wireless mouse - help please

Maidenover

Hi to all you techie peeps - can anyone help a lady of a certain age struggling with new technology

I need a new mouse for my laptop. I have my laptop on for hours and hours - all day long so it must have a good battery life and be easy to set up and use. I also occasionally take my little notebook out with me in our camper so would like it to be able to connect to that as well. Laptop has Vista and notebook is Windows XP if that makes any difference to mouse.
I have Googled for info but there are so many on market and reviews are often a bit too techie for me with all the functions on the mouse that I'm getting bogged down.
I only use laptop for emails, internet use, working on documents. No games or downloading videos.
My only experience of a cordless mouse was bad - you had to depress a button on the end of the dongle at same time as holding down a button hidden away on base of mouse until they 'found' each other! Trouble was the button on base of mouse was indented so far you had to use a pen to access the button.....try doing that on your own..........blo*dy impossible.

So any thoughts please? Budget around £20 would be good - a bit more wouldn't be a prob.
Cheers.

umdelicious

I hate wireless mice, forever eating up batteries. Wouldn't a wired one suffice?

Dave_C_2

Why a wireless mouse? With a laptop or a netbook you are close to the PC and a wireless mouse just isn't needed and it's something else to go wrong.

I've have had a Microsoft optical mouse* for many years and it's still as good as new, albeit a bit discoloured. Buy one of these for £15 and simply plug it in a USB port, no set-up, no software. Easy peasy.

Dave

*Say what you like about their software, but Microsoft make the best mice.

ridethelightning

I got a great logitech wireless mouse from ASDA for under a tenner last week. I think it is this one (£12 online). I have a battery charger as I use alot of batteries so not too bothered about battery life, so long as it lasts a week or two so Im not having to change them all the time. So far it has lasted about 5 days with a fair bit of use.

It is completely plug and play, just plug in the tiny USB reciever and after a minute it will have installed all the drivers and be fully working. When I change it between computers it usually takes 10-20 secs to connect again.

Very pleased with it and cant go too wrong for a tenner!!

CrazyIrene

I always find that Logitech Wireless Mice are fantastic. The last 3 mice i've had have been Logitech wireless, never had a problem (Until my cat decided to spill my tea on them :P )

Maidenover

Thanks everyone I do appreciate your help. I've not seen the mice with retractable cables so hadn't considered that option - I'll take a look at them for sure, but think maybe one with batteries that I can recharge might be a good idea.
Thanks again for your help - it has given me some options.
Cheers
M.

Maidenover

ridethelightning wrote: »

I got a great logitech wireless mouse from ASDA for under a tenner last week. I think it is this one (£12 online). I have a battery charger as I use alot of batteries so not too bothered about battery life, so long as it lasts a week or two so Im not having to change them all the time. So far it has lasted about 5 days with a fair bit of use.

It is completely plug and play, just plug in the tiny USB reciever and after a minute it will have installed all the drivers and be fully working. When I change it between computers it usually takes 10-20 secs to connect again.

Very pleased with it and cant go too wrong for a tenner!!

Hi again
After re-reading your post I was wondering what sort of battery charging unit you use. I looked for one on Amazon and most got bad reviews or said the units were misleading as didn't charge alkaline batteries. Also do you or can you recharge the batteries in the Asda bought mouse? It looks to be very good value for a Logitech mouse so I'm hoping my local Asda will have them in stock.
Thanks for a helpful post.

free4440273

for under £20 u could try the microsoft wireless mouse 3000 (i have two ) -- nothing fancy but does the job well and comfy to use/hold.

ridethelightning

Maidenover wrote: »

Hi again
After re-reading your post I was wondering what sort of battery charging unit you use. I looked for one on Amazon and most got bad reviews or said the units were misleading as didn't charge alkaline batteries. Also do you or can you recharge the batteries in the Asda bought mouse? It looks to be very good value for a Logitech mouse so I'm hoping my local Asda will have them in stock.
Thanks for a helpful post.

I use rechargeable AA batteries. You need to remove the batteries and put them into a AA battery charger but so far they still havent run down so it isnt much of an inconvenience. I saw these chargers (with the 2 rechargable batteries) for £1.50 in somerfield so bought 3 of them, they were cheaper than buying the batteries themselves. Any rechargeable batteries would do, Id buy 4 batteries so when the 2 in the mouse run out you have 2 ready to put in (it might only take 1 battery, cant remember and at work now)

I have a microsoft wireless mouse but it has a huge reciever on a wire that is very annoying when using a laptop and ended up putting it in a drawer as it was a hassle. The logitech one has a tiny USB reciever that only just sticks out the USB port on the laptop, only enough to pull it out again.

hanwellmike

I recently bought 2 wireless mice for around £20 each. A Logitech V450 (I think) and a Microsoft V4000. Both excellent. I prefer no wires and the cost of batteries is negligible. Try Amazon for low price and free delivery. Both came with a battery. The USB receiver on both is very small.

paddyrg

FWIW my "Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500" is great - change battery every 6 months or so, pink ones were cheap at PCWorld, excellent mouse, tiny dongle that fits inside the mouse body for transportation. Give one a try.