Choiix Cruiser Mouse Reviewed; Has Some Comfort Issues

Performance
The performance of a product like a mouse is more than "it tracked well" or battery life. It is a combination of things from how well it fits your hand, to how easy it is to change the batteries. As we mentioned some people prefer heavy and large mice [due to palm and hand size] while others may like smaller and lighter mice. This means that one person cannot properly evaluate a mouse on their own.

To cover this we use a minimum of three people each with a different hand size and each with a different "work mode". As you can imagine the hand sizes are large, medium and small. From there we further categorize them as workstation usage, casual, and gamer. Each person was given the mouse to use for an extended period of time and then asked to give their impressions of the Cruiser.

Large Hand/ Gamer use
If you have a large palm the Cruiser will feel small to you. There is just no way around this as it seems to get lost in the middle of your hand. You may also begin to feel some hand stress after a little while when using the mouse buttons. My usual mouse style is to allow the mouse to rest in the center of my palm and have my fingers just lying over the mouse buttons. With the Cruiser I felt like I was not able to do this so I had my finger crooked up so that the pads rested on the buttons. After about 30 minutes I began to feel stress in my hand. This was further compounded when gaming; even 20 minutes of Modern Warfare 2 began to make my hand ache. I could feel the stress in the back of my hand and wrist as the much lighter mouse required me to over compensate for my movements. It was not the most enjoyable experience. Oddly enough the accuracy was still very good as far as the laser goes; I just had to adjust my style of use to compensate for the lighter weight.  I would not recommend this mouse for heavy gaming.

Medium Hand/ Workstation use
Our user with the medium sized hand has a usage model that involves a lot of movement between spreadsheets, databases and other documentation as well as image manipulation. With the spreadsheet work it was also important to have accuracy in selecting and resizing cells, etc. However the flat surface of the mouse did not agree with their hand as after a while they noted an ache in their wrist. They also complained that the buttons were too stiff and the wheel was hard to use. With image manipulation the issues became even more apparent as the stiff buttons were hard to keep pressed when painting or outlining objects. The general impression was not good.

Small Hand/Casual use
Our user with the smaller hands felt that the mouse was too big for her hands. She liked the look of the mouse and did not have any issues with the buttons but said that it was not comfortable at all after browsing the internet and also with the light gaming [Viva Pinata etc] that she did. It was interesting as this user is probably the market that the Cruiser is directly aimed at.

General
In general none of the users that tested the mouse liked the included mouse pad. The mouse did work properly on it, but it was frustratingly small. It also requires that you stick it in place to use; if you do not do this you have to pin it down somehow or it will slide all over your desk. One other interesting item to note is that none of the users like the mouse while raised or open. At that point all agreed that the mouse was too tall and forced the hand into an unnatural position. Battery life [thanks to the on/off switch and the auto sleep], tracking and even control were good, but the overall feel and usability of the mouse was less than we would expect from Cooler Master and Choiix.