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Review: Logitech Cordless MX5000 Laser Sucks

Posted on 19 November 2006 in
review hardware

A few months ago I bought the Logitech MX5000 Laser bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo. Since the day I installed it I've had problems with it. Random issues like…

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  • Intermittent bluetooth signal: Randomly the keyboard and/or mouse would either completely lose the bluetooth dongle or they'd severely lag for a few seconds. I tried positioning the bluetooth dongle within line-of-sight of the devices by using a USB hub and extension cable. The dongle is currently sitting 2 to 4 inches from both devices and I still occasionally get lag and loss of connection - although this did improve the situation. The dingle is Bluetooth 2.0 EDR is supposed to have 100m range and yet I'm having trouble within 1m. Pathetic!
  • VERY, VERY poor drivers. The Set Point driver's are some of the worst I've ever seen. Slow, memory intensive, unstable and poorly written. Randomly they'll crash - either while in use or once windows is shutting down. In terms of usability, I can only use MSN Messanger as a chat client - which is ironic as I dont use MSN Messanger. I use Skype and GTalk which seem to be incompatible with the software. I also prefer to use Winamp to play music and, although the keyboard seems to "work" with it, there is no official way to set it up in Set Point. Also, whenever the track changes and it tried to update the keyboard screen, the keyboard because very unresponsive. How crap is that?
  • The final nail in the coffin was today when I found that a link to the 3.1 drivers on the neowin site. Logitech still claim that 2.6 are the drivers for this keyboard and mouse. I risked it. The drivers look the same and handle the same. I restarted a few times last night and all was fine. This morning I switched on the computer and the bluetooth dongle was randomly disabled. After many power cycles and removal and insertion of hardware - I ended up plugging in my 5 year old PS2 keyboard and mouse to follow the instruction given by the bluetooth software which was to right click on the bluetooth icon and start the service. How, exactly, am I supposed to do that with a bluetooth mouse when they've just disabled the bluetooth dongle? I was fortunate enough to have spare hardware - not everyone does! I would have been totally screwed had I not had kept my old mouse and keyboard.

I came within second of literally throwing the hardware out the window so I could have the pleasure of watching it smash into pieces - but I resisted.

I am giving Logitech one final chance to win back my loyalty as a customer. If they fail with the next set of hardware then they have lost me forever and I will NEVER recommend their hardware to anyone. If anyone asks why - I shall recite my experience with this setup.

The MX5000 Laser Bluetooth kit is truely the worst piece of kit I have ever used in my entire life. AVOID AT ALL COST.

I have just purchased the Logitech G7 Cordless Mouse and the Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard. I've heard good things about the keyboard and the mouse is meant to be excelent with good precision, programmable buttons and 2 battery packs. The keyboard, although wired (ie, not cordless), is meant to be fantastic and one of my friends is in the process of writing Java Gaming API for the keyboards screen! How cool is that?!

I will post back my findings on these devices once I have installed them