I’m trialling one of these as a replacement for the Mobile Mouse 3500 I purchased six months ago. The MM3500’s main problem was simply that it would become bogged down when the computer was busy and therefore be difficult to use at that time. The SM is in its physical shape virtually identical to the MM with one small difference – the Windows button behind the wheel that brings up the Start screen, or when running Classic Shell, the Start menu. The price is about 50% higher, which I hope leads to a better performance – the MM never had any real issue such as tracking on a smooth desktop (as even a Logitech laser mouse did), it was the jerky movement of the pointer at certain times that made me eventually give up on it, although losing the receiver a few months ago means it’s been gathering dust on the shelf ever since. It’s naturally a great pity you can’t buy replacement receivers but greed rules supreme from the manufacturers of course.
Like the MM, the SM has a click scroll wheel with detents – which is important when you want to middle click. The problem with continuous scrolling wheels is how hard it is to click the wheel as a button. Unfortunately we end up having to rely on reviews to find out which kind of wheel a mouse actually has.
UPDATE: Unfortunately I have been sadly disillusioned by seeing the exact same problems in this mouse as its predecessor. I honestly cannot understand why a company with Microsoft’s reputation can overlook such a glaring fault in their cordless mouse hardware. For three days I used a Logitech cordless laser mouse on the very same computer and it never missed a beat. The Microsoft blue-light mice of this particular design seem to all have the same problem in that the mouse will simply freeze whenever things get a bit intense and then jump a great distance across the screen when it catches up. I am forever finding I have to use the same trick of taking the mouse up off the surface to reset it when it jumps around too much. Just junk and I am not buying another MS cordless again.
When I checked the reviews on Amazon I should have read all the reviews because some of the reviewers reported exactly the same problem. We live in an age where manufacturers simply cannot be bothered producing a quality product anymore. And in a society where the environment and waste are becoming an issue, these companies just keep on producing cheap junk that only last a short time and then gets thrown away, being wasteful of resources. The Logitech M215 was what I had a play with at the weekend and the M185 which I believe is its replacement is probably the one I will try next.