After making a error in judgment and leaving my old mouse on the floor to have my dog chew through the cable it was time to get a new external mouse. Seeing that the odds are fairly high that I would make the same mistake again I decided to go with a wireless mouse to avoid the pain of walking in the door to find my mouse cable in a four pieces. After reading through quite a few reviews I decided to go with the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 5000.
Being a Mac user one might expect that I would refuse to buy any Microsoft product to go along with that computer. The problem with that thought is that using a Mac is fine, but I still need two buttons and the Mighty Mouse just does not cut it. I used two fingers on the touchpad for a long time and I am happy using that; the touchpad is kind of difficult to use when connected to an external monitor.
When I first opened the box I noticed something that was quite odd, it included a massive base station. Most of the wireless mice I’ve used as of late have a receiver the size of a thumb drive. This mouse however has a receiver about the same size as the mouse itself. I found this to be quite odd, but this is just going to sit on my desk so I have no real issue with it.
When connection a Microsoft mouse to a Mac I was expecting issues, but had none. Right out of the box the mouse worked with drivers built into OS X. I found the mouse to be kind of slow by default so I decided to download the latest drivers from Microsoft. This not only fixed the issues with the speed, but it allowed me to choose what to do with the two side buttons on the mouse. I played around with the settings for a while and eventually decided to disable them. I found the side button locations to be a little odd. To be honest, I’ve never used anything on a mouse besides the two main buttons and the scroll wheel. I’ve had seven button mice in the past and the buttons just get in the way for me.
When picking a wireless mouse over a wired the first thing that comes to mind for me is my first generation wireless mouse. It was such a beast and would eat through batteries as it they were Pez. I’ve not had a good wireless mouse since as I always avoided them in the past. No so surprisingly this mouse has great battery life. I’ve been using the mouse non-stop for nearly a month now and the meter says the battery life is still full. I’ve done nothing special to help the batteries survive, I use the mouse as I would use any other mouse. When not in use I do not turn it off, it just sits on my desk.
One of the most important things about a mouse is the feel of it. This mouse fits my hand perfectly. I don’t believe I’ve ever owned a mouse that felt so good to use. Quite a few of the mice I’ve used in the past were “ergonomic”, but I found most of them to be annoying in actual use. The one thing I did notice was that this is only a right handed mouse. If you try to use it in your left hand it just doesn’t fit, sorry lefties.
Overall I am quite happy with this mouse. The issues I’ve read about with this mouse I’ve found to be a non-issue for me. I recommend taking a look at this mouse if you are in search of one. It is not something that is so great that you should buy one just to own.
