Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse Blue
 - reviewed by Andrew B & Tory F
Review Date: 19th November 2002
Review Score: 9.9/10 
Distributor: Microsoft

The new Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse Blue offers support for the following systems, Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98, Windows NT and Macintosh computers.

Features of the Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse Blue

• No Cord, No Clutter (Keep your desktop clutter-free with the wireless optical mouse that works up to 6 feet away from the receiver (receiver included))

• Unique Clear Scroll Wheel (Have fun using the one of a kind, wider scroll wheel to move through documents quickly without a scroll bar.)

• Go with the Optical Glow (The glowing red base signifies Microsoft optical technology for a smooth and accurate experience. No mouse ball!)

• Comfort for either Hand (Comfortably shaped for he right or left hand.)

• Dazzling Design (Silver metallic top and astral blue accents add sparkle to your desktop.)

Our first impression of the mouse was how comfortable it was to actually hold. The contour of this product was such that we found that it could be used quite comfortably with either the left or right hand.

The beauty of this mouse being wireless is that it eliminates the cumbersome cord, leaving a much cleaner, more organized desktop. However, if you do need to leave your desk, we found that the range of the receiver to be approximately 2 metres and still worked with a good degree of accuracy. This mouse is clearly designed for comfort and installed extremely easily through both the PS/2 and USB ports. We tested the mouse on Windows XP and found that it worked automatically without utilizing the installation CD, however, to get the most benefit out of this mouse, we do recommend that you do install the software. Another feature of the mouse is the extremely comfortable wheel button that is almost soft to touch and can be used as a third clickable button. The scroll wheel is also perfect for scanning through large documents and in general surfing the world wide web.

For those of you that are not fully aware of what an optical mouse is, it basically eliminates the mouse ball which is used to determine the direction of the mouse pointer would travel on your screen. One of the main problems with the mouse ball was that quite often dust would collect inside the ball cavity, rendering the mouse movement to be inefficient. The optical sensor replaces the mouse ball with an optical sensor that scans the surface underneath it, this is quite often characterized by a red light.

By using optical technology this eliminates the need for a mouse pad as the optical sensor works on almost any surface that will not defuse the light emanating from the mouse. The accuracy of the mouse was excellent for moving around the operating system and performed extremely well for Office XP. Even for games such as first person shooter titles, the mouse also performed exceptionally well and there was no significant delay between moving the mouse and it responding to our commands, it worked just as well as a corded mouse.

We would highly recommend this mouse to all PC and Macintosh users as it eliminates the mouse cord and makes your computer experience more efficient. The beauty of this mouse is that it works straight out of the packet and comes with two AA alkaline energizer batteries.  Highly Recommended!

- Andrew B & Tory Favro

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