Review: Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000

[Vykranth]

I have been a long user of Microsoft lines of mouse for the last ten years and I am a big fan of Microsoft Hardware division products.

I have (ab)used many mouses fron wired to wireless, from ball to optical rodents. I even tried one of the Microsoft trackball years ago.

So, when I saw on Microsoft hardware web page the new generation of mouse, I was interested to see if I could find a replacement for my aging

Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 I use everyday at work.

Luckily, I found yesterday that my favorite computer store had received a batch of the new rodents and I bought a brand new Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000.

So, here is my review of the new top dogmouse from Microsoft.

Introduction

The Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 is a five-button wireless optical mouse. The mouse is ergonomic and designed for right-handed people.

The interest is that the 7000 is rechargeable: it comes with its charging stand. For people who likes design, the 7000 comes with a black and chrome plastic finish.

Left-handed people are bound to search for the Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 which is ambidextrous. I can even do a review of the 8000.

I bought the Wireless Lasre Mouse 7000 for 70 Euros in France.

Packaging & Unpackaging

The WLM 7000 is packaged in a cardbox and plastic box. You can try to have a feeling of the mouse inside its plastic case to see if the mouse fits your hand. The WLM 7000 is a rather large mouse

which is good for people with large hands.

The good thing when you unpack is that the plastic is not adamantinium-grade thermo-glued plastic and you can unpack it without a blowtorch or a chainsaw.

From top to bottom, and from left to right,

* The Bluetooth Mini Transceiver

* The AC adaptor

* The charging stand

* The mouse

* The 'Getting Started' guide

* The 'Intellipoint 6.2 for Windows and for Mac' drivers CD

What is missing from the picture is the AAA rechargeable battery: I put it in the mouse and forgot to remove it for the picture.

A bad point for Microsoft and whoever designed the package: they apparently forgot that a CD, the 'getting started' guide and the warranty had to be included. So the

CD is tilted inside the plastic (the corners of the paper enveloppe corners protecting the CD are folded) and the warranty and install guide are rolled.

That's minor because these are bound to the trash can but that gives a bad first impression of cheapness.

Set-up

Setting up is pretty easy

* Install the drivers

* Insert the rechargeable battery in the mouse

* plug the AC adaptor in the charging stand and in a power outlet.

* Let the mouse charges itself for an hour

* plug the transceiver in an USB port. Vista recognize the mouse immediately. I had already Intellipoint 6.2 installed so I just had to change the mouse defined in the Control Panel.

Intellipoint 6.2

The Microsoft control panel application for the long list of Microsoft rodents

If you have used Microsoft mouse in the past, you will be in familliar lands there. You can reassign the functions of the wheel button and of the two thunb buttons located of the left side of the mouse. The control of the scroll wheel can be tweaked there too.

Using the mouse - Business

I don't know if my old mouse was completely dead but I have a good feeling on the WLM 7000 when I started using it. Maybe it was because the plastic pads were worn out but my first impression of the WLM 7000 was a precise and light mouse.

The WLM 7000 is ergonomic so it took a few minutes for my hand to get a new confortable position

On the snapshot below, you can see a small depression to accomodate the ring finger

Moving the mouse, left & right clicking around are easy, clicking on the extra buttons is a bit more difficult: as with all the Microsoft mouse, the wheel button is hard, the thumb button are placed near the chrome left line, they cannot be pressed by accident but they are rather small and the limit between the front and the rear is sometimes difficult to find.

Using the mouse - Gaming

That's the big question and I could not run any tests because I use the mouse at work and my boss would not be happy that I install Gears of War on my workstation. The company firewall would be mad at me in any case.

Still, I still remember my days wrecking havoc in Enemy Territory and I still have the reflexes. The WLM 7000 has two drawbacks for FPS: the wheel motion is continuous and it's a wireless mouse. I know that some gamers cannot accept this. I am confident that I would collect heads with that mouse. Otherwise, for other games types, I would expect to work flawlessly.

Synopsys

As far as my experiences are with the Wireless Laser Mouse 7000, I am pretty happy with it. It's not at all the ultimate mouse but it's an excellent mouse for business day-to-day usage. The high price would be its main drawback. My recommendation would be: try it at a store near you. If it fits your hands, it's a good mouse

Rating: 7.5 / 10

Pros:

- Wireless & Rechargeable (no battery to change)

- Sleek black design

- Ergonomic

- Good for day-to-day business use

Cons:

- Expensive!

- Only for right handed people.

- For people with large hands

- may be not a true gaming mouse

[sundayx Veteran]

Beautiful design, chrome, bluetooth, horizontal charging pad, laser, why the f not? (Need more buttons)

[Quillz]

Looks very nice. I use a simple wireless mouse, the Wireless Notebook Mouse 4000. I guess it's not really designed for everyday desktop usage, but it works, so why not?

[Cosmin]

Nice but too expensive for a Microsoft peripheral .

[Echilon]

Great review, but just under ?50 is way too much for a mouse IMO. I've had a ?15 MS Wireless Notebook Mouse 4000 for about a year now, and it's still working fine.

[nXP_151 Veteran]

Beautiful design indeed, I would've bought that one, but I recently just bought Logitech MX Revolution, the best mouse I ever use!