Logitech Cube review: Logitech Cube

College professors, slaves to PowerPoint, and aficionados of cuteness, Logitech has you in mind for its tiny $70 Cube Mouse. There's no denying that the Cube is indeed cute. Its petite design also makes it eminently portable. The problem is that it's not a very good mouse, and its presenting features are too simplistic. Serious presenters can find more-capable support accessories for less.

6.3

Logitech Cube

The Good

The <b>Logitech Cube Mouse</b> is a petite, attractive presentation mouse that performs basic navigation and presentation tasks well enough. It comes with Logitech's customary design polish and ease-of-use.

The Bad

At $70, the Cube feels overpriced for not having at least a built-in laser pointer.

The Bottom Line

Logitech is relying on appealing look of its unique Cube Mouse to justify its price, but it should offer a few more useful navigation or presentation features.

At 0.625 inch high, 1.125 inches wide, and 2.125 inches deep, the Cube is about the size of a Matchbox car. It comes with a small carrying sleeve, a USB dongle for charging, and Logitech's USB Unified microreceiver, which can receive a signal from up to six peripheral devices from the Logitech Unified device family.

Logitech's pitch for the Cube is that it offers basic mousing capabilities, as well as a unique presenting mode for navigating PowerPoint presentations or other long documents. Hold the Cube on a work surface and it works like any wireless mouse. It supports left and right clicking, as well as swipe-based vertical scrolling on its top face.

Lift the Cube off your work surface and it goes into presentation mode. The only function it offers here is the ability to navigate back and forth through the pages of a document. Hold it upright and click to advance a page. Turn the mouse upside down and click to back up a page.

That forward-and-backward navigation works as you expect, but that also makes up the sum of the Cube's presentation-specific features. It can't control the mouse cursor midair, it can only scroll by the page-length, and there's no built-in laser pointer.

You might not be bothered by any of those limitations. I've sat through plenty of mindless PowerPoint presentations that barely demanded the presenter have a pulse, much less an advanced input device.

If you're happy to settle for the Cube's spare functionality, consider its price in relation to that of other presentation mice. HP, Iogear, and others all offer presentation mice with laser pointers built-in for less than the Cube.

None of those devices matches the Cube's visual appeal, it's true. But they're also big enough to work as respectable mice. My hands are not overly large, but I still found the Cube too small to use for basic cursor control over an extended time period. The Cube's dimensions might make it an appealing airplane mouse, but its size prevents a sure-enough grip for precise spreadsheet work, or anything beyond basic navigation.

As a basic presentation device, and a basic mouse for use in short bursts at a podium or in a meeting room, the Logitech Cube is a fine accessory, if a touch overpriced. You might also like it simply because it's eye catching, or remarkably portable and unobtrusive. It would be an easier recommendation at $60. For $70, I'd like the Cube to do more.