The Explorer Mini Mouse has a distinctive look and is capable almost all situations. (click to enlarge)

After reviewing the gaming-oriented Microsoft Sidewinder X8 and being so pleased with its BlueTrack Technology, I knew that the Explorer Mini Mouse had potential to become my favorite ’small mouse.’

Microsoft was kind enough to send me one to try out, and in almost every situation it’s been superb.

There are obvious places where a mouse like this would work, paired with a laptop that you take on the go, as a compliment to your home theater PC (HTPC), or even as a normal desktop mouse.  But I would definitely caution, you’re not going to get amazing gaming performance out of this mouse, because it’s just not designed for that.   There are other mice in the same price range that would be much better suited for gaming performance.

That doesn’t make the Explorer Mini Mouse a bad choice, but you have to know what you’re going to use it for in advance.

The Explorer Mini Mouse has a shiny look and a smooth feel. (click to enlarge)

Out of the box, the Explorer Mini Mouse impresses.  It has a shiny finish to it’s two main mouse buttons, but also a nice touch.  There is a rubber grip that curves along the back of the mouse that kind of tucks into your palm.

The mouse also fit nicely in my hand, as I didn’t have to contort my fingers at all to get a good grip.  I wasn’t sure at first if that would be the case because as the name describes the mouse is smaller than standard.

The Explorer Mini Mouse has the 5 buttons that I have come to expect on mice.  There is your main right and left click, the middle button on the wheel and then two side buttons.  Placement is great.  The two side buttons are placed in a location where it’s still comfortable to click them, and you really don’t notice them otherwise.  The side buttons are also long enough that they stretch most of the side of the device.

The scroll wheel also steals a feature that I’ve liked in Logitech mice, that is a smooth scroll instead of a click scroll.  It’s not for everyone, but I’ve definitely found it nicer for scrolling through web pages and documents than a click wheel.  In Logitech mice you can actually whip the wheel and scroll through a document in less than a second.  That feature is absent on the Explorer Mini Mouse, but you can set the acceleration high enough to speed things up.

Tracking on the mouse was one of the most important things I wanted to try out.  Would the same technology that proved great in the Sidewinder X8 perform in the smaller form?  I can say yes.  I tried the mouse on my home desk, my work desk, the couch, the untrackable table, the untrackable end table.  It tracked great, with only a couple of minor hiccups.

The Explorer Mini Mouse Properties, you might want to change them. (click to enlarge)

The included software that comes with the Explorer Mini Mouse is pretty standard fare, though if you install it you may be surprised by some of the button assignments.

For one, the default for what is normally the ‘forward’ button for your browser is a feature called Magnify.  I changed it from the default the second I used it on the desktop, but found Magnify to be useful in an HTPC setting.  Sometimes text is just too small when you’re sitting 8 feet away from your television and it was nice to have the Magnify feature available to zoom in on a certain area of the screen.  I ultimately disabled it though and changed so that the button would be what I was used to, the forward button.

There are literally dozens of options that you could assign to each of the buttons, from zoom functions to copy and paste functions, but I generally just gave the buttons to the normal assignments.  If there were additional buttons, I may have assigned one as a quick key for opening a program.

You can customize the buttons to have program-specific settings, but I found that in general use at both home and work there wasn’t much need to set up different button assignments.  It’s nice to know that If I had wanted to though that the feature is there.

The Instant Viewer shows you every window you have open, kind of like Expose. (click to enlarge)

The middle mouse button defaults to a feature called Instant Viewer.  This feature pulls back all of your open windows into a grid to give you a kind of a Mac OS X Expose feel, without the flash of the Apple OS.

I’ve always been a heavy ‘alt-tab’ user, quick changing between applications is very important for the way I use a computer.  That being said, I generally don’t need to see every window I have open.  I left the button assigned to the Instant Viewer, beacuse I don’t really use the middle mouse button a whole lot anyways.

The Explorer Mini Mouse is wireless and like the bigger Sidewinder X8 also runs on a standard AA battery.  It comes with a non-rechargable battery, but I tossed in one of the Energizers I had plugged into the wall.  So far, through quite a bit of usage I haven’t had to replace it yet.  There’s no on/off switch on the bottom of the mouse, like I’ve seen on other mice models.

The Explorer Mini Mouse's bottom, with an indentation for the USB dongle. (click to enlarge)

The lack of a switch shouldn’t really be a problem in most cases though, because when you stick the USB dongle into the bottom of the mouse, there’s a push button that turns the mouse off.  So if you’re tossing it in your laptop bag, no worries the mouse will be off.

For a home theater PC setup, some people may prefer to have a switch to turn the mouse off because the USB dongle will always be plugged in.

When it comes to gaming with the Explorer Mini Mouse, it’s a little better than your standard wireless mouse.  It has a 2.4Ghz wireless transmitter, but sports none of the ‘gaming features’ that were included on the Sidewinder X8.   It will get you by though if you’re on your laptop or even a HTPC setup, but know that it’s not a gaming mouse and it’s not trying to be.

The mouse retails for $59.99 but can easily be found for around $40.   That’s more than you’re going to pay for Logitech’s VX Revolution, a similarly sized mouse, but the Logitech mouse has also been out for much longer and doesn’t sport the BlueTrack technology.

If you’re going to be using the mouse on a variety of surfaces or if you’ve had trouble with a wireless mouse tracking in some of the places you frequent, you’re going to want to check out the Explorer Mini Mouse.

As always you can leave your comments in the section provided, or shoot me an email at matt(dot)schuler(at)woodtv(dot)com.   Also check out my Twitter feed for updates on the “Save Your Money: Build A PC” series. (Currently the shipment is sitting in Wyoming, waiting to be delivered on Monday.)