hello everyone it's spawnpoiint and welcome back to another video
so today we're going to be taking a look at something different something i use
on a daily basis which since picking up a few weeks ago
has massively improved my productivity and that's the logitech
mx master 3 mouse and the mx keys keyboard
now i was going to cover these in two separate videos but honestly
they are so well matched with various crossover features that it makes more
sense for me to talk about them both together
just a quick note and i've added timestamps to this video so if you are
only interested in one of the two items you can jump
to that section now we'll take a look at the keyboard first then the mouse
and then what they both share along with the setup instructions
customization and my final verdict so the
mx range is available in two versions there's the mac only option where it'll
only work on an apple device and then there's the cross compatibility
version which will work on both mac linux and windows
now as i use both windows and mac on a daily basis
i've opted for the latter as it means i only need one keyboard and mouse and i'm
able to use them on both systems at the press of a button
i'll show you how easy this is to swap between the two later
so first up the keyboard the mx keys so it retails for 99 pounds or 99
and it seems to be one of the most popular keyboards on youtube and
instagram at the moment and there's a good reason for that so
what do you get in the box well once you've removed the sleeve
you've got this nice black box with the mx branding on it
then inside we've got a smaller box which contains a usb adapter
which you can use instead of bluetooth and then we've got the usb cable
and some instructions and that's pretty much it for an extra 20 pounds or 20
dollars you can also get the plus version
now that comes with a palm rest not something that i wanted and if i did
need a palm rest i would probably go for a wooden one
instead so it's got a nice clean grey theme going on with the frame
having a gunmetal shade to it which actually gives a nice contrast to
the darker keys it definitely has an apple space grey look to it the corners
are rounded which is pretty nice so no sharp edges here at all
it's got a clean logo and branding across the top too
size-wise i'd say it's pretty average i mean the dimensions are on screen here
so you can see for yourself so it's not tiny like some of the small
frame ones that i've seen out there but it's not bulky either it's it's
pretty well balanced but it feels heavy and i mean it weighs over 800 grams so
it feels solid and handling it there's no flex at all
definitely feels premium rather than cheap
plastic it also doesn't show up any fingerprints at all
i mean it looks clean pretty much all of the time so it's got a full
keyboard layout with a number pad on the side which is always my preference
you can see that there are certain buttons that have dual purposes
so for example the alt key on windows is the command key on a mac
and the same goes for the options key and the start buttons
so if you're switching between systems regularly you'll obviously get used to
this quite quickly anyway and i don't feel like it takes anything
away from the style here either so for a cross-platform keyboard it's
done really really well across the top there are various
function keys including screen brightness
keyboard brightness and your media playback options
you've also got a dedicated calculator and screenshot icon too
then to switch between your different devices you just tap the one
two or three and it instantly swaps over and something you'll notice
are the small dips in the keys and these are designed to match the shape of your
fingertips this actually makes it a lot easier to
type because you can feel where your fingers are all the time
talking about the keys they are really sturdy too so there's very little wobble
or travel at all and although it is a low profile keyboard
they aren't too thin that it feels uncomfortable and your fingers won't
slide or travel away from each key press
so as i mentioned it's low profile and it's got a kind of a tapered design
so at the base it's very very low and i mean it's almost as thick as a pen
then at the top part it's raised just enough so it's angled towards you
and to be honest it's the perfect angle too you can see underneath how it's
raised with just this bar here so it's not adjustable at all there's
also some small rubber feet which does a great job at
preventing any snips when you're using it
so the keypad is backlit and it works really well too
so you can have it completely off if you need to or you can adjust the brightness
using the function keys across the top it looks great at night now unlike other
keyboards that i've used these don't stay on all the time so they
light up as you're typing and after a second or two they turn off
again but one really cool feature here is when your hand is approaching it they
light up so you don't even need to touch the keys for them to light up
as shown here and what's the battery life like well it's really good
so it comes with an internal battery so i'm not too sure how long it will take
to actually charge from flat but i can't imagine it taking longer
than an hour or two there is a battery indicator icon at the top of the
keyboard which will turn green when you first
turn it on and then it will blink red when it's flat
but the backlight will also turn off when it's below 10 percent
it lasts up to 5 months with the backlight turned off or just 10 days
with the backlight on so if you want to last longer definitely
keep the lights off there's a physical power button on the back as well
so when you're not using it you can just switch off knowing that it won't use any
battery at all
and on to the mx master 3 mouse which also retails for 99 pounds or 99
so what do you get in the box and just like with the mx keys
once you've removed the sleeve you've got this nice black box with the mx
branding on it and then again we've got another usb
adapter a usb cable and some instructions which you'll probably never
read so the mx master iii is available in
mid-grey or graphite so i've gone for the latter
and i think it matches the mx keys perfectly and it has that space gray
style to it with the body of the mouse in a dark gray
similar to the keys on the keyboard but it also has some lighter grey accents
including the base and the scroll wheels as for the texture it
feels rubbery and soft not hard plastic like you'd usually get
with a mouse but again at this price point that's not a surprise
the corners are rounded which is pretty nice again so no sharp edges at all
and considering it's got quite an aggressive look the rounded edges really
do soften it so an awesome looking mouse is great and
all but what does it feel like will it make a difference in terms of
productivity well the way that it's designed means it fits your hand
almost perfectly it has a thumb support which means your thumb isn't hovering or
rubbing around on your mouse pad and the shape allows your entire palm to
hold it while you're using it and it's pretty big i mean it's bigger
than the previous logitech mouses that i've had but it weighs a lot less than i
expected is nowhere near as solid or as heavy feeling
