Customer Reviews

Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer for Bluetooth

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Purchased this mouse over two weeks ago, and have had no problems with it at all. After reading reviews on Amazon about how this mouse is quirky and consumes batteries quickly, I was worried I would be returning it soon but don't think I will be doing that after all.

I am confused about the models... most of the reviews on Amazon are for the M60-00001, which I guess is an older version of this mouse? At any rate, this one installed in under a minute on my Dell Latitude D800 with Windows XP and SP2, works great, and after two weeks of more then eight hours of use each day is still going strong on its first set of batteries. If they died now I would be content.

I had Dell TrueMobile Bluetooth hardware already in the computer so I did not want to use the included USB-Bluetooth transceiver (whats the point of using a USB transceiver with Bluetooth, anyway). So I decided to try it without the USB transceiver and without installing the included software, and it works great without either. Apparently, if the software was installed the "tilt wheel" function would work (the scroll wheel can be pushed horizontally) but I don't think that is worth the trouble that according to other reviews seems to go along with the software.

My advice: If you have Windows XP w/ SP2 and Bluetooth hardware already on your computer, do not install the software and do not use the included transceiver. Do this and you will have no trouble and be very happy with this Cadillac of mice.

*** Update February 2006:

Over a year of heavy use on this mouse, it is still working terrific! Only problem (extremely minor, maybe not the fault of the mouse) is it rarely (once a week or so?) loses connection. I just turn my wireless off and back on on my laptop, and it reconnects and is good to go...

Have learned it is worth using lithium batteries with this mouse. Alkaline seem to last two to three weeks of heavy use (8-12 hours a day), while lithium last for eight to ten weeks.

Worth every dollar; if it died completely today I would be happy and buy the same model again.

I bought this mouse about two months ago and I'm loving it. It works straight out of the box with OS X. If you have a internal Bluetooth module then you won't need the included transceiver.

The left button is the standard click, the right button functions as ctrl+click, and the side buttons can be configured to work with Expose and Dashboard. The vertical scroll wheel works perfectly and when clicked-in in Safari opens links in a new Tab.

The horizontal scroll of the Tilt Wheel works only in OS 10.4.

Battery life is superb. I own an Apple Bluetooth Wireless Mouse and rechargeable batteries, and that thing would eat them like crazy. I could usually get about six days before they needed to be recharged. The Bluetooth Intellimouse gets about a month out of my rechargeables -- I've only had to charge the mouse once since I bought it two months ago.

The only complaint I have with it is that after about six to seven minutes of inactivity the Mac closes the connection, most likely to preserve battery life, but sometimes it's annoying. Luckily, it takes only one click and two seconds to reestablish a connection.

First problem. Neither Amazon's nor Microsoft's web page mention OS compatibility. Unfortunately, the box says "XP with Service Pack 2" only. I can think of no technical reason a mouse would require SP2.

[ Correction. Amazon's site does say XP SP2 only, but you have to click on Technical Details which I did not do. So that was my mistake. -rlau ]

My Powerbook (10.3.3) recognizes it as a "Microsoft Mouse" but passkey exchange to pair the devices hangs indefinitely. The solution is to open Bluetooth preferences while the exchange is spinning, select the mouse and Browse. The Bluetooth utility will complain that the device does not support browsing, but voila, the passkey exchange "completes", actually silently fails. You will have basic mouse functionality - movement, left/right buttons and vertical scroll, but nothing else. It appears Intellipoint 5.2 is required for full support, but only 5.1 is available for OS X. My existing Intellimouse Explorer (wired) is not recognized by 5.1, so I had to reinstall 5.0. Also, back under Bluetooth preferences, you will see that the devices are not paired.

Second problem. No on/off switch. It wakes up (LED lights) with any movement, even if the PB is not on. This could mean hours of wasted battery life while the mouse is sitting in my case while travelling. Maybe power-saving can be configured via software, but I cannot verify this since I only have OS X and W2K boxes.

