Opinion
The IntelliMouse Explorer is bigger than a normal MS mouse (like the standard Intellimouse), it is about as huge as the Logitech Mouseman Wheel (a bit longer, but not as tall). It is silver grey, except for the wheel and the thumb buttons which are dark grey. It didn't take long to install the mouse and IntelliPoint 3 software. I had to reboot however, after the IntelliPoint software was installed. The computer booted fine, but it took like 15 seconds extra to get past the BIOS screen. It was quite irritating, but not a big problem for me, since my computer is on all the time anyway. This only happened when I used the USB plug, when I tried it with the USB->PS/2 convertor, it went straight through the BIOS screen without any delay. When windows loaded up, I checked the refresh rate at once. With the PS/2 plug, it was about 40 hz in the beginning. Then I tried to set up the rate with PS2Rate. I could only get it to 80 hz when the rate was set to 200 hz, my Logitech Mouseman Wheel can do 200 hz without any problems at all.Then I tried with the USB plug on the Intellimouse Explorer. Since PS2Rate doesn't work with USB, I monitored the refresh rate right away. It read 125 hz, which is normal for USB mice.
The mouse behaved like a normal mouse in the windows desktop and in Tiberian Sun. It's quite comfortable to hold. I had read in a previous review that it didn't perform well if you moved it fast, therefore it was not recommended if you where a hardcore FPS gamer. So I figured I had to try it out. First, I moved the mouse at normal speed on the windows desktop, no problems at all, it baheved like my Logitech Mouseman. Then I tried to move it fast. What happaned was that the mouse pointer often didn't respons, or it could take a whole different direction or even take loops instead of going the direction I wanted it to go. In windows this wasn't a problem , since I won't need to move the pointer around at lightning speed anyway, but in games like quake, this was a big problem (escpecially if you do not use a lot of sensitivity). When I tried to do a 180 or 360 turn fast, i ended up watching the ground. When walking normal and going around corners etc, it wasn't a problem, but if you are in a situation where you have to react/turn fast then this became a problem, cause I want to shoot the opponent, not the ground/roof. You can fix the speed problem by using a higher sensitivity (I had to set mine from 6 to 10.1 so that I wouldn't encounter the problem), but it takes time to learn a new sensitivity, and at high sensitivities, the aim becomes less accurate. A big downside, just pray that Microsoft will come with new drivers soon that may fix this problem.
