While many users are more than happy to work with their laptop's built-in trackpad, some people prefer to use a mouse. The mouse they use on their desktop might be too big and clunky to carry around. The new Swiftpoint laptop is one of many smaller alternatives, but it's definitely not run-of-the-mill.

Radical design
The Swiftpoint mouse is a very, very peculiar shape. First off: its off-centre asymmetrical design means it won't work for left-handed people. On the outside edge is a wheel, on the inside edge the SmartTouch sensor. You can configure this so that the mouse is only active when you are touching it, which allows you to hold onto the mouse while typing and not have it move the cursor around. We found it fiddly to type while holding the mouse, and ignored this feature.

Instead, we used a very handy accessory that comes supplied with the Swiftpoint mouse - a small magnetic strip that you can fix to any surface, enabling you to park' it when not in use.

Nifty scrolling
Between the mouse's scroll wheel and SmartTouch area is a raised ridge on you'll find the left and right mouse buttons. The scroll wheel is rather nifty. You can roll it with a finger for slow scrolling, but if you want to scroll more quickly - skimming through a long web page to find what interests you, say - you just tip the Swiftpoint mouse onto its side and roll the wheel along whatever surface you are using.

Zooming is achieved by holding the left mouse button down and scrolling. The right mouse button when coupled with a scrolling action pages you through documents.

It knows which way is 'up'
One feature of the Swiftpoint mouse stands out as more useful than most. You can tell the mouse which direction is up'. Think about that for a second. Usually, a mouse expects you to move it vertically for it to move the cursor up the screen.

But if you're using a laptop, you might be sitting on a sofa or lounging somehow, and a true vertical scroll might be less comfy for you than one which is off the true line. This feature gives you the chance to tell the mouse what you want it to interpret as a vertical scroll.

Battery powered
The Swiftpoint mouse is wireless and requires a tiny USB dock to communicate with your laptop. There's nothing unusual in that. The dock is magnetic, and you park the mouse on it to charge its internal battery. There's a suggestion that you can leave the mouse parked like this as you carry your laptop around. We wouldn't like to chance it getting knocked off, though.

The internal battery is good for between two and four weeks of life from a 90-minute charge. If you're desperate, a 30-second charge is enough to keep the mouse going for an hour. This means you really could just drop the Swiftpoint mouse into your laptop bag, forget about keeping its battery charged, and just use it when you need it.

Verdict
Quirky mouse designs don't work for everyone, and at £49 the Swiftpoint mouse could turn out to be a pricey gamble. Certainly, it's better suited to smaller hands - and a non-starter for left-handed users. For others, we'd certainly suggest giving it a try.

Company: Swiftpoint

Website: http://www.europe.futuremouse.com/

Tags: scroll universal serial bus scroll wheel battery (electricity) laptop mouse button mouse logitech