Late last month, Logitech unveiled the latest generation of its much loved productivity mouse – the MX Master 4. I’ve been testing it out for well over a month at this point, and it’s certainly a compelling offering for everyone, whether you’re a casual or professional.
What’s new?
If you’re coming from an MX Master 3 or 3S, there are three headlining upgrades: haptics, feel, and the new action wheel.
MX Master 4 has an incredible haptic engine, and while it’s by no means a necessary touch, it makes the mouse feel a lot more premium. For example, I have the thumb pad set to gestures, which allows me to quickly flick between different spaces on my Mac. Haptics trigger every single time I do this gesture, and it feels delightful.
As for feel, the MX Master 4 is a much more premium feeling mouse. A lot of the silicone material on the older mouse has been swapped out for higher quality matte plastics, and the mouse simply feels a lot nicer to hold. At least personally, the silicone material tended to wear down with time on my MX Master 3S. With the MX Master 4, I haven’t noticed any wear with over a month of usage.
There’s also a new third mappable button on the mouse. By default, this mappable button is set to gestures, and the thumb pad is set to the new Actions Ring feature. Personally, I reversed the two – since I didn’t want to break my muscle memory.
Either way, the new Actions Ring lets you easily access a bunch of mappable shortcuts. Right now, it has a number of integrations with Adobe software, but you can also map it to system functions like locking your computer.
Lastly, MX Master 4 finally comes with a USB-C dongle in the box, rather than USB-A. If you buy the ‘for Mac‘ version, it’ll be Bluetooth only, but if you buy the general mouse, it’ll come with that USB-C dongle. The mouse costs the same regardless.
Is it worth it?
I’ve always loved the MX Master line of mouses because of their versatility. Gestures are very important on macOS, primarily because MacBooks have great trackpads and most Mac users have MacBooks. Obviously, you can buy a Magic Trackpad for your desktop and be just fine, but I feel the MX Master serves as a happy middle ground between the mouse and trackpad.
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