RadTech BT500 Bluetooth Laptop Mouse

RadTech BT500 Bluetooth Laptop Mouse

Published August 25, 2008 at 01:15:56 PM, by Dan Kong

While the touchpad on your laptop is a sufficient pointing device, often times laptop users prefer an actual mouse because of its comfort, control and precision. Of course the problem with using a mouse with a laptop is that it's an extra piece of equipment to lug around and extra wires to untangle. This is where the BT500 mini Bluetooth mouse comes in. The BT500 is manufactured by RadTech, a company that specializes in accessories and peripherals for mobile products.

By utilizing the existing Bluetooth technology on equipped laptops, the BT500 has a few advantages over traditional Radio Frequency (RF) wireless technology; particularly that it gets rid of the external RF receiver. With a compact size and power saving features, the BT500 is an excellent companion for your laptop on the go.

Design

When traveling, the size of your gears matters. Most users prefer their equipment to have a balance in size and portability, but without compromising the functionality. This is exactly what the BT500 is supposed to do. The BT500 is about three fourths the size of an average desktop mouse, but yet still big enough to function like its desktop counterpart.

The battery compartment lies under the palm rest. You simply push down and pull back the cover to disassemble the mouse in order to replace batteries, very much like the battery compartment in a remote control. Like the battery cover in your remote control, the latch on the battery cover seems to be rather flimsy. From my experience with remote controls, I cannot confidently say that this latch won't wear down over time.

While the BT500 is available in two colors, silver and blue/grey/black, we opted for the more tame silver for our review. Both color schemes are sleek and stylish on this petite mouse.

Portability
The BT500 is smaller than an AC adaptor for the laptop itself, measuring in at 3.25' x 1.9' x 1.25'. Weighing in a little over 2 ounces (with the batteries), this peripheral should be small enough for even the most mobile road warrior. During my review of the BT500, I had no problems shoving it into a neoprene pouch with my power adaptor and bringing it everywhere I go. Although I must mention that unlike the tough plastic used for an AC adaptor, the BT500 is very prone to scratching.

When traveling, often times you have to compromise on the surface available to your mouse. That's where the 800 DPI optical sensor on the BT500 comes into play, enabling you to use the device on most surfaces without problems. I tried it on magazine and book covers, coffee tables, a floor, and even a leather couch. Not surprisingly, the leather couch wasn't as responsive and precise as the other surfaces, but overall no problems. By using two standard triple A batteries, replenishing the power on the BT500 is made simple no matter where your travel route made take you.

Features

Optical Sensor
As mentioned earlier, one reason why users prefer a mouse over the touchpad is when the precision of the pointing device matters. The BT500 uses an 800 DPI optical technology, accurate enough to navigate you through detailed Photoshop editing and easily conquering your everyday web browsing and email.

The 800 DPI optical sensor proves accurate and versatile, able to be used on most surfaces.

Bluetooth Wireless
When Bluetooth first came out several years back, it was often advertised as a competing technology against WiFi. I'll admit I was one of the first to say there is no future for Bluetooth; boy was I wrong. Today, Bluetooth proves to be one of the most versatile wireless technologies for connecting and transmitting data between two electronic devices wirelessly, particularly mobile electronics.

The BT500 is an excellent testimony to the success of Bluetooth. By utilizing the existing Bluetooth in your laptop, there is no need for additional receiver or additional software to install. You set up the BT500 to work with your Bluetooth laptop for the first time and each subsequent time using the mouse, you simply flip on the power switch on the mouse and you're ready to rock and roll!

Although, it is noteworthy to mention that on Windows XP, during boot up, the BT500 will not establish a connection with your laptop and during logon, the connection is flaky. It's not until you are fully logged in that the BT500 establishes a reliable connection. This shouldn't be a problem for most users.

Power Management
The BT500 comes with a power savings feature, where after a period of idle time, the mouse will enter into a power savings mode. Once in the power savings mode the Bluetooth connectivity is shut off, reducing power consumption and prolonging the battery life. Upon moving the mouse or clicking a button, the BT500 will 'wake up' by restoring the Bluetooth connection with your laptop in about two seconds. While that two second wake up time does not provide you with that seamless feel, it is fast enough for you not to complain.

When you're not using your laptop, simply turn the BT500 off by flipping the power switch on the bottom of the mouse. For those times that you have to step away from your laptop for a quick 30 minutes or so, I find the power savings mode to be a very neat feature supplementing the power switch.

