Review: Microsoft Sculpt Touch Mouse
The Microsoft Sculpt Touch Mouse connects via Bluetooth and is designed to free your desk up from any additional wires. It uses BlueTrack Technology so it can operate on virtually any surface (excluding glass or mirrored surfaces).
The mouse features its own left and right click buttons and a touch scroll button which replaces the typical scrolling wheel. This touch scroll stripe can be used in a few different ways: general actions for the four directions, as well as acting as a third button where you can click on the top, centre and bottom areas of the stripe. You can also change the settings to customize the mouse.
The ability to flick or swipe the mouse in any given direction has been introduced with the impending release of Windows 8. It does however feel more like a novelty than a functional requirement for the mouse. The finish is glossy, so some might find it a bit on the slippery side.
Pros
- No scroll-wheel means no jamming issues
- Simple battery compartment access
- Power can be turned off when not in use
- Mouse automatically turns off when not in use for a certain length of time
- Bluetooth technology means no USB receivers
- Supports Windows 7, 8 and Mac OSX 10.6+
- Depending on your mouse settings, scrolling with faster flicks can send you straight to the bottom of a window
- Scrolling feels and sounds very odd
- Using Bluetooth on aircrafts is not advised
- Windows Vista is not supported
Overall the mouse performed well, but the internal scrolling sounds and feels a bit strange and unnatural. The mouse isn’t too heavy even though it requires two AA batteries. Operation and pairing the mouse to a computer is straightforward and the abilities to manually switch off and automatically power down when not in use are beneficial.
