I knew this day would finally come. I dreaded the thought of it though. It is with sweet sorrow that I must finally say goodbye to an old friend...the Logitech M305 wireless mouse.
The M305 first came out in 2009. It was small...so small some people laughed when they saw me use it. But it was just the right size for my hands to provide the precision I needed when editing my agricultural photographs. It was responsive, the scroll wheel was accurate, and it was relatively inexpensive. I loved everything about the M305. Well, almost everything.
Like any electronics device, it wears out; especially if you use it a lot. There is a strip of rubber on the left side of the M305 that would inevitably become dented in from my thumb after repeated use. The glue that would hold the four glides on the bottom of the mouse would inevitably fail and the glides would fall off. And sooner or later the scroll wheel would stop clicking and functioning like it should. I went through a Logitech M305 probably once every 9 or so months.
About five or six years after its launch I went online and learned that the mouse had been discontinued. I bought its replacement, the M325, and I was horrified. Though Logitech promised me I would like it better than its predecessor, it was no where near the same mouse. I suddenly began to sweat. My god, what was I going to do?
I went online and I began hoarding any M305 I could find...both used and new. This is when I learned there was an overseas version of the M305 that was not the same. Damn. I also learned that mouses (or mice?) were intensely personal items for some people. Some people would do anything to keep using their mouse of choice. I once read women had a similar affair with bras and would hoard them when a company stopped making them. I had fallen into that category. And there were sellers who were ready and willing to take advantage of that intense affection. If you go online now you will see you can still get a new M305, but it will cost you. Some are selling them for over $200! That is ridiculous if you consider you once could pick them up for just $19.95. So here I was stuck. I could no longer buy my favorite color (the black one) and instead was stuck buying pink, chartreuse, and purple ones. Some even had a stupid paisley design. But that was OK by me. It was the precision and feel of the mouse I desired. I could care less what it looked like (although I still longed for the black one).
But here I am. My last M305 mouse has finally given out. I have a box full of old ones with the stupid notion that I might one day be able to salvage parts from one another to rebuild a new one, but I know that will never happen. And I'm not happy. I'm even a little sad. I finally relented and bought the Logitech M510, which is not nearly the same. It pisses me off, but the M510 is slowly growing on me. But it will never hold a light to the M305. I know this.
If anyone knows where I can get a new M305 let me know. I'm tempted to buy one last M305 and bring it out occasionally and hope it will last a decade or more just to remind me how great mouses (or mice?) used to be.
Damn you Logitech.
