When I am working on my laptop, there is no doubt that using a
supplemental mouse is much easier than trying to navigate
with the Fujitsu P2110’s foam covered peg. After a day of wearing
my pointer finger to a nub, I mentioned to Julie that I needed to
buy a travel mouse. She got that evil gleam in her eye – the one
that is not so easy to see via IM – and she said “have I got a
product for you to try…“
A couple days later, the Brando
USB Mouse with Laser Pointer and Thermometer showed up at my
door. I was immediately impressed with the mouse’s small size of
approximately 3″ long x 1.7″ wide x 0.8″ thick, and it weighed only
1.2 ounces. The mouse comes with a retractable 3″ USB to mini USB
power cable that stretches to 28″, similar to the retractable sync
& charge cables I have reviewed in the past.
This mouse does not ship with any drivers, it should be plug and
play for any Windows 95/98/2000/NT/ME/XP computer. Because it
is USB bases, it should also work with Mac systems.
The body of the mouse is composed of black plastic with a
rubbery feeling non-slip paint. The right and left click buttons
are matte silver plastic, and the tiny click wheel is a translucent
ridged plastic.
On the front of the mouse is a small monochromatic LCD window
with a hole on either side, similar to the reset hole on many
electronics. Either hole will toggle the very dim LCD from
Fahrenheit to Centigrade when tapped by a straightened paperclip or
reset pin. I suspect that these holes might also function as
the actual temperature sensor. The silver plastic button on the
right side toggles the red laser pointer.
The bottom of the mouse has a window for the red optical beam;
don’t look directly at it, it causes blindness you know. ;0)
The front of the mouse has the mini USB port as well as an eye
for the red laser pointer’s beam.
As I mentioned previously, the temperature is displayed in the
small LCD on the mouse’s front. While I was able to capture a
decent representation of a reading in this photo, in real life the
LCD is so dim that it is almost impossible to read without picking
up the mouse and looking directly at the window. Oddly enough, the
temperature reading was consistently seven to eight degrees
Fahrenheit higher than the weather station on my desk or the built
in temperature on my wall’s atomic clock. This was even without
handling the mouse, so I can’t attribute the higher reading to a
heated palm.
There must be a rechargeable battery inside the mouse, because
even with the USB cable unplugged pressing the button on the right
side of the mouse will produce a bright red laser beam. I am not
usually one for giving presentations, but this might be a very
handy feature for those that like to illustrate their PowerPoint
presentations with a laser pointer. The pointer will work for a
period of time whether the mouse is plugged in or not, but the
mouse will not continue to work as a computer pointing device
unless the mini USB plug is inserted.
When used as an actual mouse, the device glides very smoothly
across any flat surface, with or without a pad. The mouse’s
tracking is surprisingly quick and responsive, on par with a full
size desktop optical mouse.
The size and responsiveness of the Brando
USB Mouse with Laser Pointer and Thermometer makes it an ideal
travel companion. With that said, I should note that in my opinion
the thermometer and laser pointing add-ons are unnecessary;
they certainly should not be the deciding factors for this mouse
versus another as neither is all that great. It’s not like these
features get in the way, so the fact that they are present should
not cause any aggravation to the user. This particular mouse works
well enough that it is going to become a resident of my laptop
bag.
