Microsoft Precision Mouse: a comfortable Bluetooth mouse for office use

Presentation

The Precision Mouse is available in black ("Black Edition") or gray ("Surface" edition, named after the devices in the range with the same hues). It was launched at the recommended retail price of € 109.99.

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Ergonomics

If Microsoft does not necessarily make the news with its mice, it is not new to the subject and even has a certain notoriety with regard to ergonomics. The Precision Mouse takes advantage of this experience and perfectly hugs the curve of the hand despite a fairly simple shape in appearance and a sleek design.

It is thus more classic than an MX Master 2S from Logitech, for example. Unlike the latter, its size is also more common and probably adapts better to small hands. The Precision Mouse is indeed much lower (43.3 mm, or 5.1 mm less), but also less wide (77.6 mm, against 85.7 mm) and shorter (122.6 mm, against 126 mm) than the Swiss mouse. However, this is enough for large hands to rest their entire palm without the fingers sticking out of the buttons, thus ensuring a certain level of comfort and less fatigue.

The grip is improved by the non-slip material covering the slices of the mouse. A touch of eraser very pleasant under the fingers elsewhere, although a little messy, which echoes the softness of the plastic used on all the rest of the mouse. The finishes are in any case very neat, there is nothing to complain about. The thumb benefits from a small overhang which prevents it from rubbing on the desk and fits naturally in the hollow of the left edge. These ergonomic details make the mouse easy to move and even to lift if necessary (to center it on the desk, for example), especially since, without being light, it does not suffer too much from its 138 grams. It is in any case more maneuverable than the MX Master with its 149 g. The Precision Mouse remains an office mouse, however, and is not designed to be moved around vigorously, as you might do with a lighter mouse in a fast video game.

Regarding the buttons, Microsoft is not in the auction and is content to offer three on the left edge, in addition to the two main, that of the wheel and a seventh reserved for changing the scrolling mode of the latter. With the exception of this last button, all are configurable in the mouse software (see box) and can take other functions. By default, the slice buttons are used for the navigation functions: "next page", "previous page" and "task display" - the latter is assigned to the middle button and is equivalent to the shortcut "Windows key" + "Tab" .

The main buttons are reactive at will and are quite firm. We measure the force necessary for their activation at around 50 cN. Appreciable for those who do not want to risk involuntary activations, but offering less flexibility than those of the MX Master 2S (35 cN), for information. It's up to you to choose what you prefer.

During our last mouse tests, we felt a difference in resistance of the main click buttons more marked than usual ...

Unlike the main ones, the slice buttons do not benefit from mechanical switches, but their contact switches offer a good touch and are less noisy.

The wheel button is also nice and activates easily with a thud. But the most interesting is at the level of the wheel itself, since it is disengageable! We can thus choose between a notched mode and a smooth scrolling mode, without notch, simply by pressing the dedicated button, located just above. Precision is at the rendezvous and it is a treat to handle this wheel in one mode as in the other. However, it is not as advanced as the disengageable dial of the MX Master, since it has no inertia and cannot rotate several turns with a single pulse of the finger. It is therefore necessary to accompany him permanently to scroll through a document; you cannot go down several pages at once or even all the way down a document with a single gesture. We console ourselves nevertheless with its better stability.

In terms of gliding, the single pad running all around the underside of the mouse unfortunately does not reduce friction enough compared to the PTFE pads that are usually found under competing mice. This results in a slightly higher friction noise and less fluid movements. It is better to use the mouse with a fairly high sensitivity to avoid large movements which could pull the wrist more quickly. The mouse is also more comfortable on a hard surface than on a flexible textile mat, for example.

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Precision

The Precision Mouse's bluetrack optical sensor has the advantage of working on a wide variety of surfaces. Even glossy coatings are accepted and we have managed to get the mouse to work on certain glass surfaces as well. This good capture does not happen without some compromises, however. We remain indeed on our hunger as for the precision of the mouse on the micro-movements, the follow-up thus not seeming to be done pixel by pixel. Nothing too annoying in purely office use, but somewhat disabling on photo editing and other work precisely requiring great precision.

In addition, we can observe a small latency which, here again, does not particularly disturb in office automation, but makes the movements of the mouse a little heavy and excludes its use in video game. The speed of the sensor is in any case insufficient for rapid games, it easily picking up on rapid movements.

The sensitivity is adjustable in steps of 200 between 400 and 3,200 dpi. Sufficient to use the mouse even on Ultra HD monitors.

Wirelessly, the mouse can only work in Bluetooth (4.0 or later). Microsoft does not offer a USB radio adapter on this model. The Precision Mouse can nevertheless be paired with three computers and then switch from one to the other with a simple press of the button located under the mouse. Even better, the Smart Switch function allows you to automatically switch to another computer by bringing the pointer out of the screen. You just need to configure the function in the "Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center" software previously installed on each computer, indicating in particular the position of the PCs and the desired sensitivity level to switch from one to the other. This software is unfortunately not macOS compatible, it is not possible to really take advantage of this function with Apple computers. The mouse can work on these, but when you switch on it with the Smart Switch function, you can then return to a PC only by manually changing the channel with the button under the mouse. Note also that the scrolling wheel is reversed on macOS compared to the "normal" operation of other mice.

Question autonomy, Microsoft announces three months of use with a full charge of the Li-ion battery. Rather reasonable endurance, which we could not measure, however, because we could not test the mouse over such a long period. However, the steady decrease in the percentage displayed by the charge level indicator seems to correspond to this indication.

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Conclusion

For purely office use, the Precision Mouse is quite satisfactory. It nevertheless competes with the MX Master 2S from Logitech, more successful, but also more imposing. If you prefer slightly thinner mice and only use Windows PCs, this Microsoft mouse is still interesting.

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