F5L007-SCROLL Belkin, Belkin Washable Mouse
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Belkin Washable Mouse
Belkin is well known for the accessories they make for the Mac, the iPod and just general gadgets like USB hubs. I’ve been very impressed with every Belkin product I’ve ever owned. Except perhaps this one, the Belkin Washable Mouse.
How the Washable Mouse differs from most of the other mouses out there is that it can be, as the name implies, washed. And not just wiped off, but rinsed under running water. All mouses become dirty after a while, no matter how good your hygiene is. And you usually dig out some cleaner and a cloth to gently rub the gunk off. The Washable Mouse makes it so you can be more liberal with your cleaner and water if you choose. I just had to douse the mouse in water to see how it held up, and it worked just fine after wiping it down with a towel.
The mouse looks and feels like a traditional mouse except that the top part your hand sets on is sealed in a rubber-like coat. The Washable Mouse features two buttons (if you push them both you get a center-click, something I’ve never found a use for) and a unique Scroll Pad. The Scroll Pad has no moving parts and is touch sensitive. The Scroll Pad can also side scroll but the oblong shape of it, about the width of your finger, does not bode well for side scrolling.
The Washable Mouse tracks well, although I did have to turn my speed way down from my Mighty Mouse settings. That’s mainly because Apple sets the Mighty Mouse at such slow speeds that I always have to crank tracking up one notch from the top speed. As for the Scroll Pad, it didn’t seem to scroll very well vertically or horizontally. It was as if it wasn’t sensing my fingers some of the time. I found it very frustrating to use.
I found the left and right click buttons to be placed in an uncomfortable position and they felt, well, just plain weird. The rubber coating over the buttons had a much different feel than a traditional mouse.
And the mouse is small. Really small. Granted, Belkin does list the Washable Mouse in their laptop accessories area so that probably explains the small size. That said, I found the mouse just uncomfortable in general.
If you need a mouse that you can clean when it gets funky, the Washable Mouse is definitely for you. You may not be happy with the size and certainly you won’t be impressed with the Scroll Pad, but you’ll have the cleanest mouse in the neighborhood.
Update (2/6/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen. I also found some auctions for this item here.
The featured review for this product, Belkin Washable Mouse F5L007-SCROLL Electronics, was written by Chris J. Tofteberg.
The average rating for this item is out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.
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Tags: belkin, belkin mouse, mouse, scroll, washable, washable pc accessory
Posted on: April 16, 2010
Filed under: Reviews
Reviews (3)
PT
March 3rd, 2010 at 2:01 am
Mine was DOA
My mouse was DOA. Something must be wrong on the board, because even though the optical light comes on and the computer recognizes it as a mouse input, the cursor never moves and no clicks or scrolls register. I tried it on an XP machine as well as my Mac. Belkin support also could not get it to work.
Belkin said the model is discontinued and could not replace it with a new one. They are supposedly going to offer me a credit in their online store, but there is nothing there I am interested in. I had already discarded the packaging by the time I realized the thing was toast, so returning it to Amazon was not an option.
This is the first time I have ever had a piece of basic electronics be totally non-functional out of the plastic.
Charlie™
March 9th, 2010 at 6:13 pm
Seems a nice gadget so far.
OK - this is a little premature, as I’ve only used it for one day, but I thought I’d pitch in my 2 pence. First of all mine was not DOA. Everything seems to work fine. Packaging is absurdly complex and excessive for such a small gadget, but there you are.
Plugged it into my iMac (OS 10.5.x) and it worked perfectly. Everything worked, in fact - including the “side scrolling” feature that we were warned would only work in Vista… the only thing that there is no way to map “center click” since the Mac sees it as a generic USB mouse. I suspect at 3rd party driver would fix that, but I never have felt a burning need for center click.
The tracking, as mentioned, is way too fast with default settings. I had to ramp it down to the lower end of the speed setting to avoid crashing from edge to edge of my 24″ screen… but it’s fine now.
I really like the scroll strip - it’s much like the one on the Kensington studio mice (from a few years ago when Kensington actually made products you’d want to buy). It scrolls smoothly for me, but it could be that it’s moisture sensitive like some trackpads and is fussier with others’ fingers. The side scrolling is clearly an afterthought, given the width of the finger strip - but it works OK. It’s no mighty mouse, but for $10 it’s good value IMHO.
I like the chocolate brown, but many won’t. It’s your only color choice. The rubberized coating is one of those soft, velvet-touch sort of satin rubbers, and it does feel a little odd. It’s not bad, just odd. The buttons under it are a little spongy because of the coating, but they work OK. I wouldn’t call it precise and it wouldn’t do for anyone trying to time their sniper fire or “click on the monkey”
The tracking seems fine, but claiming that it tracks on glass may be a bit rich. It works on my satin finish screen, paper, a plastic bag, my shorts and my mouse pad (crazy idea), but it didn’t work on the glossy white iMac case… so glass seems unlikely.
I may buy more for a client of mine whose office gets through mice at a frightening rate. This one looks coffee resistant. I have not yet washed my mouse… not something I usually find that I need to do.
Chris J. Tofteberg
March 26th, 2010 at 3:11 am
Belkin Washable Mouse
Rated 3 stars.
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