Logitech MX Master 4 review

Logitech has a type of problem pretty much any manufacturer would love to have, but a problem nonetheless: if your product is recognized as the absolute best of its kind for a decade, how do you go about improving upon it – in ways that are actually meaningful – for the third time? See, the MX Master has been the pointing device of choice for countless Windows and Mac creative professionals for so long, that some of us believed there was not a whole lot more Logitech could do for the best productivity mouse out there.

Some of us were, thankfully, wrong.

Logitech recently released the MX Master 4, the latest version of its flagship wireless mouse targeted at productivity and creativity professionals – anyone working with computers, really, in need of a pointing device of the highest quality for any task (bar gaming). Yours truly has been testing it for about a month and, being a loyal MX Master user since the first version, has some thoughts to share on the new model. Read on.

Design, ergonomics, build quality: small changes where necessary

When it comes to the MX Master, Logitech is a victim of its own success in terms of design: the shape, look and feel of this particular mouse has become truly iconic, to the point that it’s now hard to imagine the company making drastic changes to it. Its fans would simply not have it.

It made sense, then, for the MX Master 4 to only make a few small adjustments design-wise: the curve of its upper body is smaller so lower fingers can rest on it in a more natural way, the side scrolling wheel was moved a bit higher and there’s now a third clickable button on the side, but that’s about it: the hands of long-time MX Master owners will wrap around the new model in the same familiar way.

The most obvious change Logitech made with the latest MX Master model is none other than the haptic feedback area, placed right underneath the ever-popular thumb-resting part of the mouse. It sports a differently textured material than the rest of the device – Logitech claims that both kinds of surfaces are highly resilient to stains now, also easier to clean – because it serves a purpose: it makes moving through the Action Ring options fast but precise enough, via touch gestures, during virtually any workflow (more on that later).

The semi-transparent edges of the main mouse buttons are a nice touch but they also seem kind of pointless visually: the MX Master 4 would have looked almost exactly the same without them. Opinions on that will obviously vary. The smaller LED indicator for battery charging is now moved to the top of the device too and, although functionally identical to that of the 3S, it’s more discreet and pleasant-looking.

One thing that most people already using an MX Master model will notice right away is that the latest one is heavier. Well, it’s not that much heavier – less than 10 grams compared to the 3S – and it’s down to the larger rechargeable battery within now powering the new haptic feedback mechanism too. It’s not something one does not get used to in a day, but it’s worth mentioning, as is the fact that this new model makes it easier to replace said rechargeable battery (the bottom of the device is held in place by discrete screws which can be removed without specialized tools).

All of the above – yes, even the somewhat increased weight in this reporter’s opinion – are positive and welcome changes that make for an improved device overall. The premium build quality fans expect of an MX Master mouse is there, the slide smoothness is there, the perfect grip is there, the handy two-mode scroll wheel feels even better and works almost silently (all the buttons do)… consider all the boxes checked.

All in all, it’s fair to say that Logitech didn’t have to make any major changes when it comes to the design, ergonomics and build quality of its latest MX Master – as they were all top-notch to begin with – so… it didn’t. That is actually a good thing, as well as proof that Logitech understands what its pro customers have always liked about this particular product. Not a given, that.

Connectivity, performance, battery life: in line with expectations

Design and build quality do matter, but what will make or break a flagship productivity mouse in 2025 is its value as a creative tool and its overall user experience day in, day out. Yours truly is happy to report that MX Master fans are getting exactly what they are expecting with this new model: it is as fast, reliable and enjoyable to use as any of its predecessors, even considerably better in a few key areas.

Logitech, for instance, is quick to point out that this new model incorporates “an advanced radio chip and improved antenna placement” because a number of MX Master 3/3S users expressed frustration over reception or connectivity issues in the past. Yours truly hasn’t experienced such issues, but it’s good to see that the company is serious about addressing them – in any case, he did not notice any problems at all with the wireless connection of the MX Master 4 to his main PC, either through Bluetooth or the included Logi Bolt receiver.

