This is my first experience with both an optical mouse and a scroll wheel mouse. I got it as a gift, and when I was unwrapping it, my first thought was, "Why is there a flashing red light in here?" Turns out it was part of the packaging. I have to give props to them marketing people for designing a killer package that's bound to catch your eye at the store.

The mouse itself is just as enticing in appearance. It has a translucent blue body (the sides and bottom) and an opaque blue top with the Logitech logo embedded in there. The buttons are silver and the scroll wheel is a darker gray. Can't say that they were color blind when they designed this; the colors blend nicely together. Looks much better than my previous plain white mouse.

OK, enough about aesthetics. It really impressed me, but as if that should really be a priority when you select mice. =)

For lefties, the shape of the mouse is nice because it can go both ways - it doesn't favor righties or lefties with its perfectly symmetrical shape.

I got it as a gift, but after looking around, I know the price is extremely reasonable, compared to how much optical mice can run these days. Regular price is $30, but on sale they can be found at $25.

Are you wondering what the rage is about with this optical technology? Basically the ball is replaced with this neat-looking red light that is the optical sensor, and is supposed to be more sensitive. The biggest plus is that it never requires cleaning. Cleaning wasn't that big of a deal, but at least you save yourself the grody job of pulling out clumps of compressed dust. =)

For those of us who don't have USB ports yet (gasp!) the nice people at Logitech were kind enough to include a USB-to-PS2 adapter so that you can still plug it into your PS2 port. I thought that was cool, because I had already used up my USB ports with my scanner and DSL modem. If you really want to use it as a USB mouse, you can get a USB 4-Port hub (which is something that gives you more USB ports) for about $25-$30.

Logitech includes a proprietary "MouseWare" which is the software that goes with the scroll wheel and makes it do cool stuff. You can program different functions into the mouse. The thing I end up using the most is double-clicking the wheel (yes, it can also be depressed like a regular button) to "Go Back" in my web browser. No more scrolling up to the top of the window to hit the Back button. This makes me sound really lazy, but hey, it's a handy feature! =)

Now for the cons. I have on occasion experienced times when the mouse wheel no longer responds in the web browser, and I am forced to go back to using the scroll bars and arrows on the side of the browser window. This problem is alleviated by closing out all the browser windows and opening it up again. I am not sure if this is a known problem, or if it's just me.

Another thing I've observed is that the mouse pointer will sometimes for no reason just shake on the screen. It's a very small subtle shaking, but it does shake nonetheless. Again, I wonder if it's because of buggy MouseWare or if it's just me.

Overall though, a very cool mouse, and my first experience with the optical and scroll wheel technology is a positive one. And of course, it has all my friends who see it going, "Ooh" and "Aah" because it's so pretty. =)

----Afterthought after reading some other epinions on this mouse (02/22/2001):

One member stated that he wasn't sure how much the price was marked up on the mouse simply because of the blinking red light on the packaging, which reminded me of something. The contraption is this 2 AA battery holder taped to the back of the box that powers the light. My dad had a great idea for it. He told me to cut it out and save it so I could test battery strength later (for those batteries that don't have their own energy tester). [shrug] Just a nifty lil' idea. =)

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 30