Logitech MX Master 3S wireless mouse (designer review)

The Logitech MX Master 3S is a wireless performance mouse released in 2022 together with the Logitech MX Mechanical keyboard.

The price is US $99 currently on Amazon. It's an expensive mouse. Just for comparison purposes, the previous model Logitech MX Master 3 is currently US $80, and the Logitech M720 mouse which I was using before and has rather similar functionality is US $40.

Video review

Here's my video review.

The upgrade over the Logitech MX Master 3 is the mouse now has silent clicks, 8000 DPI optical sensor over 4000 DPI and uses the new Logitech Bolt unifying receiver in addition to having Bluetooth connectivity.

Here's the bottom line. It's a well designed and well built mouse with a premium feel. The performance is fantastic and the shortcuts and functionality are very useful. It is worth the money if you have the budget for it. If you happen to be using the previous model, this new model is not worth upgrading to since the upgrades in functionality are minor. And if you don't want to spend so much, go with the Logitech M720 wireless mouse instead which is a fantastic deal for the money.

Design of the mouse is contour shaped to the hand and hence is really comfortable to hold.

The surface texture is matte. Build quality is solid.

USB-C charging port is located in front. USB-C to USB-A charging cable is included. Battery life is rated at 70 hours. With a quick charge of 1 minute you can get 3 hours of use.

The button behind the scroll wheel is pre-configured to change the scrolling mode of the scroll wheel.

The two scrolling modes are infinite scroll where the wheel will keep scrolling, or the dampened scroll where the wheel will stop scrolling after a while. That button is customisable to other shortcuts too.

Beneath the mouse are buttons for the power and device switch.

Location of the device switch button beneath the mouse is not ideal. As someone who switches between devices very frequently, it's a hassle to have to flip the mouse over just to press that button. I did not have to do that with my old Logitech M720 mouse and this new device switching workflow is the first thing I noticed and dislike.

As for wireless pairing, you can use Bluetooth or the new Logitech Bolt.

Not that Logitech Bolt and the older Logitech unifying receiver are not interchangeable. You cannot pair older Logitech devices that came with the Logitech unifying receiver to the Logitech Bolt. So if you have a new and old Logitech device and want to use the USB receivers, you have to use two USB receivers, the new and the old.

The two USB receivers may not be interchangeable, but you can still pair your new and old Logitech devices with Bluetooth to the same computer. And your older Logitech devices may still work with the new Logi Options+ driver. See this list for the mice and keyboards supported by Logi Options+

Interestingly, the new Logitech Options+ driver can still detect your old Logitech devices but there isn't any customisation options. You have to use the old Logitech Options driver to customise old Logitech devices that came with the unifying receiver.

The side wheel is for side scrolling and is well position. There are two customisable buttons beneath that side scrolling wheel, and another hidden button beneath where the thumb should be.

That thumb button has customisable shortcuts for gestures.

Being able to customise those three buttons that can be reached by the thumb is incredibly useful. You can also create shortcut groups for specific apps you use. E.g. I can configure the buttons for video trimming when I'm using Final Cut Pro, and when I'm writing the buttons can be text edit shortcuts.

More on the shortcut customisation further below.

This mouse features the silent click which dampens the clicking sound significantly. This silent click feature is a main selling point for me and I don't think I will ever buy a mouse without silent clicks. At the time of this review, this together with the Logitech LIFT vertical mouse are the two Logitech mice that feature silent clicks and can be paired to three devices.

Pairing the device via Bluetooth with Windows is really fast. Just press and hold the pairing buttons on the mouse, Windows will detect the Bluetooth connection. You no longer have to go through the Settings-Bluetooth-Add-Bluetooth-device route.

Driver

Let's see what you can do with the driver, the Logi Options+. The older driver is called Logi Options.

The driver I'm using is version 22.0.3.

On this screen you can add the Logitech devices you have to the same driver. While the driver can detect older Logitech devices that came with the Logitech unifying receiver, you can't customise those devices with this driver.

These are the six customisable buttons on the mouse.

You can set your own keyboard shortcuts for the mouse buttons, or choose from the list of pre-configured functions (above). There is unfortunately no shortcut for device switch -- I mentioned the hassle of turning the mouse over to switch device earlier. And you can't program macros, not unexpected.

Here's where you can adjust the speed for the thumb wheel, scroll wheel and pointer (up to 8000 DPI).

This page shows you the devices connected to the mouse.

The driver has this Logi Flow feature where you can use the mouse across different computers installed with Logi Options+, paired with the mouse and sharing the same network. You can read more about Logi Flow on this page

With Logi Flow, you can move the cursor from one computer's display to another computer's display. I tried it with Mac and Windows and it works. The feature is not perfect though. When you push the cursor into the edge, it will pause for a while before it gets pushed into the other display. Latency of the cursor in the secondary display is good but sometimes there's more latency as it this feature requires Wifi to work.

If you have a compatible Logitech keyboard, you can use the same keyboard across two computers. It's like a virtual KVM switch. The downside is you'll need a Logitech keyboard and can't use other keyboards.

Logi Flow settings allows for copy and paste across different computers.

Conclusion

The Logitech MX Master 3S is performs well and is a great device for productivity with its customisable buttons and software features.

It is an expensive mouse but if you have the budget for it, I'm sure you'll like it. If you want to save $20, go with the previous model Logitech MX Master 3 that doesn't have silent clicks. That mouse is also supported by Logi Options+ so you get all the features mentioned above.

Only downside to this mouse is the location of the device switch beneath the mouse.

Where to buy

You can get the Logitech MX Master 3S on Amazon. The links below are affiliate links which means I earn some money for each purchase through the links, but at no extra cost to you.

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