Introduction
For some time now, I've been wanting to give back to PimpRig all the good that I get from it. Aside from the $20 Premier Membership, and as much help as I can offer on the regular forums, I decided that a hardware review was in order. This being the Birthday / Christmas season, my wife has provided me with a couple of items that have yet to be reviewed here, so I thought I'd take a stab at it. This will be the first of two, though I have no idea when the second will occur: there's a baby on the way.

The Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000, Game Precision Series

The specifications as listed by the manufacturer

USB Laser mouse, with five programmable buttons.

That's about it.

Packaging and condition

The package arrived in a plain brown box, undamaged. Within that box was the Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 package, and while I generally resist Microsoft products within my limited means, I have to say I was at least impressed with the non-standard design of the packaging. It's actually rather stylish and artfully done, and will grab the attention of browsers who walk by it at the store.




Within the package is the laser mouse itself, as well as the software CD, installation guide, and a very interesting piece of green paper with a warning signal on it. This paper informs us, in no less than 12 different languages, that we should install the software before attaching the mouse. This is actually a good thing, because being the self-righteous geek-god I assume myself to be, I would have just plugged in the mouse and started using it, forgetting about using the mouse software. Then the thing would not have performed to my requirements, and I'd either go looking for the software / installation guide that I had thrown out, or just chucked the mouse and assumed Microsoft makes lousy hardware.
General Observations about the product

It's a laser mouse. Black casing with semi-reflective material on top. Microsoft has a new logo embedded in the rear of the handle area, which I suppose is intended to be indicative of "laser technology." Well, I suppose they didn't completely fail in that respect, but it seems a useless addition. There are the standard three buttons, with the middle button being a scroll wheel combination. There are also two additional buttons, one on each side, high up on the mouse rather than at the base where my thumb and ring finger would reside. The USB cable is thinner than a usual USB cable, so I wonder a bit about signal bleed, but I have no means of testing that fear. The underside has four plastic pads upon which the mouse slides across whatever surface is being used as a pad. The laser hole is also visible, just left of center. It does not, unlike standard optical mice I've used in the past, emit a reddish light indicating that it is active.

Installation and Use

Installation was quite simply, though the installation guide doesn't seem to take into account that new-fangled concept: the autorun.inf file. Drop the CD in the drive, close the door, it spins up and starts the installation process. You need to agree to the license agreement, which the installation guide fails to tell you about, and then you need to choose from the list of mice that the Setup Wizard will install. I haven't tried choosing a mouse other than the Laser Mouse 6000 ... I wonder if that would have an ill effect? Surprisingly, while installation is incredibly easy, the installation guide actually fails to be terribly useful, and only partially accurate.



Using the mouse was another thing entirely. Prior to installing this mouse, I was using the Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical USB mouse. I was floored with the optical concept, back when it first came out, because I went through ball mice about once a month with all the playing of Doom (yes, the original) and other early-generation FPS games. The optical mouse allowed me to get much more use, and much more accurate game play -- usually. One thing I noticed, however, was that the occasional sudden movement on my part would spin my perspective in the FPS games to looking straight up at the sky. I've been fragged like this on more than one occasion. However, the laser mouse doesn't seem to have this problem.
The 6000 is quite comfortable on the hand. With the programmable interface, it can be used with either the left hand or right hand. Its movement is smooth and fast (though the speed, too, can be modified in the programmable interface.) The two side buttons, however, leave a bit to be imagined. The thumb-side button feels too high up -- I have to actually change my natural hand position in order to use this button with my thumb. Perhaps I should be using my pointer finger? Nope, that's no comfortable at all. Just badly placed, in my opinion. However, the pinky-side button is perfect. My ring finger rests comfortably just on top of it, and activating it is quite simple. It's not a tough mouse button requiring too much pressure, nor is it too easily activated, setting off when I don't mean to use it. All in all, a 50% split for and against for these buttons.

Speaking of the programmable interface, there are six screens full of options. They include tabs for Buttons, Pointers, Pointer Options, Scrolling, Hardware, and Activities. You can really configure a lot of different options in the Buttons tab, as there are over 30 choices to choose from, not including the keystroke option that allows you to program a specialized keystroke. Note that the keystroke only allows you to program a specific, singular key (ctrl+alt+shift+keystroke), but not a series of keystrokes. However, the Gaming Toggle option lets you assign up to two game command sequences to a mouse button, so you can quickly record and play back a favorite weapon or game action.




Performance and Benchmarks
Well, the performance was excellent, I must say, for a mouse. Some folks may not want to hear me say this, and I'm a bit embarrassed myself to say it, but it's definitely the best mouse I've ever used. Now, realize that I've never used the Logitech or any other laser mice out there. I have used Logitech programmable mice in the past, however, and they compared quite favorably to the Microsoft programmable mice.

The one thing that gets me is the hype on the box: there are a few lines of accurate, reasonable text that should make the casual mouse buyer happy. For the gamer, however, it touts the Precision Booster capability, which is one of the programmable options. What the Precision Booster does is temporarily slow down the movement speed of your mouse (to a customizable percentage). The box specifies this as a "for targeting" capability, and other on-line hype I've read led me to believe that this capability was an automatic function that occurred when I zoomed in with my scope, or aimed down my sights. Not true. This is simply a button that slows down the movement speed of the mouse no matter what weapon or use of that weapon you are performing in-game. In fact, it doesn't even have anything to do with the weapons. If you are playing a mouse-driven game that doesn't use weapons, the "precision booster" will slow down your mouse movement in that game as well. Ultimately, it works: it slows down your mouse so that you do not over-compensate in a tense situation. However, if you already have nerves made of ice, you really don't need this feature.

Of course, I couldn't let this mouse just sit here. If I was going to write this review accurately, I was going to have to use the actual thing in-game. Battlefield 2, F.E.A.R., and Call of Duty were my preferred choices. The mouse performed quite well in all of them. The "precision booster" was really not that necessary for me, though I did notice a slight improvement in accuracy for me with my upgraded sniper rifle in BF2.

Conclusion & Overall Impressions

I like this mouse. I like it a lot. Perhaps with more time, I'll find more advantage in the Precision Booster. I'll even try toggling a couple of in-game commands to my thumb-side extra button, but I doubt I'll use them because of its location. The mouse itself, however, is smooth, fast, and looks good. A really pimpin' mouse would have had some LEDs or CCs built in to jazz up the appearance, but it looks better than my plain beige optical. As I said before, I haven't tried any other laser mice by Logitech or other brands, but this mouse was excellent.

Wrap up

The Hemi:
Smooth
Precise
Completely customizable buttons with lots of options
Sharp, stealth appearance
The Semi:
Poor installation guide
Thumb-side button poorly located
No lights!



Member Pimphat Rating: 7 out of 10