It’s Christmas Eve, yes we celebrate
Christmas, but for those of you that don’t or are part of the
politically correct crowd out there, have a Happy Holiday, to
everyone else have a Merry Christmas!

Today for review I’ve got a rather
unique mouse, one that you can wash with soap and water! It’s a
product that might be considered a gimmick, but it comes from a
rather well known company. Actually it’s two products the Washable
Travel Mouse and Pouch Pad from Belkin. Since it’s washable there’s
no scroll wheel for obvious reasons, it’s been replaced by a unique
touch sensitive strip. So continue on to learn more about it…

Product
Name: Belkin
Washable Travel Mouse and Pouch Pad

Author: Kristofer
Brozio

Sponsor: GearZap

Tech
Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

Belkin
Washable Travel Mouse and Pouch Pad

Belkin’s Washable Mouse is
water-resistant, so it endures spills, and stays clean and
disinfected. You can even wash it under the tap. With the lack of a
scroll wheel (for obvious reasons), this mouse fully compensates with
a unique integrated touch sensitive scroll pad, which lets you scroll
vertically and horizontally with one easy touch.

The zip up Mouse Trap is a
clever solution to carry the mouse and other small items around the
house. Open the Mouse Trap to use it as a portable mouse pad. It’s
soft and flexible, and won’t slip on most common household surfaces.

Features

– Brown Washable Mouse with
Grey and Orange MouseTrap.

– Works on a variety of
household surfaces including upholstery and wood.

– Optical laser technology with
1200dpi.

– Powered via USB cable.

– 3 Year Warranty.

Care instructions: not
dishwasher safe, please hand-wash only with soap and water. Do not
wash USB connector.

Dimensions: 9cm x 6.5cm x 3.5cm

Price: $16.00

A
Better Look at Things:

So we’ll start with the unboxing
video and then there’s some still pictures for you:

The zippered carrying pouch is
very unique as it doubles as a mousepad. It has a carrying strap and
the bottom has a rubber ring to prevent the pad from slipping around.

The first thing you’ll notice
about this mouse is there’s no scroll wheel it’s been replaced by a
touch sensitive strip. The color is brown with the white touch strip
and a white bottom. I’m not too partial to the brown color, but it’s
not too bad.

Installation,
Testing and Comparison:

Here’s a comparison picture of the
Belkin with the Logitech G5, NZXT Avatar and a Bluetooth mini travel
mouse, you can see the Belkin mouse isn’t exactly tiny, but it’s not
very large either. It’s right size to be comfortable to use and yet
still portable.

So for a week I replaced my mouse
with the Belkin Washable Mouse and Pouch Pad for testing.

The first thing I learned is that
the pouch pad doe not like to stay flat, it’s taco shaped, and it
wants to stay closed. To fix this and make it stay flat I left it for
a few days beneath my camera case which is a hard case box, it’s
aluminum with padding inside of it with locks on it. After a few days
beneath my case it stayed nice and flat.

Using the mouse with my regular
pad though I found it to skip around a bit, but it really works well
on the Pouch Pad.

I found tracking on my black cloth
pad works but it didn’t feel as accurate as other mice do, it skipped
around a bit, but not so much as to not be usable.

The Belkin mouse did work well
just on a wooden table though. So if you plan on taking it with you
anywhere, you should be ok as most places you’ll be working on a
table..

The touch pad is interesting, it
took a few days to get accustomed to, but I really like it. It’s not
the same as a scroll wheel of course, but it does the job.

Oh, and yes I did wash it, you
just need to use regular soap and water on the mouse itself, of
course you don’t wash the USB connection. It does seem water proof,
it worked after I washed it…

I’ve got three small children and
I gave them their own computer, I have to say that this mouse is the
perfect mouse for children! Like all children, my kids forget to wash
their hands all the time, and they’ll be eating candy or whatever and
then touch the mouse. No matter how many times I tell them not to, of
course they still do it so their mouse and keyboard can get a bit
dirty. A washable mouse though fixes part of this problem, and it’s
just the perfect size really for their small hands, and they think
the tocuh pad is the greatest thing…

Summary
and Comments:

The Belkin Washable Travel Mouse
and Pouch Pad is not a bad product really. The idea that you can wash
the mouse is a good one really. It’s much more than a gimmick truly.

The pad works, but the fact that
it doesn’t stay flat is rather annoying. If you’re going to not be
taking it with you and leaving it flat then you’ll be ok, but if you
constantly close it up then you’re going to be stuck mousing on a
rounded surface.

DragonSteelMods gives the Belkin
Washable Travel Mouse and Pouch Pad a 4.5 out of 5 score.

Pros:

+Washable

+Great product for kids

+Small and portable

+Mouse pad doubles as carrying
pouch

Cons:

-Not a real scroll wheel, will
take time to get accustomed to

-Pouch Pad does not like to stay
flat

I
would like to thank GearZap for the chance to review the Belkin
Washable Travel Mouse and for their support of DSM.

review# 625

Disclosure: This product was given to DragonSteelMods for review by the company
for review purposes only, and is not considered by us as payment for
the review, we do not, never have, and never will, accept payment
from companies to review their products.

To
learn more about our review policy, testing methods and ratings
please see this page.