[MOUSE] Kensington Si300 Laser Mouse

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skip0110

skip0110

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What is it? The Kensington Si300 is a wired laser mouse with 2 buttons and a scroll wheel that supports sidescrolling.

What it costs: I paid $29.99 + tax at the local Microcenter, which is the MSRP.

How long have you used it? I just got it today. But you get to know a mouse pretty quick.

Pros:
  • Low cost for a Laser mouse. Undercuts the Logitech competition by about half, and costs as much as a lot of regular optical mice.
  • Simple design and shape, and it's comfortable.
  • Drivers make it very configurable.
Cons:
  • No extra buttons.
  • Not wireless.
  • A bit of a lesser known brand name.
  • Rubberized side grips might get dirty quickly.
  • Driver configuration UI is a little clunky.
  • Scroll wheel does not have a very firm "click".
When the middle click on my last Belkin mouse died, I went to the store looking for a cheap optical wired mouse. I was tired of feeding wireless mice batteries. It turned out that this mouse cost about as much as some of the other, fancier optical mice out there, and it had a laser. Also, I view the lack of additional buttons as a desirable feature.

The precision of this mouse is great. I was doubtful of the additional laser precision, especially considering the price, but it works great. At least as good as the Logitch laser mice. It also fits my hand very well. It is very similar in shape and feel to Logitch mice; perhaps slighly more low-profile, though.

The drivers really allow you to configure it well, which makes up for the lack of extra buttons. For example, I have mapped Shift-Left click to lower volume and Shift-right click to raise it. You can map more options too. You can also turn off sidescrolling. However, you cannot map the sidescrolling to anything useful. Also enabling sidescrolling disables the scroll wheel as a middle click.

Would I buy this for another computer, if I needed to. Absolutely. For the price, I don't think you can get a better feeling, more accurate mouse. The configuration is a little lacking, but that's excusable at the price point. I just hope it lasts a lot longer than the $70 Belkin it is replacing (which died after just over a year).

Overall rating: 9/10
 
Is there a configuration tool for OSX, or is it Windows only? I've been looking for a good mouse since my old 2 button Logitech optical is on its last days.
 

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