Yet another gadget I didn’t really need, but had been lusting after for some time. This mouse looked like a great improvement over the previous models, now using Bluetooth 4 instead of connecting to a bulky USB dongle. I thought this would be a great accessory for my Surface Pro 3, so decided to try it out.
Before getting started, note that this mouse requires Bluetooth. To check if your Windows 10 PC has this, open the Action Center by pressing Win + A, and click “All settings”. Click “Devices”, and in the left column you should see “Bluetooth” below “Connected devices” and above “Mouse & touchpad”. If you do not see this, then your device is not Bluetooth capable and won’t be compatible with this mouse.
At first glance, I noticed that this mouse is small – smaller than I had anticipated. At first I thought this would be an issue – however after using it for a couple of days, I think the size is alright. The thing with mice is that different mice require different grips, and the kind of grip you like to use is quite personal. I’m a palm-grip person, and find that this mouse works well for me, and think it would also be good for a claw-grip user.
The mouse looks very nice. You snap it into a curve to turn it on, and snap it flat to turn it off, and it will automatically connect to the last device you used it with via Bluetooth. It connects almost instantly. Once connected, you can configure a few options with an app called “Arc Touch Bluetooth Mouse”, available for Windows 10: (not allowed to link, search the Windows Store for Windows 10).
The app lets you do several things. It has an option for “Flick”, which means the faster you flick, the further you can scroll. This allows you to “flick” across the scroll wheel to cover more ground when scrolling. Speaking of the scroll wheel, it’s not an actual wheel, but a touchpad split into two parts which Microsoft calls a touch strip. There’s the top and the bottom, and they’re made of a fairly smooth plastic. Whilst talking about scrolling directions, there’s an option in the app to reverse the scrolling direction.
There’s another option in the app that allows you to bind the page up and page down keys to the very top and very bottom of this touch strip. So if you press the very top part of the touch strip, that will be like pressing page up, and in a similar way pressing the very bottom part of the strip will be like pressing page down. This seems like a nice idea but personally I find it difficult to get the positioning correct without looking, meaning about half the time I’ll press and nothing will happen, since I missed the spot.
Moving on, there’s an interesting option called “Vibration/Sound”. I like this option, because it gives real feedback when you’re scrolling with the touch strip. This option creates a sound and vibration response to your scrolling, and it’s pretty cool. There’s a slider to adjust the intensity.
Finally, the app allows you to bind an action to tapping the middle of the touch strip. By default, this is the middle mouse button, but there are also several other options as follows: Start menu, Cortana, Task view, All settings, Browser back, Show/Hide Desktop, Customized key combination and Disable middle tap. I leave it as middle mouse, however the option for using a customized key combination is interesting as it lets you create a combo with Ctrl, Alt, Windows, Shift and any other key.
The mouse takes two AAA batteries that seem to last a long time. I bought this device almost two years ago and it’s still going strong, but I don’t use it regularly. I mentioned earlier that I bought this to go with my Surface Pro 3 – this was quite a while back and I’ve now had my Surface Pro 4 for almost a year. Personally, with my SP4 I find it easier to just use the touchpad on the keyboard cover, as it has useful swiping actions for switching apps and bringing up task view. I don’t think this mouse is here to replace that. Instead, this mouse is more for people who want a wireless mouse for their desktop, or have a laptop with a less-good trackpad where a mouse would make your life easier. In reality though, I think there are more economical options for wireless desktop mice.
To sum things up, this is the best mouse I’ve come across that values portability and looks nice. If your laptop has a good trackpad, then I don’t think you need this; but if you’re not happy with your laptop’s trackpad then this is a functional, good-looking and highly portable mouse that I think you will enjoy using when out and about.
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