Out of the box, the Microsoft Arc Mouse stands out a mile, as you can see from our photo gallery (click the images above).
There's been a few attempts to redesign the mouse (see below), and the Arc is up there amongst the more striking designs, with it's foldable half-moon shape.
The foldeable idea is interesting, if a little pointless unless you're travelling, or like your desktop peripherals uber chic. The Arc actually folds up like a clamshell-type mobile phone, turning the device into a mini mouse.
We found the Arc a super-smooth scroller, but like many portable mice, took a bit of getting used to. The scrolling is slick, but the thin design feels a little flimsy - there's not a lot of surface area to grip, and we found our little finger kept slipping underneath.
The good thing is that vertical side buttons are out of the way, so you don't accidentally press them.
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| The Microsoft Arc Mouse - slick design, and it folds up |
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| The Arc folded up. |
Mouse wars: attempts to make mice standoutThe Arc is up there with some other attempts to make a standout mouse.
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| The Logitech MX Revolution - a flywheel that uses a motorised transmission, and individually built scroll wheels. For the connoisseur. |
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| Microsoft Sidewinder - separate weight cartridges, custom glide pads for the optimum glide feel. The deluxe experience. (now in the new X8 version) |
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| Logitech G9 - as above, this has customisable weighting, plus you can switch plastic casings. Gaming cred, like the G5 before it. |
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| Razer DeathAdder - we're talking 1800dpi and 1000Hz polling, ultra-fast tracking over surfaces, and tolerance of 2.1mm from desk height. Even the name sounds mean. |