Digital Home Thoughts: Kensington Ci75m Wireless Notebook Mouse

I'd recently been shopping around for a wireless optical mouse when I stumbled upon the most wonderful little mouse on a clearance rack at Target. I had been looking at the Logitech VX Nano [Affiliate] which seemed to be an outstanding little mouse, but at over $50, I'd been holding off. That is when I found the Kensington Ci75m for under $20.

Let me show you around and let you see why I think this thing rocks.

To start of, this mouse has the standard features you'd expect of a cordless mouse, optical sensor, scroll wheel, yada, yada, yada... It is also thin at approximate 0.65" thick.

Figure 1: Side view.

Now here is where it starts to get interesting. Like most travel mice, the receiver pops into the base of the mouse for storage. On this one, popping the receiver into the base covers the optical sensor for protection and automatically powers off the mouse to save battery power.

Figure 2: Bottom view.

Here is the really neat part. Not that it happens frequently, but chances are the batteries in your mouse will go dead at the absolute worst time. With this mouse, no problem. Pop off the magnetically attached cover and unwind the built in USB cable and plug it into the receiver dongle: instant wired mouse. This feature is also useful on airplanes when you can't technically use wireless.

Figure 3: Mouse guts view.

I've only been using this mouse for a few days, but so far I'm finding it pretty cool. If you think it might be an interesting addition to your travel arsenal, you can pick one up from Amazon [Affiliate] starting at $17.15 depending on the color you choose.

Chris Gohlke is a Contributing Editor for Digital Media Thoughts. He loves Sci-Fi and loves to get his hands on real-life tech gadgets. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, USA with his wife and three cats.