Aside from the uber-cramped keyboard, one thing I can’t stand about the Dell Mini 9 is the touchpad. Now, I do like the touchpad better than the nubbin that’s available on the P1610, but this touchpad is so stinkin small! Also, in OS X, scrolling is nowhere near as easy or intuitive as it is in Windows, due to Apple’s “phenomenal” new multitouch nonsense. You’re supposed to basically stick two fingers on the touchpad and move them down to scroll. Unfortunately, the Dell isn’t really built for that, so it ends up being easier to just mouse over to the scrollbar, which is still a big pain.
Enter the Logitech VX Nano wireless notebook mouse. You can check it out at Amazon here – it’s pretty basic. Small mouse, even smaller wireless transmitter, with a scroll wheel and a few spare buttons here and there. It also comes with a handy little carrying pouch, and the nano receiver stores inside the mouse, which is really nice. It uses 2 AA batteries, and comes with a pair of Duracells, for a solid start.
The mouse itself is only slightly smaller than a typical mouse, and it fits nicely in my hand. There is a total of 7 buttons, in addition to the scroll wheel. These are the left and right main buttons, with a pair of buttons along the top left edge. The scroll wheel also clicks side to side, and there is another button directly behind the scroll wheel. One thing that annoys the crap out of me is that you cannot seem to click the scroll wheel for a middle click, which I use in Firefox to open in a new tab. You *can* click the wheel, it just doesn’t do anything. Silliness.
Setup is easy enough – there’s a CD included, with the appropriate software for either Windows or OSX. This software allows you to remap any of the keys on the VX Nano to pretty much whatever you want. This, I like.
I’ll confess – the Logitech VX Nano is pretty pricey, for a mouse, at just under $60, but thus far, it’s well worth it. I can also easily use it on my XPS M1330, so it’s not limited specifically to the Dell Mini 9.
What mouse are you using?
Ricky Cadden 