Cheap mice that you love?

[Mental Hobbit]

Teflon feet drag on a fabric mousepad.  

Reminds me of a Logitech RX1500 I had ordered a couple months ago, my last attempt on more-than-10-bucks mouse. Turned out it had perfectly skid-proof feet. That thing sat on my desk more securely than a Model M. :madgrin:
Obviously I returned it.

[Brodie337]

I just made a new purchase, a Microsoft Sidewinder X8 mouse.

It's a big, expensive heavy bastard, but tracks almost telepathically, and has on the fly macro recording. I'm a happy man!

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/gaming/productdetails.aspx?pid=103

The real killer feature for me is that play and charge cable, which alleviates the one problem I have had with wireless peripherals in the past.

[itlnstln]

I do like the "Play and Charge" feature.  That is how to do rechargeable mice

[microsoft windows]

M5-2 trackball lasts nowhere near forever. Fragile little thing it is.

Mine's withstood over 16 years of heavy use and it still works fine. It's a little creaky sometimes since it's missing a couple of ball bearings, but that's the only problem.

[hyperlinked]

I just got the MS Explorer Mouse.  Avoid it.  It's very large, very flat, and the Teflon feet drag on a fabric mousepad.

Did that mouse come with clown shoes and a book on how to do magic tricks?

[itlnstln]

No, but I did get get a squeaky, red nose out of the deal.  The co-workers love it!  HONK, HONK!!

[smuvmoney]

Microsoft Intellimouse Optical.
5 button, Optical, Scroll, USB, Wired and Bulletproof.

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Even though I am a trackball user, I have two of these mice - in black no less - as backups.  Before I went to the trackball side, this was the last mouse I swore by.

[Rajagra]

My neighbour really should get a new mouse. His current balled one keeps sticking. I could have offered to clean is for him, but decided not to. :smile: He mentioned cordless mice, so later I had a look on AmazonUK and they are doing the Logitech M505 for £18 all in. Seems good, has anyone tried one?

The Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 4000 is an alternative, though possibly too small and with inferior wireless performance.

Any opinions on these?

[Pylon]

This cheap mouse in all its cheap JPEG-compressed glory:


Seriously though, for what little mice I've used I love it. The scroll wheel just feels right and the texture of the thing is very nice.

[kishy]

That looks familiar...

[Xuan]

http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-249-1.htm

Looks interesting. I think it would be a better design if the mouse actually had a small battery and a bigger mat with a reduced area that charges the battery when the mouse is over it.
That way you get a decent surface and no dead charging times if you let the mouse on the "power area" when not using it.

Well, it would be ideal if it becomes a standard and different manufacturers sold mats and mouses compatible.

[ricercar]

I've had this mouse for 7 years and never figured what the side buttons are good for.

[Arc'xer]

I've had this mouse for 7 years and never figured what the side buttons are good for.

Forward and backward for your browser and a few other settings if you use the software in other programs. Though they are not ergonomically placed, two on one side like other mice.

My guess is most people with the IO 1.1 don't bother much with the side buttons.

[ricercar]

Ah, hardware browser control. I think I used ALT + Left Arrow once for back.

[ch_123]

This cheap mouse in all its cheap JPEG-compressed glory:

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Seriously though, for what little mice I've used I love it. The scroll wheel just feels right and the texture of the thing is very nice.

I just got the Scrollpoint version of that mouse and it's excellent.

[hyperlinked]

Forward and backward for your browser and a few other settings if you use the software in other programs. Though they are not ergonomically placed, two on one side like other mice.

My guess is most people with the IO 1.1 don't bother much with the side buttons.

Opening new windows and hitting the Enter key are two excellent ways to apply extra buttons on a mouse. Just those two little tricks can save you a ton of time.

[itlnstln]

I've had this mouse for 7 years and never figured what the side buttons are good for.

Forward and backward for your browser and a few other settings if you use the software in other programs.

These days, I pretty much throw any mouse without the side buttons in the trash.

[kishy]

That's what Alt+cursor keys is for.

I could absolutely not care less about the number of buttons on my mouse as long as it's got 3 of them, and the one that functions as middle click is somewhere in between left and right (and after using the Scrollpoint, I'm inclined to say preferably separate from the scroll device itself).

