Of mice and men
So, I got a laptop a month or so ago. Nothing too special, just a Inspiron 1520 (because it's one of the few laptops that you can still get XP on standard) with a rather fetching red/silver/black case. I meant to take some pictures and put them up, but I'm lazy. In the meantime, I'm gonna bitch about mice.
I figured out pretty quickly that the touchpad was a waste of time, and have been using an old mouse I had lying around- an early Logitech optical with a scroll wheel that I replaced when the wheel's ratchet started making horrible grinding noises, but that otherwise still works fine enough. But it's bulky as all heck, making a rather annoying bulge in the trim, color-coordinated case the laptop came with. So I've been skimming around Newegg and various computer places for a decent laptop mouse. Out of all the ones I could find on Newegg, I took a bit of a shining to this Kensington model. I rather like the concept behind it, with the slim non-bulging design and the wireless/wired option, so when I happened to see one at Circut City last night I went ahead and bought it, and played around with it while at work. And my first impression is... Kinda negative, honestly, based in a large part on the tactile experience. The bulk of the top of the mouse is covered with a rubber grip, which isn't all that uncommon these days, but unlike the smooth, dry rubber on the Logitech mouse I use at home, it's an unpleasantly tacky sort of stuff. It actually stuck fast to the plastic shell it came packaged in, requiring a solid yank to free, and immediately began accumulating dust and lint and so forth. The scroll wheel's coated with the same stuff, and is made even more irritating by the clear plastic intrusions for the battery light that they inexplicably chose to put into it. (Seriously. Why?) Even the paint on the plastic buttons has a strangely 'off' feel to it. Beyond that, it's just not that comfortable to use. The slim design is nice in theory, but after a little while my hand starts cramping up. And the scroll wheel's placed too far forward- holding my hand so that it's comfortably accessible places my fingertips right at the edge of the buttons, where they end up constantly hitting that irritating rubber rim. And as a final insult, it doesn't actually function all that well, either. The scroll wheel often doesn't respond to a single-notch scroll. Inserting the wireless reciever into the base seldom turns it off like it's supposed to, probably due to the flimsy-looking contact. And while the wire obvously has to be thinly coated to fit inside the shell, they probably could've given it a bit more slack. It has to be wrapped as tightly as possible for the mini-USB connector to latch into place, and even then there's a noticable stress where the wire kinks around to the top of the inner shell. There was already copper showing though when I first took it out of the package, and I'm kinda scared to even try using it.
So, while I'll continue to use it for the rest of the week, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be returning this thing when I can get back out to Circut City again next Friday. High concept just doesn't trump function, I guess. I'll have to keep that in mind while I'm looking for a replacement. Especially ones like this 'twist' mouse I saw at Best Buy; it looks slick, but I have my doubts about that scroll panel thing. Then there's this other offering from Kensington, which ditches the rubber and adds a tilt wheel (always a plus) but seems a tad overpriced for what you get, especially since I don't need to use it thirty feet away from my laptop. Honestly, I'm probably gonna end up with a Logitech again. Their standard laptop mice seem nice enough, even if they are a bit on the bulgy side. Logitech's current stuff is well made, they've got decent enough features for the price, and they come in red, which'll match nicely with the computer. (Mind you, it'd match even better if I had ordered a mouse with the computer, since Dell offers these Logitech mice in the same colors as thier laptops when you get them together, but silly me figured I'd do better getting one elsewhere. Ha.) If price was less of a factor, tho, I'd probably go with the Nano here. I played around a bit with the display models, and it's a remarkably nice-feeling mouse. Especially the wheel, but then metal mouse wheels always seem to offer a better tactile response. Or I could go really stupid-crazy and get this thing...
I figured out pretty quickly that the touchpad was a waste of time, and have been using an old mouse I had lying around- an early Logitech optical with a scroll wheel that I replaced when the wheel's ratchet started making horrible grinding noises, but that otherwise still works fine enough. But it's bulky as all heck, making a rather annoying bulge in the trim, color-coordinated case the laptop came with. So I've been skimming around Newegg and various computer places for a decent laptop mouse. Out of all the ones I could find on Newegg, I took a bit of a shining to this Kensington model. I rather like the concept behind it, with the slim non-bulging design and the wireless/wired option, so when I happened to see one at Circut City last night I went ahead and bought it, and played around with it while at work. And my first impression is... Kinda negative, honestly, based in a large part on the tactile experience. The bulk of the top of the mouse is covered with a rubber grip, which isn't all that uncommon these days, but unlike the smooth, dry rubber on the Logitech mouse I use at home, it's an unpleasantly tacky sort of stuff. It actually stuck fast to the plastic shell it came packaged in, requiring a solid yank to free, and immediately began accumulating dust and lint and so forth. The scroll wheel's coated with the same stuff, and is made even more irritating by the clear plastic intrusions for the battery light that they inexplicably chose to put into it. (Seriously. Why?) Even the paint on the plastic buttons has a strangely 'off' feel to it. Beyond that, it's just not that comfortable to use. The slim design is nice in theory, but after a little while my hand starts cramping up. And the scroll wheel's placed too far forward- holding my hand so that it's comfortably accessible places my fingertips right at the edge of the buttons, where they end up constantly hitting that irritating rubber rim. And as a final insult, it doesn't actually function all that well, either. The scroll wheel often doesn't respond to a single-notch scroll. Inserting the wireless reciever into the base seldom turns it off like it's supposed to, probably due to the flimsy-looking contact. And while the wire obvously has to be thinly coated to fit inside the shell, they probably could've given it a bit more slack. It has to be wrapped as tightly as possible for the mini-USB connector to latch into place, and even then there's a noticable stress where the wire kinks around to the top of the inner shell. There was already copper showing though when I first took it out of the package, and I'm kinda scared to even try using it.
So, while I'll continue to use it for the rest of the week, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be returning this thing when I can get back out to Circut City again next Friday. High concept just doesn't trump function, I guess. I'll have to keep that in mind while I'm looking for a replacement. Especially ones like this 'twist' mouse I saw at Best Buy; it looks slick, but I have my doubts about that scroll panel thing. Then there's this other offering from Kensington, which ditches the rubber and adds a tilt wheel (always a plus) but seems a tad overpriced for what you get, especially since I don't need to use it thirty feet away from my laptop. Honestly, I'm probably gonna end up with a Logitech again. Their standard laptop mice seem nice enough, even if they are a bit on the bulgy side. Logitech's current stuff is well made, they've got decent enough features for the price, and they come in red, which'll match nicely with the computer. (Mind you, it'd match even better if I had ordered a mouse with the computer, since Dell offers these Logitech mice in the same colors as thier laptops when you get them together, but silly me figured I'd do better getting one elsewhere. Ha.) If price was less of a factor, tho, I'd probably go with the Nano here. I played around a bit with the display models, and it's a remarkably nice-feeling mouse. Especially the wheel, but then metal mouse wheels always seem to offer a better tactile response. Or I could go really stupid-crazy and get this thing...