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Microsoft Optical Desktop with Fingerprint Reader
Testing: Mouse
Earlier in the review I gave the keyboard pretty high marks, but what about this mouse? Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0 (or WOM2 as I like to say). The name pretty much covers all the bases; it's your average 3 button wireless optical mouse with scroll wheel. Microsoft did add a couple of shapely ergonomic scallops to the sides and a stylish two-tone silver and gray color scheme, but in my mind the only notable feature of this mouse is the side-scrolling button. The normal center mouse wheel serves not only vertical scroll and middle mouse button functions but also tilts left and right to allow for horizontal scrolling. That's a lot of scrolling. This tilting button is easy to move and allows for quick side shuffling while viewing web pages and documents. Not to be forgotten, the good old vertical scroll option is as equally smooth. Unlike many of the mice out there, the center scroll wheel does not click as it turns. In other words, there are no predetermined stop points as the wheel is rotated. While I didn't find this to be a problem at all while working within word processing and graphics programs, it is a major pain when gaming. First person shooters rely heavily on the scroll wheel stop points. I usually have my weapon switch set to work with the scroll. Without those little clicks it was difficult to swap between my knife and rifle with any accuracy.     As a wireless mouse the WOM2 performs well. I found the ergonomic styling comfortable in my large hand while it glided smoothly on and off a mouse pad. The lack of extra side buttons does limit the functionality of this mouse slightly, but most folks will be able to live with just the 3 buttons. I didn't notice any serious lag when using this wireless mouse. On prior occasions I've used the previous incarnation of this product and did notice some lag under normal use. I'm happy to see they resolved the issue. The range of this mouse was impressive - I was able to stand about 8 feet away and still direct the pointer with no lag as long as I maintained a good line of sight. I would have liked to see a rechargeable battery option (either Lithium Ion or rechargeable AAs) rather than the two included alkaline AAs. Even though it does contain two batteries it remains relatively lightweight. Despite its low frills features line-up, it remains a quality input device.
Page 1: Introduction & First Looks
Page 2: Testing: Keyboard Page 3: Testing: Fingerprint Reader Page 4: Testing: Mouse Page 5: Conclusion 
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Add Comment
10 User Comments 1 - Posted by
Dyrewolph
on November 7, 2005 - 8:58 pm teehehee nice review "bradford"!!! ;-) I didn't read it at all... I just felt like commenting :-D 2 - Posted by
Kurtis
on November 8, 2005 - 12:07 am *cough* /waves the ban stick in a circular motion and then pokes you with it. :poke: 3 - Posted by
blackjet
on November 8, 2005 - 3:38 am Nice review! The little scanner is cool! What happens if your finger print changes though, say you cut your finger? Can you over ride the fingerprint log in and enter a password instead to reset it to a different finger? 4 - Posted by
Kurtis
on November 8, 2005 - 11:25 am The way it works I believe is that you just need to know the actual PASSWORD to be able to set the fingerprint or change the fingerprint
5 - Posted by
handrail
on November 9, 2005 - 6:48 am actually, you can register all ten of your fingerprints at the start. plus, you can always log in the old fashioned way with the keyboard if you need to. once you are logged in as a user with a registered fingerprint, you can adjust your fingerprint scanner settings at any time. it just requires that you use an actual XP log on PW to keep your settings safe...not just set the PW to blank or something easy. brad. 6 - Posted by
blackjet
on November 9, 2005 - 7:48 am makes sense, its a nifty wee piece of kit. Not exactly essential, but fun none the less! :-)
7 - Posted by
IronSight
on November 9, 2005 - 5:51 pm It's a neat little thing, but I would think in someway it would eventually impair you from your computer :P Somehow...
8 - Posted by
Load
on February 16, 2006 - 1:28 pm There is no support for non-IE browsers, right?
9 - Posted by
handrail
on February 16, 2006 - 2:38 pm well, it will work with non-IE browsers just fine. you can set the various pre-programmed buttons to work with mozilla at least. when i tested it i got it to work with mozilla just fine. pretty much all of the buttons are programmable. hope that helps brad. 10 - Posted by
Rich
on March 7, 2006 - 10:00 am http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,1249... This is their standalone model. But it speaks volumes about Microsoft though. Add Comment To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields. |
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