All I've Ever Wanted In A Mouse (Packard Bell Optical Mouse)

Member Name: mattydalton

Product:	Packard Bell Optical Mouse
Date:	23/02/04 (1156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No cleaning, Easy to install and use, Cool interchangeable covers

Disadvantages: Not recognised from time to time when I switch my pc on

Having been frustrated on many occasions when selecting a new mouse for my beloved pc, I remained rather sceptical about what was on offer for a while. However, having had to clean my mouse three times in two weeks, as it wasn?t detecting movement, I had finally had enough. I had a browse around PC World and was so shocked by some of the prices that I had to be brought a chair and a glass of water. Upon recovery, I turned around and left the store. I decided to stick to the poor excuse for a mouse I had - I wasn?t going to pay through the nose for one I wasn?t even sure would be any better.

A couple of months later, I popped into my local Dixon?s just to see what was on offer. Nine times out of ten I leave empty handed, but the occasions I have left with a new purchase have always been worth it. I sauntered around the store, browsing through the flat screens until I reached the mouse section. Lo and behold! There it was. An optical mouse for the bargain price of only £9.99!

I picked up the box and scanned the item first. It wasn?t cordless. Most people see this as a disadvantage. I always had done until I had used cordless mice. I use my computer a lot and the batteries tended to run out very quickly. This was very frustrating, as we all know that batteries aren?t exactly cheap. It was also annoying when they were on their way out, as it is a gradual process and you don?t realise until it is really bad normally.

Then, when you have gone to all the effort of replacing the batteries - which usually involved a trip to the shop for me - the mouse was then super sensitive and it would take five or ten minutes to readjust to its sensitivities. Well, I think that decides it, I prefer corded mice - cordless keyboards are great as the batteries last quite a while, but it just isn?t practical in a mouse.

This process of thought actually took me a mere five seconds in the shop before I rushed off to the till, armed with what I hoped would
be the answer to my prayers. As is always the case when you find a bargain, I had to go to work for 9 hours before I could go and test it out, so I was quite excited by the time I got it home - sad, I know.

Before I tell you about the mouse itself, let?s tell you what the packaging is like. The box is 20cm tall, 10cm wide and about 4cm deep. The front is white with a splash of orange at the top. The mouse sits in the top half of the box with three items placed carefully below it - I won?t tell you yet what they are as this will be included in the features section. The sides of the box continue the orange theme, blending through red to black. On each side is a picture of the said mouse. On the back? A list of pack contents, minimum system requirements and features in about four different languages - English, Spanish, French and Italian.

That?s the packaging out of the way, now let?s talk about what I found in the box. Obviously, there was a mouse inside as well as the instructions, an installation disk and the three items mentioned earlier. These three items? Interchangeable mouse covers! What a fantastic idea! There are four altogether - one is already on the mouse - and they are blue, silver, red and green. I have the blue cover on at the moment as my pc tower is silver and blue, so they go together nicely. Not only is this mouse compatible with USB connections, but a PS/2 connector is included, just in case you don?t have USB connections. That?s a nice touch, a lot of products these days deliberately come without a potentially vital component so you end up spending more.

Would you like to know what it looks like? Well, I?m going to tell you one way or the other anyway. Like many other mice on the market it fits very nicely into your hand - it?s about 7cm long and about 3-4cm across. The front two buttons are silver, with a roller button sitting proudly in the middle, also silver. Behind this section is another section - this one smaller
at about 1.5sm in depth. This is where the cover clips into the mouse and this section is also silver. At the back of the mouse you will find your cover, in whichever colour you fancy for the day.

The mouse was really easy to install for me as I have Windows XP on my computer. I simply plugged the mouse into the USB connection at the front of my tower and Windows XP detected it automatically. It brought up a box asking me to insert the installation disk and within a minute the mouse was successfully installed with no headaches whatsoever! It was growing on me already.

Due to the installation process being so simple, and the method used to change the covers on the mouse so blatant I didn?t have to use the instruction booklet. I have had a look at it though for the purposes of this review to see how easy and accurate it is. The results of my investigation? A 10 page booklet with a page for each of ten languages. Each page shows you very simply how to connect the mouse to your USB or to the PS/2 connection. After this is a section about installing the mouse driver, again very straightforward. Below this, at the bottom of the page, is a quick look at how to use the features of the mouse, including how to change the covers. This, also, was very simple to follow. Along with being simple to follow, the instructions were also accurate to the last detail.

I know you are wondering what is like to use, so I won?t keep you any longer on that one. Two words - absolutely brilliant. Not only is it super responsive, but it is very accurate too. The moment you first move the mouse, the pointer on the screen moves with it. With the mice I was used to using, you had to wait for the rollers to detect the ball moving which, especially if it hadn?t been cleaned for a while, could sometimes take an age. One thing to note, it will only work if it is resting on a surface. I wondered whether you could pick it up and move it around, but it had no effect when raised
above 1mm. A useless fact, but I bet someone was wondering - either that or I?m a bit of a weirdo!

WHAT IT SAYS ON THE BOX

Pack Contents

Optical Mouse
User Guide
Mouse Software

Features

3 Button Mouse with scroll wheel
USB and PS/2 Connectors
3 extra interchangeable covers
Suitable for Desktop or Laptop PC

Minimum System Requirements

IBM compatible PC with compatible Intel processor
Available USB port
Floppy drive
32MB Hard disk space
Microsoft Windows 98, 2000, ME or XP
No Mouse pad required

THINGS I PARTICULARLY LIKE AND DISLIKE

As mentioned before, I think the idea of interchangeable covers is a really good one - it sort of makes an ornament out of the most inanimate of objects. Another cool thing is that it doesn?t need a mouse pad - I hate them things. The other thing that struck me about this particular product was its price - it was reduced from £19.99 to £9.99. That is a snip for a product of such quality from one of the leading manufacturers - Packard Bell.

Moving on to what I don?t like about the mouse, well, there is only one thing. Every now and then, when I turn my PC on, I have to unplug my mouse from the USB connection and reconnect it as it hasn?t recognised it as being there. Upon further investigation, my mouse properties told me that no mouse driver was present. This is ridiculous, as I installed them from the disc provided. Remarkably though, by disconnecting and reconnecting the device, my PC immediately recognises the device again and the drivers have miraculously disappeared, despite me not reinstalling them from the disc. Of course, this could be a virus on my computer, but my anti-virus has not detected it. I am going to get a better one, so if I find this problem is due to a virus I will, of course, amend this.

All in all, I am really made up with this mouse. Maybe not quite everything I ever wanted in
a mouse, but not for off. Mind you, my perfect mouse would be thought enabled so I wouldn?t even need to touch it. I would telepathically tell the mouse where I wanted to move the cursor, click, etc.. and it would do it for me. Knowing this is impossible at the moment, I think this mouse covers all of my other needs quite well.

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