Anywhere you look today you can find gaming mice for sale, it seems everyone has their own version out there, but what if you just want a regular mouse to do basic office work? Sure there are a few, but you never really seem them being reviewed, I guess it’s because they just aren’t really exciting…
Well USBFever has sent me over a rather inexpensive cordless mouse that is specifically made for everyday office type tasks and even features buttons to be used in MS Word or other applications. The interesting thing about this is that it uses standard ‘AAA’ rechargeable batteries that can be easily replaced or you can even just use regular batteries if you wish, just don’t try and charge them… The charging station takes its’ looks from the Logitech MX1000, but there is no external power supply, everything is powered/recharged via USB. From my time with this mouse I’ve found it to be very capable of everyday tasks, and I also found that it is not for gaming, it’s got a bit too much lag to it for any quick movements…
Review: Wireless 9-Button Office Mouse from USBFever
Author: Kristofer Brozio
Sponsor: USBFever
Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:
Wireless 9-Button Mouse from USBFever
Product Code#:E205-B132
Price: US$29.99
Features:
– RF no fear of Blacking
– Powerful, 9 buttons
– Ergonomics
– 256 ID Per channel to avoid interference
– Ball Shape Scroll Wheel
– 800 dpi optical Precision
– Power saving mode is available (after no use for a period of time)
– Rechargeable, no need to replace battery or troubles due to running out of battery.
– Compatible to 98/ME/2000//XP/2003
Buttons(default):
– Scroll Up / Down
– Application Switch (= Alt + Caps Lock)
– Scroll Wheel
– Previous Page / Next Page
– Close (application)
– Left
– Right
Package Contents:
– Wireless Mouse x 1
– Rechargeable Mouse Cradle x 1
– Driver CD x 1
– User’s Guide x 1
– Rechargeable Batteries x2
A Better Look at Things
:
The packaging struck me as being fairly generic looking, but then again this isn’t some exciting laser gaming mouse either, so a subdued presentation work fine for this product.
Included with the mouse is a brief instruction sheet, re-charging cradle, drive/software disc and two ‘AAA’ rechargeable batteries. The batteries are the Ni-MH type rated for 600mAh, not very powerful but for a mouse they should work fine… The cradle is very similar to the one that comes with the Logitech MX100 wireless mouse, and there’s nothing wrong with that, the style works fine for what it needs to do. The cradle does have a button on it to connect to the mouse and two LEDs, one to indicate charging and the other to indicate connectivity to the mouse.
The mouse itself is silver and black in color, so it should fit in with any office dcor. It has the standard right and left buttons, along with buttons on each side as well for forward and back or whatever you program them to be.
The main feature of this mouse is the addition of the four extra office buttons, these are set behind the scroll wheel bit and accessing them is fairly easy and not uncomfortable.
On the bottom is where we find the battery cover, and a button that is labeled connect which is used to connect the mouse to the base to create the wireless connection between the two. It can also be used to switch channels in case of any interference you might encounter.
Installation, Testing and Comparison
Installation is fairly easy, the software/driver disc features software for a whole bunch of related products and you have to make sure you select the correct one for your device of course. After installation you have to restart your computer, once done an icon appears in your taskbar that allows you to access the various options of the mouse for customization and to re-program the buttons if you wish. The software is all straight-forward, it’s very easy to figure out and navigate, so configuring the Wireless 9-button Office Mouse is a breeze to do…
As I mentioned in the intro you won’t be doing any gaming with this mouse, there is quite a bit of lag when you are dealing with very quick movements like you might do in FPS type games, but other games where quick movements are not all that common shouldn’t be a problem. I also found out that this mouse doesn’t quite like shiny surfaces like plastic mousepads, it works much better on cloth type surfaces.
The range of the receiver/transmitter is fine for the average desk, I have a large desk and it was always in contact with the base.
The Wireless Office Mouse works great for doing everyday tasks like surfing the web, word processing, image editing and anything basic you need to do with your computer.
Recharging time is a bit long at first, the first charge should be for eight hours, but after that when not in use you can just put the mouse in its’ cradle and it will keep it charged for you.
Of course you can use standard ‘AAA’ alkaline batteries as well so you won’t have to worry about recharging at all. Since this mouse uses basically any ‘AAA’ rechargeable batteries (600Mah Ni-MH) the user can replace them easily when they die, so there’s no worry as with other rechargeable mice where the batteries are a proprietary kind.
The buttons are actually quite useful, you can switch applications (alt-tab), close open applications including shutting down Windows, and scroll up and down, that is of course if you left the buttons at their default configuration.
The scroll wheel isn’t really a wheel it’s a ball, it has a nice large surface area but I found it is a bit too sunken in to the mouse and sort of hard to get at…
Summary:
Overall the Wireless 9-Button Office Mouse from USBFever is an excellent choice for the average user who doesn’t do much gaming but want the freedom of a cordless mouse.
It has some great features, with the inclusion of the extra buttons and the ability to change your own batteries or the option to use regular batteries, this product is a nice value for what it can do.
DragonSteelMods gives the Wireless 9-Button Office Mouse from USBFever a 4 out of 5 score.
Pros:
-Great general office type use mouse
-Works on most surfaces
-Dual powered
-Wireless
-Extra buttons for MS Office
-Inexpensive
Cons:
-Lag on fast movements
-Not good for gaming
I would like to thank USBFever for the chance to review the Wireless 9-Button Mouse and for their continued support of DSM.
review# 313