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Porrly designed, presenter function ergonomically poor, bat life poor,
By: Tom Geisler
September 28, 2009 @ 11:49 AM
Apparently, the mouse that received and 8.5 by Digital Trends is vastly different from the mouse I received. I am a photography instruction and do several PPT presentations every week. I also work with my computer 8-12 hours per day when not shooting or teaching. On paper this mouse looked very intriguing. I was attracted to the features of having a combination mouse/presenter in one unit. Unfortunately, my copy of this mouse is so bad I am going to just give it away to one of my students and buy another Logiteck VX nano.
Problems with my Presenter mouse 8000:
1 The battery polarity markings on the circuit board indicating which way to insert the batteries is wrong.
2 At times the mouse will connect instantly, at other times I must go through blue tooth recognition process again.
3 If I don’t use the mouse for several minutes, it sometimes disconnects.
4 The wheel has ‘no’ detent’ feel in detent or notchy mode. It has the same roll or feel in smooth or notch mode.
5 The left click and left double click mechanism is very erratic. I have adjusted the sensitivity in the software many times to no avail. This is very annoying.
6 The battery life is very shot, in the order of two weeks for me. The Logitech I was using before I got this one is still on the original batteries six months later.
7 I was attracted to the on screen marker feature. It works but only in presenter mode and only in PowerPoint. It’s far too simplistic and hard to use to be of use.
8 There is no F5 button to start a PPT and there is no blank screen button.
9 The laser pointer works appropriately
10 To use the presenter mode you must put it into presenter mode, no big deal.
11 Unfortunately, to use the presenter buttons you must turn the mouse upside down in your hand which make it very hard not to push a mouse button which is now on the bottom.. Ergonomically not well laid out.
I have more gripes but I’ll stop now. I cannot recommend this mouse/presenter to anyone.
If you want totally reliable wireless mouse operation and also use a presenter for PPTs. I suggest a Logitech mouse or your choice and the separate plain Jane presenter from Logitech. They both work perfectly, reliability and effortlessly.
Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Eats batteries for fun
By: Robert Berry
October 22, 2008 @ 10:31 AM
I’ve had this mouse around 2 months. It’s now on it’s 3rd set of batteries. So I would have to say that battery life is absolutely appauling. The mouse often displays the “jitters” on the PC screen, and has to be powered off/on again to stop this happening. The magnifier button function does not work. This appears to be a software problem, as the button depression is clearly working using the Intellipoint software. Very dissappointed!!
Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Pretty Good
By: Allison
May 7, 2008 @ 10:32 AM
I have a few issues, but most of them are (I think) due to my Bluetooth connection, which has a tendency to turn on and off. Often my computer says it sees the mouse but it doesn’t move; not sure if it’s the mouse or the computer.
Other than that, I really like this little guy. Long battery life (haven’t had to change them so far). I like the size (though I’m female and probably have small hands). Also, one of the previous posts was wrong: you can use all the buttons even if you’re not using the dongle. Not sure why he wasn’t able to.
I would gladly recommend this! I’m not sure if I would pay $70 for it, though (I got it free). I would probably be more willing to pay $30 or $40.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Nice presenter - poor mouse
By: Doug
March 19, 2008 @ 12:50 PM
Pros:
The mouse size and weight take a little getting used to however it is for laptops so it is expected and appreciated that it is small and light. It comes with its own “mouse house” that holds the mouse and the dongle so that it will not get damaged inside a laptop bag. The mouse has an auto shut-off function to save batteries and thus far the battery lifetime has been excellent even with me forgetting to physically turn it off on a regular basis. I purchased this mid December and it has been used extensively for mousing and presentations both as a slide changer and a laser pointer. My kids have also given it a major workout making the cat chase the pointer around the house. I had to change batteries about 10 days ago and I don’t anticipate having to change them for at least another two months now that the novelty has worn off.
The unit may be switched into presenter mode thus disabling all mouse functions with a push of the button on top. It works excellent as a presenter with a large strong pointer. The presenter buttons Slide adv, slide back, Vol.+, Vol.- , picture mute and laser pointer are on the bottom of the mouse and de-activated in mouse mode. They are clear and easy to use in presenter mode and are raised for good touch recognition in a dark room. The range is very good and I have used the unit for forwarding slides, blanking the screen etc. from a distance of 30 feet without any problems.
Cons:
Buttons and scroll wheel are very sensitive and take some getting used to.
The light weight of the mouse also makes precision moves a little tough (CAD causes some issues)
The wheel does not have detents which makes precise scrolling difficult.
The third mouse button is also difficult to push without affecting the wheel input.
The mouse has two additional buttons and side scrolling of the wheel however this can only be used when using the supplied USB to Bluetooth dongle. This is not really a big deal since I found that the position of these buttons was not very user friendly and I can’t see using the side scroll much.
Overall ratings:
As a mouse: 6/10
As a presenter 9/10
Rating: 7 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No
Spongy buttons
By: Hans
February 20, 2008 @ 12:21 PM
After reading all these positive reviews about this mouse, I bought one. But I sort of regret I did. I don’t like the comfort of this mouse at all. It has a bit spongy buttons and it takes much more pressure to click one of the buttons than with most Logitech mouse. It’s also not rare to move the mouse just a little bit while clicking, which never happens to me with a Logitech mouse. Double clicking is even more problematic. My advice: stick with Logitech for a good mouse. The only positive point for this mouse compared to Logitech’s 2, 4 GHz technology is that this one uses Bluetooth technology. This is not as prone to Wi-Fi disturbance as the Logitech technology is.
Rating: 6 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful. Was this user review helpful? Yes | No