Microsoft Wireless Arc Mouse

The Arc Mouse was designed with the laptop in mind, for people on the move. It is very compact when you fold it but offers the same comfort as a « big » mouse when it is fully expanded. It then has a crescent shape and becomes almost twice the size. Folding the mouse closed automatically turns it off.
This seems a great idea: Mice for notebooks are normally far too short, the hand does not sit well on them and you can experience cramps by the end of the day.
The Arc can however easily seduce a larger public with its innovative and sleek design. Shame though that the scroll wheel is not black, but that is a matter of taste (The mouse now comes in four colours, depending on your country).






Sadly, beauty and exquisite design are not everything; using this mouse was a bit of a disappointment. We can’t help wondering why there is only one thumb button and why it is placed so far away from the thumb. These devices are meant to able to browse the Web easily. Here you can go back but not forth on a page. When you are used to other mice, the loss of the second button is a tad frustrating.




We were expecting something more of revolutionary product, not just a pretty one. But you might just have to be satisfied with its unique shape, a lack of buttons and rather basic electronic components (impossible to change definition within a click for example… but then again these options are mainly on devices for gamers).

In comparison with Logitech’s V550 Nano, the Microsoft micro-transceiver is actually bigger sticks out more. Then again to be fair, the Logitech model has no thumb button at all. Perfection may be out of this world.