Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 Review

Technologically speaking, it's our job here at HardwareCentral to be all-knowing: up to the minute on what's on the market, ready to explain details and differences to advise buyers about every PC-related purchase.

Take you, for example. You're interested in a Microsoft mouse but aren't sure which model suits you best? Right this way, friend. Let's take a quick peek at the vendor's Web page. As you see, Microsoft ... um, Microsoft has ... Microsoft sells 23 different mice? Oh, to hell with this, pal, you're on your own.

Well, OK, not quite. If you look at just a few models at close to the same price point, it's possible to tell how each is positioned in terms of features. Last fall, for instance, we reviewed Microsoft's Wireless Laser Mouse 6000, a top-of-the-line pointing device with extra-precise laser instead of the LED technology of most optical mice.

The 6000 also offers a scroll wheel that's not only clickable but tilts for horizontal as well as vertical scrolling; two left-side-mounted buttons including a magnifier to zoom in on any part of the screen; and ergonomic design sculpted for the right hand, with a thumb scoop on the left side and grooves or troughs on top to cradle the index and middle fingers. It's priced at $65 -- with most retailers, as with most mice, willing to take $5 or $10 off the sticker.

Today we're focusing on a newer entry: the Wireless Laser Mouse 5000. As you might guess from the model number, it's positioned one slot or one rung of the ladder below the 6000; as you might guess from the name, it uses the same -- what Microsoft calls high-definition -- laser design, shared only with the desktop and notebook versions of the 6000, and the same cordless interface, with a radio receiver that plugs into your computer's USB port.

Cased in dapper black to its sibling's silver, the 5000 shows a more symmetrical style, with curved thumb rests on both sides, instead of flaunting ergonomics that exclude left-handed users. It puts its extra buttons -- the mouse's fourth and fifth, following the primary left and right buttons and clickable scroll wheel -- one on each side, instead of both at the left. (More on them in a second.) Finally, the Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 is positioned as Microsoft's most affordable path to laser precision -- at $50, it's priced $15 below the flagship model.

Gliding Along

Two AA alkaline batteries (your first pair included) tuck into position beneath a hatch on the mouse's bottom; after inserting them and plugging in the receiver -- as with previous Microsoft wireless rodents, we found that putting the receiver on the floor or otherwise well away from your monitor and other electromagnetic interferers makes a big difference in performance -- setup is done, with no signal-sync or connection-button-pushing rigmarole.

Like other high-resolution mice, the 5000 may oblige you to spend your first hour practicing greater precision, since the cursor can easily zip across the entire screen with the motion your previous mouse required to move from one icon to the next. The laser tracks surely across surfaces ranging from a bare desktop to cardboard and from pants leg to plastic wrap; the only surface we tried that stymied the sensor was glossy photo paper. The cursor -- or Microsoft Paint's pencil or brush -- didn't skip or stumble even when whipping the mouse back and forth at top speed.

Ergonomically grooved it may not be, but the mouse felt quite comfortable to us, with just the right indent or concave side curve to support your thumb; ultra-smooth clicking for the two main buttons and scrolling for the wheel; and the left-side thumb button placed perfectly for a gentle squeeze.

Our only road-test disappointment was the right-side button. While from above it looks perfectly aligned with its left-side sister, its trigger or press-to-click zone proved to be half a button's length to the rear, so clicking it required a slight lift or slide backward of the middle or ring finger compared to just tapping an otherwise stationary thumb.

Without the IntelliPoint 5.5 software driver, tilting the wheel left or right for horizontal scrolling doesn't work, but clicking it enters auto-scroll mode and the left- and right-side buttons perform browser Back and Forward moves as you'd expect.

Have It Your Way

With the driver installed, the default setting for clicking the scroll wheel switches among open applications (think Alt-Tab). The left side button remains a Back button for Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer, but its counterpart on the right side activates Microsoft's Magnifier, which lets you drag a zoom pane around the screen to see details blown up to jumbo size. The device works pretty well, although the controls for resizing the pane or increasing or decreasing its zoom require awkward moving and scrolling while continuing to press the wheel down.

If you don't like the default button functions -- wishing to change Internet Explorer's Back and Forward to the Alt-Left and -Right Arrows that do the same for Mozilla Firefox, say -- the driver offers an easy array of pull-down menus and alternative shortcuts, from Cut and Paste to launching a favorite program, from custom keystrokes to toggling a Precision Booster that lets game navigators or image editors slow the mouse's response speed to anywhere from 10 to 90 percent of the usual.

It's no trouble to set up different button actions for different applications, so Back in your browser equals Undo in your word processor or whatever. We still grumble a bit, however, that even when there's no need for horizontal scrolling, Microsoft's driver doesn't let you assign a different action to a left or right tilt of the wheel as Logitech's does.

Except for that and the imperfect right-side button, we like the Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 a lot. In fact, we daresay we like it better than the more ritzy 6000. Both work fine, but testing Microsoft's top, then next-to-top, mouse felt a little like seeing Volkswagen, after the poor sales of its high-priced, Mercedes-wanna-be Phaeton luxury cruiser, get back to its roots with solid, bread-and-butter Passat and Golf cars.

Huh? VW has changed the Golf name back to Rabbit? That's it; we're definitely giving up on this keeping-track-of-models business.