Talking about the Logi Bolt receiver, it’s now of the USB-C variety again (it was reverted back to USB-A from USB-C in the previous model). This is – in this reporter’s opinion at least – a curious choice because typical PCs have decidedly fewer USB-C ports than USB-A ports and the former, being generally faster, are more useful for other things. It’s worth noting that the Mac version of the MX Master 4 does not come with a Logi Bolt receiver, so for modern Apple computers it’s either Bluetooth-only or a separate USB-C Logi Bolt purchase.

What’s also worth noting is that there’s no USB-C charging cable in this product’s packaging. This may rub some people the wrong way – manufacturers seem to be removing more and more of the things they used to offer with their products every year – but in the context of everyday use for this particular mouse, which will probably be used in an office space most of the time, it’s not a dealbreaker. Yours truly tested three different USB-C iPhone and iPad cables and chargers with the MX Master 4 and they all topped it off from around 75% in less than 15 minutes, so no problems there.

In terms of performance there’s nothing negative – or different – to report: employing the same 8K DPI sensor and working at the same polling rate as its predecessor, the MX Master 4 is as fast, as accurate and as pleasant to use as owners of the 3S expect (much better than 2019’s MX Master 3 too). Other such products feature much higher polling rates and/or higher sensor resolutions but, truth be told, they make no discernible difference in the context of operating system and application use: this is not a gaming mouse and does not aspire to be one, being focused on productivity and optimized for that instead.

Since this is a wireless mouse that’s being used for many hours daily, its battery life is mightily important… which is why it’s great to see that Logitech made sure the MX Master 4 delivers on that front too. Yours truly made a point of using this as his only mouse, on desktop or laptop PCs, every single day for four weeks straight and – excluding the charging tests mentioned earlier- he only had to fully charge it just once during that period.

Logitech claims the latest MX Master is good for 70 days of use on one charge – everyone’s work days, working conditions or workflows are different, obviously – but it’s clear that this is not the kind of wireless mouse that annoyingly needs recharging every week. It can also function wirelessly while charging, so if it ever becomes absolutely necessary to continue working on something with it when its battery is almost depleted, a separate charger relatively near the computer connected to the MX Master 4 will do the trick.

Software: more important and versatile than ever

Advanced devices like the MX Master are expected to do much more than just point and select nowadays, so it made sense for Logitech to develop the kind of software that extends the functionality of its flagship mouse much further. The company did exactly that some years back by offering Logi Options+, a combination of settings and actions app that allows for impressive button and shortcut customization.

The latest version of the app goes much further, as software is now just as important as the hardware additions Logitech made to this mouse. Consumers will have to use Logi Options+ to make the most out of the Action Ring, the virtual button that’s placed at the center of the haptic feedback surface ready to display a circle of 8 assignable icons (each of which can contain more icons) at any time. What’s more, in order to gain access to the Logi Marketplace – where a lot of useful application profiles and functionality plugins reside free of charge – they will have to create a user profile and log in the app with it.

It’s something some consumers may not like – it’s not necessary for anyone to get another trackable profile in order to download simple configuration files – but it does make sense for devices such as the MX Master: get premium hardware, make it last longer by adding genuinely useful software features over time. It was probably what Logitech’s CEO Hanneke Faber referred to when she mentioned “the forever mouse” in that famous The Verge interview last year – and yours truly is here for it, provided that new software functionality is always offered free of charge as a competitive advantage, not as an excuse for a subscription down the road.

In any case, Logi Options+ allows for an amazing amount of control over how the Action Ring works, what commands and shortcuts it can provide at any given time, even how it looks while doing it (dozens of icon packs!). There’s a small number of pre-built profiles for several Adobe apps already available in Logi Marketplace (the company promises more over time) but yours truly expects that a lot of prospective MX Master 4 owners will end up building their own sets of Actions or heavily modifying existing ones regardless.

