Labtec Mini Wireless Optical Mouse - mouse

...brother-in-law now have these same Labtec mice, and ours have all worked in the same room at the same time without any difficulty.

The mouse functionality itself is barely worth describing. It does what a mouse should do, and does it fine. Its worked various surfaces, including wood and plastic laminate work surfaces, paper, mouse mat, etc. It also works on my leg (wearing beige jeans) without any difficulty!

The manual ...
...only XP. I visited the Labtec website to register the product - less than 2 minutes -and I noted that the have the driver for all Labtec mice available for download should you not have the CD available.

I like this mouse so much that I've taken to using it on my desktop as well - it just means I occasionally forget to pack it in my laptop case! Maybe I'll have to get another.

It cost 29.99GBP from PC-WORLD, although ... more

I have two Sony Vaio laptops, one with a track pad and one with a track point. I don't personally like track points, and never have, so I've been looking around for a decent mouse for carrying about for some time. I have an Elecom sub-mini mouse that I bought about 4 years ago in Japan but it has needed a good surface to work on.

When I saw someone using this mouse I was intrigued... it is close enough to a full sized mouse, it has 3 buttons, and it's wireless. Just what I wanted. The thing that really sold me was the "unique" feature of storing the wireless USB key receiver in the base of the mouse.

OK, that's how we met, now for the technical bit...

The mouse, with stored USB wireless key is 10cm long, 6.5cm wide and 3.5cm high (approx. measures). Its a little tall for packing in some slim line laptop bags, but I see this as a minor failing, when compared with its other features. It has two standard mouse buttons, with the 3rd button built into the scroll wheel in the centre. The button features are configurable with the supplied installation software (on CD).

The package as bought is a cardboard box showing the mouse and USB key through plastic. Also in the box are two AAA batteries, and 16 language installation pamphlet, and the software installation CD. Personally, I think that they would do better to highlight the USB receiver storage in greater detail on the box, as it is a major selling point of this product. As it is, the small picture on the back of the box would easily be overlooked by a casual browser in-store.

Physical installation is dead easy: place the two AAA batteries in the battery bay under the mouse, "eject" the USB receiver key, and place it in a free USB slot on your "already powered up" PC/laptop. The USB key/mouse is detected by Win XP (Home and Pro - I have laptops with both these, and have tried them) as a Human Interface Pointing device, and installs perfectly. This is fine for general mouse operation; you really don't need the software on CD at all.

Software Installation is as simple as ever, just follow the instructions - you will need to reboot. If you install this software you will get access to the control panel specifically for this model mouse. Many of these features are available with most mice today, but aren't necessarily available from the standard Windows drivers. Personally, I have a laptop installed with the software and one installed without. I don't make any use of the software myself - it works just fine for me.

As I have already mentioned, the USB key receiver is stored inside the mouse body when not in use. This is a wonderful feature, which means (provided you remember to put the receiver back after use) you'll always have the mouse and receiver together in your bag. When the USB key is stored, it also "switches" off the mouse, which is neat, automatically saving battery life (which incidentally is rated as being 2-3 months
"depending on usage" - obviously! The key only goes into its storage slot one way - there is a little "tooth" that slides into the gap in the USB connector.

The receiver itself has an extendable arm that acts as the aerial. Its range is stated as 1 metre, although longer is possible depending on environment, but not necessarily practical for using a laptop! The channels and device ID allow various RF (wireless) devices to work in the same area without interfering. You press the reset button on the bottom of the mouse to change the channel and ID together, if you think you are suffering from interference, until you find a setting that works. My brother and brother-in-law now have these same Labtec mice, and ours have all worked in the same room at the same time without any difficulty.

The mouse functionality itself is barely worth describing. It does what a mouse should do, and does it fine. Its worked various surfaces, including wood and plastic laminate work surfaces, paper, mouse mat, etc. It also works on my leg (wearing beige jeans) without any difficulty!

The manual says the mouse works with Win98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP although I have tried only XP. I visited the Labtec website to register the product - less than 2 minutes -and I noted that the have the driver for all Labtec mice available for download should you not have the CD available.

I like this mouse so much that I've taken to using it on my desktop as well - it just means I occasionally forget to pack it in my laptop case! Maybe I'll have to get another.

It cost 29.99GBP from PC-WORLD, although I have since seen in a cheaper on various websites. I'm also told Staples Office Supplies have stocked it too.

I LIKE THIS MOUSE!

 

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