Review Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse

The symmetrical "Arc" design of this little wireless mouse is suited for left as well as right handed users. The shape is most noticeable due to its flat and low height, and also its rounded edges. The currently fashionable high gloss surfaces make the Arc Touch a perfect companion for high gloss laptops, such as for example the Asus UL50VF.

When it comes to the adopted materials, Microsoft has opted exclusively for plastics and rubbered surfaces. The bendable rear end is clad in grippy rubber which gives a sense of high quality. The touch sensitive surface also gives an exceptionally good impression, and even underscores this with haptical feedback (rumble). Both of the high gloss mouse buttons are however not quite as impressive according to our opinion.

The manufacturing quality of our tested device gave no reason for complaints. The mouse cannot be warped, and doesn't squeak when subjected to pressure. The twisting for powering on the device gives a durable and long lasting impression.

When it comes to the features, the twisting to power on, and the touch scroll strip stand out above all else. Both of these are also eluded to in the name with "Arc" and "Touch".

As can be seen in the video, the mouse is switched on by twisting the rear end. This manifests itself with a clearly noticeable clicking. The mechanics give a high quality impression, and thanks to this feature the surface is more transportable.

Storage of the small USB receiver can be achieved by using the magnetic bottom surface without difficulty. This has been solved by Microsoft in a exemplary way; the only downside is that other USB sticks can get attached to the mouse from time to time...

The small touch sensitive strip is the actual highlight of the Arc Touch mouse when it comes to using it. It replaces the classical mouse wheel with a sensitive surface, such as with Notebook touchpads. An interesting highlight: the use of this leads to activating a small rumble motor inside it which provides for haptical feedback. The sensitive surface itself allows for "inertial scrolling" by swinging across it with a finger, as is already familiar from the Magic Mouse, or the as with Apple MacBooks. This function works astonishingly well in our test, and also allows for a seamless scrolling as with the freely turning mouse wheel on the Anywhere MX. In addition to this it is also possible to tap the appropriate end of the strip to scroll a page at a time. The middle of the touch sensitive strip can also be tapped twice to function as another configurable button (3. mouse button for example). The touch sensitive strip is therefore not only a a space saving alternative to the mouse wheel, but also a has multi functional value.

The sensor that Microsoft has opted to use is a 1000 DPI BlueTrack sensor. This did not turn out to be as precise as that on other bigger colleagues, or on the Darkfield mice from Logitech (e.g. Anywhere MX) in our test.

Also use with Linux (tested with Ubuntu 10.10) and Mac OS X (10.6.4) worked without problems with the Arc Touch. An individual driver for configuration of the buttons is not provided by Microsoft however.

The already mentioned Anywhere MX offers an optional scroll wheel which allows for just as easy and fast scrolling. It is however a little more heavy also takes up more space in a bag. The sensor performance and the tireless use clearly speak in favor of the Anywhere MX though.

The bigger competition comes from the manufacturer Speedlink with the Cue. A mouse with the addition of a multi-touch touchpad. This is also very mobile thanks to its small size and light weight. The driver however does not provide for inertial scrolling, which provides for much improved web surfing.

The Roccat Pyra and the Speedlink Ferret are also small mice, both of which score with their high level of accuracy.