**A Detailed Review of the Microsoft Portable Mouse**

As I began testing the Microsoft Portable Mouse, I was eager to see how it would perform against some of my existing peripherals. The device is touted as a triple-A battery-powered mouse that's supposed to last about six months on a single set of batteries.

One of the first features I wanted to test was the LED indicator. Upon turning it on, I noticed that it had a blue track, which tracked on just about any surface - glass being one notable exception. The blue track is coated with a rubbery material, and I was pleased to find that it performed well on various surfaces, including my hand-lay-on-it surface without collapsing or losing its tracking ability.

I also noticed that the buttons were recessed into the device, which made them slightly more difficult to press than some of my other mice. However, the click itself was nice and responsive, even if it did take a bit more pressure than I'm used to with some of my other devices. The scroll pad was another feature that caught my attention, as it included a small speaker under the surface that emitted a gentle tapping sensation as you scrolled. This wasn't a major inconvenience, but it was certainly an interesting touch.

On the top of the device, I found an indicator LED that glowed green when the battery levels were good and red when they were low or failing. The light would also flash occasionally to draw attention to the battery's status. It was a simple yet effective way to monitor the battery's health.

In comparison to some of my other mice, including the first BlueTrack Mouse I reviewed and the Logitech M185 Touch Mouse, this device felt compact and lightweight in the hand - although it did lack the curvature that some users prefer. The device is clearly designed for portability, and its compact size made it easy to slip into a pocket or bag.

One notable omission was the lack of back and forward buttons on the mouse. However, Microsoft does include a touch-sensitive area on either side of the mouse that can be used as a makeshift left and right click button. There is also no middle-click button, which may be a drawback for some users.

To test the device's tracking abilities, I plugged in its USB dongle and attached it to my Mac. To my surprise, Microsoft does not have software available for this mouse on the Mac platform - although it will work just fine once plugged in. The device does include some options for adjusting the tracking through the operating system, which is a nice touch.

When using the mouse, I was pleased to find that it tracked smoothly and responded well to my movements. It included kinetic scrolling, where the speed of the scroll could be controlled by moving quickly or slowly. This was a nice feature that added an extra layer of precision to my browsing experience.

In conclusion, the Microsoft Portable Mouse is a solid device that performs well in its intended role as a portable mouse. While it may lack some features that I prefer, such as back and forward buttons, it makes up for this with its compact size and effective tracking abilities. The only major complaint I have is with the price - at $69.99, it's certainly on the higher side of what I'd expect to pay for a portable mouse. However, it's possible that some of the technology used in this device may justify the premium pricing.

**Technical Details**

* Dimensions: 4 x 2 x 0.5 inches

* Weight: 3 ounces

* Battery Life: Up to six months on triple-A batteries

* LED Indicator: Glows green when battery levels are good, red when low or failing

* Track Type: BlueTrack

* Buttons: Recessed buttons with a single click surface

* Scroll Pad: Includes a small speaker that emits a gentle tapping sensation as you scroll

* Connectivity: USB Dongle for connectivity to computers

* Software Compatibility: Available for Windows XP, Vista, and 7; no software available for Mac platform