Does the Action Ring work as intended in everyday use, in real-life workflows? Is it actually useful? Yes, it does and yes, it is. Consumers will have to put in the time in order to configure what the Action Ring does (and in what context) in a manner that makes sense to them. They can also expect an adjustment period, during which they will have to constantly remind themselves that many commands, shortcuts or actions they used to look for in any user interface are now two thumb presses away. But after all that… it works wonders.

The somewhat tricky part comes when productivity and creative pros realize that many of the commands assignable to the Action Ring work like the keyboard shortcuts they are constantly using with their left hand anyway. It then becomes a matter of which ones get assigned to Action Ring icons (two thump presses), so the most often used ones, like e.g. Ctrl+C/X/V, can remain in shortcut form (one keyboard combination). Eventually most consumers will be able to carry out Action Ring commands and keyboard shortcuts at the same time, which can definitely speed up any workflow.

Logitech claims that the Action Ring can save users “up to 33% of their time” – which may sound rather arbitrary, but seems totally doable to yours truly… as long as one’s job involves a lot of repetitive tasks. If not, the Action Ring it’s still extremely useful for other things, such as launching apps, accessing AI chatbots or doing common operating system stuff. Plus, let’s be honest here, the haptic feedback offered by the MX Master 4 adds a layer of interactivity that keyboard shortcuts cannot hope to match. Nice.

The final verdict: still the best for work by a mile

One would think that Logitech making consumer-driven improvements and adjustments to what was already considered to be the best productivity mouse in the market – then adding new functionality to it on top of those – would lead as close to the perfect pointing device as any manufacturer can deliver right now. One would be right: this really is the best mouse for creative and productivity professionals, hands down, even if its fourth iteration is more of an evolutionary rather than revolutionary product.

That “evolutionary rather than revolutionary” remark usually counts as a negative in product reviews… but, in this particular case, it isn’t. See, when a product comes this close to perfection, it gets really hard to improve upon it without changing more than what its intended target group would like. In the case of the MX Master there was not much wrong in the first place, so Logitech did address what was obvious to fix or fine-tune but was wise enough to not try anything crazy in terms of design or functionality (as consumers were already pretty happy with those).

Are there still ways to improve upon the latest MX Master? Sure. We could ask for even longer battery life (but that’s something anyone can ask of any wireless product), for enough space within the device to store the easy-to-lose USB receiver (but it’s not a deal breaker by any means) and maybe for Logitech to finally allow this mouse to work and charge at the same time while plugged into a PC or Mac (it really can’t be that hard… now can it?).

But… that’s about it, really, which speaks volumes: if one’s nitpicking like this, it’s a clear sign that a tech product is excellent. This one barely has any real competition too: there was basically just one other wireless mouse for work that came somewhat close to the MX Master 3S, the Razer Pro Click, and – although yours truly has not used the latter extensively – it’s fair to say that Logitech has widened that gap yet again with the MX Master 4, especially when it comes to functionality and customization.

There’s no question, then: Logitech’s latest wireless mouse is the best of its kind yet, reigning supreme in this particular category. The only other question worth answering is this: should people who own the already high-quality MX Master 3S treat themselves to an MX Master 4? Is the upgrade worth it? In yours truly’s opinion, absolutely: the mouse is the only consumer electronics product creative and productivity pros hold in their hands more hours than their smartphones everyday. If this product is not worth its asking price, what is?

LOGITECH MX MASTER 4 SCORECARD

Kostas Farkonas

DESIGN

BUILD QUALITY

PERFORMANCE

USER EXPERIENCE

EXTRAS

TO THE POINT

It may not redefine the concept of the modern productivity-focused mouse, sure, but the MX Master 4 does bring something new to the table – in the form of the Action Ring – while sporting a number of improvements over its predecessors. Still the best of its kind, still in a class of its own.

4.6

pros

	Ergonomic, proven, minimalistic design
	Excellent build quality
	Top OS and app performance
	Removable rechargeable battery
	Flexible connectivity
	Extensive customization options
	Rich, often-updated software

cons

	The same sensor resolution and polling rate as before
	Setting up the Action Ring and getting used to it takes time
	Still somewhat large and heavy for some consumers

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