
-Mediocre Battery Life

 

awesome town and thanks for the shout out to the thread.

 

the link to Southergirl's queation "one thing" links to the answer to her question and not her question.

Wow reading that article was a great trip down memory lane. I can't believe I was once astonished that a thread about a mouse could go for more than 15 pages. Now look at it, fifty something pages. I fill like I've been apart of some internet history.

 

My god.... has it been 7 months already. Time flys when your waiting for a mouse to be released, it feels like it was just yestarday. Excellent review cori i cant wait to buy mine on saturday. I want to on friday but everywhere is closed.

 

Still waiting for it to be released here in the US.

Thanks for the great review Coriolis.

 

It has crazy tracking. Right now, I'm in bed, and it works fine on the bedsheet!

 

Nice review! goes nice with that v6

cant wait till next week when i see if what you say is true

the 832nm-853nm is just the wavelength of the laser. which will corrospond with a perticular colour. not sure if its in the visible spectrim though. *edit* yup, its in the infrared spectrum... just checked.

http://www.lexellaser.com/techinfo_wavelengths.htm

insane

 

When you store the usb recever is that as far as it goes into the mouse?

 

It goes ALL the way in. Note the picture with the back LED on, and you see that place on the right of the back. It goes all the way in there

 

Thank goodness in that picture it looked like it just pluged into the back a little ways. I like it when it goes all the way in. If it goes all the way in does it have a button to pop it out?

 

Quite possibly the most dramatic and heartbreaking review of a computer peripheral I've ever read. I'll be waiting for the Hollywood version starring Toby Maguire as Cori and Anthony Hopkins as the mouse.

 

LOL, that's funny.

Hey Cori could you get a shot of your hand holding the mouse? I know I have a notebook mouse from Logi and I grip with the tips of my fingers instead of resting my hand on it.

 

More pics added

 

Argh on a lot of surfaces you can be moving the mouse and the cursor will just stop moving.

 

I find it perfect on some places, while not on others. I don't know why, but I'm testing it around...

 

I have tried it on the back of a shiny dark orange paperback novel (seemed ok)
National Geographic magazine light and dark sides (not good)
matte cardboard box (semi ok)
Shiny white piece of cardboard (bad)

It sure isn't the best for being advertised as working on anything. I really like it otherwise so I'd be hesitant to return it.

 

How about a picture of you in bed with the mouse? Just be sure to keep it clean.

Just kidding of course...thanks for the review and the pics.

 

Can you post a pic of the USB receiver all the way inside it.

 

Glad to see you've finally got your mouse. I was the 3 person to post a message in the original thread. Logitech has never let me down on the optical tracking and I never believed the newbs that posted their negative reviews.

I'll be ordering my mouse very shortly. Glad to see the wait is finally over!!!

 

It looks the same without, sometimes I don't know if the USB receiver is inside or lost

 

I have taken photos of the receiver inside. Mind if I post in this thread?

 

Nono, feel free to contribute

 

This is a shot I took from the back because I had read people were asking what it looked like with the receiver fully inserted. I have two more shots I'll post in a second.

 

Some other pics I took:

My final conclusion re: this mouse is that everything about it is nice enough that I will put up with it being less usable on certain surfaces, and once I exchange the one I bought for one with a working back button I will be very pleased with it. Still, with dual laser all terrain etc you'd think it would work on a plain old magazine cover.

 

Nice review!!!
Now after looking at the pics where you are holding the mouse, it seems that the back and forward buttons are far from the thumb. So do you use your thumb or index finger to use those buttons or simply can you reach it with your thumb?
Thanks

 

most definatly index finger just gotta move it a tad to the left to access forward and back button.

 

Yea, it's index finger. I don't really like the buttons though, they are onepiece and are a tad hard to use..

Perhaps I'll get used to it though...

 

Yeah, I dislike that the buttons are a single piece of plastic.

 

Ok,

Now that you guys (and girls) have had a chance to use the mouse over a period of weeks, do you have any further thoughts about it? It seems to struggle with glossy surfaces, like alot of tabletops are

I want one in Freerider Orange, but have been unsuccessful finding one locally. I live close to Portland, Oregon, and I have only seen a grey one on the shelf, at a Staples, in Tualatin, Oregon. I can't say I remember seeing a "sticker" on the packaging.

For a long time, I have been anti-MS mice, unless forced to use one. I have a MX700 and MX500 that still kicks butt, and before it numerous Logi mouses Is it dumb to be so picky about with mouse you buy?? Do you think there are definite advantages, one over another, or is it in just certain areas that one beats the other?...

It's just odd that no one company has built the killer laptop mouse yet...

One final question...Is there posted somewhere on this forum a good set of laptop shortcuts for input? I'm a notebook newbie, so other that some basic MS shortcuts, I don't now any other good ones....

X

 

Hey xfile, I have yet to find one in Orange as well (Beaverton). I'll let you know if I do tho.

Oh how I wish it came in red!

 

Well finally sent my v400 back and got credit for it, getting a VX rev when it comes in stock....

insane

 

Wow, reliving the good ol' days of the mythological V400 thread...

I've been happily using my V400 for several months. Posting here to mention a small "tweak" I did that made it even more pleasant, that others might wish to try.

Using the mouse software, I assigned Buttons 7 and 8 (originally for left-and-right scrolling) to function as back and forward buttons, and assigned "cruise up" and "cruise down" to the original back and forward buttons on the side of the mouse.

Now a gentle press against the scroll wheel takes me backward and forward, and for some reason I find this much more physically comfortable than constantly pressing my finger on the somewhat-sharp angled edge of the original forward-and-back buttons.

 

I've been using the v400 ever since I got it, when I reviewed it, and I'm still loving it, its very smooth, accurate and feels great. The only pickyness of the laser annoys me, but often it is not the case. It can be solved by paper anyways

 

Not a fan of this mouse at all. I followed the original thread you guys had going with the "tuned" sticker and all that and eventually bought one. It came with the sticker so I was happy but it is honestly a horrible product. I thought others might have been exaggerating how annoying/bad it was but they really weren't.

I have never been dissatisfied with a Logitech product up until now. I've had two keyboards, a webcam, portable speakers and the MX1000 (which I absolutely LOVE) and I thought they could do no wrong. My mistake.

The mouse itself is not bad. I'm a 6'2" with very large hands but have no problem holding it. I don't even mind the button position in the top left corner (like some others complained about). But the tracking is absolutely horrible and the slight wake-up delay after not using it for a few seconds makes using it a pain.

I'm not in the US now but as soon as I am, I am getting a new mouse. Until then, I guess I can live with it. The newest SetPoint drivers helped some but it's still not good enough.

 

Made some updates and revisions, and a couple final thoughts.

Oh, moved it to the correct forum as well