The Microsoft Wedge Mouse is an interesting mouse for sure. The first thing you notice is that the thing is tiny, if you have big hands, basically you can forget about using it. Here are a couple of pictures of it next to a Microsoft Bluetooth Mouse 5000 and the old faithful so you can appreciate the size:
Ergonomically you might think this thing would be a disaster. And you would probably be right – I have average size hands, but it doesn’t feel that good to hold. An hour of fallout 3 and my hand was hurting. Having said that I did 2 full days of work with no issues, because there I am mostly typing and using the mouse less. So it is OK for occasional use, but I would not recommend it for prolonged periods of mouse activity.
I really wanted to like this device, it ticked a lot of boxes for me:
- It is very portable – small and light, ideal to complement a small notebook and keep travelling weight down.
- It uses 1 AA battery, so I only need to carry 1 spare.
- Bluetrack technology – excellent tracking and nice and accurate. Much better than my Bluetooth mouse 5000.
- Generally it looks nice and has a quality feel.
- It does vertical and horizontal scrolling, made for Windows 8 apps and start screen, although Horizontal scrolling doesn’t work in normal desktop apps – e.g. Microsoft Expression Design. I miss this feature with a normal mouse.
However, there are some crucial flaws with the device that meant I just couldn’t live with it. My major issues with this device are:
- It frequently left clicks when you mean to right click. This happens when a finger is (lightly) resting on the left button. You try to right click, but for some reason it left clicks. This is the first deal breaker for me. Just try playing Minesweeper on Windows 8 on the largest screen – it doesn’t work, you will loose because of this mouse. This is pretty fundamental functionality for a mouse, left and right click.
- You cannot right click and left click at the same time. This doesn’t sound like much of an issue until you come across a situation when you need to do both. For instance a game where you zoom with right click, and shoot with left. You can no longer play the game.
- It’s too small and too damned awkward.
- It doesn’t support Windows 8 gestures. No multi touch, no pinch to zoom, no charms etc.
So unfortunately it is back to the shop for this mouse. I’ll wait for another one which actually works….
