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

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

Logitech’s $80 Mobi Fold was designed firstly as a journey mouse. Thanks to its ridged silicon sheath, it clams as much as the dimensions of an precise condom—therefore my preliminary comparability. In the spirit of testing its portability, I slipped the folding mouse into my bag, introduced it to Computex 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan, and spent an entire 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—notably the truth that it replaces my beloved scroll wheel with a trackpad.

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

What I’d give for a scroll wheel

I initially imagined myself as the right guinea pig to check this mouse. I are inclined to journey gentle. When attending a weeklong abroad conference, I usually take a heavy-duty drawstring bag massive sufficient to suit a pocketable digicam, a laptop computer, and some additional items of substances. Previous pint-sized mice—even these from Logitech, such because the MX Anywhere 3S or the gamer-focused G705—may 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, which 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 Master 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 change between one and three units. Logitech even enables you to customise your buttons within the Logi Options+ app.

This mouse additionally has an extended, lengthy battery life. After almost three weeks of standard 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 doubtless eke out extra.

The huge problem is that this mouse eschews a standard scroll wheel in favor of what Logitech calls “Active Touch Scrolling.” This is actually a miniaturized trackpad appearing as a multi-action center mouse button. While that scrolling motion is ample for, say, studying textual content slowly, maneuvering straight to the underside of a web page is much extra annoying. The trackpad appears to have sensitivity points, and typically it takes a number of swipes to progress all the best way down. Scrolling feels sluggish on the whole, which isn’t helped by the sticky texture alongside every mouse button.

That Active Touch space additionally options ahead and again buttons (you possibly can swap them for different actions and allow gesture-based controls). On most browsers, you too can 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 person expertise.

Logitech stuffed its journey mouse with a 4,000 DPI sensor, which 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’s 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 texture additionally leaves it susceptible to blemishes and dirt. The white model of the mouse Logitech despatched me for overview 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 overview unit. That pouch ought to preserve the machine clear, although it additionally provides bulk to your bag. If you 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 sort of machine for use often when you haven’t any different alternative. That’s not a really interesting proposition, is it? I may think about utilizing it extra if the center mouse button labored in addition to a scroll wheel. Until it does, I’ll save these ounces and inches of bag area for one thing else.