Microsoft’s new mobile mouse sure looks good, but does the thing even work? *Spoiler warning* Yes! It works great. *End Spoilers*
Check out the full review on the next page.
When I first saw pictures of this thing, I knew I had to give it a shot. The Arc Mouse has a really great look going; I have the cranberry-colored one but there’s a black one too. As you can see, the Arc Mouse is so called because it makes a little arc, only coming into contact at the front and back. I think this reduces friction in general, and it saves weight as well, but it also increases the pressure on the two points of contact it does have. This means it requires a light touch, but no major modification of my mousing style was required to use it.
The folding “tail” conceals the extremely small receiver, attached by a small magnet. Flipping out the tail alerts the mouse that it’s about to be used, and it switches on. It’s elegant and it works great. It runs on plain old AAAs, two of them, which should last it a good long while. Setting up was a piece of cake on both my Mac and my PC. Like all MS mice now, it uses the Microsoft Mouse software, which as I have mentioned before is functional at best and buggy at worst (I’m dealing with some weird issues that aren’t the Arc Mouse’s fault). Considering the rather fragile nature of the design, it feels relatively solid, although I wouldn’t use it as a hammer (like I would the Sidewinder X6).
Mouse motion is decent, no jiggly cursor or jumping around. It has a laser sensor but not one of the new Bluetrack ones, but that doesn’t hold it back in most situations. Strangely, the sensor is placed slightly right of center, which makes the motion less natural than if it were directly centered or on the left side of the mouse. As always, you get used to it after a while.
It has a button on the side at the very front, but I found it pretty hard to reach unless I modified my grip to accommodate it. Your mileage may vary. The other buttons are nice and easy to click, and the scroll wheel has a great spring-loaded feel to it. The scroll button is easy to hit as well.
I think this is a great little mouse. It has an eye-catching look that doubles as a practical design for travel, and it feels good to use. The only problem is that it costs about $50, a good deal more than what most mini mice run for. I think it’s worth the price, personally, as it’s my go-to mouse now for grabbing to take with me to the coffee shop or what have you and I have a lot at my disposal.
Damn that mouse looks fine. So weird to think that about a mouse right? But for $50 it sounds like a steal. Pretty much anything would be a step up from the mighty mouse though =/
It is a nice mouse but the scrolling wheel broke. I am not the first one with this problem. It looks like an issue with this mouse.
To each his own. I won’t use any other mouse, at least when zooming up and down, left and right in Photoshop and Illustrator on my 30 inch monitor. Although I like the wired version a bit better than the BT one, which I find too heavy even with just one battery.
I have dual 24’s and a 30′ in the center and I have no problem zooming/paning with my Logitech MX Revolution.
I bought one, after two weeks the scroll wheel broke. Traded it in for another one, after two weeks the scroll wheel broke.
I just purchased mine today(10/28)at Sams club for $39.86. I’ve never used anything but the touch-pad on my Acer Lappy & after today I’ll never use it again!! As Sam’s is owned by Wal-Mart don’t be surprised to find it there at a similar price point. This device is so smooth on even a hard wood desk that I use & is very elegant looking as well. I can’t find a single issue that comes close to a negative.It fits very comfortably in the palm of my hand & works right out of the box….no drivers needed. I did however download the app for it though you don’t really need to.It has a very solid feel. You won’t be dissapointed if you decide to go with it.
I just bought this mouse and it feels great, very sturdy and light. Its also a good size
I am interested in this scroll mouse problem though, have you resolved the issue?
Yep looks great but the wheel broke in less than week for me. Now where’s that bloody receipt.
Yup, my Arc mouse scroll wheel failed also … I managed to fix it, check out what I did:
http://domstips.blogspot.com/2008/11/fixing-scroll-wheel-on-microsoft-arc.html
trying to repair my ms arc mouse, don’t wish to use a warranty just to see the wheel break again. thanks for the tips on how to fix :) i knew it was a hardware issue, always felt the wheel was poor quality since day 1.
but, i’m still baffled as to how to remove the skid pads in order to get to the screws. any advice as to how you removed them would be extremely grateful.
