Awesome battery life and range

I obtained this mouse after purchasing a laptop which came included with it.

Contrary to what one of the reviewers here said, I have been using this mouse since mid-November 2005, which by now is well over 90 days of use. Obvious it is not continuous use, but I don't think the other reviewer was using it continuously either.

I love this mouse. I didn't have much experience with wireless mice prior to using this mouse. I had a logitech wireless ball mouse, but that one was a piece of junk and wouldn't last after a few days with new batteries. This mouse, however, has some neat power saving features which lets the battery run for, oh, say 2 months? I mean, you have to consider the fact that I say 2 months based on my use, which isn't much. However, all I care about is that when I plug it in it always works. I rarely change the battery.

There are two power saving features from what I know. The first is the most obvious, that being, the USB connector locks into the bottom of the mouse which turns off the mouse. There is a little button which lines the USB connector's box which, when depressed, turns off the mouse. The other is just internal which is just like an energystar type thing which detects idle use, or at least this is what I have read about this mouse. Whatever, I get great battery life on a single AA alkaline battery, that is all I need to know.

The range is very good. Mostly I use the mouse within a foot of the computer, however my desktop at work forces me to use the mouse within 3 feet, and I have used it up to 10 feet, line of sight of course, all very strong signals.

A nice little touch they put is the connect buttons on both the mouse and the USB connector. Unfortunately I have never experienced an instance where I have lost connection and used these buttons to revive the connection, I can't seem to get them to work. I always find myself unplugging the USB connector and plugging it back it.

Windows XP SP2 comes with drivers already installed for this mouse, so no extra software is required.

The mouse is very small, very light and quite compact. It is quite the notebook mouse it strives to be.

One thing I found problems with is the battery slot. To access it you have to push the button on area where your palm would rest. It should pop up the top of the mouse, revealing the battery drop slot. I found that you have to really push the button in, and at the same time you have use some kind of wedge, like a coin, to flip up the top. It would have been nice if it popped up automatically.

Again, I paid nothing for this mouse, as it came with my laptop, however I think the current asking price of $25 isn't terrible, but you can definitely do better. I saw it at Office Depot the other week for $10, no rebates. So it can be had for a very low price, so I suggest shopping around. Considering that there are higher models which are 4 and 5 buttons I would definitely look for a price lower than $25.