**Conclusion**

The Microsoft Portable Mouse is a solid device that performs well in its intended role as a portable mouse. While it may lack some features that I prefer, such as back and forward buttons, it makes up for this with its compact size and effective tracking abilities. The only major complaint I have is with the price - at $69.99, it's certainly on the higher side of what I'd expect to pay for a portable mouse. However, it's possible that some of the technology used in this device may justify the premium pricing.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi everyone this is Aaron for Zolo Tech and today we're going to be reviewing the Microsoft arc touch Mouse the art touch Mouse is Microsoft's latest mobile Mouse and is called the touch Mouse because of this little touchpad right here but let's take a look at the outside design first as you can see it's flat and that's to be portable and just throw in the laptop bag or or whatever you're going to be putting your laptop in on the bottom we have a magnetic spot for the USB dongle here that just sits here you can see it's it's a magnetic it's pretty strong especially when this is flat and right where it's supposed to be it's not going to fall off unlike the last arc mouse that Microsoft made they had a spot right here where you would place this and you flip over the back of the phone onto it and I was kind of concerned what you would do with this until I found that magnetic spot so that works out nicely in its strong enough unless you really hit this hard I mean you can hit it against the table it could fall it's not going to fall off this is a really strong magnet in here we have a set of Triple A batteries I want to see double-a but Triple A batteries that are supposed to last about six months only time will tell with that we have our blue track LED and this is coated with a rubbery material and let's go ahead and turn it on and to do that you just arc it like that and it clicks into place there's the blue LED and blue track is good because it tracks on just about any surface but glass and I only know of a couple Logitech mouse mice lit or Mouse's that could track on glass the so it does a pretty good job I actually use it on this surface and your hand lays on it quite nicely now I didn't get a couple questions when you put your hand on it does it does it collapse no it doesn't it's plenty strong I'm giving that a lot of force if you really push yes you could collapse this but it takes a lot but let's talk about the buttons the buttons are recessed here you can see there's a line around here and that makes it a little bit difficult when you're clicking you kind of want to push on the edge and it doesn't work so the click is nice but it does take a little bit more pressure than you would with say this blue track Mouse the first blue track Mouse which is a nice easy click these are a little bit more difficult you also have this scroll pad and here listen to this that has a little speaker or something under here and you can actually feel it it's like it's tapping back at your finger as you scroll so it's kind of interesting and it does a nice job of scrolling it doesn't seem to mess up or anything as far as that goes on the top here we have an indicator LED that's green when the battery's good and red when it's going bad and it will flash and that's pretty much it it's a pretty simple mouse so let's take a look at it next to this blue track mouse that's really big this was the first blue track Mouse to explore a mouse and next to it the our touch Mouse so you can see it has a nice high arch in it for your hand to rest on especially if you have big hands it's actually not too bad to use it's just really narrow as compared to this Mouse and doesn't have all this you know curvature for your hand but that's fine it's a portable Mouse the only complaint I have about it so far is the lack of back and forward buttons but we do have this little touch thing in our left and right mouse button there is not a button in the middle to click either so it's kind of interesting so let's go ahead and show you how it tracks I'll switch over I'll plug this USB dongle in and we'll see what it looks like when we're tracking well I've attached the USB key to the keyboard and as you can see I'm using it on my Mac the interesting thing is Microsoft does not have software for this Mouse for the Mac as far as options are concerned however it will work just fine once it's plugged in they do have software available for Windows XP Vista and 7 so for those of you that may want some extra options you'll have that so why they don't include it I'm not sure but maybe it's just because it works fine and you can adjust the tracking through the operating system if you need to do that so as you can see it tracks smoothly and I can get pretty close to pixel per pixel movement without any problem let's go ahead and open a web page here my site zolteck and i'll scroll so it does have the kind of kinetic scrolling where I'm going slow if I go fast it will scroll faster I can kind of control it speed wise if I do that it works just fine so it's actually a pretty nice scroll like I said I'm a little bit disappointed with the lack of back and forward let's go ahead and click and then I can right click let's go back right click works fine everything seems to work pretty well it's a decent Mouse it's a great portable Mouse and when you're all done with it all you do is shove it off like that so it's a pretty nice Mouse overall a little bit pricey at $69.99 for a portable Mouse but I think that might be in some of the technology they're using to I don't know whatever they're doing to with the switch in here and maybe some more moving parts comes in a really nice package if you haven't seen that check out my unboxing of the mouse and other than that it's pretty simple Mouse and does a good job at what it's supposed to do so if you have any questions though that I haven't answered please feel free to ask and thanks to everyone that's subscribed this is Aaron I'll see you next timehi everyone this is Aaron for Zolo Tech and today we're going to be reviewing the Microsoft arc touch Mouse the art touch Mouse is Microsoft's latest mobile Mouse and is called the touch Mouse because of this little touchpad right here but let's take a look at the outside design first as you can see it's flat and that's to be portable and just throw in the laptop bag or or whatever you're going to be putting your laptop in on the bottom we have a magnetic spot for the USB dongle here that just sits here you can see it's it's a magnetic it's pretty strong especially when this is flat and right where it's supposed to be it's not going to fall off unlike the last arc mouse that Microsoft made they had a spot right here where you would place this and you flip over the back of the phone onto it and I was kind of concerned what you would do with this until I found that magnetic spot so that works out nicely in its strong enough unless you really hit this hard I mean you can hit it against the table it could fall it's not going to fall off this is a really strong magnet in here we have a set of Triple A batteries I want to see double-a but Triple A batteries that are supposed to last about six months only time will tell with that we have our blue track LED and this is coated with a rubbery material and let's go ahead and turn it on and to do that you just arc it like that and it clicks into place there's the blue LED and blue track is good because it tracks on just about any surface but glass and I only know of a couple Logitech mouse mice lit or Mouse's that could track on glass the so it does a pretty good job I actually use it on this surface and your hand lays on it quite nicely now I didn't get a couple questions when you put your hand on it does it does it collapse no it doesn't it's plenty strong I'm giving that a lot of force if you really push yes you could collapse this but it takes a lot but let's talk about the buttons the buttons are recessed here you can see there's a line around here and that makes it a little bit difficult when you're clicking you kind of want to push on the edge and it doesn't work so the click is nice but it does take a little bit more pressure than you would with say this blue track Mouse the first blue track Mouse which is a nice easy click these are a little bit more difficult you also have this scroll pad and here listen to this that has a little speaker or something under here and you can actually feel it it's like it's tapping back at your finger as you scroll so it's kind of interesting and it does a nice job of scrolling it doesn't seem to mess up or anything as far as that goes on the top here we have an indicator LED that's green when the battery's good and red when it's going bad and it will flash and that's pretty much it it's a pretty simple mouse so let's take a look at it next to this blue track mouse that's really big this was the first blue track Mouse to explore a mouse and next to it the our touch Mouse so you can see it has a nice high arch in it for your hand to rest on especially if you have big hands it's actually not too bad to use it's just really narrow as compared to this Mouse and doesn't have all this you know curvature for your hand but that's fine it's a portable Mouse the only complaint I have about it so far is the lack of back and forward buttons but we do have this little touch thing in our left and right mouse button there is not a button in the middle to click either so it's kind of interesting so let's go ahead and show you how it tracks I'll switch over I'll plug this USB dongle in and we'll see what it looks like when we're tracking well I've attached the USB key to the keyboard and as you can see I'm using it on my Mac the interesting thing is Microsoft does not have software for this Mouse for the Mac as far as options are concerned however it will work just fine once it's plugged in they do have software available for Windows XP Vista and 7 so for those of you that may want some extra options you'll have that so why they don't include it I'm not sure but maybe it's just because it works fine and you can adjust the tracking through the operating system if you need to do that so as you can see it tracks smoothly and I can get pretty close to pixel per pixel movement without any problem let's go ahead and open a web page here my site zolteck and i'll scroll so it does have the kind of kinetic scrolling where I'm going slow if I go fast it will scroll faster I can kind of control it speed wise if I do that it works just fine so it's actually a pretty nice scroll like I said I'm a little bit disappointed with the lack of back and forward let's go ahead and click and then I can right click let's go back right click works fine everything seems to work pretty well it's a decent Mouse it's a great portable Mouse and when you're all done with it all you do is shove it off like that so it's a pretty nice Mouse overall a little bit pricey at $69.99 for a portable Mouse but I think that might be in some of the technology they're using to I don't know whatever they're doing to with the switch in here and maybe some more moving parts comes in a really nice package if you haven't seen that check out my unboxing of the mouse and other than that it's pretty simple Mouse and does a good job at what it's supposed to do so if you have any questions though that I haven't answered please feel free to ask and thanks to everyone that's subscribed this is Aaron I'll see you next time\n"