Otherwise, it feels great in my hand. Maybe Microsoft will release Intellipoint 5.2 for OS X someday...

I travel allot and I'm always looking to minimize wires and I prefer a full sized mouse. I thought this mouse would be perfect. Here's my review:

PROS:
1) Real easy to install (up and running in 2 minutes)
2) All the buttons are programmable
3) the wheel feels really smooth (silicon plastic makes it feel great)
4) side to side motion on the wheel adds another dimension (I can scroll sideways now)
5) two extra buttons on the left side is great (I programmed for zooming)
6) bluetooth makes it a pinch to work with computers that have bluetooth built in
7) it comes with the bluetooth USB adapter if your laptop doesn't have bluetooth built in
8) the bluetooth USB adapter can operate up to 7 other peripherals! that is a nice plus.
9) Its made by Microsoft so all the drivers work perfectly
10) I love the blue color
11) I can pick it up easily
12) very ergonomic, fits normal sized hands
13) Its a full size mouse (I don't like miniature mice)
14) optical


CONS:
1) No on/off switch :-(. It would've been nice. I do notice that the mouse lights go off and it goes silent after any short period of inactivity.


If this mouse had an on off switch, I'd give it 5 stars. That would be great for a traveling guy like me.

I bought this mouse to use on my dell laptop. It connects fine and works on another computer, however it does not connect on my dell laptop as per the instructions. I called microsoft tech support and they just ran me through the instructions with no troublshooting advice. This is an expensive mouse that does not work. What a waste of money. I did a query on google and found an interesting article, here is an exerpt....

After deciding to go with a solution that has Bluetooth built-in (instead of adding Bluetooth connectivity as an afterthought), and then buying Microsoft's Bluetooth peripherals, you will encounter a warning from Microsoft that you must disable that built-in Bluetooth (that you paid extra to have and thought to be interoperable) and use Microsoft's USB-based Bluetooth transceiver instead.

The language that alarmed ZDNet's readers is found on the packaging of Microsoft's Bluetooth keyboards and mice as well as on Microsoft's Web site: "Important: You must remove any installed Bluetooth transceiver device and remove its software in order to use this product." In other words, if you bought one of Dell's or IBM's new notebooks with built-in Bluetooth and wanted to use a Bluetooth keyboard from Microsoft--and followed Microsoft's current instructions--you'd have to disable the built-in Bluetooth radio and uninstall the software that came preinstalled from the factory.

I'm currently testing Bluetooth-based notebooks from both IBM and Dell and I can tell you that, while disabling their radios seems easy enough, uninstalling the software is a different story. For example, the Bluetooth utilities for the IBM ThinkPad T40 are actually woven into a special wireless management utility that covers the notebook's 802.11 Wi-Fi connectivity as well...........

This mouse is solid. Out of the box it worked with my Powerbook. The battery life is phenomenal. The scroll wheel feels good and I like the side-scroll functionality. Some people seem to have problems with the ergonimics, but I think it's great. Maybe hand size is a factor? But my hands are pretty much medium. My only gripe - no on/off switch for travel. Otherwise, really good mouse. I'd buy another in a heartbeat.

