Microsoft is quite a well known software company, but their hardware line is not.  While Microsoft has been in the hardware game since the early 80's (yes, you read that right, the first Microsoft Mouse was released in May of 83), and despite selling more than a million mice by 1988, they have been eclipsed by Logitech in the last decade.

Moving into the optical mouse evolution, Logitech pulled ahead of the pack to ultimately dominate the OEM and retail markets as people moved from the antiquated ball mice.  In fact, this has lead to some confusion about the evolution of the optical mouse, which was actually developed by Microsoft.  Microsoft also developed the scroll wheel first, which is also a present on almost every single mouse in existence today.  Does this mean that Microsoft makes the best mice?  Well, the answer is rather subjective.  However, Microsoft is a serious contender in the mouse market, and should not be considered a small player.

Moving onto the Wireless Optical Mouse 5000, we see a clear evolution of the mouse.  With new and innovative features such as horizontal scrolling and a 1000dpi sensor, it is a serious contender in the high end mouse market.

Features

This mouse is feature loaded, and has a bunch of innovative and well implemented features:

• Wireless
• Horizontal scrolling
• 2 programmable side buttons
• 3 standard buttons
• Texturized rubber grip
• 1000 DPI optical sensor
• 6 month battery life
• PS/2 and USB interface
• Well designed software for both Windows and Mac OSX
• 5 year warranty

In terms of features, this mouse pretty much has it all.  However, features alone do not make the product good, but rather, how they are implemented.  We will dive into the various features below.

The wireless is a proprietary RF variant.  The mouse comes with a rather large base station, which seems somewhat oversize compared to Logitech offerings (even old ones).  The base has a green status LED and a button for pairing (which causes the LED to blink until a device is paired).  The mouse works out of the box, and pairing is not required to get it running initially.

While the mouse worked perfectly initially, we had some interferences issues every once in a while.  Even though the software reported excellent signal, we had the mouse and buttons stop working for seconds at a time at random times during the day.

The base station supports either a USB or PS/2 connector, and comes with the necessary adapter.

This features is quite unique and is only available in a few mice.  It basically allows you to tilt the scroll wheel either left or right.  During this time, you cannot use the scroll wheel to move up or down.  When the wheel is moved to one side, it creates a click sound.  It is also somewhat difficult to move the wheel to the right side (perhaps a quality problem?).  Since all the buttons can be mapped, perhaps it would be best assigned to switch to the next tab while web browsing.  However, it seems useful for switching between tabs or pages more than it does scrolling horizontally on a web site.  This is especially true when considering large, widescreen, and high resolution LCD monitors are the norm.

As for the scroll wheel itself, it seems to adjust the scroll wheel braking depending on how much you use it.  So if you scroll fast and frequently, it will become very easy to turn.  Otherwise, it has a nice resistance that comes back when the wheel is used less frequently.

One annoyance about the scroll wheel is the fact that it is hard to press.  Sometimes, clicking it will cause the wheel to turn.  Other times, it will not detect the click at all (even though a click sound is produced).  Generally, you need to cover the visible part of the wheel completely with your finger in order to stop the wheel from scrolling.

Buttons

The side buttons are located on the left side of the button.  They are placed in a good location which allows you to use your thumb to click them.  The closest button is long and is easily pressed.  The further button is smaller and a bit taller, which allows you to easily distinguish it without looking at the mouse.  Initially, it takes a bit of time to get used to them (or to figure out what to program them to do!), but it is good to have them for some repetitive tasks.

The three classic buttons (middle button was covered in the above section) act as you would expect any mouse to work.  They create a nice click sound and have a nice amount of travel.  Nothing particularly special about them (even though they are the main thing a person would use).

Design

The design of the mouse makes it quite pleasant to use.  With grooves on the top for your fingers to the rubber grip on the sides of the mouse, it is quite well designed.  It seems, however, that the mouse is better suited to people with bigger hands.  While I did not find the height of the mouse to be an issue, someone with smaller hands may find themselves holding the mouse in an awkward position.

Other features that this mouse include is the 1000 DPI sensor,6 month battery life, good software, and a full 5 year warranty.

The optical sensor on this mouse, although not the best, is certainly among them.  Moving the mouse as fast as possible results in rather precise moves, which compensate for the speed effect that most cheaper mice suffer (the older sensors tend to stick to the same spot if moved too fast, resulting in no movement of the mouse pointer).  One issue it does have is that it loses "traction" on worn down surfaces.  This means that all of a sudden the mouse stops in the middle of the move until you move out of the worn out area.  Unfortunately, a $5 Logitech PS/2 optical mouse does not have this issue on the exact same spot on the exact same computer.

The 6 month battery life claim may sound like a bit far fetched, but users of this mouse have said this is possible with higher quality disposable AA batteries.  Higher mAh rechargeable AA batteries also achieve a similar battery life.  We were unable to even low the battery level by one bar in the software during testing.  The mouse even worked with 1 AA battery in it!

The 5 year warranty is also a feature, which may be needed for the 4 way scroller.  However, we did not have issues with it during testing.

Software

The base station requires that you install the IntelliPoint software.  It even comes with a cover warning you not to plug it in.

The software is quite straightforward and can be seen on the screenshots below.

It allows for the adjustment of scrolling, individual buttons, along with a bunch of other settings.

An interesting tab is the Wireless tab.  It shows the current battery level along with the signal strength.

Considering all these features and the price ($40-50USD), this mouse is quite a bargain.  However, some RF and surface performance issues have some major usability drawbacks.  While this depends on individual locations, we were somewhat disappointed by a core feature having issues.

Performance: 6/10

Price: 9/10

Software: 9/10

Features: 9/10

Overall: 8/10

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