The first mouse I ever bought that wasn’t included with a computer was a Microsoft Intellimouse. Since then I have likely owned no less than 50 mice, some of which I disliked and some of which I hated. That includes one’s that cost over a hundred bucks and had every possible kind of gimmick and gadget, which almost always made me dislike it even more.
BACK TO BASICS
When I got my new Z2G4 workstation I retrogressed and went back to the simplest, most basic mouse I could find stuffed somewhere in the back of my desk and guess what, I like it better. Over time I have learned that there are a few things I don’t want or need, such as multiple tiny buttons on the top or sides that always get pushed at the wrong time – all I want or need is a left button, a right button and a scroll wheel. I don’t even care if the scroll wheel doubles as a button or tilts from side to side. I also learned I don’t want or need a mouse that has any kind of variable dpi or sensitivity – as a graphic designer I want it to act and feel exactly the same time after time after time. The last thing is something I disagree on with some other users – buttons that are harder to click are not a negative to me and they in no way cause hand or finger pain, quite the opposite the last thing I want is to be moving my mouse around with my fingers laying lightly on it and suddenly a button presses and does something to my work I didn’t want it to. I only want the buttons to click when I want them to.
ERGONOMICS
The Intellimouse is larger than most but has an uncanny perfect fit into the palm of my hand. While it does have the two options buttons under the right thumb that most people use as forward and back, unlike so many models I have used my thumb falls naturally under those two buttons so I can’t possibly push them accidentally, yet when I do want to us them all I have to do is slide my thumb up slightly.
SURPRISE
A couple of things I did not expect, especially at the low end of the range, is the cool ice blue light at the heel of the mouse that helps me find it in a darkened room. It’s there, it looks cool, but it doesn’t overwhelm or dazzle like some brands do. It’s just a minor concern that as far as I can see there isn’t a way of shutting the light off when the computer is powered down , but maybe that’s just my system.
The other unexpected thing is that as soon as I plugged it in it loaded its own driver without having to download a large memory hogging app like Logitech does. The app recognized which mouse I have and gives me a few extra control options that the operating system doesn’t
HOW IT FEELS AND PERFORMS
Yes this device is at the low end of the range, although you can get mice for even less. But unlike them it is not cheap feeling. Unlike most others at the low end it’s not super light weighing about double that of mice included with most computers these days and it has just enough weight to not skitter around my desk. The cord isn’t the fancy armored kind that some manufacturers are pushing, it is soft and flexible to the point there is no difference between it and a wireless mouse. The pads on the bottom glide smoothly and the scroll wheel doesn’t run away from me, it turns with an intuitive amount of force. What is noticeably different from other low end mice is the precision, a critical thing for anyone who does editing, retouching or graphics. It is much more precise without slowing down to a crawl.
And on the subject of precision, for the first time I was able to get rid of my mouse pad completely and use the much larger flat surface of my desktop as a tracking surface. I now have a degree of control that I’ve only seen on my very expensive graphics tablets and I never have to worry about falling off the edge of the pad on long dragging operations.
BLISSFUL SILENCE
The final thing is also super important to me – I often work in my home studio into the late house of the night. A mouse that has loud plasticky sounding buttons and scroll wheel drives me up the wall. There have only been a couple of them I’ve ever owned that are silent or close to it. This one is one of the quietest I’ve ever owned. That would almost be reason enough for me to choose it.
| Wireless Type | 802.11a |
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