Now for a bit more about the truly unique design to this mouse. Although it looks like it has two scroll wheels, the one located nearest the thumb is actually a document flip wheel; it only does a small flick forward and backward, not a complete revolution like a scroll wheel would. In Windows Vista this uses the Flip 3D option (or anything else you program it to do). The main scroll wheel on the top of the mouse is where all the magic happens. We all know that when we want to scroll through pages of a document really fast that the tradition click-to-click style of scroll wheel can really limit this because it isn't free-scrolling, rather, limited to moving in small click increments. Logitech's solution to this was designing what I see as the ultimate scroll wheel, something so advanced and packed in such a little mouse body. The scroll wheel on the MX Revolution is both a click-to-click style of wheel and a perfectly balanced free-spinning wheel. Because of the rubber-coated steel design of the wheel I could free spin it for OVER a full minute! You can run it in either click-to-click mode, free spin mode or a dynamic mode that defaults to click-to-click mode but when the scroll wheel accelerates past a set speed it will change to free spin. This is all accomplished by an internal ratchet system that either engages or disengages on the scroll wheel. I'd recommend checking out this PDF at the Logitech site for a highly detailed explanation of this new technology of theirs!

  
(Click above to enlarge)

Right behind the scroll wheel on top of the mouse is a search button which will search the current highlighted word in the search engine of your choice. Of course the left side of the mouse also has the standard forward/back buttons that are fully programmable. To see the current battery life, when the mouse is first moved after sitting still for a while there is a battery meter that lights up under the black strip up the left side of the top of the mouse. This meter also shows current charge status when it is on the charging base.

I'm also glad that Logitech went for a matte style finish on this mouse. I find that glossy mouse finishes are superb, but they also collect piles of dead skin near the edge of each button. So having a matte finish will keep this mouse always looking it's best. The sides, as you can see in the pictures, are a firm black rubber grip.