HardwareCentral - Microsoft Special Edition Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer Review.

Microsoft Special Edition Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer Review

Bring in the Funk

April 6, 2004
By Eric Grevstad

Bring in the Funk

An earlier Microsoft mouse was the first to feature a glowing red taillight, so we had high hopes when we learned the company's newest IntelliMouse Explorer was named Night Vision. Alas, that's merely the name of the "green and black digitized pattern" (quoting the press release) that decorates one of three Microsoft mice to be sold starting today for a limited time.

While Microsoft did the limited-edition thing last year with matte black and "icicle white," its 2004 cursor-control collectibles are more artistic than anything short of Apple's old gumdrop iMacs: Night Vision "evokes a futuristic image reminiscent of sci-fi fantasy," while Immersion's "fluid graphic of blues and purples expresses subtle style with creative depth, drawing inspiration from the cool hues of water rippling across the surface of a pool." We think they look more like a PC circuit board and Spider-Man's costume, respectively, but that's just us.

For $55, you can have one of the abovementioned designs in a Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer 2.0 -- Microsoft's top-of-the-line, five-button cordless optical mouse, which we tested last September in Black Leather garb (the mouse, not us, we mean). The three-button, $45 Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0 also joins the limited-edition fashion show with Groovy -- which (just once more from the press release) "recalls the positive vibes of the '60s, flaunting a dynamic style with a bright orange, pink, and red patterned finish designed to express a bold and playful personality -- turn on, log in, and click with a radical new desktop style." In other words, it's not beige.

All right, we've made fun of the PR agency, but we'll admit that our Night Vision test unit looked quite handsome, with the glossy, patterned strip framed by the mouse's sculpted, matte gray-black sides and glossy black (and somewhat smudge- or fingerprint-prone) buttons. Right-handed users will also find the Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer a very comfortable design, with slight grooves or dimples to hold your index and middle fingers and a thumb scoop at ground level.

In addition to the main (left and right) buttons and clickable scroll wheel, forward and back buttons at the left side let your thumb do the walking through Web pages; we think they're mounted a fraction too high, with the forward button a fraction too far forward, to be ideal, but still quite convenient.

Doin' the Sidestep

All three of the limited-edition mice also boast the Tilt Wheel Technology that Microsoft debuted last year, meaning the scroll wheel rocks left and right for horizontal scrolling in wide spreadsheets or zoomed-in image editing. We wrote in September that the lateral motion seemed herky-jerky unless we tuned the IntelliPoint 5.0 driver to its fastest setting, but this time (though the PC's the same, and the driver CD is still labeled 5.0) the sideways scroll felt smooth and slick -- indeed, like all the Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer's motions, almost slippery until we got accustomed to it, particularly as regards vertical scrolling.

The latter is smooth or seamless, rather than having steps or detents you can easily relate to scrolling up or down one worksheet row or whatever. We should also note that while the mouse easily kept up with our everyday maneuvers, it sometimes skipped when whipped to and fro at top speed, making it unsuitable for serious gamers; FPS fans who want to go cordless will want to check out Logitech's MX series.

On the other hand, Microsoft says it tops Logitech's wireless mice in battery life, claiming that the Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer and Wireless Optical Mouse give most users five or six months from a pair of AA alkaline batteries (included). The Night Vision's USB receiver (a PS/2 plug adapter is included) is about the size of the mouse itself.

Sadly, Microsoft still hasn't explained why IntelliPoint 5.0 dropped one of the favorite features of earlier versions, the option of assigning the same mouse button to different functions in different applications (such as back in Internet Explorer but undo in Word). The driver lets you reassign the buttons from a short menu of choices such as cut, copy, paste, double-click, minimize, and maximize -- and by default reassigns a wheel click to Alt-Tab-style shuffling through active applications -- but isn't particularly flexible. We tried downloading and installing good old IntelliPoint 4.12 (found on the OEM hardware rather than support area of Microsoft's site), but it didn't work with the new mouse.

Still, if you can live without program-specific button assignments -- and let's face it, almost everyone can -- Microsoft's latest-generation, sideways-scrolling mice are superb, smooth performers. They're not cheap (though many retailers knock $10 or so off the sticker price), but they're classy. Well, except for the psychedelic Groovy model.