Logitech MX Anywhere 3 Review: Reinventing the Wheel

Most PC users don’t appreciate a good mouse. Sticking with the generic track-pad on your laptop, old roller-ball mouse that your dad gave you, or bearing with the cheapest option you bought at the flea market will not make your PC usage any more pleasurable, and that’s a fact you can take to the bank. Having a great point-and-clicker is not only important for efficient work and play, but it’s also better for your wrist-health, as having something comfortable and ergonomic is crucially important, especially if you work for long hours. Logitech’s MX Anywhere 3 delivers all this and has impressed us with its attention to detail, as well as bringing a new perspective to how accurate and responsive a mouse-wheel can actually be.

The MX Anywhere 3 features a relatively simple design, but upon close inspection, the mouse has some truly gorgeous elements which are hard not to appreciate. Firstly, it’s compact, so it’ll slot onto anyone’s workstation or into any laptop bag with ease, and sits on the top half of your palm easily thanks to its low-profile and clean curves. You’ll never have to adjust your grip, which is fantastic, however, it’s the small tech inclusions that make it a true standout.

Instead of having two individual clicking buttons, the mouse has a semi-split design, allowing you to click anywhere on the left or right side for your left and right-click inputs respectively. It’s not a game-changer, but does improve the comfortability, but the real game-changer is the mouse wheel itself.

The scroll wheel has been made of machined steel, giving it a bit of weight and an immediate feeling of quality under your index finger. There are some subtle grooves, allowing your finger to have some grip too, and it’s a fair bit wider than some of the finicky scroll-wheels you’ll find on other mouses today. The change in material from plastic to a metal scrolling wheel is massive, and makes an otherwise peripheral button one of the mouse’s strongest attributes. Instead of the traditional mechanic system, the MX Anywhere 3 uses Logitech’s MagSpeed Magnetic Scrolling, which uses electromagnetic elements to ensure that the movement feels slick and silent with no clicks or squeaks, and gives you a seamless gliding effect when scrolling down web pages or requiring a more precise zoom-in. It really makes you feel like you’re using a surgically precise tool in an operating theatre, rather than a PC peripheral.

Furthermore, the MX Anywhere 3 isn’t just built for the ideal conditions at the perfect workstation – like the name, it literally can be used anywhere. The mouse features high-precision tracking on any surface that allows you to work from anywhere on just about anything, even glass! So if you’re someone who transitions from the desk to the couch arm rest to the coffee table, the MX Anywhere 3 is up for the task.

While the device carries some impressive tech inside of it, the MX Anywhere 3 stays powered for up to 70 days on a full charge – and gets three hours of use from a one-minute quick charge, so even if you find yourself out of power, plug it in, grab a coffee, unplug, and you’re good to go for a couple of hours.

Logitech also prides itself on the fact that the MX Anywhere 3 is fully customisable in just about any applications you may be using, allowing you to create predefined app-specific profiles for things like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Google Chrome, or any other big-name releases. This allows you to change the sensitivity, configuration, and input commands for the program you’re using on.

While it’s often hard to tout one mouse above the rest (with personal preference playing a big role), there’s no doubt that the electromagnetic scrolling wheel on the MX Anywhere 3, along with its compact and comfortability elements, make it one of the best on the market for just about any use or any type of person.

The Logitech MX Anywhere 3 retails for R1,800 (RRP) and is available on Takealot, Incredible Connection, and other PC retailers in three different colours: graphite, white, and pink.