Review on 🖱️ Optical Mouse 3000 - Milk Chocolate by Microsoft - Enhance your Wireless Notebook Experience by Herve Latreche

I have both Winter Blue and Slate versions of this Microsoft wireless mouse. Just in case you were wondering, they are identical except for the colors so you can choose which one is on sale. Of course, if you need two wireless mice, it's best to choose one of each color. This way you can be sure that their wireless transmitters won't interfere with each other when using both mice in close proximity. What surprised me is that this wireless mouse consumes very little power in the low-power standby mode. When moving the mouse, the LED gets brighter and the power consumption jumps to about 25mA for a moment. But as soon as you stop moving the mouse, the current will soon drop to 0.4-0.5mA. So you can expect a single AA alkaline cell (typically 2800mAh at low loads) to last around six months, even if you never turn off the mouse. That kind of battery life is amazing. If you plan to use a rechargeable battery in this mouse, make sure you select the latest generation of low self-discharge "ready-to-use" cells (e.g. Sanyo Eneloop or Rayovac Hybrid). Don't worry about the older generation 2500mAh NiMH batteries from Energizer or other brands as these batteries will fully discharge in a few weeks. One final note: this mouse can be used on Windows XP without any software drivers. However, it is recommended that you install the IntelliPoint 5.0 (or higher) mouse driver from Microsoft. It offers additional customization features as well as battery status monitoring from your PC.