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The Mouse:::...
I'm sure I drove one of these when I
used to play Pod back in the day, and let's be honest,
you could probably quite easily mistake this for the
latest Japanese concept car if it had wheels on it.
The upper sections of the mouse are
a glossy, metallic pale blue colour with the two buttons
featuring a slightly more granular or pearlescent
look to them. I wasn't sure about having such slick
surfaces on a mouse but it works well and won't look
as ugly as a matt surface that begins to shine up
through use.
That said, the two sides of the mouse
are a matt black finish that will begin to shine up
but you need the grip so a slick finish was out. I
could have lived with a genuine rubberized surface
finish but price is king and rubber would certainly
be a more expensive option.
The quality of the finish is impressive
and if it proves to be durable too this is a mouse
that, in one design or another could grace just about
any desk.
Being completely symmetrical the Optical
Mouse 2.0 is equally suited to left and right handed
users and though not quite as sculpted as the IntelliMouse
Explorer it's by no means uncomfortable even with
extended use.
The underside is pretty much identical
to that found on the Explorer with a battery cover,
a "connect" or "teach" button
for registering the mouse to different Microsoft receivers
and an offset optical sensor. I'm assuming the positioning
of the sensor is purely to accommodate the batteries,
I certainly can't think of any practical advantages
to having it over on one side.
And unfortunately Microsoft are still
using small area contact pads (feet) with very little
depth on them meaning users of hard, textures mouse
pads like the RatPad could find themselves skating
plastic on plastic before very long.
Battery life is given at around six
months which if it holds true is incredible. In fact
half that and I'd be impressed!
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