It's got balls of steel and will go on for ages! (Microsoft Basic Mouse)

Member Name: GR-Design

Product:	Microsoft Basic Mouse
Date:	07/08/01 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Reliable, Comfortable

Disadvantages: None

(If your wondering about the title, inside ball driven mice is the ball, obviously, this ball is made of steel then covered with rubber, so there, I’ve explained it now….and yes, I know I’m a total geek!)

The Microsoft Basic mouse is often confused with the larger Intellimouse we see quite often. The intellimouse was shipped with virtually every PC sold to business’s and the likes back in 1998-2000 and you saw them everywhere, they were very reliable mice and you can still buy them now. So why was the Microsoft Basic Mouse needed? Easy answer to this one, whether it’s right or not I don’t know, but it seems to have taken over another series of mice released by Microsoft called the ‘Microsoft Home Mouse’. The Microsoft Home mouse was a little blue funny thing which I quite liked, which is why I now have 2 sat in the loft (don’t ask, over the years I seem to have collected about 10 spare mice from various places!). Now, you older computer geeks will remember the Home mouse as it was really the only coloured mouse at there and extremely reliable at that, mine lasted over 2 years with intense use. So why they felt they needed to discontinue it and introduce the basic mouse I don’t know.

However, The Microsoft Basic Mouse seemed to outdo the home version and it did it well. The mouse is indeed very basic. You get your 2 mouse buttons and it’s ball underneath. Basic is good though isn’t it? Well, I suppose it’s what your looking for in a mouse. This mouse doe’s fine for me at work but for home use I think I might go a little crazy without my scrolling ball that I currently have on my mouse at home. If your just using your computer to type a few letters, maybe do the accounts and you don’t want to spend a fortune then this is the mouse for you! If however, your using the net, playing the old games or doing something which requires a bit more out of your fingers, then
this isn’t the mouse for you and I would urge you to spend a bit more on your mouse!

So, before I go on, your probably thinking ‘not another cheap mouse, I’ve already had five of them’ or ‘not another one of those crappy mice where I try my hardest to double click but I have to press the button so far down, it get’s stuck and won’t come up again’ (my boss was always saying she could'nt get hers up again and it was really frustrating!!), don’t think it. Just because this mouse is under a tenner, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t getting a quality piece of technological plastic. What your actually getting is a mouse that will probably last longer than your computer will. The button has a very nice click to it, there’s no doubt you have pressed it and it’s better than the click on have on my mouse which cost me £35. The shape is very nice, ok, it may be a little to small for some, but for me it works very nice, it’s not a huge mouse but it doesn’t feel too small if you know what I mean. The four little feet (is that what you call them) on the bottom of the mouse help it smooth very smoothly over practically any surface, however it seems to work better on a good material mouse mat. It’s also pretty like aswell so that aid’s the movement of it.

It’s also as robust as any other mouse that I know…so what more could you want!? Well with mice being what they are these day’s you want it to make you a cup of tea and type that 10,000 word report for you….well I’m sorry to tell you it won’t do that, but some uses you could get out of it are:

- Anti Burglar Device – Place the ample lead across from one end of the hall to the other so the burglar trips up and bangs his head on the filing cabinet.
- Hang it in front of the door along the corridor, when the door is opened, the mouse will hit it and you will
know when your boss is coming so that you can hide what your looking up on the net.
- Use the ball inside to play mouse marbles with your colleague across the desk.
- Attach a note to it and lower it out of the window to the floor below and pass the nice girl the note.
- Or you could, if you got bored use it to get on with your work.

I’d like some more suggestions for the above if you have any available!

So, all in all as theres not much more I can write on a little bit of plastic. If you want a cheap, but reliable and robust mouse that’s comfortable and won’t give you wrist ache, definitely go for this one, it’s the best mouse on the market for under a tenner.

You can also get another version of the mouse for £3 cheaper which is called the ‘trekker’. It’s exactly the same mouse and holds the Microsoft holographic label underneath it, the only difference is that it has ‘trekker’ written where ‘Microsoft’ usually advertises itself. So there you go, aren’t a nice little bloke! I’ve only seen these once though and I don’t know if it was just a one off thing or what, I don’t even know why they did it!

It get’s 5 out of 5 from me!

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