Logitech M510 Wireless Mouse Review

The M510 is a mid-priced wireless mouse from Logitech that I personally purchased for use with my laptop when I am on the go.  I wanted something reasonably priced that was full-sized, had a few additional buttons, great battery life, and a minimum of a 1,000-dpi sensor that I could use for light gaming and video editing on my laptop.  The Logitech M510 delivers on all of these points, and has thus far proved to work well for my usage.

Logitech M510 wireless mouse

The M510 is a full-sized mouse, not one of those   dinky mini-mice that I see a lot of people using with their laptops on the go.  I am used to a full-sized, relatively ergonomic mouse at home (I use a CM Storm Inferno for my primary at-home wired mouse) and after using that mouse I can't bear going back to something as small and non-ergonomic as those mini-mice.  Speaking of non-ergonomic, my previous mouse for use on the go was a spare Apple Magic Mouse that I had lying around.  In many areas Apple makes great products.  Mice however, is not one of them.  The Magic Mouse utilized a slow 800-dpi sensor and is extremely non-ergonomic.  I use a palm grip with my mice, and the Magic Mouse doesn't doesn't really allow for such a grip by design.  It also uses bluetooth to wirelessly connect to my laptop, which is all fine and good (and many prefer this method of connectivity) however, bluetooth wireless devices seem to burn through battery power far faster than non-bluetooth wireless devices in my experience.  Enter the M510.  It's a full-size mouse in an ergonomic shape.  While it's not quite as large as my CM Storm Inferno, it's big enough to be comfortable to use for hours on end.  There is no disputing Logitech's "full-size" description. I would say that I have medium sized hands, and I can palm grip this mouse quite comfortably.

Left-hand side forward/backward buttons

The textured rubberized material on the sides (where the thumb and pinky finger typically rest) is also a nice design choice, as it feels like thick, quality rubber material that isn't going to wear off after a year (like my at-home mouse). The remaining portions of the mouse are constructed from dark grey and silver glossy plastic, that somehow manages to remain glossy and not become a fingerprint magnet.  The overall weight of the mouse is fairly light (around .06 oz), even with the added weight of the batteries.  While I prefer a somewhat weighty mouse in general, for on the go it's fine and weighs around what my wired at-home mouse weighs anyway.

The M510 connects wireless to your device using an extremely small USB "unifying receiver."  It is called a unifying receiver because you can connect multiple wireless Logitech devices to one receiver, negating the need for having multiple receivers for each wireless device plugged into your computer, taking up all your free USB ports.  You could, for example, connect both your wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard to one receiver.  The receiver is extremely small, and barely protrudes out from the USB port it is inserted into.  This is a nice design, as you can essentially leave the receiver in your laptop's USB port and forget about it, as it's so small you don't need to remove it when sliding your laptop into a bag, for example.  If you don't want to keep the receiver permanently attached to your laptop, there is an area where you can store the receiver inside the mouse itself, right next to the batteries.  A caveat of the receiver is that in my testing it does not have nearly the range that my bluetooth wireless Apple Magic Mouse did.  Despite this, the mouse will operate flawlessly if used within any reasonable radius of the receiver.  Another obvious downside is that the receiver method uses up a USB port, and for us USB starved Mac laptop users, that leaves us with only one remaining USB port. The upshot of the whole use of the USB receiver is that the connectivity method uses substantially less power than connecting via bluetooth.   Logitech claims that the M510 gets two years of battery life, which is incredible compared to the few months (with light usage) my previous bluetooth mouse got.  The M510 takes two standard AA batteries, and comes preinstalled with two quality Duracell's which is really nice to see.

The M510 has an on/off switch located on the underside of the mouse, and the mouse reconnects to the computer extremely quickly after being turned back on.  You also don't have to worry about draining your battery power when leaving the mouse in the on position, as the M510 appears to go into some kind of low power state when in "on" mode, but not in use.  You really can just pop two batteries in this thing and forget about it.

M510 underside

Left and right click feel is great, with nice tactile feedback and a highly audible click.  There are a total of seven buttons on the mouse.  Obviously left and right click, forward and backward buttons on the lefthand side of the mouse, and the scroll wheel, which can be depressed downward or moved left or right for horizontal scrolling. (Note: I didn't include the vertical scrolling action of the scroll wheel as a button).  All of the buttons feel solid and have good tactile feedback, although the forward and backward buttons on the lefthand side of the mouse do feel a tad bit mushy (but still let out and audible click when fully depressed, nonetheless).  I love the inclusion of the left and right horizontal scrolling action achieved by moving the scroll wheel left or right, it really helps when navigating sideways through webpages that are too large for a smaller laptop screen.  Scroll wheel feel is good, and it is the "notched" feeling wheel that most mice use and is not completely linear.


The mouse uses a laser sensor, with a resolution of 1,000-dpi.  Overall tracking is pretty good, and seems relatively smooth.  It's still not as smooth or jitter-free as the much higher DPI optical sensor in my CM Storm Inferno, but that's somewhat to be expected.  I noticed that when moving to the extreme or outside of the M510's 10-meter operating range that the tracking quality significantly worsened, with more cursor jitter and laggy performance.  If you find that tracking is less than ideal with this mouse, make sure you are using it within the appropriate range of the receiver.  When inside the appropriate range, the tracking substantially improved and was far better than the tracking I was used too with my previous wireless mouse.  There is a little bit of cursor jitter upon setting the mouse back down on whatever surface you are using it on.  If you are the "slide and lift" type of mouse user, you may find this slightly irritating.  I pick my mouse up frequently and place it back down on my mouse pad when tracking, and I quickly became used to the little stutter the cursor has when using the mouse this way.  It's an extremely small cursor movement, but noticeable nonetheless.  In addition, this mouse does not work with very light surfaces, glass or granite countertops.  It does work with the darker wood grain color of my desk however.  I would recommend using a mouse pad if your desk or tracking area isn't on the darker side.  Other than these few minor issues, the mouse does track very well, and performs more than adequately for the current price of around $25 to $30 dollars. (The full retail price is $40 dollars, according to Logitech's website)

If you are looking for a reasonably priced full-size wireless use for use with your laptop on-the-go, or even if you want something permanent for your desktop that won't break the bank, the Logitech M510 should definitely enter into your considerations.  With two year battery life, quality buttons, a solid build and good tracking, the M510 is definitely a high quality peripheral that should last for years.

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CLICK HERE for Logitech M510 Product Page