M515 'Couch Mouse' product reviews

No two people have the same hand... it's a fact. Thus, no single mouse is going to fit every hand that might want to use it. For the more 'delicate' hands, this mouse may feel too big, for those - like me - with wider hands, this mouse will feel too small... but considering the size of average mice on the market, this is a pretty good 'compact' mouse without falling too far off the bell-curve of comfort.

The features of this little beauty are many, and remarkable. I got a little naughty and opened this mouse up for a peek at it's inner workings... and what I saw was a master work of design. Simple, elegant, yet as feature-packed as any Swiss army knife would ever hope to be. The scroll-wheel alone impressed me with it's innovation - from the mechanism that can flip it between free-running for scrolling through those OBSCENELY long web pages or spreadsheets, to line-by-line scrolling for that delicate, dexterous touch when you are zoomed right into an image in Photoshop - yet somehow still allow it to wiggle from side to side, giving you the "previous/next page" functions I so loved about some of the older style 'productivity' mice.

What really grabbed me was the 'Hand Sensor' technology... I doubted it at first, but no amount of shoving the mouse around with a pen, pencil or bit of cardboard got that mouse to budge a single pixel... not until my hand came within 5 mm of the top surface or sides... then it was fully responsive. After I cracked the shell and looked inside, I could easily see how simple the design was that enabled this feature... a simple electric field sensor! Of course... If you understand the principles behind the Theremin - where the electric field of a living being will affect another field - then you can see that this is so simple, it's elegant, and such a great innovation to include it in a wireless interface device. When no-one's touching it, it drops to power-saving mode, giving you much greater battery life.

Weighing in - with batteries installed - at a remarkable 132g and measuring approx 115x55x35mm, this is a very portable little unit... great for using on laptops, desktops or even with older USB-enabled tablets that run Windows. With the added functionality of the "Unifying Receiver" you can easily have a multitude of wireless devices on any machine you want, and take your interface with you between workstations... if that kind of thing works for you.

Overall, a delight to use, stylish and elegant to look at (if you like the whole grey/black theme at least) and very discrete. This would look right at home on any workstation, and at this price, the features make it a steal! The very best bit though: Works on nearly every surface you would expect to find around you, including the leg of my jeans! Perfect for MediaTV units such as a Windows-based Media Centre system. And with it's sensor bay totally sealed - there's no fluff or dust getting in there and clogging the works up.

- - - - - UPDATE : 21/11/11 - - - - -

After writing this review, I decided I simply HAD to have one of my own. Here we are, 4 months later and I am STILL on the original set of batteries. This is almost 30% longer than the best wireless-mouse battery lifespan I have come across yet... and the batteries still show 65% of full charge. To say I am blown away by the way the Hand Sensor tech has saved me hassle, productivity downtime and money would be the greatest of understatements. Truely, TRUELY impressed by this wee digital rodent.