Sometimes prices of hardware can be shockingly cheap. I remember not long ago when an 800dpi optical mouse was something special, something expensive, well it seems not anymore. After finding this great little thing on Ebuyer for next to nothing I thought I'd show that there really is no excuse for your mouse to be a ball and chain anymore.

What is this DPI thing?

For me mice are all about are DPI, reaction times and comfort. Loads of buttons doesn't interest me personally, left click, right click and a wheel is all you really need, anything else is just gizmos.

So what is DPI? Well, DPI is the amount of signals per inch the mouse sends the computer when you move it across a surface. The more DPI the more accurate the mouse is to your minutest movements.

In the past mice have been quite low DPI. This meant you either had to keep lifting the mouse up and moving it back to get enough movement to span your screen or turn on a multiplier. The problem with multipliers is they mean the mouse then jumps multiple pixels at a time - reducing your accuracy significantly. If you have this problem the solution is to buy a mouse with higher DPI.

The low DPI problem is especially prolific with higher resolution monitors. Lets say you have a nice big 1920x1200 widescreen monitor, thats 1920 pixels of real-estate to move across with a swish of your hand. If your mouse is only 200DPI that means you have to move it 9.6". Now I don't know about you but I've never seen a 9.6" wide mousemat and I don't fancy getting a wrist injury clicking on the start button so getting a high DPI mouse is a priority.

It was therefore a nice surprise when hunting through ebuyer recently to find this little beauty. A small compact laptop wireless mouse with 800dpi for less than a fiver!

Performance

Don't get me wrong this isn't some fantastic ultra accurate super mouse; for example I won't be replacing my desktops Microsoft Laser Mouse anytime soon, mainly because this mouse is just too small for every day use. But with its high accuracy and cubby hole for storing the USB dongle its great for on the move or even having around for emergencies.

Comparing it directly to high end mice such as a Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 and a Logitech MX700 I found the tracking to not be quite as accurate and also it suffered from sensitivity to certain repeating surface patterns a little more than the others. But then again the mice I am comparing it with are ten times the price so this is what you would expect, its performance is certainly perfectly adequate for day to day use.

Conclusion

Since the range is excellent, the tracking is good and I just plugged it in and it worked on my XP Pro box, my XP 64 bit box and my Vista laptop (using the Windows built in drivers) what can I say but overall its a great little tool that 'just works' with a surprisingly positive mouse click which is always reassuring.

Posted by Daniel: 15:52, Tue 2nd Oct 2007