Saitek Notebook Optical Mouse Peoria IL

Rating: 8/10

Mouse reviews usually offer few surprises these days. After all, a mouse is one of those peripherals few get excited about. You just buy one that feels comfortable in the hand and then forget about it. Where's the fun? Where's the excitement? Where's the originality? And bearing in mind some of the train wrecks released for the sake of being different, do we want anything beyond pure, unembellished functionality anyway? Saitek's Notebook Optical Mouse manages to combine 800 dpi functionality with a decent dose of fun. It's available in twelve colours, offering a dazzling array of reds, blues, greens and everything in between. Its clear body areas and internal LED spice up its appearance too, as well as making it easy to find the buttons in low-light conditions. Being designed for notebooks, the mouse is smaller than average, but it still feels comfortable in the hand when used with your favourite desktop. The mouse works with pretty-much any post-USB operating system.

With Windows 98 you have to load a driver from your Windows CD, but Windows XP, Me and 2000 install it for you. Perhaps surprisingly considering there's no indication on the box, the mouse also offers plug-and-play functionality with Mac OSX. It works straight out of the box with no downloading or installing necessary, and the right button and scroll wheel offer added functionality over the Mac's one-button version. But what's it like to use? Overall, it's very good. It feels comfortable in the hand even if you're used to larger peripherals, and its size makes it ideal for the young or others with small hands. The price is pretty small too. A penny short of a tenner for a mouse of this quality is very good value indeed. There's nothing small about the cable, though. Did it have to be so long? You could almost use it as a skipping rope, a surprising move considering the unit's designed for notebooks. It seems better suited to desktop users who need to pass the cable around their tower system and into a port at the back, but even so, it would be easier for those needing a long cable to buy an extension than everyone else having to fold a good 40% of its length and fasten it with a plastic tie. Despite the over-long cable, the Saitek Notebook Optical Mouse is a fine product. It looks good, works well and offers great value for money.

For more information, visit Micromart.co.uk