Prologue:
For a lot of people, a mouse is what you need to simply move the cursor on the screen, everything else being inconsequential. For numerous years, I subscribed to the same school of thought and economised my mice expenses. Such a thought would be sacrilege to a gamer, though thankfully I don’t count myself as one. However, that doesn’t imply that I ignored the DPI, sensor and button customizations when making a mouse purchase.
While I had given up on office mice a long time ago, I couldn’t help but put up the pretence of buying a gaming mouse. As a result, I purchased my first adjustable DPI mouse in the form of the Logitech G90 a few years ago, something a gamer would not be caught dead with. It only had 3 adjustable settings but it went up to 2500 DPI with a polling rate of 500/s which seemed plenty enough for almost everything I did. Unfortunately, the mouse met its demise prematurely in a quirky manner wherein the sensor went dead with the device still being detected and buttons still being functional.
Purchase:
For my next purchase, I needed to go a step further. This could have meant getting a higher DPI wired mouse, but I found better value in going wireless. Due to my setup, my mouse wire often tangled with the keyboard tray and I wouldn’t have any more of it. I had a “wireless” mouse in the form of the Logitech M557 Bluetooth mouse which helped me realise the limitations of a low (1000) DPI mouse with a dodgy sensor. The best of both worlds would be getting a high(-ish) DPI wireless mouse and so began my scouting.
Despite my failure rate with Logitech, I wasn’t ready to switch camp just yet. Razer has a range of fugly, high DPI wireless mice with a worse failure rate and no local customer support, so it wasn’t as if I was spoilt for choice. I had set my mind on not spending more than INR 3500 (USD 50) and this narrowed the field to the point that nothing caught my eye. Raising the bar a bit led me to the concerned product but at 5k INR (USD 70), it seemed a bit much compared to its US pricing of $50.
However, there is an e-tail world beyond Amazon and Flipkart which led me to check Croma and surprisingly, the product was listed for less than INR 3000 (USD 40). Well, to be clear, the listing wasn’t for the Anywhere 2S but rather for the Anywhere 2. I called the local store to check the availability of the product and was rather pleased to hear them confirm that the product is indeed the Anywhere 2S. I can only put it down to a product listing error considering the price difference and the fact that it is no longer available on Croma.
Packaging:
As far as packaging goes, it is a case of keeping it simple and elegant, the black-green theme of the box goes well with the box image depicting the blackish-grey mouse with its green power LED. Flipping the magnetically locked box open brings in to the spotlight the thing that you spend your hard cash on.
Apart from the product and documents, the packaging contains a Micro-USB cable which I don’t see the use for considering its persisting ubiquity after all these years and a 2.4 GHz Logitech Unifying Receiver (technically transreceiver). The older versions of the “Nano USB” receiver were susceptible to MouseJack, but the one that comes with this mouse (C-U0012) is supposedly safe.
Features:
The reason for selecting the mouse was its versatility. In addition to the Logitech Unifying receiver, it also works with Bluetooth thereby offering universal functionality across devices and operating systems. On Windows 10, using the receiver was as simple as plugging it in, following which the Logitech Options software was automatically downloaded and installed by Windows, offering a pretty seamless experience. Bluetooth pairing is simple too, requiring a press of the button at the bottom to switch to one of the three available slots, each accompanied by a LED. Irrespective of the receiver, it does the job to the effect that wires wouldn’t be missed.
The ability to pair and switch between three devices is by far the most utilitarian feature of the mouse as wireless mice tend to be used with multiple devices, in my case with my desktop, laptop and Fire TV. The state of each slot can be deciphered with the LED behaviour, the currently used one doesn’t blink, the other occupied ones blink slowly whereas the unoccupied one blinks rapidly. Any occupied slot can be paired again by long pressing the button. The LEDs switch off when the device is in use, thereby preserving battery.
Battery:
Speaking of battery, the battery life is stated as 70 days. I have used it for 45 days now and the battery status is at level 2 out of 3, termed as “Good” within Logitech Options. Low battery life is (supposedly) indicated with a blinking of the green LED on the front face which also doubles up to indicate charging status and completion. I presume it will exceed the stated battery life of 70 days but the only way to know for sure would be to let the battery drain out completely. When it does, charging shouldn’t be bother as it doesn’t take hours to do a complete charge using the integrated Micro-USB port while a minute of charge provides enough charge to last for 2 hours. Unfortunately, the Micro-USB port cannot be used to convert the mouse in to a wired one which would have been a great addition to the feature set.
Tracking:
While marketing teams tend to generate buzzwords with the sole intention of swaying customers, it seems that they have managed to resist departing the realms of reality with the term ‘darkfield laser tracking‘ as the mouse does uses dark field illumination. This allows for tracking on glass and I can attest to its ability after seeing my optical M557 mouse fail miserably on a glass surface. Even if you are not one to go to extreme surfaces, the 2S does a great job of tracking on mouse pads, a necessity for any mouse warrior.
Software:
This mouse is supported by the Logitech Options software which extends the utility and customization of the mouse. As I mentioned previously, it was auto-installed on Windows and I assume the same for Mac. Unfortunately, those are the only two platforms supported, so it works like any other mouse when paired with other platforms. The ubiquity of Bluetooth implies that the product will have universal support and the only time one is likely to be caught out is when accessing the UEFI on a PC with an unsupported motherboard.
The main benefit of the software is the button customization. While each button can be assigned a distinct function, the button on the face of the mouse acts like a gesture button, combining the button press with the mouse movement direction to provide a total of 5 functions. Unfortunately for me, the customized gestures stopped working after a few reboots and Logitech Options kept on crashing when the gesture button was selected from within the software. This hasn’t yet been resolved even after multiple Logitech Options updates, so I assume it is not a priority. In the meantime, I am using the gesture button only for showing/hiding the desktop.
Another irritant for some people would be that the scroll wheel doesn’t click. It moves left/right to provide two additional “buttons” but clicking the wheel changes the scroll resistance which some people might end up invoking inadvertently. This doesn’t bother me so much as I have assigned the top side button to the middle click function and find it convenient to use for applications and games.
Lastly, one of the key features of the mouse – adjustable DPI is inexplicably made accessible in a manner that beggars belief. While other mice have a button dedicated for this function, in case of the MX series, it can only be accessed by assigning the “Change Pointer Speed” function to one of the buttons which can be a bit misleading. However, for intents and purposes, it seems to refer to DPI adjustment as the function toggles between two sensitivity values on click which can be adjusted on the fly. Moreover, there are 76 steps between the minimum and maximum values which fits in well with the 200 to 4000 DPI range of the mouse in increments of 50 DPI. I prefer to use the mouse at around 1000-1200 DPI for normal use and anywhere between 1600-3000 DPI for gaming and it works admirably for either use cases.
Conclusion:
What’s in a mouse? A lot, if you care for it. Even if you don’t, the Anywhere 2S is a great wireless option for anybody. If you don’t harbour pro-gamer aspirations and have a job to do in front of the PC, then this mouse tackles work and leisure admirably in equal measure.
