Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp. Part number: 69K-00001
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Aimed at relieving or preventing the onset of repetitive stress injuries, Microsoft's new mouse seems to have the right idea in its redesign of the standard mouse grip. If Microsoft's hardware design team had paid as much attention to some of its other elements, this mouse would be a winner.
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CNET editors' review
Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 price range: $36.07 - $79.99
- Reviewed by: Rich Brown
- Reviewed on: 03/16/2007
The good: Easy to adjust to the unique design; felt less stressful on your reviewer's well-worn mousing wrist (unclinically speaking); satisfying, responsive scroll wheel.
The bad: Inconvenient thumb-button placement; overly large RF receiver.
The bottom line: Aimed at relieving or preventing the onset of repetitive stress injuries, Microsoft's new mouse seems to have the right idea in its redesign of the standard mouse grip. If Microsoft's hardware design team had paid as much attention to some of its other elements, this mouse would be a winner.
In 2004, 3M came out with a product called the Ergonomic Mouse. More like an upright handgrip with a tracking pad attached to the bottom, the 3M mouse was notable because it kept the palm of your hand perpendicular to your work space. That design supposedly relieves the pressure on your wrist's median nerve, the focal point of carpal tunnel syndrome. Microsoft's new Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 is more of a happy medium between 3M's unique design and that of a typical mouse. Serious sufferers of repetitive stress-related injuries should definitely consult a doctor before using this or any other nonqualified review for medical advice. We will say that as an alternative input device, we found Microsoft's new mouse comfortable and easy to use, but a few design miscues make us wish Microsoft had given this mouse more thought.
The most obvious feature of the Natural Wireless 6000 is that, unlike standard mouse designs, this model's buttons, wheel, and palm rest upward to the right. It lends the mouse a unique shape, but it also has the effect of rolling your wrist up off your desk. Your reviewer will refrain from commenting on any therapeutic benefits this mouse might have, but I'll simply rely on my credentials as a longtime mouse user and say that this design feels less stressful on my wrist. I also found it easy to adjust to the nonstandard hand position. Once I tweaked the cursor sensitivity in the included software, using the Natural Wireless 6000 became, well, natural.
The only problematic feature about the mouse itself is the location of the thumb buttons. Rather than leaving them next to your thumb, where you'll find them on the standard mice that have them, Microsoft instead elevated them with the plane of the main buttons. This puts them in the dead zone between your thumb and forefinger, which means you have to move either your thumb or your main finger to get to them. Making such a move interrupts smooth mouseflow, and takes some getting used to to feel which of the two buttons you're actually going to press. Placing the buttons on the thumbrest would have been much more logical.
If the thumb buttons are irritating, the scroll wheel is actually one of the best we've encountered outside of Logitech's superior MX Revolution mouse and its flywheel design. The scroll wheel on the Natural Wireless 6000 feels sturdier than the wheel on Microsoft's Intellimouse 3.0, and its thick, rubberized coating makes the wheel feel satisfying to move. It also has responsive side-to-side tilt-based scrolling, which you'll appreciate if you spend time with wide spreadsheets or other large files.
The Natural Wireless 6000 takes two included AA batteries. We prefer rechargeable wireless mice, and since Microsoft's suggested price for this mouse is $80, it's a little cheap that it uses only standard alkalines. Fortunately, you can find the mouse for less money from the retailers that sell it. We're also amused by the USB RF receiver, which is almost as big as the mouse itself. We've seen full-sized mouse and keyboard sets that only require a thumb drive-sized USB receiver, so we're not sure why the receiver in this model needs to be so big. It's certainly not a major issue, and we found set up easy and the connection strength generally reliable, but the design feels like a clunky throwback.
User reviews
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Even more comfortable and control
by Steve Du on February 18, 2007
Pros: Ergonomic, confortable and functional, long battery life and accure
Cons: Right hand only, no "click-to-click" wheel, no rechargeable battery
Summary: Microsoft?s head-to-head competitor against Logitech?s MX Revolution offers simpler and more comfortable yet cheaper ($20) price tag. This mouse has a higher angle and it is tilted so ...
Summary: Microsoft?s head-to-head competitor against Logitech?s MX Revolution offers simpler and more comfortable yet cheaper ($20) price tag. This mouse has a higher angle and it is tilted so it fits your hand nicer and offers less pressure and stress, compare to traditional ?flat? holding position. Basically you grab the mouse naturally without twisting your hand. This helps especially when you are on the mouse for a long period of time.
Pros: Offers more comfortable and natural operating position and simpler functions. 4-way scrolling and many functions considered standard are included. Among decent battery life, the large receiver also offers better reception. Lower price tag.
Cons: No rechargeable like it is competitor, less detailed battery indicator and does not offers traditional ?click-to-click? wheel where the competitor offers a more flexible and advanced wheel function. Left-handed users are out of luck unfortunately.
