An Awesome Travelers’ Mouse

The Logitech MX Anywhere 2 mouse is super portable and highly customizable.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel
The Logitech MX Anywhere 2 mouse is super portable and highly customizable.
AT A GLANCE
Connectivity
Bluetooth, Logitech
Unifying Receiver, USB
OS support
Windows, Mac OS X
Sensor technology
Darkfield laser sensor
Weight
106g
Price
$135
AT A GLANCE Connectivity Bluetooth, Logitech Unifying Receiver, USB OS support Windows, Mac OS X Sensor technology Darkfield laser sensor Weight 106g Price $135
 Logitech MX Anywhere 2

Trackpads on notebooks have come a long way, but for power travellers, there’s no replacement for a trusty mouse. To answer the needs of these users, Logitech has just released the MX Anywhere 2 - the successor to the MX Anywhere, which is now over five years old.

The design of the new MX Anywhere 2 mouse follows closely of its predecessor. It is super compact and portable, with modern curves that are deeply sculpted for better grip and comfort.

There’re seven buttons in total, and all of them customizable using the Logitech Options utility. The layout of the buttons is still the same, which means it is still better suited for right handers, but the Logitech Options utility is straightforward and easy to use. One of the new customization options we especially like is called the “Gesture” button. It allows users to invoke certain actions simply by swiping the mouse and holding the assigned Gesture button down.

For example, after assigning the little button under the scroll wheel as the Gesture button, I could skip music tracks simply by holding the Gesture button and swiping right. Swiping left would play the previous track, while swiping up or down would let me quickly adjust the volume. The Gesture button can also be setup for other functions like switching between applications, zooming in on webpages and more.

Like its predecessor, the MX Anywhere 2 is also equipped with Logitech’s awesome Darkfield laser sensor, which allows it to track on a multitude of surfaces, including wood, paper and glass. This is exceptionally useful when one cannot be picky about the surface that they can use for the mouse when travelling.

While our experience with the MX Anywhere 2 mouse is highly positive, just remember that it is an incredibly petite mouse, which limits its use outside of being your travel backup. If I may nitpick further, the scroll wheel also doesn’t register a middle click. Instead, clicking changes the wheel’s scrolling behavior between free and ratcheted. It can however, be clicked left and right, so you’ll have to assign the middle click to one of them as a workaround. Not a big issue, but can be frustrating after a lifetime habit of middleclicking. 

The Logitech Options utility allows
for a thorough customization of
the mouse’s buttons.
The Logitech Options utility allows for a thorough customization of the mouse’s buttons.