Dominic thanks for posting this link and the brilliantly documented instructions. Taking 15 minutes to follow them recovered my mouse from this exact same problem (I found plumber’s tape useful here)! Now Microsoft you’ve got something to fix!!!
I’m wondering if the broken wheel might not be a heavy handed touch. This wheel doesn’t require too much force & I use mine daily for hrs. on end(Ok…so I’m not working at the moment)and its movements are no different to me than when I bought it.I hope it lasts but if things go wrong & I can’t get a store exchange I’ll send it in for repair(probably replacement). I also have an A4tech optical wireless rechargeable mouse with a similar but not the same type of wheel and its a good 6 to 7 yrs. old & have had no problems with it as well.
I have had two. The first wheel went within the first couple weeks. The second is beginning to fail tonight after about 3 weeks of use. I love the design and the compactness for travel and so does everyone that notices me using it… but I guess I can’t count on the quality of the wheel. Too bad because the common comment from people is “that is Microsoft??? impressive.” So hats off to the design team. Shame on engineering and sourcing. Surprising actually given that scroll wheels and scroll wheel component suppliers are not new. Will I go back for a third??? Most likely… but that will be the last time and if they have not fixed this issue by then … back to Logitech.
I took two of these mice back to Best Buy because of the scroll wheel failure, but finally figured out a fix–totally by mistake!
The scroll wheel quit working. A friend came by and I was showing him the mouse. I took the transceiver out to show him how small it was. Plugged it back in, and the scroll wheel worked.
Now, when the scroll wheel fails, I unplug the transceiver, plug it back in, and away it goes again.
Dom,
Thanks for the tip. My wheel just failed after about a month. I’m on a road trip right now but as soon as I get home I’m going to tear into it. I’m going to try a piece of heat shrink tubing rather than blue tape.
Dom, Thanks for posting that. The Mouse Wheel is something you never really think about until you don’t have it. =^ )
So far I’ve been dealing without the Wheel, but if I can’t find the Receipt, I think I will try your method.
Thanks.
Trying to fix my scroll wheel after a month as well as I don’t have my receipt. Can somebody tell me how they got the black pads over the case screws off without breaking them? I’m trying to do it with a small standard screwdriver, but it feels like they’re just going to snap.
Its a pity they’ve botched their engineering on a product again; first Microsoft hardware I’ve bought in a long, long time- should have known by now.
Regarding the skid pad removal on Dom’s Tips, I would like to know the samething.
Had my MS ARC Mouse for a good month, hardly ever used my mouse wheel. Broke within a week of using it…..
Removing the skid pads shouldn’t be too difficult as long as the tool you use is thin. I actually ripped the skid pads off the display model at a Best Buy on accident, so I don’t think they’ll snap in half… I recommend a little patience to slowly work it off, re-apply with Elmer’s in case you need to open it again, don’t use super glue.
Update: Just worked on mine and did the super glue method mentioned at the bottom of Dom’s blog.
The wheel “works” but it seems to catch for some reason, not sure. I took it apart and checked to make sure that it was indeed turning and yes it is, but I’m wondering if I might have knocked something a bit off. The scrolling works for the most part, with a little bit of sputtering it seems.
Update part 2: The skids are actually very flexible, just make sure you get under it, don’t try to pop them off.
My tool was the tweezers on a Swiss Army knife. Slide one end through the side and simply wedge it off. Re-application is a breeze as there will still be enough adhesive residue on the skid.
Why using CTRL + wheel doesn’t work with this mouse in most application to zoom I just tried and yes it ideed doesn’t work with the arc and work with any other mouse.
using CTRL+ wheel works fine for me, im using an arc now. The scroll wheel has never broken on me, its gone smooth and is a really good mouse
I found that sometimes when I plug the receiver into one side of my laptop, the scroll wheel won’t work, so I simply switch sides, and presto, it works, no prob.