Mice, like keyboards, USB pen drives, laptop coolers, and smartphone cases are the sort of accessories that no longer excite digital users. But the new HP Wi-Fi Mobile Mouse is not like any other mouse.

It’s the industry’s first Wi-Fi enabled mouse that is completely wireless and does not need a USB connection or Bluetooth on the computer’s end.

This is not a mere detail. With most computer users now going mobile with laptops and netbooks, USB ports are an important commodity and a typical portable computer does not sport many of them. Thus a mouse that connects without the need to use a USB port, including a USB Bluetooth dongle, is a big bonus.

Furthermore, this mouse does not use Bluetooth, which sometimes can prove tricky when trying to pair a device to a computer.

The mouse works on the 2.4GHz frequency used by wireless routers and is therefore compatible with most Wi-Fi networks at a range of 10 metres between the mouse and the computer. Connectivity issues apart, this mouse is very easy to use and nice to handle. It has standard programmable buttons, a scroll wheel and laser sensitivity. In a nutshell, all a road warrior needs.

HP says this mouse has a nine month battery life, which also equates to two times the battery life of comparable Bluetooth models.

The only drawback of this mouse is that it only works with Microsoft Windows 7 operating system and the computer needs in-built Wi-Fi or dongle that is Windows 7 certified. This mouse most probably won’t work if these two conditions are not met, which is fine for a percentage of users but all the others who still use older versions of Windows or who have relatively old hardware need to check their software and hardware before committing to buy this mouse.

HP made this Wi-Fi Mobile Mouse available to i-Tech for testing.

www.hp.com/eur/accessories