| Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000
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Wireless Laser 6000 Mouse:
When Microsoft first introduced the Wireless Intelli Explorer mouse some years ago I jumped on it and was sadly disappointed in the way it performed in games. It soon wound up doing shelf duty, and because of this I had a fair amount of apprehension about the Wireless Laser 6000 and envisioned getting through the review and then switching back to my beloved Logitech MX-500. As I type this, the Logitech is now collecting dust on the shelf with no plans for that to change as the Wireless Laser 6000 has taken over as the best mouse I have used to date. Let's take a look at the reasons why.
 
The Wireless Laser 6000 has the two standard mouse buttons, two thumb buttons on the left side and a scroll wheel/button. This is nothing spectacular, but with the driver software installed the buttons become programmable, which lets you choose from a wide variety of functions. The two pictures below show what I am talking about. The first picture is the default button assignment and the second picture shows the options available in the drop down menus for each button.
 
Being an old guy whose eyesight is showing the effects of age, one feature the Wireless Laser 6000 offered, and I instantly fell in love with, is the magnifying option. This feature by default is programmed to the small thumb button. Push the button and a magnifying square pops up on the screen. This magnifying box follows your mouse and the size of the box can be adjusted by holding the button down and moving the mouse. A second click of the button and the magnifying box closes.
The scroll wheel is a little different than most. There is no indexing or click like feel when using the scroll wheel, and it moves smoothly with no clicking or ratcheting when you turn it. As mentioned before, it is also a button that you can program to any of several functions, and it can also be tilted left and right for side scrolling (another feature I use a lot and have become very dependant on).
Overall the mouse feels very comfortable and my only complaint is a small one. The side thumb buttons at first were a little awkward to reach. As I have used the mouse over the last few weeks and become accustomed to the button location this has become much less of an issue.
The final test of the Wireless Laser 6000 was how well it performed / tracked. It was immediately apparent that it tracked very well in 2D desktop applications so I was hopeful as I fired up Quake 4 to see how well it performed in a demanding first person shooter game. I am very happy to say it performed well. Initially it seemed a little sluggish with the in game mouse sensitivity settings from the Logitech mouse, but once I adjusted the setting to match the Wireless Laser 6000 this became a non-issue. Most importantly, the Wireless Laser 6000 tracked smoothly and predictably and did so without a cord to run over or get in the way.
So all in all the Wireless Laser 6000 actually performed better than I had expected; it is very programmable, tracks smoothly and predictably, and feels very good in hand.
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