Rating: Summary: Sensitive Ears? You might avoid wireless then. Review: I recently bought the Wireless Intellimouse Explorer after being extremely pleased with an Intellimouse Optical. I thought perhaps the wireless feature would be nice if I wanted to run a DVD on my PC and control it from my bed. Well, yes, that worked OK...provided I kept the mouse within the approximate 6 ft. radio frequency range. Oh, right...radio frequency. There's the rub.There's little to say about this mouse except that it strikes me as an excellent mouse for right-handers. By contrast, the corded Intellimouse Optical is ambidextrous. I've grown accustomed to the Optical's button layout with the 2 extra buttons on opposing sides where the Wireless has them both just above a contoured thumb groove on the left side. Purely a matter of preference, I can't fault either layout. The mouse indeed tracks smoothly, and I was pleased to see that the RF operation isn't a degrading factor here. So, overall, I'll again say this was a very nice mouse. BUT, I returned it. The reason is the RF whine that I could hear during operation. Some may not be bothered by this if they have poor hearing in high frequency ranges or else work in noisy environments, but I could hear it with little difficulty. Every time I'd begin operating the mouse, I'd hear what I'll describe as sounding almost like a very high-pitch modem negotiation sort of traffic. I'd be hard pressed to state the frequency but would guess it to be around 16KHz or so. For me, that was enough reason not to keep it and go back to the tried and true Optical. I'll add that it is a pricey mouse, but I consider the expense not too much of a concern on a peripheral that sees as much use as a mouse does.
Rating: Summary: Much better than expected...all I ask from a wireless mouse Review: Bought this mouse in March and use it since at the office every day. Great handling, easy setup under XP, and the software installation was no hassle. Also I prefer big mice...if you have a small hand or limited space on your desk however this one may be a little too big. In contrast to everybody else here reporting short battery life, I still have to exchange my batteries for the first time. The icon still says "Battery status: Good", and I have no problems with that...eight to nine weeks after I started to use the mouse on a daily basis. So here I am buying more of these for the rest of my PCs...
Rating: Summary: Building a better mouse -> like building a better mousetrap Review: This is all you really need to know:
(1) The mouse works GREAT. It works just like a wired mouse.
(2) It feels HEAVY due to the 2 AA batteries inside. Although, few actually prefer the added weight as it makes the mouse feel more solid, but most just got tired quicker from the added weight.
(3) I'm on the computer 4-5 hours a day. I change the batteries every 3 months. Get 4 NiMH RECHARGEABLES (2 in the mouse & 2 in the charger) so you'll never be without batteries.
(4) For $17 (lowest price of the year--9/24/2004), this is a BARGAIN.
Rating: Summary: Overall great mouse, very small complaints Review:
I got this mouse with the Microsoft Wireless Desktop Elite for US$105 in Australia, the mouse is a silver Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0 model 1007. Amazon has it at a bargain price, which means you should buy one NOW!
TIPS
Buy it for general everyday use, or get the Logitech MX700 mouse if you are a gamer and it feels comfortable.
Install the software and restart before plugging in the devices, this solves some problems.
And remember to uninstall any previous keyboard/mouse drivers or software, i forgot to remove my old multimedia keyboard software and WinXP kept going into standby everytime i used the scroll wheel!!
NEGATIVES
Mouse is a little heavy with batteries, can get tiring with long sessions or gaming.
Far thumb button is a bit far to reach easily, a rocker style switch would have been better.
Third mouse button (wheel) is pretty bad, it takes too much effort to click it without scrolling than other mice.
Mouse software has basic functionality to customize the mouse, but no advanced features like Logitech's. Even nVIDIA has mouse gestures in their software and they don't even make mice! So i think Microsoft should have spent much more time and money developing their software and drivers.
Software doesn't monitor actual distance from receiver, it says "high" signal quality, but from 2m away it is still "high", keep using it and it suddenly drops to "low". Software recommends a max of 3ft (1m).
Batteries a little hard to remove when replacing them.
The mouse feet are bad quality and easy to scratch, my old $10 mouse had better ones.
