Customer Reviews

Targus AMB01US Bluetooth Mini Mouse - with Bluetooth Adapter

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

After searching all over the place for the best BT mouse I finally saw this small and very responsive mouse. The problem... for whatever reason, it doesn't work properly with OS X or my powerbook. I had to return two of them because they failed in the same way. They had connection issues from the beginning, but the worst was still to come. After a few days of use they would start loosing connection more and more often, and finally not connect at all. And no, it wasn't the batteries. Two sets of brand-new batteries wouldn't fix it.
I give it 4 stars because, if it works for you, I think it is one of the best BT mouse I've seen to date. A bit expensive if you are not going to use the BT adapter, but I figured it could come in handy someday.

This is a nice mouse, albeit with some drawbacks:

-- The full retail price is high -- I kept looking at it for at least six months, finally getting it at a Black Friday sale for less than half of the full retail price, albeit with a mail-in rebate.
-- Battery life seems like it's going to be a little iffy. If you use it daily, use rechargeables, if you don't, it probably won't be a problem. However, I've seen some mice that can function corded or cordless (they recharge in corded mode), which would be a nice addition.
-- Range, responsiveness, and feel are great (at least if your hand isn't so big the small size doesn't become a problem)
-- Re-connecting can be slow or problematic. :-( It's often faster to manually delete and re-add the thing rather than waiting for Windows to automatically pick it up.
-- It works fine with the built-in wireless hardware in my Sony laptop; I think the guy who says you're forced to use the included USB<-->Bluetooth adapter is having configuration problems and somehow got off on a tangent deciding that some DRM problem was the cause.

Note that Kensington has what appears to be a pretty nice mini-Bluetooth mouse these days too. It is, however, noticeably bigger than this one, and for me smaller was better.

Advantage:
--Cute: the mouse I got is very small and lightweight. I feel comfortable when I use it.
--Quick: the mouse responds very quickly. The mouse will go to 'sleep' mode after 20-minute quiescence, and if you right-click the mouse, it will come back to respond in less than 1 second. (I know some reviews said that it may take 1 minutes before the mouse re-respond, but I believe that it is because the wrong configuration)
--Long range effective: I have tried that and it worked well at 18 ft. (The long range effect is that the mouse will respond a little slowly)
--Battery saving: because the mouse will go to 'sleep' after 20 minutes, I don't have to keep an eye on it and remember to shut it down every time I go out to meet friends.
--Multi-link of BT network: This should be a very important function of BT devices, but I haven't got a chance to try that.

Weakness: (risks)
--Style: the mouse is designed to hit you by its powerful function, so it has only one style and one color. If you are considering to buy it as a gift, you should think about his/her taste. Maybe IBM or Logitech is a better choice in this case.

--Battery saving: the mouse uses 2 AAA batteries, which makes it face the high risk of power shortage. This is a confusing preference, as I know. Someone said his mouse can run more than 1 month before battery change and other's can insist only 1 week. My mouse has only 4-day battery life in daily usage (with correct configurations), which is the only reason that I finally returned it to the seller.

--Configuration: the setup and configuration process of this mouse take more than 10 steps, which requires patience and accurate operations with the manual. It looks like that the manual is wrote by technician in a hurry and there is no 'redundant information' in it, which means you really have to read it carefully and follow up every instrument. (If the configuration is not correct, the mouse will have strange behaviors. It will work very slow, take one minute to recover from the sleep mode, be no response after the sleep, can't connect with the computer unless you reboot and exhaust battery much faster. But if you configure it correctly, these phenomena should disappear.)

Conclusion:
--Risk of investigation: relatively high price, uncertainty of battery life, time demand in setup and configuration
--Utility-Cost compare: BT has powerful functions such as BT network, fax, file transfer, printer, etc. It makes the mouse attractive and expensive at the same time. For me, common wireless RF mouse is enough to meet most of my demand.

I bought this mouse a year ago to use with my ibook. Initially, it worked well. The biggest problem that I had was the battery life. The batteries would only last for about a week. I thought at first the mouse was defective, so I had Targus replace it. I still had the same problem.

After a while, I seemed to have more and more problems getting the mouse to connect properly with my laptop. Also, the switch under the mouse broke off.

I highly recommend the Logitech V270 instead. It feels much more sturdy, I haven't had problems with the bluetooth connection, and I've been on the same set of batteries for a few months now.

I like the mouse but had to change the batteries every other week so far... seems like a lot to me. I use it as my main mouse at work , and I turn it off during the weekend.

Beside that it works seamlessly and is also good to connect other bluethooth devices to my laptop.

I purchased the Targus BT mouse and got it within 1 day from Amazon (forgot the retailer that shipped it and it was only ~60 bucks. At best buy it was 89.99 and at targus.com it was 79.99 plus I had a 20% coupon).

