MX ANYWHERE 2 Review

First off, I want to highlight I purchased this mouse for University work purposes, at a discounted rate, and spent about two months with it. I feel like I can comfortably review this mouse, and provide some thoughts on the use cases for this mouse. Produced by Logitech, the MX ANYWHERE 2 mouse, is my third wireless mouse. My first two were terrible experiences, with horrid connection issues and were a nightmare of faffing about. Granted this was several years ago and Bluetooth tech has made quite a few advances. So have batteries, just to a lesser extent.

From the off, the packaging is very minimalist, containing a manual, dongle, micro-USB, and the mouse itself. Taking it out, it was a quick and painless experience to have it ready for both of my laptops. As well as using it on my OnePlus 3T Android smartphone, although I will note that there is some form of mouse scroll acceleration. So if you’re into that niche use case, that’s something to contend with. But from a mouse utility standpoint, it’s very run of the mill. There’s two side buttons on the left hand side that are by default programmed to go forward and backwards for web pages and the alike programmes that allow it. The middle click button is a dedicated button, and the mouse scroll wheel going from a rigid/mechanical scroll system to the hyper fast. This basically means you can run the wheel with no resistance/locking, depending on the application this is can be lead to slight irritations. Although I didn’t realise this was a feature with switching scroll, until I thought I broke said infinity scroll wheel by spinning it like a Beyblade.

Build quality is very good, feeling very premium/well built despite how light it feels. It is a very clicky mouse. Its DPI is alright, although I would’ve liked more adjustable settings since Windows 10 keeps resetting it to default instead of staying on fast. As labelled on the box, it definitely boasts an incredible range of usable surfaces. Being usable on surfaces my HP 5 Button Optical Comfort Mouse and Corsair Raptor M30 USB Gaming Mouse can’t cover. Alleviating the need for mouse mat, this has become my daily driver for being out and about for Uni purposes. However, this did take time to adjust to. Being a smaller profiled mouse, due to my hands size and my normal resting position, it was uncomfortable at first. Almost discomforting, I would often switch between my Corsair mouse and Logitech when at home. Or even opt to carry my HP if I knew I was working and needed to use it for extended periods of time. It took maybe a 2-3 weeks to be fully comfortable enough that I wouldn’t swap. And after two months of use, I can safely say my hand has gotten used to this smaller profile. But, since I still rest my hand over the mouse, my pinky finger does get slightly tired not being able to rest directly on it.

For size reference, other 330ml cans of soft drinks are available.

In terms of my work usage in programs like Unity, Blender, Photoshop, and a bit of work in Audition and Maya, it’s been a slight hit and miss with the hyper scroll. Being almost borderline too sensitive, even the slightest nudge can lead to weird zooms. Applications like Word and web browsers like Chrome and FireFox didn’t suffer this problem as much, appearing maybe once or twice since using it. Gaming isn’t really recommended for this mouse, with FPS games like Doom, Wolfenstein 2, Destiny 2, and Shadow Warrior 2 being okay at best. It doesn’t feel as responsive as my Corsair mouse. Games like Final Fantasy 14 and Dauntless, which don’t warrant the same responsiveness, still aren’t the most comfortable experiences due to my hand size. They are still usable, I just wouldn’t recommend them for this purpose. An addendum to this is that I’ve grown used to operating my trackpad at the same with my mouse, so my use case of them is slightly weird.

Software support from my experience is straight up unusable depending on the laptop. My Dell Inspiron 7000 laptop will have trouble maintaining a solid connection with the mouse once the Logitech suite is installed. A real shame considering how detailed the controls can get. The main thing I miss out on using third party software is the implementation of gestures. The middle click can replace the trackpad for its gestures in Windows 10. A small but super useful gimmick for me who has typically 3+ desktops for working. My other laptop, an Acer Laptop R3-131T, doesn’t get the same problem which also runs Windows 10. But thanks to my current curriculum, the usage of that has dwindled like its operability thanks to Windows 10 almost bricking its performance to unusable speeds for even Word.

A final note is the battery, which hasn’t died since charging it back when I first got it, lasting about two and a half months of relatively heavy usage and “forgetting” to turn it off before needing a full charge. When it is low on charge, an LED located underneath the middle click button will light up. Even then, the mouse remained usable for three days of continuous use despite being left on when not in use. So concerns over it dying are very low, if you’re the type to not carry a micro-USB around. Its charge time is between 2-3 hours at a wall mount, with USB being marginally longer.