Admittedly, I bought into the hype surrounding the Logitech MX Master 4 when it was announced. Here was Logitech’s attempt at introducing haptic feedback into an all-encompassing, extremely versatile mouse that was absolutely crammed with features suited for business and productivity. After very extensive usage of the mouse over the last few weeks, I walked (or rather, scrolled) away pretty impressed by all that it had to offer – a jack of all trades, but master of one: productivity.

First, the technical specifications:

Dimensions

MX Master 4 Mouse
Height: 128.15 mm
Width: 88.35 mm
Depth: 50.8 mm
Weight: 150 g

General Specifications

Haptic feedback is supported for key Options+ features like Actions Ring, Smart Actions, Gestures and for the following plugins: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom Desktop, Zoom. Coming in October: Adobe Premiere Pro.

Sensors

Sensor Technology: Darkfield high precision
Nominal value: 1000
DPI (Minimal and maximal value): 200-8000 (can be set in increments of 50 DPI

Buttons

Number of Buttons: 8
Scroll Wheel: Yes, MagSpeed wheel with smart shift
Horizontal scroll: Yes
Thumb wheel: Yes, same as horizontal scroll
Gesture button: Yes
Customization app: Yes, Options + and basic support in Tune



Out of the box, the Logitech MX Master 4 boasts a beautiful design – a sleek black (or white) ergonomic form factor elevated to comfortably rest in your palm. I put an emphasis on “comfortably” because, without question, this is one of the most comfortable PC peripherals I’ve used to date. Unlike Logitech’s MK250 mouse or its popular POP mouse, the MX Master 4 isn’t a potential cramp-inducing device to use. It’s clearly built to handle hours of workload without even bringing attention to the way your palm sits on the mouse for all that time, making it incredibly ideal for creatives using 3D modelling or doing any sort of art projects, while also catering to business use with the MagSpeed wheel (more on that in a bit).

In total, you’ll uncover eight buttons on the MX Master 4, all built around an ergonomic, well-designed shell that feels premium and a little weighty, but extremely light to the touch and breezy as it glides on most surfaces without effort (though ideally, you’d want to use a mousepad).



Tapping into the software, you can customise the MX Master 4 with Logi Options+ with the awesome Actions Ring, a simple shortcuts overlay that provides quick access to all your tools in one place. It’s not a novel concept but it’s something that Logitech really excels at thanks to how easy Logi Options+ is to use and customise in general. For my purposes, I made sure important tabs could be accessed with the tap of a button – I didn’t need to fumble through layers of windows and functions to get this done normally, so my workload was mostly cut in half.

The MagSpeed scroll wheel is a thing of beauty on the MX Master 4. It feels incredibly solid and boasts than it can scroll up to 1,000 lines per second. One flick of your finger can help you scroll hundreds of lines in a few seconds (ideal for coding) and it stops immediately with another gentle touch. The same can be said about the thumb wheel built into the side of the mouse. While not as speedy as the main horizontal wheel, it’s intuitive, fast and very responsive when you need to switch between windows or side-scroll groups of images.



Now onto the star attraction of the Logitech MX Master 4: the haptic feedback. Initially, I was a bit taken aback by the feature. I thought it seems a bit gimmicky, especially since the mouse was tailored for business and productivity use rather than gaming. The mouse lets you tinker the haptic feedback’s sensitivity options between subtle, low, medium and high. I mostly kept it between low and medium as the vibrations were pretty strong. Most of all, it covered everything from clicking to scrolling, making the mouse feel alive and even more responsive than your standard peripheral. Unfortunately, I didn’t extensively test it with Adobe Photoshop but the haptic feedback didn’t make a world of a difference for me in that department, personally.

The mouse lets you tinker the haptic feedback’s sensitivity options between subtle, low, medium and high.

The haptic feedback is cleverly baked into every facet of the mouse’s functionality – its designer being mindful of creatives who would benefit the most from its subtle to stronger vibrations when creating art, editing videos, or frequently switching between tabs. Again, this greatly complements the MX Master 4’s scroll wheel, which makes bouncing between tasks, no matter how chaotic, much easier to manage and keep track of. However, is this feature entirely necessary? I went back and forth on this over the last few weeks, and I can’t give you a straight answer. It’s a bit of a mixed bag.



Personally, I wouldn’t look at the MX Master 4 to cater to your gaming needs. At the time of writing, it seems like Logitech hasn’t optimized the mouse to be compatible with gaming, including its haptic feedback. Sure, you’ll find plenty of comfort in its design for those long gaming hours but if you’re looking for a more gaming-oriented option, there are other (potentially cheaper) alternatives on the market specifically made for gaming purposes.

For those who want the absolute best of the brand's productivity offerings at a decent price point, it seems to be worth the investment.

On that note, let’s talk cost. The Logitech MX Master 4 is currently priced at R2,399. Compared to most devices offering the same, if not more features, it’s honestly reasonably priced. This isn’t a mouse that’s going to speak to everybody at that price – some just want the comfort of a reliable right/left click-and-scroll mouse, in which case, I highly recommend Logitech’s POP mouse – but for those who want the absolute best of the brand's productivity offerings at a decent price point, it seems to be worth the investment.



As for a couple of negatives that I have with the MX Master 4, there’s currently no option to purchase a left-handed version of the product. While that’s a bit nit-picky, it’s something that buyers need to be aware of beforehand. The actual curved design of the mouse will comfortably fit into your right hand just fine, but it’s definitely not suited to be switched over to the other hand.

The Logitech MX Master 4 was my first experience with the brand’s MX Master range and this might be the honeymoon phase speaking, but I honestly love this mouse. While I personally prefer my less-complicated and more sleekly designed mice (because I’m an aesthetics weirdo), the MX Master 4 definitely shines with its comfortable, weighty design, very long battery life, excellent build and terrific scroll wheels. The haptic feedback hasn’t completely won me over and I think Logitech still has a chance to prove the naysayers wrong with its next iteration. But as it stands, I don’t think you could go wrong with the MX Master 4 if you’re looking for a mouse that puts productivity at the forefront.