Logitech T400 Zone Touch Mouse review: no replacement for touchscreens

The Logitech T400 Zone Touch Mouse is another entry in Logitech’s range of peripherals that are aimed at making the switch to Windows 8 more palatable for those of us who don’t have touch-enabled laptops or desktop PCs.

We weren’t too impressed with the touch-responsive Logitech M600 Touch Mouse before, so does the T400 improve on its predecessor?

Rather than having the whole of the face of the mouse be touch-responsive, as it is with the M600 and the new Logitech T620 Touch Mouse, only a small part of the Logitech T400 Zone Touch Mouse is touch enabled – hence the ‘Zone’ in the product name.

This helps prevent the rather annoying problems of the Logitech M600 Touch Mouse where you’d accidentally brush the top of the mouse, causing the mouse to scroll or flip through documents, web pages and more without you meaning to.

The touch-sensitive part of the mouse is confined to the middle button, and it’s nice and responsive, enabling you to scroll both horizontally and vertically.

Clicking the middle button brings up Windows 8’s Start screen, which is a nice touch. A small section at the bottom of the middle button is reserved for the more traditional middle mouse button functions, such as clicking on a link and opening it in a new tab in a web browser.

The mouse won’t win any design awards, but it doesn’t look too bad for its 39.99/AU$69.95/US$49.99 price.

It’s reasonably comfortable to use, though clicking the left and right mouse buttons sometimes feels like you have to press slightly harder for the mouse to register the ‘click’, which can be uncomfortable after a while.

Verdict

The Logitech T400 Zone Touch Mouse is a decent mouse that’s an improvement on previous touch-enabled mice, but it still doesn’t quite replace the need for a touchscreen.

This article by  Matt Hanson appeared on Techradar.com, a Burn Media publishing partner