I’ve been using a laptop as my main computer for around 8 months and until now my mouse of choice for it was a a Wireless Intelimouse Explorer which is a great mouse, reliable and comfortable with huge battery life (Over 3 months).

I never thought about getting another notebook mouse because the Intelimouse is really comfortable and I use it’s two side buttons a lot. But then I saw this mouse, which also has one side button, and I found a great deal to purchase an OEM model for around half it’s retail price so I took the chance, and I must say I’m pleased with it.

Here are the two of them next to each other:

And a picture of them being held from the top:

Though the Notebook Mouse is obviously not as comfortable as it’s big brother it’s surprisingly usable and after an afternoon of use I find no difference on my wrists, possibly because I don’t really hold on to the mouse that much since I’m always changing between the mouse and keyboard with my right hand.

One of the other surprising things was the scrollwheel which has greatly been improved over the Intelimouse’s.

The Intelimouse was one of the first mice released with a horizontal scroll function by tilting the scrollwheel left and right, however, this functionality also made using the middle mouse button more difficult because the button is quite stiff and sometimes you’d just press on one of the sidescroll “buttons” instead of the middle one. The Notebook 4000 shows none of these problems, side scrolling is as easy as before and the middle mouse button is much softer and easier to use.

But it’s not all good though, even though the Notebook mouse is an improvement in some aspects it disappointed me with it’s side button, which I think is a bit badly placed, at least for my hand. In order to press it I need to either hold the mouse at the front tip as much as possible or I have to bend my knuckles a bit in order to reach it as the following picture demonstrates:

Another thing which takes a while to get used to is the “hump” the mouse has running in the middle of it. If you are used to resting your palm on your mouse you’ll find this one a bit weird because of that, but then again I guess it’s just a matter of time before I get used to it.

The left and right buttons are, on the opposite, great and you can press them from any spot after the middle part of the mouse.

Even with it’s small flaws I still find this mouse a great product and a worthwhile upgrade over my previous one for use with the laptop.

I give it a whooping:

4.5 stars out of five.