Date: March 3rd, 2005
Article by: Jeff Caldwell (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner, Head Editor & Hardware Reviewer)
Product Submitted by: A4Tech
<--SHOP FOR AN A4TECH NB-30 BATTERY FREE OPTICAL WIRELESS MOUSE

PRODUCT INSTALLATION

After a brief glance of the instruction booklet to make sure the mouse wasn't one of those "download your own drivers because we didn't want to package it" kind of deals, I'm assured the setup is a simple plug n' play install.

Above you see the mouse that comes with this package. After a few seconds of the USB connection wizard running you see the installation finish. The next thought was of course, the mouse needs some sort of configuration. The surprise is, the mouse requires no installation! Just plop it onto the "MagicPad" mousepad and move on.

Here is where it gets a little strange: to get your mouse working you have to push a "Tune" button similar to the connect features of most wireless devices, but this button is attached to the pad, not the mouse. When its connected the mouse will light up red and your ready to go, at least your supposed to be.

PRODUCT TESTING

I installed this mouse in the night, more anxious to see it working then to test it for the review. I was happy with the product for the night, it only disconnected itself once. My presumption was that I slid too far off the mousepad; which was quite possible as the mousing surface is very small compared to what I am used too. The mouse is aimed for the average home/business user, not the gamer and this was expected.

The next morning I awoke to do the real testing by getting a good day's work done (see: gaming endlessly). I looked to see the mouse had disconnected itself, again I assumed "Ok, it's a power saving feature. After awhile of no use, it probably disconnects itself." Wow was I ever wrong; I spent a good 10 minutes trying to get it to connect again, it absolutely refused to acknowledge the mouse's presence. Once the mouse finally connected again I was about to begin my testing and it was out again. This time I was nowhere near the edges of the mousepad.

I continued to give the mouse the benefit of the doubt and thought, "Ok, time to try it on another machine". My assumption was that the mousepad didn't like the USB Hub it was connected to. The same problem arose on the next machine; it even followed onto a third.

So all in all, I got in about three hours of casual surfing before this product stopped working. For $39.95 USD I would expect A LOT better quality than this; seems more like $0.99 bargain material to me.