Logitech MX Anywhere 2S Wireless Mouse

Logitech MX Anywhere 2S Wireless Mouse

One for the Road

The Anywhere 2S is designed to be a compact travel companion first and foremost—the entire mouse fits in the palm of my hand. More precisely, it measures 1.4 by 2.4 by 3.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 0.06 ounces, good for slipping into your jacket or even pants pocket. The materials don't feel cheap, and it has a nice heft for something so small, even though it's not at all heavy. Even smaller gaming mice like the Corsair Sabre RGB Gaming Mouse are wider and longer (1.49 by 3.15 by 4.88 inches), and it's only slightly larger than the tiny Logitech M325c Wireless Optical Mouse(1.54 by 2.24 by 3.73 inches).

Visually appealing, with a straightforward design, the rubber finger rests on both flanks vaunts cool geometric patterns, and the contoured metallic lines toward the back of the mouse give it a modern look. Our test unit is black, but the 2S also comes in white or teal.

The scroll wheel is ridged rubber in the center and metal on the sides and can be pressed in to change its function. One mode enables smooth motion for hyper-fast scrolling, moving as fast as your finger can spin the wheel to fly up or down. This is good for, say, flying through a long document or zooming back to the top of your Twitter feed, and it feels oddly satisfying. The other mode is the click-to-click scroll style, which allows you to move more precisely from item to item (on, for example, a playlist or spreadsheet) and audibly ratchets as you scroll.

A power switch on the bottom toggles the mouse on or off, and a small circular button allows you to jump between up to three paired devices. Once you pair it with a computer or tablet (the Anywhere 2S works with either Windows or Mac), you can press this button to switch between them on the fly, and three indicator lights above the button tell you which link is currently active. You can connect with either Bluetooth or the included USB adapter, which uses 2.4GHz wireless, for a maximum range of 32 feet.

Including left and right clicks, there are seven buttons on the Anywhere 2S, all of which are customizable through the downloadable Logitech Options software. The left side has forward and back buttons just above the thumb rest, while the scroll wheel itself can also be pushed left or right for a variety of uses. Perhaps the most interesting is the square gesture button just beneath the scroll wheel. You can assign sets of four commands to this button and control them with mouse movement. For example, by default it controls your desktop, so holding the gesture button and moving the mouse up will pull up the Windows start menu, while left, right, and down will move between or hide desktops.

The software is very flexible, so you can make the scroll wheel pushes (or any of the buttons) perform specific functions like pulling up the calculator, raising the volume, or even executing a macro like Control-V to paste. All of this makes another of the software's features Flow, even more useful. Flow allows you to move your mouse cursor between computers, so long as they're on the same Wi-Fi network. This works just like when you have multiple displays, which is a pretty novel technology, and genuinely handy if you hop locations around the office, switch between a laptop and desktop to do your work, or need multiple devices to work out of a hotel room.

You can even copy text and files across two computers using the mouse—just drag them over to the other screen and paste, which is where the useful customizable button shortcuts are made even more helpful. It takes a few seconds to transfer (more for larger files), but it removes the manual work of moving files with USB sticks, network drives, or emailing something to yourself. Combined with the ease of wireless syncing and three-device pairing, hopping between machines to continue your work is made incredibly easy and efficient.

A micro USB port on the front serves as the charging port (a micro-USB-to-USB cable is included), and an indicator light beneath the square button notifies you if the battery runs low. Battery life shouldn't be much of an issue, though, as it's rated to last about 70 days on a full charge, based on about six hours of daily use. That exact time will vary depending on usage but that's the ballpark you can expect, and if you remember to plug it in even occasionally, you'll run out of juice infrequently—possibly never.

Go Anywhere

The last important design aspect is an internal one: the Darkfield sensor. While that may sound like an ominous Lex Luthor weapon, it's Logitech's laser tracking technology that allows the mouse to track accurately on virtually any surface. That includes very glossy and even glass tables (Logitech says it functions with a minimum of 4 millimeter-thick glass), with which laser mice traditionally struggle. Rather than using irregularities in the surface to track movements, Darkfield uses tiny details to create a "micro-road map" of the surface and detect position changes. The Anywhere 2S sensor can be set between 400dpi and 4000dpi at 200dpi increments.

The Darkfield sensor works as advertised, tracking even on glass surfaces without missing a beat. While some surfaces are smoother for physically dragging a mouse than others, hopping from the keyboard deck of a laptop to wood to a glossy desk to my jeans causes no tracking or accuracy issues. It's true that most of these surfaces would work with a normal laser mouse, but it's good to have peace of mind for the occasional awkward tray table, countertop, or dreaded glass table.

The Anywhere 2S does feel small, but I ultimately think it boils down to personal preference whether that's an issue, because there isn't anything inherently wrong with the shape or design. If you're completely averse to smaller mice it probably won't change your mind, but I got used to it during testing. It might not offer the full-size ergonomic support of something like the Mionix Naos 8200, but as a mouse meant primarily meant for fitting in small spots, it feels good. There's a relatively steep upward curve from the front of the mouse to the middle of the palm rest, which adds support that helps mitigate the small size. The side grip doesn't reach out under your thumb, but the concave shape of the grip is a natural resting place. I wouldn't personally choose it as my main desk mouse if it was never going to be taken elsewhere as there are larger, more sensible options for that, but it doesn't feel uncomfortable.

Specifications