The VX Revolution is part of a new future-oriented family of mice created by Logitech. It shares the same futuristic/ergonomic design, laser resolution, revolutionary scrollwheel and web search button with its desktop cousin, the MX Revolution Mouse. The laptop model we tested operates on a single AA battery, while the MX uses a charging cradle.

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Figure 2: VX Revolution upside view.

Bellow the scrollwheel there’s a small button that activates a web search engine (it defaults to Yahoo! Search but you can change to Google through the installation software). Just pass the cursor over a word or phrase in a text or website and click to do an instant search. The scrollwheel itself is far from normal: it’s a new design from Logitech that allows for a smooth and quick scrolling through pages and pages of text. With a flick of a finger the wheel keeps spinning – and a 150 page PDF file flies by easily. It takes a few moments to get used to it because sometimes the wheel scrolls ahead the page where you want it to stop on. But it’s difficult to get back to a regular desktop mouse after using the VX Revolution for a while.

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Figure 3: Side buttons.

There’s a thumb rest on the right side of the mouse and four nearby buttons (the device is not adequate for left-handed users). The first one is a sliding zoom button for applications like Photoshop and Acrobat Reader. Above the thumb rest there are buttons designed for web browsing with features like “back” and “forward”. A battery meter indicates how much juice the AA battery still has.

Below the VX Revolution there’s a slot for the AA battery, the on/off button and the USB micro-receiver ejection control. The tiny wireless device is stored inside the mouse itself – and that turns the VX Revolution off preventing it from turning on when it’s being carried in a bag. It’s a great energy saving feature.

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Figure 4: The VX Revolution inferior side and the micro-receiver.