Quick Take: Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000

Coming in August, Microsoft's Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000 (WMM4K) is the company's latest mouse to utilize the excellent BlueTrack technology that debuted last fall in my favorite pointing device, the Explorer Mouse (see my review). The WMM4K is part of an ongoing effort by Microsoft to capitalize of people's love of customizing their PCs. As such, the mouse is available in three fun colors, as well as black or white--which Microsoft says were influenced by the color schemes from the fall/winter 2009 fashion shows--and exhibits a sense of design and energy.

The WMM4K is small, like other mobile mice, and perfectly suited for the growing generation of netbook PCs that are all the rage these days. And because of its use of BlueTrack, the WMM4K can be used on almost any surface, enhancing its portability.

The mouse also includes something I've been looking for in a pointing device for a long time, a tiny, tiny transceiver that barely sticks out past the edge of the USB port into which it will be mated. This nano transceiver, as Microsoft calls it, can thus be left in the port, even when you're carrying around your laptop in a bag, which is a huge time saver. (The WMM4K also features an actual on-off switch on its bottom, to save the life of the single AA battery that's required to power it.)

The Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse will be available in August for $39.95 in the US. Here are some shots of the packaging and the mouse itself.

--Paul Thurrott
July 17, 2009