Belkin Mini Wireless Mouse #F8E825

The Belkin Mini Wireless mouse is an affordable choice for a notebook mouse. The mouse is the smallest of any tested which contributes to its portability. It is made out of plastic, and features tasteful silver buttons, a rubberized plastic black bodyand a rubberized scroll wheel as well. The body houses 2 AAA batteries for power. There is an on/off switch on the bottom of the mouse to save the battery when not in use.Adults with large hands may find the mouse is too small to use for extended time periods. For children, and adults with smaller hands, it is a comfortable, and a usable size.

To operate, the Belkin mouse requires plugging in a transceiver into a USB port. While not large, with the arrangement of USB ports in notebooks, it will probably obstruct the port next to it. As many notebooks come with 3 or 4 ports, this is probably not a major issue for most users.

The Belkin mouse operates on the safe RF frequency that many other mice and wireless keyboards use. The RF frequency is relatively uncrowded, and should not interfere with anything else you have. If other users are around using it, you should be able to find a clear channel (there are over 2000!). The range is stated to be 3 feet, but I measured only 2.5 feet in testing. If you need a little more range, the included 3 foot extender cord can be used to relocate the transceiver to a closer position. This was the only mouse to include an extender cord, and its generic USB interface could be used for other products as well.

The 800 dpi sensor performed well. It tracked across all surfaces, except glass, as expected. It tracked perfectly on a tabletop, however, on gray carpeting it would infrequently (once or twice an hour) lose its bearings for a few seconds. A more even surface remedies this, but I was pushing it to the limits for the purposes of testing.

The mouse included written documentation, as well as the driver on a CD. The mouse worked fine without the driver installed on my Windows XP Home computer.

While the mouse is small, the transceiver could be slightly smaller. It would be great if there was a case included (a mouse-house?), transceiver, and the wire, however, there is none. These are quibbles though. The mouse is a bargain at $29, and for the budget user with smaller hands, this is a solid choice.

It should be noted that during testing, Belkin introduced a newer model of this mouse In fact, it was so new, that none was available to complete the testing. We look forward to testing their newer model at a later date to see what improvements have been made. A smaller transceiver, a longer wireless range, and a case to keep the mouse and transceiver together on the road may earn this mouse the LD Approved rating.