[ricercar]

I'm such a luddite. Hardware buttons for Forward and Back? I think I may have used ALT + arrows a couple times.

Funny I never tested the buttons on a web page with forward or back history in seven years. Not only am I a luddite, I'm not very experimental.

[itlnstln]

That's... meta.

(Just saying that makes me cringe a little.)

[sethstorm]

Microsoft Intellimouse Optical.
5 button, Optical, Scroll, USB, Wired and Bulletproof.

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Used two of them, and both suffered from "divine intervention", given when it's happened in FPS's and GTA III-style games.  That is, the plastic under the outside mouse button(that pushes the mechanical button) had a tendency to want to break a bit too easily.  But if you're not a heavy user, they're fine otherwise.

Personally, I favor some of Logitech's multi-button opticals(such as their mx410) with that said.

[Nonmouse]

I'm pretty happy with my Logitech V220.



(Mine's actually blue.)

The scrollwheel/middle button/side scroll works well- very positive action on the button, and it doesn't (for me at least) scroll when pressed.  I also like the short form factor- I can easily rest my hand on the desk behind it and control it with just my fingers, without having to move my hand.  I'm also impressed with its durability- it got flung to the ground in a prednisone-inspired fit of rage, and after opening it up to set the scrollwheel back in position, popping the left button back in place and putting the battery and battery cover back it works just fine.  I was quite surprised- I really flang it at the floor, and expected it to have exploded into component pieces (not that I've ever done such a thing to a mouse before <.< >.> <.<).

For $23, hard to beat.

[kishy]

FWIW, the Logitech RX250 M-BAD58B is a decent cheap mouse, but feels excessively cheap. Button clicks seem to echo through the very hollow feeling case that seems to be paper thin.

It does however claim to be 1000 DPI and tracks very nicely, and has forward/back functionality implemented in a scroll wheel that clicks left and right. It looks "stealthy" too, which is always fun.

[TheSoulhunter]

Mx518!

[ch_123]

At €30 and up, I wouldn't call an MX518 cheap...

[ironcoder]

I have a 5 dollar special I mentioned before, and it will run circles around all your cheap mice. If I could remember where I bought it I would go back and buy a case. The damn thing works great, won't die, doesn't get clogged from the horrible dust we have here and best of all has a handy dandy double-click button built right in. No more hand pain.

My Trackman seizes up 10 minutes after cleaning. But damn it's nice during those ten minutes. Sigh.

[TheSoulhunter]

At €30 and up, I wouldn't call an MX518 cheap...

Well, not as cheap as a 10 Euro mouse, but much cheaper than the 50-100 Euro top models...
Thing is, Imo it performs better than the 10 Euro ones, but not worse than the 50-100 Euro ones, so it's kinda sweet spot!

[kishy]

The cheap feeling RX250 is growing on me.

However, I'm bothered by the fact that it totally disregards the OS setting for scrolling...each notch scrolls one line, regardless of what it's set to.

[washuai]

Well, there's nothing cheap about the trackballs, but they're worth it.  

If we're going to allow $30 mice, then my $29.99 Fry's sale 3500 DPI Razer DeathAdder is my favorite cheap mouse.  Very comfy, no signs of wear despite being near a year old, better tracking than my optical trackball, two extra buttons, doesn't require lift - even though it has very little room to roam, and its black and blue like my rig.  I don't use a mouse pad with it and until I get an L-Trac, its my primary mouse at home.
 

My former mouse, a cheap optical ($10



It is not as shiny as it looks in the pictures.  Also, its red, not pink. .

[InSanCen]

Still using my MX-518. While it wasn't a cheap mouse as such, I swapped someone for a £7 optical mouse that I didn't actually like. Flawless service so far, my hand fits over it perfectly. it is getting a bit icky looking now though, may need to buy a dead one and re-shell it.

[vils]

I like my MX510, used it so much that its impossible to see any traces of the feets on the right side. Completly worn down.

[TheSoulhunter]

Get some teflon-sheet from ebay for like 5-10 Euros...
Cut it in shape, add some glue, and you have enough replacement feet for the rest of ya life!