The Swiftpoint mouse began life on Kickstarter, surpassing its target at the end of 2014. Since it started shipping, it has received rave reviews, so we decided to take a closer look at it on display at IFA.
Portability is the name of the game here. The Swiftpoint is tiny, and it’s shaped to be held in a pen-like grip instead of the traditional claw grip, which can cause cramping with smaller mice. There’s a traditional left click button at the front, a right click button behind it, and a mouse wheel of the right hand-side.
The grip feels a little funny at first, but you soon get the hang of it. Swiftpoint inventor, Grant Odgers, has also put a tiny stylus on an angled portion of the underside of the mouse, so you can tilt it to the right and then use the stylus like you would a trackpad. It emulates finger flicks to cycle through windows and quickly scroll.
It’s a snappy, slick device to use, that gives that little bit of extra fine control that can be tough to achieve with a trackpad. Boosting its laptop credentials further, there’s a small mat you can stick on the right of your trackpad to use the mouse on. There’s room to use this thing on a plane or anywhere you’re sitting with a laptop on your lap and no other available surface.
The clever design extends to the included USB dongle which enables the wireless operation, because it can also double as a charging pad that you can stick the mouse on. If you don’t want to use the dongle, that’s not a problem, because the Swiftpoint supports Bluetooth 4.0 as well.
It comes in an attractive carry case with a cleaning cloth, replacement stylus, and a parking spot, which is really just a magnetic pad for your laptop cover that you can stick the mouse on if you have to move around.
You’ll get a couple of weeks of use out of the Swiftpoint before you have to charge it up, and you can get a whole hour of use out of a 30 second charge. It works with Windows, Mac OS, Android and iOS
The only real sticking point for the Swiftpoint is the price. If you want to pick one up, you’ll have to part with $150. That’s a lot for a mouse, so you’ll have to be doing some serious clicking for the Swiftpoint to make sense.