as the mx keys as mentioned earlier it's made of a kind of a matte
rubbery texture which means your hand sticks to it and it feels comfortable
too it's also really really precise and will
work on any surface even glass so i've had no issues at all using it on
my wood table top or my felt pad so on the bottom there's a button where
you're able to swap between the different devices
you're using just tap it and tap through the different numbers
then on the top you've got your normal mouse buttons you've got your left and
your right click you've also got your mode shift button
on the top now this will actually toggle the scroll wheel
between a ratchet and free spin mode which i'll cover a little bit later as
well the scroll wheel can also be clicked too
which acts as a command or alt and right click ideal for opening links
and new tabs for example but this can be customized then on to
the side of the mouse where it gets interesting so you've got a
horizontal scroll wheel now this allows you to scroll obviously
horizontally and depending on the app that you're using will have a different
function so for example if i'm using audacity
which is what i'm using now to record this video in audio
then i'm able to scroll left and right on the timeline without having to
actually drag the mouse itself and the same applies to say final cut
pro you can navigate horizontally through the timeline just by using this
scroll wheel you've then got a forwards and backwards
button great for navigating web pages and again this can be
customized to maybe do undo and redo and finally we've got the
gesture button so the gesture button is designed to be
pressed followed by a movement of the mouse itself
so by default you would hold the gesture button and then by swiping
up or open task view or mission control on the mac
and pressing the gesture button and swiping down will reveal all of the apps
or windows you currently have open but this can be customized again which i
will show later okay so the scroll wheel on this is
actually incredible to the point that it's a game changer for our productivity
not only does it feel awesome to use but because it's using electromagnetics to
provide a super smooth glide it's also really fast and it's really
quiet too
so when you're scrolling it will free spin if you let it
just one quick spin and it's away to the point where it will scroll
thousands of lines of code or hundreds of pages
in a matter of seconds but it's really responsive too so it's responsive enough
to stop as soon as you touch it and the battery
life again is really really impressive so it's got
a built-in rechargeable battery as you would expect
and logitech predicts that a quick one minute charge
will actually last you three hours of use which obviously is really useful if
you've run it completely flat but you need it immediately now a full
charge will last you around 70 days or over 1 600 hours which is incredible
on the bottom there's a physical button to power it off too
so when you're not using it you can switch off knowing that you're not using
any battery at all and i literally do this every single
night now this is what really sets this combo apart from the rest
and that's the customization that you're able to do so logitech recommends
installing their software logi options and this allows you to
customize every function button on the keyboard
and the gesture controls on the mouse as well as some of the buttons as well
so every function key across the top can have multiple purposes
and you can use the default settings or you can change each button to do any
task or open any application that you want
so for example you could have f1 open photoshop or f2
could be your desktop almost anything is possible here and the same goes for the
mouse so you can change what each button does
or what each gesture does as well so for example you could press the gesture
button you could swipe down and you could
reveal your desktop so i would definitely recommend downloading and
installing this whether you're using mac or windows
it's pretty straightforward but as you can see you can make changes and create
shortcuts it will make your life a little bit easier
this can totally transform the way you work by using gestures to complete
certain tasks that you'd usually use shortcuts for
and if you regularly open certain apps the function keys can be mapped to save
you time too so what's great about this range is the
fact that it will work on both windows and mac
which is ideal for me as i've said before but it also means it'll work
across multiple devices so for example you could use them on your iphone your
ipad your macbook your windows laptop all you need to do
is pair each device to a number on the keyboard and mouse
and once powered every time you press the number one two or three it will just
swap between each device so the mx range uses bluetooth to
connect and as most devices have bluetooth by default you shouldn't have
any issues but if yours doesn't it does come with
the usb dongle and that allows you to plug that in and
connect that way instead you'll only need one adapter for the
power though so although they come with one each you won't need to install them
both so they both come with usb cables which
you can plug into your machine or a usb plug if you have one to charge
and this is where the ports are for both so you're still able to use the devices
while you're charging too okay so let's take a look at how you set
them up now this is really really easy so the first thing you need to do is
head over to the mx setup website and it will talk you through what you
need to do but essentially you power on the keyboard and mouse
you press and hold the key that you wish to pair it to until it starts to blink
fast it'll then show up as a bluetooth device
on your machine and then you just press connect
for the keyboard you will need to type the code in on screen into your new
keyboard and this will then pair the two together
so together they do make the perfect combo
with the overall look and professional styling along with the incredible
customization you're able to do this pan makes the ultimate productivity
duo i'm really pleased i opted for this and
to be honest unless i was going for a mechanical keyboard
there isn't really any other combo that i would go for sure you've got the
logitech craft which is practically the same as the mx keys
but with a scroll wheel but that's 80 pounds or 80 dollars more
so for 200 pounds or 200 it seems like a lot of money to spend on a keyboard and
mouse i mean you can pick up other combo kits
for as little as 30 pounds or 30 dollars but honestly it's worth it i'd highly
recommend getting them if you're in need of a new stylish
sleek and productivity driven keyboard and mouse
but what do you think do you think it's worth 200 or 200 pounds
do you think you could justify spending that on a keyboard or mouse let me know
in the comments and that wraps up this week's video so i
know it's different to something that i would usually create
but if you've got any questions at all or suggestions for a new video
just drop them in the comments below so as always thank you for watching
and if this video was useful to you or you're interested in seeing more tech
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you