Other thoughts: Although it doesn?t offer as advanced and fancy functions like it is competitor, however this mouse is very comfortable. The software (IntelliPoint) brings out all the functionalities of this mouse. If comfortable is your first choice, then you should consider this mouse.4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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So Much For Ergonomic Computing
by festune on February 16, 2008
Pros: Shown Below
Cons: Shown Below
Summary: Pros:
1.Long battery life (as advertised);
2.Handsome (as you can see);
3.Durable (as long as you don't toss it to the trash can);
Cons:
1.Inhumanly ...Summary: Pros:
1.Long battery life (as advertised);
2.Handsome (as you can see);
3.Durable (as long as you don't toss it to the trash can);
Cons:
1.Inhumanly awk-gonomic design (to make everyday of my life not worth living);
2.Imprecise pointer movement (makes a mouse a pile of beautiful plastic cr@p);
3.Very short range (anyone knows how to make a wired mouse out of a wireless one?);
4.Nonproductive tilt wheel (I'm dare to say: "The Emperor is naked!");
5.Tricky buttons ("tricky" here is the exact opposite of "sticky");
6.Thumb buttons (your highness);
7.Non-customizable buttons (makes the tilt wheel even more useless);
8.Huge Receiver and
9.Mouse too (for the size, I expect greater range);
10.Inconstant scroll speed in Vista
11.Durable and
12.Pricy (so I can't get ride of it easily);
10 + 3 - 12 = 1
Rating Explained:
Leave the Pros part,
Con1: A great leap backward, this mouse is too high. For most people, a wrist rest is needed to elevate the hand to accomodate the steep shape. This mouse gets reviewed by my doc, and in his qualified PROFESSIONAL opinion, this thing is made especially for Shrek. I'm suffer from CTS in years, I thought my right hand finally home when I saw this mouse, apparently, I was wrong.
Con2: Don't need explaination, grab IE3 and drag a window and move it slowly, you can still see the text inside the window with little joggling. do the same thing with this mouse and you'll understand what I'm saying.
Con3: Even the receiver is placed just a few inches from the mouse, the signal gets droped sometimes, but not too often.
Con4. The Tilt Wheel is not as useful as it looks. scroll horizontally could be a pain, it either too fast or too slow since it's just two on/off microswitches.
Con5: Now this one is tricky, this mouse releases the left button if no significant amount of pressure is on its shoulder. that means the microswitch sends "I'm OFF." to the PC even your finger tells you a different story. (a friend of a friend of mine who owned this mouse has exact the same problem. so this could be general.)
Con6: As CNET reviewed.
Con7: The Tilt Wheel consists of 3 microswitches, However, the only one that is customizable is the middle-button. since the tilt wheel is not much of a handy function, why not let us customize it to fit our needs? my investment yields little return on this stupid wheel.
Con8 & 9: The size of the receiver and the mouse is "tremendous", Microsoft surely did a poor job on portability.
Con10: The Tilt Wheel is a dead tech, but I can still use the good ol' vertical scroll till it decided to gone nutty under Vista. In some programs, the wheel is extremely sensitive and in others, helplessly slow. now I've sealed the wheel with glue to avoid accidental touch that kills my vib.
Con11 & 12: Those two cons are deadly.
Buttom line: For the name (Natural), for the brand and for the price, I expect more. Don't buy this if you have average sized hands and has CTS like me. You'll regret buying this. Mark my words.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good for larger than normal hands
by nateratm on October 10, 2007
Pros: Nice scroll whell, sturdy design, comfortable
Cons: no rechargeable battery, large reciever
Summary: if you have large hands like myself, this mouse is for you. it takes some getting used to, but overall it's a solid mouse, and cool looking too.
Summary: if you have large hands like myself, this mouse is for you. it takes some getting used to, but overall it's a solid mouse, and cool looking too.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Ouch! My wrist hurts
by columt on June 10, 2009
Pros: Feels pretty solid and tactile.
Cons: It hurts! I've never had wrist trouble with a mouse before, but a couple of hours using this and ouch. I gave it an extra day but could not adapt to the awkward angle...
Summary: I got this mouse as part of set when replacing my ergonomic keyboard (expensive minor coffee spillage). I found it very difficult to adjust the software settings to replicate the ...
Summary: I got this mouse as part of set when replacing my ergonomic keyboard (expensive minor coffee spillage). I found it very difficult to adjust the software settings to replicate the feel of my old microsoft wired optical mouse. But after the painful experience, I'm back to that old wired mouse.... This may be the mouse for you if you have wrist problems with conventional mice, but if not then I'd advise you to steer clear.
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Greate mouse for programmer
by chadmilden on May 1, 2009
Pros: - feels amazing (when used with an ergonomic mouse pad)
- responsive
- vertical mouse wheel scroll is nice, smoothCons: - 2 mouse buttons are in the middle of nowhere... hard to get used to.
- priceSummary: let me first of all say that I got ripped off, I bought this mouse at future shop for 100 dollars.... I am a programmer and am starting to get ...
Summary: let me first of all say that I got ripped off, I bought this mouse at future shop for 100 dollars.... I am a programmer and am starting to get CTS, so I bought this mouse, along with an ergonomic mouse pad, one of those pads that has the gel/memory foam wrist rest. It feels amazing, I have never had so much comfort using a mouse.
