Intellimouse, the old favourite! (Microsoft Intellimouse)

Member Name: richard_richard

Product:	Microsoft Intellimouse
Date:	03/05/04 (110 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Responsiveness, Very reliable

Disadvantages: Insides need cleaning regularly

I thought I would do a quick op on an old favourite, the MS Intellimouse.

This mouse has been around for a few years now. We have some in our IT department at work that must be at least 4 years old, so almost an antique by today?s standards!

The Intellimouse can be purchased for a very reasonable price these days and you should be able to pick one up for around £19.


Specifications
The mouse has the well recognised standard features you?ll find on most computer mice these days. There is a left and right button and in the middle of these two sits a scroll wheel. The left mouse button is slightly larger than the right mouse button; no doubt the designers felt that people will use the left button more often!

The mouse is shaped to fit comfortably into the hand. Oh yes, as long as it is the right hand. Obviously Microsoft feels that everyone in the world is right handed! Well as you might have guessed, I?m actually left handed and so am a little miffed at the fact this mouse has been so obviously designed for right handed people!

The mouse is controlled by the standard mouse ball. A small clip on the base of the mouse can be opened so that the ball can be removed and access given the rollers, for cleaning purposes.

The mouse comes in the standard beige colour that we all know and love!


In Use
The mouse has a standard ps/2 connection and so it?s just a case of plugging it into the back of the computer and away you go. Well as long as you aren?t still using a PC with a serial mouse connection!

This mouse should work with every Windows operating system. Yes, even Windows NT shouldn?t give you any trouble, which makes a change!

The mouse needs to sit on a mouse mat to work properly as this flat surface ensures that the mechanism will work correctly.

Both left and right buttons feel positive when clicking and give you the impression that they will stand up to a certa
in amount of punishment. The scroll wheel can feel a little bit stiff to begin with but does loosen up after a bit of use.

The mouse is responsive when moving about on the mouse mat. I guess this would be the case as you could describe the Intellimouse as being pretty much the industry standard for the last few years!

The only disadvantage with this mouse is that after a while it will become less responsive. This is due to the fact that the mouse ball inside sits on three rollers and these rollers can get covered in dirt and gunge which will be picked up from the mouse mat and surrounding environment. When it gets to this point the only thing to do is to remove the mouse ball and give the rollers a good clean, which can be a fiddly and time consuming job! In fact after doing this it really makes you consider the advantages of owning an optical mouse, which doesn?t require this clean up job!

In terms of reliability, I reckon these Intellimouses can?t be beaten. As a mentioned earlier in the review we have a number of these mice in the IT Department and they have kept going for a good few years. This has probably got a lot to do with the fact they are very simple technology, but still it?s nice to find a piece of computer equipment that is functional and reliable and doesn?t cost a great deal of money!


Conclusion
Well as a product, there isn?t too much wrong with the Intellimouse! It is cheap to buy and will give a good few years of service, as long as it is treated with respect!

The only disadvantage I can highlight is the fact that to keep the responsiveness of the unit, it needs to be cleaned out every now and then.

I wouldn?t hesitate to recommend this product to anybody who wants a cheap and reliable computer mouse.

Thanks for reading!

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