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Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000 Review

Grab and Go

November 16, 2005
By Eric Grevstad

Grab and Go

Many desktop owners, seeking an alternative to the generic mice supplied with their PCs, invest in a faster or fancier pointing device. But they're outnumbered by notebook owners seeking an alternative to laptop touchpads or pointing sticks; according to Microsoft, its Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse is the best-selling mouse, mobile or desktop, in the U.S.

Now, a year after that product launch, Microsoft has unveiled a new high-end, small-sized mouse. The $55 Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000, like the desktop Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 we tested last month, uses an ultra-fine -- or, in Microsoft's words, High-Definition -- laser instead of the LED light source seen in most optical mice.

The result is 1,000 dpi resolution, so the mouse needs only a couple of square inches on a cluttered desk or airline tray table (and you'll repeatedly swoop and overshoot your targets during the first few hours of transition from a lower-resolution rodent). The device captures motion at 6,000 frames per second, letting it work on almost any reasonably flat surface instead of the sheltered life of a mousepad -- we tried everything from pants legs to paper napkins, failing only with clear glass and our vertical cubicle wall.

And while it's unlikely to see use as a hardcore gaming mouse, the Wireless Notebook Laser didn't skip or skew when we whipped it back and forth at top speed. Two options in the IntelliPoint 5.4 software driver let you assign a button to a game keystroke sequence or as a "precision booster" that helps with careful pixel-by-pixel movement by slowing the hyper-sensitive mouse to as little as 10 percent of its usual speed.

Reet Petite

An inch or so shorter than desktop mice (4 versus 5 inches), the silver-gray mouse is symmetrically shaped but with a small thumb button on the left side that favors right-hand use. Finger grooves and rubber sides make holding the mouse quite comfortable -- though medium-sized or larger hands will cover it completely -- and the thumb button is in just the right place, instead of an annoying few millimeters too far fore or aft.

As with the desktop model 6000, the button's default function summons a resizable Magnifier pane that lets you drag a close-up lens to any part of the screen (except in OpenGL and Direct3D programs or under Mac OS X instead of Windows). It's a convenient feature, although the scrolling while button-pressing required to resize the pane or change its zoom level is a little awkward.

With the thumb button plus the main left and right buttons, the clickable scroll wheel makes four -- its default use is an Alt-Tab-style switching among application windows, but all four buttons are programmable, with the option of having one button perform different functions in different programs.

Vertical scrolling is exceptionally smooth and easy, while tilting the wheel left or right lets you scroll horizontally. The wheel is noticeably smaller and more comfortable than the plump wheels of Microsoft's previous Tilt Wheel mice, though the IntelliPoint driver doesn't let you reassign a left or right nudge as a button click -- we discovered that tilting the scroll wheel makes the world's coolest browser Back and Forward controls when testing Logitech's MX610.

In the Long Run

We liked the tiny cradle or torpedo tube that pops out of the 6000's tail to hold its single AA alkaline battery. Microsoft says a battery can last up to six months, especially if you unplug the small USB receiver and return it to its notch on the underside of the mouse -- which turns off the device -- when not in use.

The receiver, unfortunately, is pretty much our only complaint with the Notebook Laser: As we've found in earlier reviews, Microsoft's 27MHz wireless radio is more prone to electromagnetic interference than the 2.4GHz hardware touted by Brand L. The 6000 worked perfectly, as of course it's designed to do, with the receiver plugged into a notebook's USB port.

But while the mouse was handy enough to tempt us to use it with our desktop as well, the latter's proximity to our 19-inch CRT monitor raised objections: Whether we tried one of the minitower's rear- or front-mounted USB ports, mouse movements and button presses misfired or were ignored annoyingly often. The only cure was to position mouse and PC for a veritable line-of-sight link, almost as if using infrared instead of radio wireless technology.

But considering the Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse's primarily portable mission, that's not a fatal flaw. If you're a frequent flier with plenty of tray tables, conference tables, hotel desks, and airport lounges on your itinerary, the 6000 is an exceptionally comfortable, competent alternative to whatever's built into your notebook.