Logitech MX5000 Wireless Keyboard and Laser Mouse Review (pics)

by Daniel Stubbs

The Logitech MX5000 package includes the Logitech MX1000 wireless laser mouse, wireless keyboard with LCD readout and a wireless USB dongle that provides the Bluetooth connectivity between your peripherals and laptop.  The MX5000 package is Logitech's high-end offering for wireless keyboard and mouse technology.  Following is a full review of this product.

Included in the MX500 package is the keyboard, laser mouse, wireless connect dongle and mouse charger unit

Included with purchase of MX5000 Wireless Desktop set:

• MX 5000 keyboard for Bluetooth
• MX 1000 Laser mouse for Bluetooth
• USB Bluetooth mini-receiver
• Rapid-charging base station with AC adapter
• 4 AA alkaline batteries
• CD with software, comfort guidelines and Help Center
• Quick Start Guide
• Three-year limited warranty

MX1000 Laser mouse:

The MX1000 mouse is absolutely amazing! The Bluetooth version of the Logitech MX1000 wireless mouse that can be bought as its own separate product is actually the same in every way as the mouse included with this MX5000 package.  The color on top of the mouse is gray, in the older version of this mouse it was more of a blue (the MX700). This mouse can be used as a gaming mouse as it has amazing response, precision, comfort, and enough buttons to match anything you could dream up.  Some included buttons are: forward and backwards browser buttons, scroll wheel, a paste button, and a zoom button (this button is great for Photoshop fans). And for those interested in benchmark numbers, I'm getting a refresh rate of 82-98 Hz (this is a very good rate for a Bluetooth mouse, and any wireless mouse for that matter).  As a comparison, the Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer for Bluetooth 2.0 gets a refresh rate of only 41-54 Hz.  Remember, a mouse with laser tracking = more accurate mousing.

MX5000 Keyboard:

What can I say? It's another keyboard.  The keys are of a soft-touch type and less clickety-click than Logitech keyboards used to be.  There's a sleep mode so if you don't hit any keys for over 30-seconds then keyboard sleeps and then when you hit a key it takes about a half-second to register while the keyboard "wakes up".  The time for sleep mode to kick in seemed kind of short, but it's designed so to help save the battery life (keyboard requires 4 AA batteries).  There's an LCD screen to provide feedback on keyboard status, it's okay if not slightly gimmicky, it would be better if I were a multimedia or messenger junkie. The touch area of the keyboard I find hard to use and is not properly set up for most quick set applications (in my case Dell's QuickSet).  To increase the volume there's a touch sensitive slide controller, but it takes multiple "strokes" of the finger to get volume up or down all the way, a scroll wheel for volume would have been better.

I had a problem with the keyboard right out of the box.  Upon a single press of a key it would register multiple presses.  So for instance, if I'm trying to type in www.google.com I would sometimes but not always get www.ggggggggggggoogle.com.  I called Logitech and told them about this issue, so they told me to take the batteries out and type on the keyboard for 2 minutes (all the while looking like an idiot).  I rebooted my computer and tried using the keyboard again, but the problem persisted.  I'll be calling Logitech back again soon, and they will be telling me to go back to the store for an exchange I know.  Rather frustrating, oh well.

Mini Receiver (Bluetooth Wireless Dongle): 

The mini receiver has a connect button, which really reduces the headache of going through your OS to search for a connection.  You simply plug this receiver into your USB port (after installing the drivers and setup software) and then the hit the raised connect button on the receiver to allow you to connect to the mouse and keyboard.  The mini receiver only works with the keyboard and mouse peripherals, you cannot connect it your favorite Bluetooth enabled cell phone or anything like that.

An important thing to note is that the mouse and keyboard will work flawlessly without the Bluetooth receiver they give you if you have Bluetooth built-in to your notebook. But if you do this, you won't get certain readings on your keyboard LCD display such as current room temperature (the receiver has a built-in thermometer that feeds this back to the keyboard) messenger, user name, time and date. You have to use the dongle for all of these features to work properly, plus you can't change any settings without the dongle plugged in and the peripherals connected to it.  In my opinion this wasn't a smart move on Logitech's part because a lot more people are moving to internal Blue tooth on laptops.  For Windows XP users: use the dongle and mouse + keyboard in together.  For Linux users, use internal Bluetooth if you have it as the software and drivers for this MX5000 set do not work in Linux yet.  I actually found the repeating key problem on the keyboard was not as big a problem when using Linux (I use Linux Kubuntu 5.10 Breezy Badger).

Rating:

Wireless Laser Mouse: 10/10 This mouse is simply amazing!

Wireless Keyboard: 5/10 While this keyboard was comfortable and had lots of features and buttons, the touch sensitive area is anything but fantastic (it's hard to use and when it comes to changing the volume it is not synced with anything but Windows XP volume manager).  The keyboard side of this set was designed specifically for Windows XP, all nice and dandy, but I use Linux most of the time and it is not supported.

Conclusion
 
So do I think the set is worth $150?  No, but no mouse and keyboard are unless they are gold plated. This is the high-end Logitech offering for a wireless keyboard and mouse though so you expect to pay a bit more. They make a good product and need to make money, so you cannot argue with that.
 
Should you buy this? I would wait until the price goes down or you can find it on sale. Right now the keyboard is not as spiffy as they say and in my case has problems with key repeating, and cannot be used for playing games. If you have $150 to spend and really, really want this set for the mouse and the Keyboard's flaws do not bother you, then yes, buy it.

Pricing and Availability: Logitech MX5000 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse