Infobox

Product Reviewed: Optical Mouse N/A Manufacturer: Belkin Components Home Page Suggested Retail Price: $29.99 USD

After 3 decades of innovation on a device that's basically a ball with a plastic encasement, the industry has pretty much seen everything! From the wackiest shapes, to the now popular scroll wheel, to physically moving the ball from the bottom of the mouse to the top of it (i.e. a trackball), the popular pointing device that we all call a mouse has gone through many different changes and transformations. Even after all these alterations, we're still left with a rubber ball encased in plastic to move around a pointer of some sorts.

So, it was a big move ahead when Microsoft first came out with a mouse that had no balls at all, called the IntelliMouse Explorer. A mouse without balls? No way!

Well, the IntelliMouse Explorer uses a camera instead of the conventional rubber ball. Underneath the mouse is a digital camera that takes pictures of the surface underneath it up to 1500 times per second and to help it take the pictures is the infamous glowing, red light. These pictures are then sent to a powerful processor built into the mouse so that it can change those pictures into movement coordinates. Voila! We have mousing capabilities!

After the release of the IntelliMouse Explorer, came Microsoft's own "IntelliMouse with IntelliEye" (that's what the no-balls technology is called over at Redmond), a trimmed-down version of the Explorer, or an upgraded version of the IntelliMouse Pro, and later, the IntelliMouse Optical. Of course, the other mouse manufacturers just couldn't stand around and watch Microsoft take away from their market share, so out comes the Wheel Mouse featuring optical technology from Logitech, and now, the Optical Mouse from Belkin.

First Impressions
Like its name suggests, the Optical Mouse from Belkin is a mouse based on the optical technology first pioneered by Microsoft. Now, I'm betting that the inner workings aren't exactly the same, but all the optical mice should work by the same concept.

The Belkin Optical Mouse has 5 buttons in total, 2 on the top, 2 on each side and one in between the 2 on top that can be used by pressing the scroll wheel down. It's a USB mouse, but there's also a USB to PS/2 converter included in the package for those people who either don't have a free USB port (or don't have one altogether) or would like to use an OS other than Windows 98/ME/2000 (such as Linux). The gray, semi-opaque color of the mouse (and even the cord) adds a certain level of "coolness" to the mouse, although the color scheme was almost a complete rip of the color scheme found on Microsoft optical mice. You'll also find the base and a little tip at the end of the mouse to be made of red, semi-translucent plastic, which should create a cool, glowing effect once we plug it in.

Powering Up...
Installation was a snap. I simply plugged the mouse into a free USB port at the back of the computer and Windows ME immediately detected it and, after a few seconds of the computer churning around, it was ready for use. I didn't even have to use the included driver disk, although the special software included will enable more options for the extra side buttons. For now, without the included software included, the only use that I found for the side buttons would be to go "Forward" and "Backward" in Internet Explorer, which I found to be very useful.

Unfortunately, the side buttons got in the way and I did find that I accidentally clicked on them quite often. This is cause by the slanted sides of the mouse that make it very hard to actually pick it up, something that I notice that I do very often with any mouse. This is one of the main reasons why I never bothered to set up these side buttons for use in games because during the heat of the action, you never know what you'll trigger if you accidentally press a button.

Other than that, the mouse functioned very well. Tracking was very smooth and the refresh rate was improved on considerably than my old generic PS/2 mouse that I had plugged into this test system before. I actually noticed that I could use the mouse at a higher level of precision, which is probably because of the smooth tracking caused by the optical technology and the lack of a heavy mouse ball, which helped to lighten up this mouse considerably.

One problem that I found to be quite annoying is that when I pick up the mouse, I must lift it higher than I usually would have to with balled mice or else the camera under the mouse keeps on taking pictures and the pointer keeps on tracking; a minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.

Conclusion
The Belkin Optical Mouse is, overall, a very attractive alternative to the usual batches of balled mouse out there at this moment. I must admit that, at first, I was a bit skeptical about how these optical mice can actually make the tracking more accurate, but after using the Optical Mouse from Belkin, I am truly convinced. Installation was a snap because of the USB connection, and the included PS/2 adapter allows you to use this mouse even on a computer without a USB port. The 5 buttons were a bit excessive, even to a point where I found that I would hit some buttons accidentally.

But is it worth it for the mediocre price tag of $30? Obviously, if you're on a tight budget, then I wouldn't burn too much cash to get this optical mouse, but if you would like second to none accuracy and would like to use one of the coolest-looking mice on this side of the galaxy, then I would shed out the cash to purchase one.

Pros Look ma, no balls! Gray color scheme; futuristic look Very accurate and smooth tracking USB for ease of installation; PS/2 adapter for compatibility Cons Too many buttons; sometimes got in way Hard to pick up

On to: AVB Vmouse