Arc Touch Mouse product reviews

I recently got the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse as a replacement for my mouse that decided to act weirdly.

The first thing that draws you to this mouse is the design, it looks great, and the feature of turning it off by snapping it flat, and turning it on by snapping it back into it's arc is a really cool design feature. Everyone I have showed this mouse to loves the look of it.

The front half where the buttons can be found is finished in a piano black shiny type of surface, while the back half of the mouse is covered in a soft rubber type surface, I assume to make it easier for the mouse to curve when it is turned on.

Both of these surfaces feel good against the skin, and the rubbery type surface feels like you have more control over the mouse, something you will need as it has a high DPI setting, and a small movement of the mouse makes a big movement on the screen, nothing I have an issue with, but might be something you will need to get used to.

I find the mouse quite comfortable in my hand, although I wonder how comfortable it would be for people with very small hands. It comes with the standard left and right mouse buttons, and a centre strip which acts as a scroll wheel. As you scroll, it provides a tactile response, and vibrates a little. You can scroll slow or fast, and even flick your finger to move very rapidly down a page.

There are two design features that I didn't like about the Microsoft Arc Touch mouse. The first is the lack of a third button, especially for the thumb. This is usually used as a back button, and would of been great to include one, as the thumb sits right on the side.

The second is the so called snap in transceiver, while I know the transceiver for most people is a plug and forget type thing, where it always lives in the computer it is used on, for people who want to use it on different computers, they may actually lose it. This is down to the fact the transceiver is actually held underneath the mouse by a strong magnet.

With the hustle and bustle of life and chucking things in and out of bags etc, the potential of it being knocked off is there, I would have mush rather have seen it clip into a slot like many other mouses around.

At the end of the day, if you are after a great looking mouse with a unique design that can work on many different surfaces, and you aren't worried about only having two buttons, this is the mouse for you.

Talk about a mixed bag. To be honest, I feel like this review might stop Microsoft from wanting to send us any more gear... but it shouldn't. Here's why...

This is the second generation of the 'Arc' mouse, and it has gained some great features, and also LOST some that I felt were great, the loss of which reduces my productivity when using this device.

What has it gained? Well, for a start it has gained a new, flatter profile. When in the 'off' position, it could easily be mistaken for a slimline mobile phone at first glance, being a mere 13mm thick at the rigid 'business' end, and a very svelte 7mm thick at the flexible end. The only glitch with this is that the 'nano transceiver' still attaches to the underside via a magnet, but without a shaped 'notch' to lock into, it can be a little easy to knock loose.

This unit has also gained a stunning 'touchpad' style 'middle button' which gives you a range of touch-commands. You have the functionality of the standard scrollwhell and middle button, but you also have drag'n'flick to set off a longer page-drag, plus a number of other features that would take too long to explain - and surprisingly the manual does a pretty good job of covering them well.

What does it lose then? Well, one of my most-used features on a mouse is the thumb-buttons for 'previous page' and 'next page'. When working in such applications as Adobe InDesign, such functionality is a must - pure and simple. If the mouse doesn't have those buttons, I won't use it. And that's where this little fella fell over dead. No buttons under the thumb at all. Zip, nada, zilch. Quite possibly, IMHO, a fatal flaw for this unit. Seriously, would it have cost THAT much to slap a couple of microswitches or a second fancy touchpad on the side? Doubt it.

Would I consider using this mouse for any other applications, that don't require that function? Sure would! It takes a bit of getting used to - it's high optical resolution makes it fair rocket around even the widest screens - which can make for some annoying overshooting until you learn to tone down the arm movements and stiffen your wrist a little more - but once you have adapted, it's a very nice, comfortable mouse to use. Just be careful to keep your hand well forward, otherwise your fingers can slide too far back and clicking the buttons can be tricky.

Overall, considering the price - $30 cheaper than the first model - this is certainly worth exploring for all those who use notebooks on the move. It's tidy, stylish, discrete and highly effective, despite a couple of functionality issues. It's a shame the rumours of a 'multi-touch' mouse didn't come to fruition with this device - maybe in the next version. The only other thing to be aware of is the total lack of supporting software included in the bundle. You won't need anything extra to run the mouse, but you won't get any of the extra goodies that shipped with Version 1 either.