Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse (BX300008) Review

I work from home.  Yep.  I sit on my couch with my lap desk and laptop and work from there and sometimes all the wires and things get in the way of my blankie and my jammies and the tons of pillows surrounding me.  My work environment is very comfortable so anything I can do to reduce the amount of cords and things that could get in the way of my comfort stuff is a good thing. 

Sometimes I like to get out of the house and work at the park across from the community center where I can pirate the wireless signal from the library.  Sometimes it's Starbucks.  Sometimes it's sitting by my neighbor's pool or the chair in my dad's hospital room.  I'm always on the go so reducing the number of cords is very important to me.

The newest tool I've picked up to retain my "geek on the go" image is the Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 3000.  One less cord to deal with.

All I need for this mouse is the one AA battery that was actually included in the packaging.  It slides right inside the contoured mouse body.  The mouse is navy blue and silver and has soft rubber grips along the side that are are contoured so the mouse fits in the hand comfortably whether the user is right or left-handed. The roller ball on top is clear rubber and has small grooves cut into it for traction.  

Set up could not have been easier.  I thought there would be a user guide or that some sort of software and configuration would be required but all I needed to do was plug the receiver into my USB port and I was good to go.  My laptop recognized the mouse automatically and it worked immediately.  

This mouse feels slightly different from the mouse that came with my laptop and that I've been using for the last year.  It is very sensitive. Moving it just slightly caused the cursor to move a lot so it took a few days for me to get completely acclimated but now I love it.  When I used the mouse on my desktop computer it's like molasses in January.   I love the responsiveness of my new mouse. I had intended to use it only when on the go but now I use it exclusively.

The only thing I dislike is that in order to turn the mouse off you have to remove the the receiver from the port and insert it into the hole on the underside of the mouse. This turns off power to the mouse so the battery does not run down and provides a storage place for the receiver which might otherwise get lost or become damaged. 

I've been using this mouse for about two and love it. The battery life is long, the responsiveness is great, as is the range.