The receiver plugged into a notebook
Although the receiver looks small, it actually protrudes a fair amount from the side of a laptop, if you’re using it in this fashion. This means there is a risk of damage to either the receiver or your USB if you’re not careful. That said, it’s a lot better than some of the stick-like offerings of the past.
The install result in Windows 7 x64
Installation in Windows could not be easier – it’s as simple as plugging in the receiver and you’re off. The driver used is the basic USB Input Device, which is included with at least XP, Vista and 7.
1600 dpi optical sensor
The performance from the mouse is pleasing. 1600 dpi is a good amount of sensitivity for everyday use, speaking personally, though it may a little high for some. However, with the smoothness of the tracking, you should find it quite easy to adapt to. There is no hardly any noticeable lag between mouse and cursor movements, though the keen and seasoned gamer may notice it slightly, as with almost any wireless mouse. 1600 dpi is also not too sensitive as to hamper the finer selections and manipulation within windows, browsing and office type tasks, though if you’re looking for a mouse suitable for image editing, I would look elsewhere. I say this because there is no option to tune the sensitivity except through windows, as with any other similar mouse. This may mean that really fine, pixel-level selections may be frustrating.
A variety of surfaces have been tested with the MYST, including wood (shiny and matte finished), gaming surface (BoogieBug Aimpad XL) and short carpet. The only one that presented any issues was the carpet, and frankly, if you expect an optical mouse to work on such a surface, you’re asking a bit much. Some larger mice work better, which may be due to the distance of the sensor from the surface, though without testing this it’s difficult to say much more than that. Good performance on a variety of surfaces is ideal for a mouse designed to be portable, as you never know where you might be setting up your notebook or netbook next.
The mouse certainly looks the part with its smooth, uninterrupted lines
So, the real party piece of this product is the touch sensitive scrolling, but does it work? The short answer is yes, however it’s not without problems. The first, and main, problem you’ll find with this setup is the loss of tactile feedback. Read – being able to feel the scrolling, or indeed scroll area. The mouse is no doubt beautiful to look at, but the smoothness of the top means there is no real boundary or change in texture to recognise the scrolling area with. This means for at least the first week or so of usage, you’ll be scrolling with your fingers and wondering why nothing is happening on screen, only to realise you’re pawing at the mouse button instead and missing the scroll area completely. This is frustrating, I won’t lie. For many users, this would also be an immediate put-off, especially since there is such an unnecessarily steep learning curve. This problem could be simply solved by adding recessed dimples or similar in or around the scroll area. In addition to this, the actual area you can scroll with is pretty small, not only by width (making it difficult to find) but by length too. I would recommend putting the scroll lines setting in your operating system as high as you can bear, otherwise on long pages you’re going to be continuously and frustratingly scrolling for what seems like an eternity. Some credit is due for implementing this into a mainstream product, but I can’t help but think it’s quite a let down at the same time.
