Home > Consumer Reviews > Targus AMU0503US Mini Kaleidoscope Optical Retractable Mouse

Originally bought this mouse (the older version) at an office supply store. It lasted quite a long time, over two years. Granted, I did not use it every time I had my laptop out, but it lasted even through teaching when I had some student try to pull it apart. The lights are great and I love that it's so unusual. The lights change when you're not using it and stay on the color when it's being moved or clicked. It's a great size for traveling as well for people with smaller hands.

The retractable cord is great and you don't get that lag and interruption that you sometimes find with wireless mice. It does, however, have a tendency to snag if you are not careful when winding it back up. Other than that, it's a great accessory and i'm very sad that mine finally broke!

I have a friend who uses an older model of this mouse (which looks like the item pictured on Amazon). I used it when I was using her computer one afternoon and found it to be the perfect size for my hand. It's very comfortable, just sensitive enough and the wheel on it spins easily, unlike the horrid Microsoft mouse I had been using. I ordered one thinking that I was getting what is pictured here. Nope- Targus has redesigned it to have a clear "cut glass" appearance on top; like those cheesy plastic platters that you find at the grocery store that are supposed to kinda sorta replicate the look of waterford crystal. The end effect is not a soft, pleasing color change like the original, but a harsh, painful blinding distraction. The laser can be seen through the clear plastic. Not good! It's so comfortable and easy to use that I don't want to give it up, so I guess I'll need to put some tape over it. Way to ruin a once cool design Targus!

I bought this Targus mouse after my trusty 5-year-old notebook mouse started misfiring. Compared to my previous one (Logitech, from 2004), I find the optics on this Targus mouse to be REALLY sensitive -- it literally jumps across the screen when I move it just a few inches! I'm sure I'll get used to this and even come to appreciate it, but it was just a shock coming from my older mouse, whose optics I considered to be pretty average and not at all sluggish. (After plugging in this new mouse, I did go into the mouse properties and decrease the pointer speed, which helped.) One great aspect of these newer optics, though, is that this mouse works right on my desk, whereas my old mouse would not. No more mousepad!

The mouse is 3.5" long, 2" wide, and 1.25" at its tallest point. The wheel is a nice grippy rubber or silicone and is virtually silent when you turn it. Clicking the mouse is about as loud as typing on a laptop keyboard, but these mouse buttons have a lower-pitch, more resonant click. I could definitely use this mouse in a library or quiet room without disturbing anyone. There are two slippery "pads" on the bottom of the mouse that allow it to glide around smoothly with minimal effort. I plugged the mouse into my Dell laptop (Windows XP), and voilà -- it worked right off the bat, no installation or drivers needed.

Note that the photos on the product page show two different styles of this mouse. The default picture is an older version, with a crescent of light around the base; I'm pretty sure this older style is discontinued. The newer version you see in the other photos (i.e., the mouse shown in the lineup of colors and again in its original packaging) has a tapered strip of light down the middle that flares as it nears the base. If you order this mouse, you will get the newer style with the strip of light down the middle.

I love the colors -- so fun. :) When you get the mouse and first plug it in, it will be on automatic color rotation; but you can set it to glow just one color if you want. On the color rotation setting, when you move or click the mouse, it stops on whichever color happens to be up. It resumes the color rotation after just 1 full second of non-use. To stop the rotation and set it to show one particular color, hold the right mouse button and rotate the wheel until you get the color you want. To reset it to color rotation, hold both the right and left mouse buttons for 2 seconds; and then after 1 second of non-use, the color will rotate again. Another note about the colors: They're not exactly what's shown in the lineup photo. They rotate red, sky blue, deep royal purple, lime green (anyone looking at it would say it was yellow, not green), indigo (which actually looks white), deep royal blue, and then emerald green. It's exactly like the rotating colors your circa-2007 flip cell phone could show on its external display.

I checked the other reviews on this page before buying this mouse, and I saw that some people experienced problems. I'll come back to this review in six months and give a status update. Until then, happy computing!

its worth the money when you not only consider how nice it looks, but its durability.ive dropped this guy like 50 times and he's still workin' good.


Warning: FPS gamers stay away, casual use only xD

This mouse is just right except the silly changing light. Of what possible use is it? Why can't I turn it off? Surely the extra lighting and its timer suck power out of my netbook and reduce battery life. I didn't read the packaging before buying and opening it, never dreaming that a notebook/netbook mouse would be purposely designed to increase power consumption for no reason. Now I'm stuck with it. What a waste.