At first I was confused b/c I never used a Bluetooth device before. I had just purchased a laptop that is bluetooth enabled and didn't want to use the adapter that the mouse came with. I went online and asked a forum and they gave me the answer.

First, I had to enabled the software on my laptop (just open the Bluetooth manager icon and it walks you throught the process), turn on the mouse and then on the laptop you hit/click something like -- find device. You press the connect button on the bottom of the mouse and presto, it connects.

I JUST got it working so I'll let you know how well it works. The only problem so far is that it really doesn't like to re-connect upon restarting the computer or after you turn the mouse off. I have to go back into the BT device manager and reconnect it again. I have seen in the previous reviews that connectivity was an issue. I don't know a fix but if anyone does, please share.

In general, I do like the mouse. It is very small, almost a 1/3 smaller than my regular wireless mouse. I also really like the on/off switch... but I just have to remember to turn it off so that the batteries don't run out! Other thing to keep in mind about batteries -- I have rechargable batteries because I like to use wireless keyboards/mice/etc. Something to think about so that you don't go through batteries like crazy.

So far, I'd recommend it. I have no other experience with other bluetooth mice but for the cost this has nice features.

PS I just turned the mouse off then back on. I hit the connect button and it reconnected without needing to go into the BT manager. (I didn't time it but it probably took less than 5 minutes to reconnect - probably more like 2 minutes)

I'm not sure if it will work when the computer is turned complete off. But I'll try to let you know how if it works in the future.

SEE UPDATE BELOW

Reminds me of many girlfriends, lovely but unreliable.

It works beautifully when connected, however at bootup, the time it takes to connect to PC is unpredictable.

I have clocked connection time anywhere from 2 minutes up to 10 minutes once. Average connection time is 5 MINUTES. While you wait for the tempermental device to connect you have to use trackpad.

Better BT mice will get on the market once BT becomes more popular (and more profitable), if ever, in the US. Until then, consumers should expect these mediocre unreliable BT products.

Also, would the makers of BT products live in a green house or drive a green car if they lived in Greenville, or Green Bay? Probably not, so why the blue mouse?! Not cute.

I had mine for 3 days, and am thinking about returning it. At $80 bucks, non-online, I would expect better.


UPDATE:
I did a little further research, in my attempts to make the mouse function, you know just like the beautiful girl it's hard to let go without giving it a second shot, and the problem with the mouse is PROPRIETARY software by WildComm. That is an ugly word we're all going to have to get used to, PROPRIETARY, ughhh.

Wildcomm makes the software that comes packaged with a lot of bluetooth hardware devices including Belkin, Dell (internal Bluetooth), TDK, 3COM, Billionton, PenBlue, Acer, AnyCom, & GoalRay.

What does this mean?

Think iTunes and iPod; You know how iTunes tries to convert your mp3's into m4p's for copyright protection? This WildComm software issue is the same thing.

Ergo... If you have bluetooth built-in to your laptop, for example, you will be FORCED into using the USB dongle, because WildComm issues a bluetooth DRM LICENSE. No USB dongle, no good working mouse.

There is good news, however. Anyone patient enough, can find websites that will help one to HACK the btsec.dll file.

I'm gonna try the hacks. If they work I'm keeping beautiful mouse, if not I'll have 80 bucks to burn elsewhere.

Wildcomm bad.

I bought this thing long time ago...

to today...i find this thing a piece of junk..

Save urself money and time and just buy a optical USB mouse

At less than a Jackson, including a Bluetooth dongle, this mouse offers pretty decent value. The mouse itself is compact and lightweight, making it a very nice size for a travel mouse, though the lightness makes the construction feel somewhat cheap and the size makes it less than ideal for long periods of use. Since it's optical, it can be used on just about any surface without problem, though it doesn't track 100% perfectly and that may depend on the surface used. It's not a huge deal, but if pinpoint accuracy and rapid accurate response are necessary, you might want to look for another, higher quality mouse. The shape of the mouse is comfortable in the hand, and the buttons offer nice tactile feedback. The scroll wheel (which includes a third button) also offers nice response, though it feels a bit tight and sounds like a tree frog when scrolling up (scrolling down is almost silent). Overall I'd recommend this mouse if you can get it on the cheap. In particular it's perfect for those with an Eee PC or similar ultralight that does not have internal Bluetooth since the dongle can be used in any USB port and the dongle can even be taken apart and installed internally on the Eee PC with a little knowledge of electronics (check the web for eee bluetooth hacks). It also works quite nicely with any laptop that already has Bluetooth, and pairing is quick and easy under XP or Vista.

I wouldn't know anything about the performance of this mouse because I never got it to work. The driver had an update for Vista but even with help from a computer pro, there was no way to get it working. Cute though.