Microsoft rolls out another optical mouse

By JAMES ANTHONY

Trackball Explorer - Microsoft

There are a fair few of these optical mouses popping out nowadays and the latest offering from Microsoft is a pretty sexy-looking one that fits nicely under your hand. Excellent for use on small desks, or for a laptop, the largish, stationary mouse (about 17cm long and 10cm wide) zips your cursor around the screen via a golf-ball sized red sphere that sits towards its sloping front.

It has got all the mod cons - a mouse wheel for scrolling, right and left buttons and forward-backwards buttons if you happen to be using it to navigate the Net. The left-right buttons and wheel are positioned on the angled left side of the Explorer and the forwards-backwards buttons to the right of the ball.

Now, for all the grubs out there who happen to like eating sticky or greasy things while sitting at the computer, Microsoft says the Trackball Explorer's optics can see through all sorts of grime and still operate well. That bit, we haven't tested, but there seems to be no lag time whatsoever in hurtling around the screen via the ball.

The design of the Explorer will likely suit large-handed people and the ball-movement/mouse clicking operations do need a bit of practice.

I found myself tending to use a double-action - moving the cursor, then clicking - when operating the Explorer and this slowed the process down. Using your thumb as the main button clicker is unusual to come to grips with, particularly for computer types who have been used to a two-button and wheel mouse.

If making a choice between Microsoft's Trackball Explorer and the Trackball Optical I would tend to opt for the user-friendly latter mouse. The buttons are more naturally available and there is less of a think-then-do use of it.

But, choosing a mouse is a very personal thing and the best way to get the right one is to try it and see how it feels.

For more info on the Microsoft range of mice, click here.