When I first purchased this mouse there were no reviews written on it so I blindly purchased it for use with my Dell 8600 notebook. My notebook was running XP w/SP1 with Dell installed bluetooth. I had no trouble installing and setting up the mouse, without using the provided software and transceiver. I have been so happy with this product that when my current wireless IntelliMouse that I use with my desktop stopped working I installed this mouse on my desktop. To install this on my desktop I had to install SP2, because the provided software will not install unless you are using SP2. After installing SP2, and the provided IntelliPoint 5.2 software the mouse was working like a charm. For the people that are complaining about battery life, I am using the same set of batteries in this mouse (And I do not take them out) that I installed in the mouse back in September when I first bought it to use with my notebook. The cordless IntelliMouse that I replaced used to eat batteries about once a month, but that is no longer true with these current versions. After I installed this on my desktop, I wondered if I could communicate with the Microsoft transceiver that comes with this unit and my Motorola V600 cell phone. I was delighted to find that I could download anything from this phone to my desktop and/or use the phone for a modem, all through the provided Microsoft transceiver that comes with this mouse. I have found no problems with pointer lag as long as you go into the setup and adjust the speed to what you are comfortable with. In conclusion this mouse will work without Microsoft software installed and the transceiver will work with bluetooth devices that are not Microsoft. I don't usually write reviews, but when I logged on to purchase my second one of these (to replace the one I stole from my notebook) I read all of the negative reviews and felt that I should add my experience. Great product, but you need a bluetooth computer and/or you need to install SP2. I would recommend this to anyone and I have already purchased my second.

My first impressions about M60-00007 -- that is probably the latest version as of today.

I really like the build quality and how well it fits my (relatively big) hand. I have used several versions of MS mice in the past and this seems most solid of them. However, I do not like the dark blue color but that is probably matter of taste. I would have preferred gray/black combination or red/black. The mouse wheel has smooth, oiled feel that does not "tick" when you scoll. Like an old manual focus camera lens.

The CD/manual that comes with the mouse has "Install software first" sticker on it, however, the mouse works very well without the bundled software. The CD only contains IntelliPoint mouse driver that allows you to re-assign mouse buttons etc. If you only require basic mouse functionality like me, there is no need to install anything. However, mouse wheel tilting does not work without installing the bundled IntelliPoint driver. Windows XP has built-in drivers for the bundled Bluetooth tranceiver and also IBM T42 notebook with its built-in Bluetooth antenna recognized the mouse without installing any new software/drivers.

There are also some things that could be improved:
1) The mouse wheel ie. middle button requires considerably more force to click down than other buttons. It is too difficult to click, should be easier. Tilting the weel to left/right works OK. Not sure if this is only my copy or design issue.
2) There is some minor lag in cursor movement compared to a wired mouse. Probably most people never notice it, but it's there. That is probably why this mouse is not very suitable for precise FPS gaming. But this is probably not a problem for most users, as they will not even notice this.
3) I'd like to see on/off switch, to switch the mouse off in notebook bag.

Finally, the mouse has a small button below its base that allows you to reset it to be discovered again by your computer. If you want to connect the mouse again or to another computer, you will need to hold down this button for 5 seconds first, otherwise your computer may be unable to re-discover it or your computer may discover it, but the mouse will not work properly afterwards.

Beautiful mouse! Mouse would be just fine for anyone not intending to play fps games. Mouse movements are jumpy when moving the mouse around at a very slow speed. I will be forced to buy the wired version just for gaming.
Edit: Returned product after only a week of use. Pointer lag got too frustrating! Gamers BEWARE!

I was prepared to love this mouse -- it looked well-designed and most of the reviews of its usability were positive. I chose it because the shape looked comfortable, and because Microsoft has a decent reputation for its mouse and keyboard hardware.

So, first the good news: the mouse works out of the box with any Bluetooth-capable Mac and Mac OS X (requiring neither the included USB adaptor nor installing any extra software drivers). I have used it with my PowerBook and Mac mini.

The bad news: unfortunately, the ergonomics are simply underwhelming. The mouse tracking is so-so at best (it feels rather "jumpy," regardless of the setting used in the Mouse & Keyboard control panel). Even worse, the shape just doesn't fit me -- my hand keeps slipping off the back of the mouse, and it is very difficult to pick up when needed. The best way I can describe the shape and surface texture is "slippery" -- hardly what I want in something I need to hold all day.

In the end, I am going to try again to find a two-button mouse that just feels right, and this one is going to be dumped and sold used on Craigslist. A lesson I've learned from this is that you simply have to try out a mouse in person -- no online review or picture is going to tell you whether it works for your specific needs.