Personality over beauty kind of mouse
Strengths:Bluetooth nice compromise between battery saving and actual usage (doesn't sleep aggressively); button material repels dirt; default works nice with Mac OS x; OFF button
Weaknesses:ugly; software essential for button mapping; scroll wheel from 1996.
Posted Mar 8, 2008 - Choosing a bluetooth mouse for a MAC is harder than it seems. On one hand, you have a great design like Apple's mighty mouse except the parts are junk (the scroll wheel gets gunk within 1 month). On the other side of the gamut, you get a logitech V2xx/V4xx series where the bluetooth battery savings power is so aggressive, you get intermittent lag when it sleep and reconnects. Sighing at both choices, when I saw a bluetooth mouse from Microsoft, I gave it a blind shot. To sum it up, Microsoft has a great foundation -- on the inside.
The microsoft bluetooth setting approaches what the might mouse does well - that is doesn't get disconnected intermittently to live up to some marketing claim on the box of xx hours of battery life. I rather give up 1 month of battery life (use rechargeables) than a mouse that lags. If it bothers me using office productivity software this much, gamers stay away. But this microsoft does the bluetooth well - I haven't changed the batteries for a month and that's great because it stays connected when I want it to. Besides, since I'm not so lazy, when I go to sleep at night, I simply flick the switch off. How novel but how critical that the engineers did this right. The material on the mouse is not very haptic friendly. The materials feels like some coating that tries to repel daily grime but it feels so synthetic that you will never adore the surface like a metal or glass.
The things it doesn't do well is presentation. It is one ugly mouse. When the microsoft advert takes the focus of the mouse 100% of the time while probably using 10% of the available surface area, you know someone in the art department took a day off. The off-white and grey scheme clashes too - and there are no other variations of colors. How about a simple pure white to make it visually bigger because it is short and stocky - just ugly. Someone needs to remind them that a monochromatic scheme works wonder but that memo got recycled. Now the biggest USAGE gripe is the scroll wheel. Remember all those "OEM" mices that internet retailers sell with obscure names. Imagine one of those scroll wheels on your mouse and make it notchy and loud and overtly plastic. So in effect, make it ten times worse. So there you have 1996 technology in a 2008 product. ANTI-FUNCTIONAL.
When you are a desperate typist like me and touchpad just doesn't allow that fine pin point control, you have to deal with remedial remedies like a notebook mouse. I certainly can't stand to look at it but because it works well wirelessly or should I say bluetoothy and I can endure the scroll wheel from antiquity, it works for me. Not an essential buy for casual users because it simply lacks so much. For those who don't need a bluetooth mouse, there are 2.4ghz radio technology mice that run circles around this one. Choose that mature tech if you need wireless and leave the guinea pigs for people like us who have no choice.
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