solid cordless mouse

Saw this mouse at Staples at a special sale price of $19.95; I had good experiences with their high end MX700, so I figured, what the hey, let's give the budget version a shot.

I tested this on both a Toshiba Satellite laptop and a PowerMac G4, with the included software on the PC and by itself on the Mac.

The wireless part works fairly well; I wound up walking almost 15 feet away with no loss in mousability. Its optical technology gave me solid mousing on almost all surfaces I tried, from a loose sheet of inkjet paper to a dog-eared Starry Night mousepad. Note to first time buyers: optical mice do NOT like shiny, smooth surfaces. If the finish is matte, then it's fine, but mirrors are STRAIGHT OUT.

In day to day use I preferred the feel of its scroll wheel over the one on Microsoft's Intellimouse. It felt smoother than the 'ratchety' feel of the MS mouse. I also like the rounded feel of the buttons, it feels more natural than the flat surface I'm used to on the MS mouse. Logitech's "All Apps" button didn't do much for me on Windows, but under Panther (OS X 10.3) I was able to confgure it for use with Expose, and between configuring the scroll click and the all apps button it makes a pretty good Expose mouse. (The Logitech MX 310, 700, and 900 are better for this purpose but are more expensive.)

There is a slight coke-bottle like taper at the base of the mouse that makes proper grip of the mouse feel effortless and goes a long way in terms of long-time comfort, in my opinion.

If there were any drawbacks to this mouse, I'd have to say it's the batteries. It uses two AA batteries for power, and unless you have the bucks for lithium batteries (which are more expensive but lighter) with two typical alkaline batteries it feels ponderous. This makes the mouse good for general mousing and light drawing, but bad for gaming purposes that rely on quick pinpoint reflexes (like, ALL fast action games.)

In general use I've found the Click! will eat a pair of DuraCells roughly once a month or so. You'll know the batteries are dying when all of a sudden the mouse will 'lock' or refuse to transmit. If the batteries aren't totally dead you can push the 'connect' button on the bottom of the mouse and you can get mousing ability back for a few minutes, but it'll lock again soon. At least the batteries are secure and don't wobble, unlike an el cheapo no-name wireless mouse from Taiwan that I got at one of those computer expos they hold at the Holiday Inn..

Another minor quibble is that the receiver doesn't seem to have a lot of design knowhow put into it; it's a simple black wedge. Newbies might even mistake this for the mouse part. It doesn't have a clever attachment so that it hangs off the back of your monitor out of sight like some other mice have, so once again it's a budget thing.

The SRP of $39 for this mouse seems a bit high; if you can find it on sale for $25 or less like I did, then it's a good buy.