Today, a horror story — what started as an incredible deal, later turned into an utter disappointment. Two days ago I came across this deal of getting a factory refurbished Logitech MX5000 Laser for as low as $60 CAD (the MSRP is $200 CAD) — needless to say this sounded like an awesome opportunity to upgrade. For more than a year I am a happy owner of Logitech MX3100 Keyboard + MX1000 Laser Mouse. I had never experienced any problems with Logitech products, in fact, I really enjoyed their approach to the interface design and the functionality they deliver. Well, at least till today. Nevertheless, I decided to upgrade to what looked like the next generation of my current setup. Bad move! And I will tell you why.

At the first glance everything was just as it should be. I even didn’t pay too much attention to the fact that the keyboard was lacking some labels on the numeric pad. Oh, ignorant me, I should have known that blindly trusting the brand wouldn’t do you any good. And, yes, there is a reason why there were no damn labels — because the keyboard has no damn NumLock key. NO NUMLOCK?! Who in their worst nightmare can develop a keyboard without it? Are you kidding me? I for one just cannot survive with a keyboard where pressing keys on a numpad produces these strange ugly numbers. Give me my controls back! I didn’t remember a day in my life where I would have NumLock ever turned on. Maybe some very brilliant engineer in Logitech has personal problems with it, I don’t know and neither do I care. This is just outrageous. (Yes, I may be a bit biased here, but really, what should you smoke to come with a decision like this? Oh, I know. Big boss: “We need ten new features for the next version, go and get them!” Product manager: “Let’s remove NumLock and call it a feature. It is so cool. We are going to be the first to come up with such a brilliant idea.” Big boss: “Ingenious, I can’t believe it never occurred to anyone else. You are entitled to an annual bonus.”)

Do you think NumLock problem is the only “upgrade” feature you get? You bet. In addition you are going to get the following:

• a bloated version of SetPoint (installer weighs 105Mb), that has 50 more megabytes of bugs comparing to the non-bluetooth version;
• a terrible connectivity: mouse behaves itself like a drunk man in a stormy weather, keyboard disconnects randomly, not to mention that the reported range numbers are total rubbish;
• an LCD that shows an ambient temperature of who knows what plus some other crap you can look as well on your monitor;
• new touch sensitive media pad that you will hit every time you do not intend to and struggle to adjust the volume level when you need it.

No doubt — money well spent.

My fault, of course, is that I never looked at what other people are saying. I guess I just become lazy. Well, on a bright side I have my proven MX3000 cleaned up, so it shines again as a brand new. And this innovative piece of technological garbage is on its way back to the store.