Home > Consumer Reviews > Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 Mac/Windows

I have been using this mouse for almost a month now and I am very satisfied with it. It is smaller than most mice, but fits snuggly in my hand, considering that I have big hands. It is very responsive (sometimes too responsive) and the back button and mouse wheel complement its functionality. The battery indicator is another great plus, cause at least you can get a warning when you are running low; although it is very energy-efficient, I'm still using the packed standard AAA batteries with an average of 6-7 hours of daily use. And the power switch is also great for saving energy.

To sum up, Pros:
- Excellent Microsoft design (esthetical, ergonomical)
- Great price
- Very responsive (it's laser, not optical)
- Great battery life (I'll let you know on the comments when the first pair of batteries run out. I already have a rechargeable pair on stand-by).
- Instant pairing with bluetooth enabled PC's (I did not try it on a Mac)
- Back button functionality
- Power switch lets you turn it off when not in use to save battery, and you just turn it on and in a couple of seconds it reconnects (this has been a life-saver since I walk away from my desk very often, and I would not like that some envious co-worker "borrowed" it for his home, and it fits quite nicely on my shirt or pants pocket)
- It glides very smoothly on almost any surface (even on my bed sheets)
- It comes with a nice carry-bag.

Cons:
- It has dropped the connection about 5 or 6 times during the time I have been using it, but it reconnects after turning on and off again. Kind of annoying.
- I wish it had a forward buttong as well.
- It is somethimes too responsive, depending on the surface you wear it on. I fixed this by tweaking the mouse sensitivity on the Windows mouse settings.

I recommend this bluetooth mouse.

UPDATE (2/23/08): Well, the battery indicator is going red now (3 months after I started using it), but, if I could, I would downgrade my rating to 3 stars because of the following: The power switch broke like a week ago (the damn thing kinda got loose of it's place and still moves, but it doesn't change the power state). I tried going DIY and tried fixing it myself, but ended up getting it worse, although I managed the leave the power on. This means poor craftsmanship from Microsoft, because I consider I did not misused the mouse. I now can't turn the mouse off, so I have to remove the batteries every time I don't use it. This resulted on casting the mouse aside and leaving it just for special occasions (long meetings or surfing @ home).

I still consider the mouse is good, but this has negatively changed my opinion on Microsoft hardware (don't even get me started on their SW).

This mouse works as advertised on a ThinkPad notebook running Windows XP. Bluetooth pairing was painless, and I'm pleased with the smooth functioning of the mouse, not to mention the elimination of the transceiver unit--one more black box I'd have to schlep around.

Size and shape are matters of personal preference, and I agree with a previous reviewer who suggested trading off some comfort is an acceptable compromise for portability. Overall, this mouse has a quality feel and seems to be well made; it has a nice heft to it, and the buttons and wheel provide solid, reassuring tactile feedback.

My biggest beef with this mouse is the lack of a dedicated or inclusive driver. It does not come with a driver disk, and it is not listed among the supported models in the latest Microsoft IntelliPoint software. Please don't misunderstand: this mouse works fine out of the box under Win XP (and, presumably, Vista). You'll only want a new driver if you're not happy with the default button assignments.

I called Microsoft technical support about this omission, and they confirmed anyone who wants to reassign button functions is SOL... for now. The tech rep would not confirm whether a future version of IntelliPoint would support this mouse, but I remain hopeful.

As of this writing (8 November 2007), therefore, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this mouse. As soon as the software side of things catch up, I'll be singing a different tune.

I just recently purchased the MS Notebook Mouse 5000 and I also upgraded to Mac OSX Leopard. Leopard seems to allow me to use the Mouse 4 (back) button as I have assigned it to trigger spaces. It is pretty amazing to have that and work quickly between spaces and creating different contextual work environments for my productivity.

I heard of problems of using the back button for browsing - and I played with it a little to see if I could come up with something but I still can't figure out how to assign that button to the "back" function. But it seems like there is hope that this can be done since OS X will detect the mouse4 (as I have successfully bound it to Spaces app under the Spaces preferences.

I would imagine it is only a matter of time until someone creates a hack to bind the mouse4 to the delete button to be used as a quick run around to the browser back problem. But then I guess it would be dangerous if you accidentally pushed it on an important file. Then again there is Time Machine...

Anyway - the mouse is everything it says it is except for the Mouse 4 button which if you are happy with using it for Spaces - makes this a good product. Still, I think it is terrible when a product is touted as OS X capable and not fully functional so as a recommendation to other Mac users, I'm going to give this a 3. If you want to set it up for Spaces like I do, then you'll like the experience and the rating might bump up to around 4 or 5.

After reading reviews for this and other Bluetooth mice on Amazon and Apple's web site, I decided to try this mouse because of comments I read that said that it was hard to get Mac drivers for Logitech mice. When the mouse arrived, I followed other reviewers advice and downloaded Microsoft's Intellipoint software for Mac and installed it BEFORE I turned on the mouse. Pairing the mouse with the MacBook Pro was simple and now, whenever I turn the mouse on, the Mac sees it almost immediately. The only lag I have seen is when the mouse is first turned on. The rest of the time, it works wonderfully. So far, I have used it with Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Microsoft Word 2008 and I have no complaints.

I was looking for a replacement for my cherished Logitech VX Nano and decided to give Bluetooth another try. The reviews on the Microsoft Bluetooth 5000 seemed pretty good so I took the plunge. Wow - what a disappointment. The precision is awful and the pointer frequently stutters across the screen. If the system is idle, 50% of the time moving the mouse will not turn on the screen; I have to press a key on the keyboard. Note, I do not use standby so it's not like the system is really offline in any meaningful way. The ergonomics of the MS 5000 are not quite as comfortable as the Nano. Both are small mice so you should expect some problems, but I find the Nano much more comfortable. Finally, I didn't realize how spoiled I became from using the Nano's amazing scroll wheel. The MS 5000 is a stutter-step sort of wheel and I find it very distracting to use. I am trying to decide if it's worth the trouble to send this clunker back.