Logitech MX Anywhere 3 is, as you can see, a mouse, not a trackpad. That means that things like swipes and gestures are hard, downright impossible, to do. This is limiting in iPadOS, definitely, and also a reason why most people, including me, would recommend Apple’s Magic Trackpad over a traditional mouse.
But what if you want to use a mouse? Or have one for your Mac, maybe, and need it for your iPad at times? That’s where the MX Anywhere 3 comes in.
First, the actual product name for my mouse is MX Anywhere 3 for Mac. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t differ at all from the regular MX Anywhere 3, apart from the color, but I may be mistaken. There’s a business edition too, which gets you a Logi Bolt USB thing for communication with your locked-down desktop PC… None of this matter for an iPad user, all MX Anywhere 3s have, and work with, bluetooth, so you’re fine without the hubbub.
Let’s discuss the actual mouse first. It’s a small one, meant to be thrown in your bag, and as such, it feels great. I have a big hand, but at no time does the MX Anywhere 3 feel cramped to me. It’s not ideal for gaming, obviously, but that’s not really what you use pointing devices for on an iPad anyway. Anyway, the plastic main buttons on top – two physical ones – feels good. The two buttons on the left side are a bit stiff, but on the other hand, that means you won’t press them accidentally. The top one is better, and the mouse-wheel button feel good too. Not that it matters, iPadOS will register the primary and secondary mouse button, but not the others.
Speaking of the mouse-wheel, it scrolls up and down, not sideways, and feels great. I mean really great, this is something Logitech are known for, and the MX Anywhere 3 doesn’t disappoint. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for iPadOS here. Scrolling through documents, websites, and the like is somewhat choppy when using the mouse-wheel. It doesn’t get better when you use it in places where it’s a pull to refresh. More often than not, iPadOS will keep scrolling until the wheel stops, which takes a while thanks to it being wonderful, and thus things are not just choppy, they look broken.
When I said that iPadOS won’t recognize the side-buttons, I wasn’t entirely truthful. On the home-screen, you can hold either one of them, and scroll horizontally using the mouse-wheel. This isn’t a particularly nice experience, and it’s hard to control, but yeah, you can.
What else? I like the sides of the mouse, it’s rubberized and nice. The device works great on just about any surface. It supports connecting to three different devices over bluetooth, with a button and a LED indicator underneath. You charge the Mx Anywhere 3 via USB-C, which connects in the front, so you can actually continue using it when it’s charging. I’m looking at you, Magic Mouse…
The MX Anywhere 3 is a great mouse. I own two, because of stupid setup reasons in multiple locations, and prefer it when I have to do design work on a Mac. As a mouse overall, this is great, but as a mouse for iPadOS, it’s not. That’s no fault of the MX Anywhere 3, it’s almost all on iPadOS, but that’s what we’re using, so that’s what I’m grading.
🖱🖱 out of 5 — Okay, but…
(Mac user? Then it’s four out of five.)
The Logitech MX Anywhere 3 for Mac costs about $75. Get it from Amazon (affiliate link).