When I use the mouse without the ergonomic mouse pad, it's not as good, doesn't feel as good, so I think microsoft designed this mouse to be used with an ergonomic pad.
Bottom line: If you are going to get this mouse, because it really is very comfortable, then buy an ergonomic mouse pad to get the full benefit. -
So far, the best mouse I've ever used.
by mero909 on January 19, 2009
Pros: Extremely Comfortable, Very responsive, Ergonomic, rather long battery life.
Cons: Right handed users only. Battery light seems rather vague. Thumb buttons are a bit far from the thumb. Non-rechargeable.
Summary: If comfort is what you're looking for, you should consider this mouse.
Summary: If comfort is what you're looking for, you should consider this mouse.
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takes a lot of getting used to
by bilcarter on March 9, 2008
Pros: Feels comfortable in large hands
Cons: scroll wheel doesn't click, inconvenient thumb button, short RF range, large RF receiver
Summary: Not the best, and not the worst mouse I've ever used. Scroll wheel is hit and miss. On some apps it works fine. On others, I actually have to ...
Summary: Not the best, and not the worst mouse I've ever used. Scroll wheel is hit and miss. On some apps it works fine. On others, I actually have to scroll left and right to make the bar go up and down. It doesn't click when I roll it either.
The RF receiver is as big as a mouse itself, and only offer a 3 foot range. My old Logitech had a smaller receiver and a 6 foot range. Not bad for a 7 year old mouse.
The design forces you to move your entire forearm rather than just your wrist - which is intentional. At first, it can be uncomfortable. If you try moving just your wrist, the pointer won't obey your commands. I guess that helps your wrist health, but it is not what many of us are used to. -
OK, Not Great
by sharonj430 on January 19, 2008
Pros: No Pros for Me
Cons: Large, Expensive, and Not that Precise
Summary: This mouse must be for a person with big hands. I am a woman with average hands, and I find this mouse to be difficult to use and control.
I ...Summary: This mouse must be for a person with big hands. I am a woman with average hands, and I find this mouse to be difficult to use and control.
I have a smaller cheaper laser mouse that was made for laptops, and it works just as well. This mouse is OK for Internet browsing. For longer, precision jobs, as in Photoshop, my hand sits up too high, and I really have to grasp this mouse to get it to move where I want it to.
The first time I used this mouse to make clipping paths in Photoshop, I wanted to throw it up against the wall. I thought I would get used to it, but so far I haven't.
I cannot see any advantage of this "laser" technology over the standard optical mouse. It does not work well on a smooth table or on a neoprene mouse pad. Maybe some type of slick mouse pad is the answer. -
A great mouse....for someone else
by blueship on February 26, 2007
Pros: Unique, potentially-comfortable design
Cons: Not made for smaller hands
Summary: This mouse is unusually tall, forcing my wrist to angle upward, even on a gel-rest. I tried it for a few days and all it did was hurt my wrist. ...
Summary: This mouse is unusually tall, forcing my wrist to angle upward, even on a gel-rest. I tried it for a few days and all it did was hurt my wrist. Using it, I had a tendency to "palm" the mouse everytime, something I'm not accustomed to. I can definitely see the potential for those with larger hands, but I'm 4'11" and have small hands. Here's hoping Microsoft comes out with a notebook version.
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Where's the left handed version???
by Kevin Blandford on March 19, 2007
Pros: None in you're left handed
Cons: Everything if you're left handed
Summary: It looks nice, but it's nothing but a paperweight for the left handed part of the population... and a large part of the computing community
Summary: It looks nice, but it's nothing but a paperweight for the left handed part of the population... and a large part of the computing community
0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Microsoft Corp.
- Part number: 69K-00001
- Description: The Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 is designed to conform to your hand in its most relaxed position. Breakthrough ergonomic design, the tilted, elevated hand position reduces pressure on the carpal tunnel and wrist.
General
- Device Type Mouse
- Wireless Receiver USB wireless receiver
- Form Factor External
- Color Metallic gray
Input Device
- Connectivity Technology Wireless
- Interface RF
- Movement Detection Technology Laser
- Buttons Qty 5
- Features Battery indicator, Rubber side grips, Scrolling wheel (4-way), High Definition Laser Technology
Expansion / Connectivity
- Expansion Slots Total (Free) None
- Interfaces 1 x USB - 4 pin USB Type A
Miscellaneous
- Microsoft Certifications Certified for Windows Vista
Power
- Type None
Battery
- Type AA type
- Technology Alkaline
- Installed Qty 2
Software / System Requirements
- Software Included Drivers & Utilities
- OS Required Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
- Min Processor Type 233 MHz
- Peripheral / Interface Devices CD-ROM
- System Requirements Details Windows 2000/XP - RAM 128 MB - HD 45 MB
Manufacturer info
- Microsoft Corp.
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Microsoft Corp. products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.microsoft.com/
- Address:
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052 - Phone: 425/882-8080
- Fax: (425) 706-7329
