Explorer 3.0

Intellimouse

Leaving the Logitech scene behind, the new mice from Microsoft are most impressive. The new Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 is a welcomed change from the old Explorer. Aside from the obvious version change, everything but the color of the mouse has turned a new leaf.

Optical nature

The inner workings of the Explorer 3.0 are considerably more powerful than the one made a year ago. Polling rates on the 3.0 have quadrupled from 1,500 to 6,000 scans per second. This new technology was developed in-house by Microsoft, and is therefore proprietary. Following in the footsteps of the other divisions of Microsoft, in depth knowledge of the workings are not divulged. The only downside is that the mouse has a piddly resolution of 400 DPI, half that of the Logitech. Aside from the specs, we couldn't get a better explanation on how all this was done, but rest assured you sure can feel the difference.

3.0 side shot

The back

Shape

The new shape of the mouse didn't radically depart from the old design. Although, the minor tweaks that were done went a long way in bettering the feel of the mouse. Many of us in the office never grew to like the Explorer v2.0. The mouse felt large and unwieldy when trying to play games, or even for daily tasks. The new shape of the Explorer v3.0 has earned many a convert in the office. The slight curvature changes and button positioning adjustments truly made all the difference. The two main buttons have a slight concave curve to them, to better position the fingers. Personally, I think the best change was what was done to the pinky side of the mouse. Before the mouse had a uniform slope on that edge. The Explorer v3.0 recurves back into the mouse, creating a place for the pinky to rest.

The thumb button changes were also for the better. The size of the buttons dropped considerably, and positioning was slightly altered. Another good addition was a different vertical elevation to each of the thumb buttons. In using the older version of the Explorer, the thumb buttons were rarely used, despite being above the thumb. With the 3.0, the thumb buttons were very easy to get accustomed to. The back button was easy to hit by simply sliding the thumb up. Using the front thumb button required a little trick. When holding the mouse, the thumb rests right below the two buttons. To hit the front button, all one has to do is pivot on the front thumb joint, and with the positioning of the buttons, it makes it almost impossible to accidentally strike the back thumb button when trying to hit the front button, and vice versa.