According to RadTech, battery life is around 4-7 days when powered on 24/7, and can last up to several weeks when used 4-6 hours per day. If the cost of batteries concerns you, RadTech does recommend the use of NiMH rechargeable batteries. To give you a sufficient notice time that the battery is low before the BT500 dies on you unexpectedly, the scroll wheel will flash a blue light indicating low battery.

Performance

Setup
Setting up the BT500 on Bluetooth enabled laptops such as our test laptop, the MSI S270, was a breeze. You simply turn the power switch to on and use the Bluetooth utility on your laptop to discover and connect to the BT500. When the laptop and the BT500 are connected successfully, the scroll wheel on the BT500 will momentarily illuminate with a blue light indicating the connection, the same blue light that indicates low battery. From here on, each subsequent time you use the BT500 is as simple as turning on the mouse.

For those laptops that are not Bluetooth enabled, you can purchase a Bluetooth dongle, which usually plugs into the USB port of your laptop in order to use the BT500. But the downside is that, now you have an extra piece of component that's protruding out of your laptop; definitely not as convenient compared to laptops with built-in Bluetooth.

Comfort
For a mouse that is significantly smaller than your average desktop counterpart, the BT500 is surprisingly comfortable. In the middle of each side of the mouse, there is a contour which I find to be a great fit for your thumb, right or left-handed. While the BT500 is smaller than the average desktop mouse, the buttons and scroll wheel are almost left un-shrunk, adding to the comfort of using the mouse.

The one major affect of the miniature size of the BT500 is that, what appears to be a palm rest does not reach your palm for resting. However, this didn't cause me too much problem if the surface is at a decent level for me to rest my wrist. Regardless, I always recommend a dedicated wrist rest during extended period of usage.

When first using the BT500, the diminutive size definitely feels a little weird and takes a little getting use to before it feels 'normal.' But when you go back to a desktop mouse, the desktop mouse is what feels weird and once you get use to the desktop mouse, coming back to the BT500 would feel weird all over again. This cycle never seems to end for me, but it poses no real problem.

Performance
The BT500's performance is measured in three basic areas: response, precision and battery life.

The BT500 is very responsive, I didn't experience any lag and I couldn't tell the difference between this wireless mouse and my wired desktop mouse at all. The device responded to every twitch on my hand as a wired desktop mouse would.

Thanks to the 800 DPI optical sensor, the precision poses no problems for most users and situations. We tested the BT500's precision by performing detail Photoshop editing on our test laptop where the resolution is set to 1280x800, with no problems or limitations noticed. While the precision may not match up to the newer laser tracking mice (where many of these laser mice are used for CAD applications or gaming), the BT500 serves the purpose that it's intended for.

The battery life on the BT500 during our test comes very close to what was advertised. Comparing to the battery life of other Bluetooth mice, I would said the BT500 provides an acceptable battery life. One neat feature is that once the low power indication begins its flashing alerts, the mouse can still provide a solid hours or so of usage before it dies, giving you ample time to finish your work and get some more triple A's.

For everyday web browsing, chatting and emailing, the BT500 performed like a champ, for more complex tasks, the BT500 are up to par with the average wired desktop mice.

Conclusion

Pros:

• Small, providing excellent portability
• Fairly comfortable considering its size
• If used with a Bluetooth enabled laptop, no external receivers needed
• Simple and fast setup
• Power management features
• Responsive and precise

Cons:

• Very pricey for a mouse
• Plastic casing is very prone to scratching
• Battery door latch seems a bit flimsy, resembling those on remote controls

Recommendation

When it comes to portable computing, we desire things to be small, the smaller the better. However the art is to make it small without compromising the functional usability and the RadTech BT500 does just that. From excellent portability and comfort to great precision and good battery life, this mighty mouse has all the right ingredients to make it a road warrior's choice.

The one thing that I must emphasize is that using the BT500 on a Bluetooth enabled laptop is most desirable, resulting in the simplest setup and being the most convenient. If your laptop is not Bluetooth enabled and a wireless mouse is the way you want to go, then there are no ways around an external receiver for your laptop. Using a Bluetooth dongle may be a better choice over a RF mouse, at least it lets you connect to other Bluetooth devices.

To sum it all up, if you are a laptop user who does medium to heavy amount of traveling and prefers a mouse over the touch pad, the RadTech BT500 is one of the better choices.

No User reviews for this product! Be the first to write a review on RadTech BT500 Bluetooth Laptop Mouse

To post a product-review you have to be a registered member.

Technical Specifications

No specifications are available.