Recessed IntelliEye logo on mouse looks cheap, a translucent one or no logo would look cooler (yes i'm complaining about the logo, why? because it cost me over $60 and i've seen $10 mice without dodgy logos)
POSITIVES
Comes with Energizer batteries.
Mouse scroll wheel is fantastic, a small amount of pressure makes it move. But is bad for gaming as it is hard to control precisely.
Comfortable for my smaller hands, and slight dent for fingers is good. I found the Logitech MX700 very uncomfortable because the ridge on the right is where my ring finger is.
My mouse actually worked at 4.5m (nearly 15ft) away from the receiver! But as soon as the software detects this (takes about 10 secs) it stops working properly!?!
Tracking seems fine for me, i seem to be able to get pixel perfect control as i do photo retouching. Maybe you should check the surface you are using it on, it doesn't like transparent or reflective surfaces. I use a 3M Precise Mousing Surface.
If you like buttons then this has 5 (but only 3 are easy to use), but the Logitech MX700 has 8 and much better software.
Don't really notice any lag from 0.5m from the receiver.
Software helper pops up if the signal is weak.
Very quick to resync, press the button on the receiver then device and it is synced immediately.
I can't hear the high pitched noise from the mouse unless i put it to my ear. This is probably because my PC sounds like an air conditioner! You might notice it in a really quiet room.
Some people complained about the delay when moving mouse as it "wakes up", I can't notice it, maybe they fixed it?
Nice matte black finish on the mouse, but it would be better if it was soft touch (like on some Pilot writing pens).
I don't notice any "sticking" on my mouse pad.
The LED angle is quite low so it's harder to blind someone (or yourself) and believe me, it's a VERY bright LED. I can see you looking at the bottom of your own mouse now :) lol
Rating: Summary: JUNK Review: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS MOUSE!!! Besides requiring new batteries in less then a month it stopped working in just over a month. Just out of the return Amazon's period!!!
Rating: Summary: Many Versions Review: Well, this mouse is supposed to have everything that I need, wireless, optical, comfortable shape. With a very good experience of the earlier microsoft optical mouse, I was really looking forward to this one. But, that's as far as you can get. It IS very comfortable on the hand, and the extra buttons sure is a big plus. But the tracking of the mouse movement sucks!!! I had to move back to my old Dell mouse because I just cannot stand it. It is always 10 pixel away from where I think it should be and I have to adjust it. And when you move the mouse in a small distance (which is what I have to do when it doesn't move right at the first time), it just becomes sluggish and unpredicatable (meaning that it has a mind of its own regarding if it will move this time). Being a programmer and a big first-person-shooter gamer, this mouse is just a waste of my time and my money. But the other wired optical mouse with extra buttons on each side is a definitely getter.
Rating: Summary: Smoooooooooooth Review: I must say, this mouse is wonderful. Period. It installed immediately in XP Home, and I can not believe how smooth and accurate it is. I kept going back to the computer a few times last night just to check it, to see if it really wasn't too good to be true. Sure enough, it kicked right on and worked WITHOUT MISSING A SINGLE BEAT. I have pretty large hands (insert joke here), so I definitely like the contour shape of this mouse. Forward and Back buttons on the side for the Internet....LOVE IT! Don't prove me wrong Microsoft! I really hope this mouse continues to shine like it did in it's first night of duty! I spend a lot of time editing video and I'm going to have that much less frustation (this is my first optical mouse even). I LOVE IT!
Rating: Summary: No Longer WORKING!! Review: I wrote a review on this item 2 months ago and i had originally gave it 2 stars, but now i would have to give it just 1 star. After two months of using it under normal conditions, it finally broke down. Such a shame because i was only starting to get use to the on again off again battery saving feature that made me lag in games. So for an item that is no longer working after 2 months, i would not recemmend this to anyone. I'm sorry Microsoft but you dropped the ball on this one.
Rating: Summary: my complaints Review: Too heavy. Consumes lots of power. Shape is not comfortable. The pain of moving a brick across my mouse pad outweights the benefit of freedom from the connecting wire.
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