Review: Saitek Photo Mouse

A good mouse with no distracting gimmicks

Mouse design now tends to favour gamers who want mice with lots of shortcut buttons and fast speeds.

The Saitek Photo Mouse, on the other hand, makes a rather good present for home users, with the ability to use your own picture inside the transparent case.

As a mouse it is comfortable to use and the blue light shining from behind the wheel is unobtrusive. It uses a wired USB connection but that means there are no battery problems. No drivers are required - for once 'plug and play' really worked, with Windows detecting it automatically.

The photo is held in place behind a clear panel at the back of the mouse and there is a white light to illuminate it. A small button releases the clear cover to change the photo.

There is a cut-out template in the manual to fit a photo in place, and a slightly more polished look is possible by downloading a template file from the Saitek website. The template is in a variety of formats but does still require some knowledge of using image editors.

We like the Photo Mouse and found ourselves using it for day-to-day tasks, a refreshing change after trying some of the more gimmicky gaming mice.

Vista compatible: Yes