Logitech Wireless Mouse M215

My trusty laptop mouse which I had been using for the past four years breathed its last, two weeks back. The cause of death was later diagnosed as a massive cardiac failure just below the left click and directly on the left micro switch due to extensive and prolonged rapid clicking movement.  It was a small mouse with a retractable cord. The thin flat cord and the little spring loaded contraption mid way was not very comfortable. So decided to buy me a mouse. I thought that this time i would go in for a wireless mouse. The options were blue-tooth or WiFi - the immediate choice was WiFi. I didn't want the mouse to cost a bomb, needed something on a moderate budget and not too tiny at the same time very functional.

I compared various models of HP, Microsoft and Logitech below Rs.1000. After quite a few models and feature studies I settled in for the Logitech M215. What attracted me where:

• Does not use the commonly found optic sensor but a superior laser sensor, so can be used on any surface like glossy and glass - you don't have to carry your mouse pad with you everywhere.
• Ultra compact USB adapter for the transmitter which is almost invisible when plugged in so unlike the bulky ones that look like pen drives sticking out , you can leave this plugged in even when you put the laptop back in your bag.
• The mouse works on 2.4 Ghz wireless so its a strong robust connection and you get zero dropouts.
• Its not too small neither is it too big to carry around. So was perfect size for my laptop.
• Another lovely feature is the on off button underneath the mouse. It has intelligent stand by modes and power save features built in. If you want the battery to stay longer you can switch off the mouse after use.
•  It runs on a single AA battery and not a AAA battery and that's convenient.

Finally I went through a bunch of user reviews on the M215 and found the customers were happy using it and then headed to Flipkart [ http://www.flipkart.com ]for the buy. Got the mouse delivered at home for Rs.708 . Have been using the mouse day in and out for almost a week now and I am very happy with it.

Manufacturer page:

http://www.logitech.com/en-in/mice-pointers/mice/devices/6064

Buy Online From:

http://www.flipkart.com/computers/mice/itmcwpd9cfxhafeh?pid=acccwpd9cfxhafeh&_l=36gZu0BtfOSzO2Z6yvMMGg--&_r=eZ_Eins6rgCW5XJ5tPdiIA--&ref=e41d5f23-f8c6-4320-90ea-0539b2c04052

- Joseph

Best Ultra Portable laptop as on Date - HP DM1

HP Pavilion dm1

After a lot of reviews and searchers this is the model I settled in for as my second laptop on the go. My main areas of concern while searching for the laptop model were:

• With Windows 7 pre-loaded.
• I would use this as my travel laptop and hence light and compact was key.
• The battery life was important and was looking for one that would last the whole day on a single charge.
• Was looking at 10~11.6 inch screen and hence screen clarity was important. 
• Processing power to run Photoshop , Tally , Microsoft Office a good antivirus and of course play HD videos without bringing down performance.
• Ample disk space for storage.
• Bluetooth, Wifi and Lan [ Bluetooth to pair wireless headphone if i was in a public place and needed to do VOIP or watch movies ]

So in short I wanted to have a laptop the size of a net-book , with the battery life of a net-book but the performance of a laptop. Most net books came with an Atom processor that supported up to 2 Gig RAM and did not play HD videos. The big thing was not playing HD videos but to play HD videos smoothly quite a good amount of processing power is needed, so this is a good test of a laptops processing power [ i am ref to net-books and the ultra portables here and not the bigger laptops ] To make a long story short I finally found the HP Pavilion DM1 the right choice. It comes with the the new AMD dual core E-350 which combines the CPU and GPU [ Graphics Processing Unit ] into one chip increasing performance. I upgraded the RAM to 8 GB [4+4]  as it has 2 slots and comes with Windows 7 64 bit OS [ 32 bit supports only 4 Gig]. It gives a whooping 10.5 hrs of battery backup, charge it in the morning and use it all day. Have had the unit for 2 weeks now and find it a lovely piece of hardware.  

Specifications:

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Basic 64
AMD Athlon II Dual-Core E-350
1.6 GHz
2 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 - I upgraded this to 8GB
320 GB SATA (5400 rpm)
AMD Radeon HD 6310M
802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth wireless networking
21.4 x 29 x 3.07 cm
Starting at 1.57 kg

Highlights : 10.5 hours backup , Great Performance, Up-gradable to 8 GB RAM , Windows 7 64bit Pre-loaded, 


Price: $ 512 / Rs.23,000 with 2 GB RAM

- Joseph