Explorer Mini Mouse

I was talking to Shannon Dowden the local Microsoft Geek Gadget Girl about the problems with mice and certain desktop environments. Shannon told me that the Bluetrack mice would solve all my problems. Sure… right, I’ve heard that before   Ok – so Shannon put her money where her mouth was and gave me one to try out.  I took it home and the first thing I tried it on was my frosted glass desk at home.  Most mice simply don’t work in this environment and I’ve needed to use a mouse mat under the mouse which is quite a pain.  Anyway I used the new mouse on the desktop and IT WORKED… it just worked.  I was sold.  The BlueTrack technology is featured in a number of mice in the MS hardware range now and it’s designed to operate on just about any surface at all. From my tests, it works on everything I’ve tried so far which is great.

What I like specifically about this mouse aside from the fact it works on my glass desktop is the feel of it.  I find that for a mouse to be usable over the long term it needs to fit my hand just right. This mouse does that nicely.  The mouse runs on a single AA battery and right now I’ve used it for a couple of months day in day out without changing the batteries just yet.  It comes with a snap in dongle that powers the mouse off to save battery.  Also it comes with a small carry bag to protect it when it’s in my laptop bag.  All in all a nice package indeed.

It retails for around the $ 99 here in Australia and you can buy them from a variety of commercial outlets.

Here’s the link on the MS website for more information

Biggest Advantage: Comfort factor – this is one mouse I use every day with my laptop

Biggest Disadvantage: The carry case opening is not secure enough to hold the mouse side it in my laptop carry bag. End result is the mouse often slides out  easily.

Thanks Shannon for the mouse – I love it!

Tags: Hardware I use

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 6:30 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.