The Microsoft Arc Mouse is a wonder. A folding, take anywhere, portable mouse that has just that bit of Star Trek geek about it.

Closed, the Arc Mouse, is really quite small, the tiny USB receiver clicks nicely onto the magnetic storage area on the back of the mouse, the mouse then flips closed and the whole thing sits nicely in its little pouch – ready for action. Pop it out, flick it open in a Captain Kirk kind of way, pop the USB receiver into a spare USB slot and you are off – ready to mouse around – and its size is just a tad smaller than a typical desktop mouse so it feels quite comfortable in the hand.

The 2.4GHz, apparently, 30ft wireless range afforded by the USB micro-transceiver, is fun though I can’t imagine working that far away from my humble laptop (perhaps if I had a projection screen) – but the real beauty is that I didn’t need to install any drivers to make it work on my Windows XP setup. The Arc will apparently work with Windows Vista and Windows 7 too.

The device takes two AAA batteries and I haven’t had to replace them yet, and there is a little red light which will warn me when I need to take action. I have had the mouse for around a month now and according to the manufacturer description they should last another 5 months.

There are four buttons on the mouse: the clickable track wheel, the left and right mouse buttons and a side button (though it would have been useful to have this button on the other side too for us left-handers). In terms of tracking the mouse is very precise, largely thanks to its built in laser.

All in all the Microsoft Arc Mouse is very pleasant to use and extremely portable – it ousts my much loved Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000 for everyday use – however I will still need to hold onto that one for presentations.

WIN A MICROSOFT ARC MOUSE

Why don’t you see what you make of the Microsoft Arc Mouse? I have one available as a give away for one lucky reader – to enter simply leave a comment below (remember to put a contact email address into the comment form – don’t worry your email address will not be published or used for anything else) and I will draw one valid email address, on 1st December 2009, to receive a Microsoft Arc Mouse (it will most likely be shipped from Amazon). If you want the heads up on future give-aways then don’t forget to subscribe to receive updates to this technology blog.

UPDATE: The draw was performed on 1st December 2009 using the random generator at random.org and the lucky winner is Brett Berdine – well done, I will be in touch shortly to talk about getting the mouse to you.