Hands-On with Microsoft’s New Wedge Touch Mouse

Microsoft’s Wedge Touch Mouse is a sleek, compact mouse designed specifically for use with tablets. Microsoft says the Bluetooth mouse is the company’s smallest mouse ever, and it works well with Windows 7 laptops and upcoming Windows 8 devices in addition to tablets.

Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse (right) beside the Microsoft Explorer Touch.

The entire top surface of the Wedge Touch Mouse is a touch surface that serves as a four-way scroll wheel. The touch scrolling works well, and you can scroll slowly with a gentle swipe or quickly with a flick of your finger. A tap of your finger brings rapid scrolling to a stop. And you can scroll even if you have another finger or two resting on the surface.

Thanks to Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology the mouse works on a wide variety of surfaces. It doesn’t work on clear or highly reflective surfaces, but it works on many more types of surfaces than mice with standard optical or laser sensors. 

One AA battery sits beneath a spring-loaded door that slides open.

Wedge Touch Mouse battery-release toggle (left) and on/off and Bluetooth pairing button (right)

A “Backpack Mode” powers the device down when a connected PC or tablet goes to “sleep.” This is a great feature, which essentially makes it unnecessary to manually power off the mouse. The actual on/off button is somewhat awkward; switching on the mouse lights up a green indicator on its side, but nothing happens when you turn it off.

The Wedge Touch Mouse is powered by one AA battery, which sits beneath a cleverly designed spring-loaded door. The battery fits snugly, and it’s somewhat difficult to remove. This probably isn’t much of an issue, though, given its lengthy estimated battery life of nine months.

Conclusion: Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse

The Microsoft Wedge Touch Mouse is small, light and sleek. I particularly like the satisfying “click” you get after tapping the mouse button, and the metal finish along its sides feels comfortable when gripped by the thumb and ring/little finger.

However, I wish that Microsoft included some sort of carrying case or even a simple drawstring pouch. And its price tag of $70 is hardly insignificant. The Wedge Touch Mouse is expected to ship very soon.