Logitech MediaPlay Cordless Mouse - Mouse Design
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The mouse comes in either a blue/silver motif or the sexy red/black one that I've chosen. It's ergonomic design is immediately recognizable as a Logitech creation as it does have certain similarities to its popular cousins, one of which I'll talk about later.
Located on the top is most of the important stuff, of course. You have your basic buttons as well as a scroll wheel which has become standard for the last few years. This scroll wheel, however, also has the relatively new (and cool) feature of being able to side scroll by tilting to the left or right.
Lacking here, though not missed by me personally, are the two smaller buttons above and below the wheel which allow for Cruise control scrolling. These buttons are found on most if not all of the MX series mice from Logitech. Not only did rarely use these on my MX500, but as you can see below they would have possibly cluttered a clean and simple setup.
So, in addition the basics Logitech has added support for volume, track skipping and fast-forward/rewind, a play/pause button, and a media program launch button. On the left side of the mouse, we find something else that is fast becoming standard on mice nowadays: universal forward and back buttons.
On the MediaPlay these buttons are cleverly integrated into the red "pinstripe" like design that encircles the entire mouse. Like the pinstripe these buttons are also rubberized to give the mouse an excellent gripping surface when it's being used as either a mouse or a remote. The other thing worth mentioning about this area of the mouse is all 'dem purdy lights.
It was a bit difficult to get a picture of them, but the MediaPlay features glowing LED's. Whenever you use one of the media buttons the lights come and stay on for about 3-4 seconds before fading out allowing you to take care of business when you're watching a movie in the dark for instance.
The bottom of the mouse offers a few important features as well. First, Logitech has employed an invisible light optical sensor which both reduces battery usage and is less annoying when the mouse is being used as a remote than the bright red optics you find on almost all other optical mice.
Next, to the right you'll notice a very small reset switch which serves its intended purpose, though I haven't once had to use it. More importantly on the opposite side you can see the small on/off switch. While the on/off switch might seem rather mundane it serves an important though pretty obvious purpose...you can turn it off. So many other wireless mice fail in this regard because you can't turn them off when your not using them. As this mouse will, in many cases, make it's home in your living room, you probably won't be using it 24/7, so why be constantly draining the batteries if you don't have to.
This leads to one of the few complaints I have about the Logitech MediaPlay and that is the fact that it's not rechargeable as some of the other Logitech cordless mice are. Even this though isn't all bad because it means there's no clunky charger sitting on your entertainment center.
Lastly, between the two switches I've just mentioned is a rounded slight indentation. When holding the mouse as a remote this is where your index finger rests and lends to the overall excellent ergonomics and grip. Little touches like this are what make a good product great.
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