Logitech’s Folding Journey Mouse Fails on the One Factor That Issues Most

The Logitech Mobi Fold is the type of mouse that pulls questions, like bears to honey or flies to… honey. The primary question will naturally be, “Why do you want a folding mouse?” The subsequent inevitable query: “Why does your folding mouse seem like a plastic tent emblazoned with the slogan ‘ribbed for his or her pleasure’?”

Logitech’s $80 Mobi Fold was designed at the start as a journey mouse. Due to its ridged silicon sheath, it clams as much as the dimensions of an precise condom—therefore my preliminary comparability. Within the spirit of testing its portability, I slipped the folding mouse into my bag, introduced it to Computex 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan, and spent a complete week utilizing it within the area. I’ve decided that, after that interval, the advantages of this pocketable mouse are minuscule in comparison with its myriad points—significantly the truth that it replaces my beloved scroll wheel with a trackpad.

Logitech’s folding mouse is extra awkward than most different pc controls. Its silicon-lined shell attracts all of the grime and dirt that accumulates inside your backpack. Although I’d initially imagined that I would recognize this odd-looking machine greater than others do, I truly favor my laptop computer’s trackpad.

What I’d give for a scroll wheel

I initially imagined myself as the proper guinea pig to check this mouse. I are likely to journey mild. When attending a weeklong abroad conference, I usually take a heavy-duty drawstring bag massive sufficient to suit a pocketable digital camera, a laptop computer, and some further items of drugs. Earlier pint-sized mice—even these from Logitech, such because the MX Anyplace 3S or the gamer-focused G705—might simply match into most packs. And the Mobi Fold weighs simply 79g (0.17 kilos) and takes up much less area than some other mouse-like machine, that means all the less oddly-shaped objects jutting from my skinny bag into my backbone.

There are different advantages to the Mobi Fold. The mouse takes just a few cues from Logitech’s high-end productiveness mice just like the MX Grasp 4. Like that $120 mouse, the $80 Mobi Fold features a single button on the backside, slightly below the optical sensor, that permits you to swap between one and three gadgets. Logitech even helps you to customise your buttons within the Logi Choices+ app.

This mouse additionally has a protracted, lengthy battery life. After practically three weeks of normal use, I used to be down to only 50%. Logitech guarantees 22 hours per cost from this mouse, although if you happen to’re like me and scroll or swipe solely often whereas typing, you’ll possible eke out extra.

The large challenge is that this mouse eschews a conventional scroll wheel in favor of what Logitech calls “Energetic Contact Scrolling.” That is primarily a miniaturized trackpad performing as a multi-action center mouse button. Whereas that scrolling motion is ample for, say, studying textual content slowly, maneuvering straight to the underside of a web page is way extra annoying. The trackpad appears to have sensitivity points, and typically it takes a number of swipes to progress all the way in which down. Scrolling feels sluggish generally, which isn’t helped by the sticky texture alongside every mouse button.

That Energetic Contact space additionally options ahead and again buttons (you possibly can swap them for different actions and allow gesture-based controls). On most browsers, you may also faucet the middle of the center pad to zoom out and in of a web page. These buttons are welcome, however they don’t make up for the Mobi Fold’s subpar consumer expertise.

Logitech stuffed its journey mouse with a 4,000 DPI sensor, that means it’s pretty exact on a desk. It was additionally a speedy little man on no matter desks I used to be utilizing, each overseas and at house. The optical sensor is correct sufficient; it is going to even work in your pant leg in a pinch, although that makes it much more awkward to carry.

The smallest dirt-prone mouse

The Mobi Fold and its ridged silicon again aren’t even snug to wield. The feel additionally leaves it weak to blemishes and dirt. The white model of the mouse Logitech despatched me for evaluation was a magnet for all mud and particles very quickly. I carried it round in a small felt bag, and it’s now imbued with all of the free fibers caught into the valleys between every fold.

A particular faux-leather pouch comes free with the Mobi Fold, although I didn’t obtain one with my evaluation unit. That pouch ought to maintain the machine clear, although it additionally provides bulk to your bag. If you happen to resolve to get this mouse regardless of my qualms, I counsel you go for the gray, graphite, or no less than the lilac variations, although I can’t verify they’ll keep any cleaner and extra serene than my white mannequin.

The Mobi Fold is the type of machine for use often when you haven’t any different selection. That’s not a really interesting proposition, is it? I might think about utilizing it extra if the center mouse button labored in addition to a scroll wheel. Till it does, I’ll save these ounces and inches of bag area for one thing else.