Date: April 7th, 2008
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Microsoft
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PRODUCT COMPOSITION & WALKTHROUGH
This mouse is just like any other Microsoft mouse with its left and right main, a left third key button and your standard center scroll with integrated push button. Click feel is very good with the clicks being very quiet when compared to my Logitech MX510 standard mouse. This should prove to be appreciated by others around you during working sessions in a library or in any quiet working environment. In the center you have your battery life indicator which also serves as a bluetooth connection notification.
The bottom of the mouse houses the power switch, the bluetooth pairing button and the 5000's 1000dpi laser. Also you will see the four mouse feet which do their job, but to make movement a little smoother, I would like to see them doubled in size. In the center you have the battery compartment which will house the two included AAA batteries.
Other than that, their really isn't much more you can point out about a mouse.
PRODUCT USE & COMFORT
So how comfortable is this mouse after extended use? To put this small mouse through its paces, I used it as my main mouse on my work computer. This accounts for about 40 hours worth of use which in most cases should bring any weaknesses and strengths to the forefront.
Mouse setup was simple and was as simple as pairing the mouse with your local bluetooth service and in seconds enjoying your mouse. The bluetooth was picked up immediately after pressing the mouse's bluetooth pairing button and the device was installed with XP's native bluetooth driver pack. No other software was needed or warranted seeing I am not the kind of person that reassigns the button commands to serve different purposes.
After running this mouse through the ringer which is my daily computing life, overall, the mouse does do its job well, but not perfectly. Things that I noticed that needs to be addressed is overall height. Although in short term use this won't be noticed, during long time use the height of the mouse seems a little awkward. Lowering it a 1/4 of an inch should make it a little more comfortable. In addition, I found the scroll wheel was noisy, and lacked refinement and overall felt a little cheap and clunky. This of course was counteracted with the overall feel of the other mouse buttons which where relatively quiet and positive feeling with just enough resistance for comfort. Pointer tracking and movement was very accurate and no notable problems were noted with the mouse's ability to be accurate and fast.
Overall, a very clean user experience other than the slight ergonomic and scroll wheel issues noted.
