Genius Traveler 355 Laser Mouse

1. Genius has done the impossible with the Traveller 355: brought some innovation back into mouse design.
   
   The traditional central scroll wheel is replaced with an optical sensor that responds to movements of your finger. This sensor is capable of both vertical and horizontal scrolling, and after getting used to the loss of tactile feedback from a mechanical wheel, it becomes second nature to scroll smoothly through pages and documents in four directions.
   
   The laser motion tracking is equally sensitive, offering either 1600 or 800 DPI. You may need to alter the speed settings in to something you're more comfortable using if you find the pointer speeding away across the screen.
   
   There aren't many laser-based mice for notebooks, yet the benefits are a welcome addition for the mobile user, so we expect these to become more popular. Laser-motion works on a wide variety of surfaces, which is handy if you often find yourself working in multiple locations.
2. Specifications
   
   +USB Interface
   +System support: Windows Vista/XP x64/ XP/2003/2000 Macintosh with OS X 10.2.8+
   +Number of buttons: Three (Left, Right, Middle)
   +Resolution (dpi): 1600/800 dpi Laser engine
   +Special function: OptoWheel (touch scroll)
3. Interface

The Genius Traveler 355 Laser Mouse, as the name suggests, is a laser mouse. It has a 1600 and 800 dpi resolution laser engine. The mouse connects to the PC via USB. Being a wired laptop mouse, it is mainly for those who can't fit a wireless mouse in their budget for a laptop. The mouse has three buttons: left, right, and middlewith a special OptoWheel to replace the scroll wheel. We will talk about that in the next segment.



The middle button is a circular with blue LED backlighting. Pressing all the three buttons at one time and keeping them pressed for 3 seconds switches the resolution from 1600 dpi to 800 dpi. Doing so again reverts the change to 1600 dpi. The sides of the mouse have been kept plain and simple, they don't have any buttons on the sides.
4. The mouse has a good build. The face of the mouse has a nice matt finish while the sides have a smooth rubberized plastic texture. This way it is effortless to get a grip on the mouse while moving it over a surface, or even while lifting it up for a bit of CS. Mind you, gaming is not a concern here but this mouse can be used for it even though it won't offer you the best of comfort in relation to its size. The grips on the feet of the mouse are well placed and are quite large providing a decent grip.



They can take lots of friction before wearing out. For the time that we used it, there was hardly any sign of wear-n-tear except for the dirt that it collected. Just a swipe with a tissue and it was all clean, looking as good as new.
5.OptoWheel

6.Conclusion

The Genius Traveler 355 Laser Mouse is an expensive deal, but for the scroll wheel replacement with a comfortable OptoWheel it's quite good. It would take time getting used to but its worth all the comfort. This opens ideas for more comfortable computing and once this technology gains wider acceptance will be more affordable. So if you wish to say goodbye to one of the last few surviving mechanical parts in the mouse opt for the Traveler 355.

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