Genius Traveler 900 Wireless Notebook 2.4 GHz Mouse
The Traveler 900 wireless mouse makes a great mouse for laptop use or as a nice simple mouse for use with an HTPC system that connects wirelessly using the 2.4 GHz Pico dongle for easy connection.
Ease of Use, Performance: 23/25
Look & Feel: 21/25
Features 21/25
How much I enjoy 23/25
Total: 89/100
The Genius Traveler 900 is a wireless 2.4 GHz mouse that uses the small Pico dongle for connecting to your laptop or desktop PC and even a home theatre personal computer. The small laptop mouse is perfect for a companion to a laptop in the field or as a nice simple mouse for use with an HTPC as I have been using it for the last week or so.
The Genius Traveler 900 comes with the mouse itself, the Pico dongle receiver, two AAA batteries and a user manual in several different languages. The Traveler 900 has a nice easy to use compartment for the batteries and dongle storage that pops open when you push the small tab on the bottom of the mouse.
The entire top of the mouse opens and is spring loaded so it stays open until you press it closed and the tab catches to keep it shut. The batteries go into the slots in a V shape toward the lower end of the mouse and the pop open cover makes changing them simple.
The pop open cover also has a spot for the Pico dongle so you can store it in the mouse during transportation to keep it safe from accidently losing it. I find this is one of the best features of a laptop mouse, having some place to store the receiver is a must have part of a laptop mouse.
The receiver or Pico dongle as Genius calls it is a nice and small receiver that can easily be left in your USB port while placing your notebook in a laptop bag. The receiver only sticks out about 3/8 of an inch from the front of the USB connection on my desktop so it easily will fit into a laptop bag while still connected.
The Traveler 900 is a smaller sized mouse at about an inch and a quarter tall, 3 3/4 inches long and 1 3/4 inches wide for a mouse small enough to pop into a pocket of a bag or case. The mouse size makes it great for keeping handy yet not so big that it becomes cumbersome while using on a laptop stand or a small table like at a coffee shop.
The size of the mouse makes it a great HTPC mouse for keeping handy on your living room coffee table so you can have it handy but not taking up much space. The mouse worked very well for my HTPC which I have been working with for the past couple of weeks as a new addition to my living room entertainment center.
The mouse worked fine over the shorter distance from my couch to the computer that is across the room but it is only about ten feet from the couch. The mouse had no problem moving the cursor and scrolling which worked just fine on the two laptops and two full sized computers I have been using it with.
The mouse has a smooth action and cursor movement with the four sooth feet on the bottom which also has the on off button and the connect button. The mouse has the scroll wheel that most mice have but also two buttons on a rocking center pivot above and below the scroll wheel which also is a scroll function called Turbo Scroll.
The Turbo scroll allows you to scroll in one direction faster than the scroll wheel does for easier and faster web and document browsing. I like the addition of the scroll buttons so you can use either the wheel or buttons and have the options but a forward and back page button for browsers would also be nice.
The mouse worked just fine for regular web browsing and computer use but did not feel very comfortable for intense gaming like first person shooters. While the mouse is not generally made for gaming it did perform just fine with its 1600 DPI optical sensor that makes smooth and precise cursor control.
The mouse handled well for the couple of games I played with it like Battlefield Bad: Company 2 and Sniper: Ghost Warrior but the size means a bit of relearning for mouse control. I usually take a few days of using a mouse to get the feel with using it and this took the usual time but just was not comfortable for gaming.
A mouse for gaming needs to feel comfortable as well as handle well while making quick almost panicky movements and the laptop mice that are the smaller size are just not as comfortable as a full sized one. The Traveler 900 worked well for gaming and games played just fine but not as well as when using a full sized mouse.
The mouse works well for simple browsing and is a nice size for traveling so all the basic features of a laptop mouse is here but the extra features make the mouse even more impressive. The smaller sized receiver and the scroll buttons add even more value for this inexpensive mouse priced at $20.
I highly recommend the Genius Traveler 900 for a simple and inexpensive notebook mouse available in several different colors from internet stores and the Genius/Kye website.