First Impressions
The cam mouse packaging is generally what you’d expect: clear plastic with room for the driver disc and taped-up cords. Kind of like action figures. At the very least it’s extremely easy to unbox. They’ve spared us that annoying setup that can only be cut with adamantium scissors. You know the one I mean. It’s quaint; nothing really stands out.
There’s not a whole lot to look at once everything is hatched. Standard fare: mouse, short USB cable, and driver disc. If you’re really wanting a glut of extra accessories, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. What you see is what you get. That’s ok, we’re not really looking for a ton of extra supplies, we just want to see how our faces look through the eye of a mouse.
Closer Look
I think the first thing I noticed right off the bat was the weight. It’s not much heavier than a ten-dollar office mouse. The overall look is ok; it’s a simple black and grey coat. You’ll probably notice from the pictures (I hope) that the buttons are concave instead of the typical convex style. What you might be wondering at first glance, however, is, “Where’s the camera?!” It’s exactly where you’d think, on the underside. You’ll have the option of switching between the tracking laser and the camera by flipping a square cover so you won’t be bothered with dust build-up.
Sadly, this is where the main flaw of the mouse rears its ugly head. You can only use tracking or the camera, not both. That may be staggeringly evident, but it would be nice not having to cover the lens or rely on a second mouse (which makes the whole thing kind of redundant) when talking to friends and the urge to google something is too great. I really don’t know what I could reasonably expect though; it’s an odd sort of combo that, while interesting, just seems a bit limiting.
Testing
You should probably know, these buttons are concave instead of the traditional convex style that most people are used to, so it might take a little breaking in before you’re absolutely comfortable. I’ve taken the cam-mouse out for a spin with a few of the games in my collection, and so far everything was pretty smooth. At 1200 DPI, it’s not going to be Razer quality but still smooth enough that it doesn’t feel jerky when playing fast-paced action games or even an RTS. The latter variable is extremely important to those concerned with the kind of slow, precise movements required for photo editing and modeling.
The sliding cover also protects the tracking laser itself, so you can move around with relative ease even on some of the more rugged surfaces. As for the wheel, it’s one of the nicest looking aspects and is notched just so that it’s easy to scroll but doesn’t feel too stiff or too loose. However, the buttons are a bit of a different story. The clicking noise was actually slightly louder than I’m used to and got kind of annoying after playing Counter Strike for a few minutes. Still, it’s not overwhelming, just try not to pay much attention to it, or raise your volume, and you’ll be fine.
Now for the camera. Yeah, I almost forgot about that. Well, you’ll be glad to know it does a hell of a job, much better than what I initially expected. At 2 Megapixels, taking videos, pictures, and making skype calls looks good, but it could be better. Taking videos and still pictures is a little easier said than done with the amount of shakiness present; however, you can scan QR codes, and I must say, once the crosshair lines up with the code it’s very responsive.
And what would any camera be without a capture suite? The included software is fairly intuitive and has a simple layout. The option to increase the video resolution is available; however, I recommend sticking to 720p for most things. Once you go outside the optimal range, you can tell it struggles to produce a good image. Not a whole lot to say about what you would normally get from a webcam, the only thing I wish they had managed to squeeze in is a microphone. Ah well, I’m not too sure if that’s really feasible. Yet.
