Review: Belkin Optical Mice
Don Bradbury tries out a pair of optical mice; one cabled, one wireless
| Product | Optical Mice |
|---|---|
| Company | Belkin |
| Web | www.belkin.com |
| Price |
Mini Optical Lighted Mouse: F8E836eaUSB-GLO: around £12.40 from amazon.co.uk Wireless Optical USB Mouse, F8E847QEAUSB: around £6.40 from dabs.co.uk |
| We like |
Accurate optical sensors; minimal cable clutter; no more cleaning of ball & rods. |
| We don't like |
Mini's cable lock occasionally freed itself. |
| Rating |
Mini Optical Wireless Lighted Mouse: 8/10 Wireless Optical USB Mouse: 9/10 |
| Requirements |
Whatever your feelings may be about the ubiquitous mechanically driven mouse, there are alternatives you should perhaps consider. We recently took on board for testing a couple of optically driven mice, one still cabled to a USB port, though with a novel arrangement of the cable, and a second which not only sensed movements optically but was wirelessly driven.
The Mini Optical Lighted USB Mouse
This product, coded F8E836eaUSB-GLO in the Belkin catalogue, was a diddy little mouse that plugged into a USB port via a slim retractable cord. That neatly obviated the problem with the traditional mouse of having six feet of substantial cable dangling across the desktop on it's way to the USB port. A short retractable was all that was needed to clear most of that wiring clutter, and was particularly suitable for laptop users who insist on a cabled connection.
This mouse worked quite well. Perhaps a little on the small size for a typical man's hand, it was, nevertheless, easy to use, responsive to the left and right mouse buttons and scroll wheel, and it came equipped with more "optical" about it than the optically-embedded sensor in that it glowed with a range of colours that constantly changed. Novel! Not particularly useful, but funky.
Apart from performing its mouse duties well, being optically driven it was not subject to the fluff and dust problem suffered by the traditional ball mouse where, periodically, the ball housing would have to be taken apart and the ball and rod mechanism carefully cleaned. That was a process that was, in our experience, only ever partially successful as the depths of the ball housing were so inaccessible that you could never be quite sure you'd got all the fluff and trappings off the rods. Sooner or later you had to ditch the mouse and buy another.
Being optically driven means that the sensor underneath the mouse senses the movements you make over the surface that it's stood on and transfers those movements to the computer via its USB connection. Why didn't we think of that before? Well, we did; the optical mouse has been out and about for some time now, just waiting for us to discover it.
You may find that getting the retractable cable to stay at a suitable fixed length is very occasionally troublesome. Fixing the cable at this optimum length is the job of the locking mechanism on the reel device in the middle of the cable. Working well most of the time, it very occasionally slipped and had to be reengaged by carefully yanking on it to click the reel lock into position. But you can, at least, hold surplus cabling in that reel and not be forced to have it dangling across your desktop, thereby very neatly tidying things up.
A wireless optical alternative
The Wireless Optical USB Mouse, coded F8E847eaUSB in the Belkin catalogue, was of more traditional size, but it's main virtue, apart from being optically driven, was that it was not, itself, directly cabled to the USB port but was as free as a bird (or mouse), operating via a wireless sensor that was itself plugged into a USB port. So this mouse sensed movements optically, and it transmitted it's movements wirelessly. A neat arrangement.
The wireless connection, being radio-based, not IR or otherwise optical, meant that the base unit could be hidden behind any convenient barrier, keeping it out of line-of-sight. That's a consideration because, probably unnecessarily for many users, it came with about five feet of cable which terminated in the USB plug. Since managing without a lot of surplus cabling was one of the objects of this wireless exercise, we wondered why so much of it had been added. Well, some folks have their PC system box a goodly way from the keyboard, don't they?
We were, though, quite able to operate the mouse with the base receiver located at it's full five feet range without any obvious detriment, and there may be some who will value that placement option. In any event, the surplus cable could easily be tucked behind something, whether it be a notebook's screen or a desktop's system box perhaps.
Again, mouse movements were superbly detected, with the bouncing of light off the surface with 800dpi precision, and dutifully reported to the base unit. Of course, with either of these mice, the user has access to all the usual mouse settings in Control Panel, so the movements can be either magnified or reduced for those finding themselves with deft or relatively clumsy hand movements. Click speed, similarly, can be adjusted as usual, making this wireless mouse a joy to use.
Although, as with the Mini Mouse, the scroll wheel was rather less notchy than our usual MS WheelMouse, we preferred it mainly because of it's independence. We could use it on a hard surface, table cloth, carpet, cushion, leg, and even a thick bed blanket - if you insist on using the bed in ways other than the traditional, which is, by the way, not recommended for notebook users because soft surfaces can block the air vents. About the only type of surface these optically driven rodents don't like being asked to operate on is glass, mirror, or other reflective surface.
Being independent of the computer in this way, this mouse needs a couple of (supplied) AA batteries to power it's optical sensor, so these will need changing periodically. Although we didn't have sufficient operational experience to determine how long an interval that would be, you can apparently tell they need changing when the mouse movements become choppy.
In conclusion
Claiming compatibility up to Windows XP, installation of both mice was straight forward on a Vista machine, and both worked well. With early versions of Windows you'll need to keep your old mouse operational until installation of the optical mouse is complete. The USB Human Interface Device Driver is installed, and that's about it. The choice may be down to, if not the price, then the type of connection to the USB port that you prefer. Recommended, particularly the Wireless Optical USB Mouse at Dabs' current offer price.
