Published in Reviews

Microsoft's Explorer Mouse dissected

by on24 November 2008

Index


 

The Explorer Mouse has two main buttons, a scroll wheel and two very long thumb buttons. The scroll wheel can be clicked and also tilted. However, due to the fairly small size of the scroll wheel, it’s very hard to use it for scrolling sideways. It’s also not as good as the metal scroll wheels on some of the high-end models from Logitech. It also lacks a geared click and having a smooth moving wheel might work well for things like scrolling up and down a Web page, it’s not so good for certain applications and even less so in games. We didn’t manage to find an option in the drives that allows you to set the speed of the scroll wheel which is also frustrating, as the default setting scrolls too much of a page, in our opinion.

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It’s interesting to see that Microsoft has taken on board the large glide pads normally found on gaming mice and fitted them to the Explorer Mouse. This makes for a good gliding action on most surfaces and with claims of this mouse working on virtually any surface, this is an important feature. So, what about the whole BlueTrack thing then? Well, it’s actually rather good and seems to work as advertised.

 

We tried the Explorer Mouse on a variety of surfaces and we didn’t have any problems using it on just about anything with the exception of a mirrored surface, but this was kind of expected. We’re still not sure if it’s better than a laser mouse, although it does work on fluffy surfaces such as carpet or rugs. We didn’t have access to any rough-grain wood or granite to test on, but we take Microsoft’s word on it that it’ll work on these surfaces as well.

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One aspect that we did notice an improvement on was dust and hair around the sensor. This is a problem when you have pets that like to hang around your computer equipment. Despite having several cat hairs caught inside the sensor opening, there were no problems using the mouse, unlike with a laser mouse that tends to become very erratic in use with only minor bits of fluff entering the sensor opening.

 

We haven’t had the mouse long enough to verify the claim about three weeks between charges, although initially it seems like the battery needs a couple of full charges before it gives you its best performance, but this is a common issue with most rechargeable batteries. There’s a small battery indicator behind the scroll wheel, although it only has two states, red for recharge now and green for charged. The green light will also pulsate when the mouse is being charged.

 

Conclusion

 

At around €55/$80, it’s not a cheap mouse, but it’s comfortable to use and it works on virtually any surface, so if you have a problem using your current mouse on whatever surface you’re working on, it might well be worth to check it out. Gamers are advised to wait for the X8 gaming mouse with BlueTrack technology, as the Explorer Mouse is not suitable for most games in our opinion.


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Last modified on 26 November 2008
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