Intro:

    Xenix, a company who doesn't seem to have a web presence, has a potentially gimmicky and cool mouse, no pun intended. It comes with a small fan, and is lit by LED's. You might recognize the mouse from Xoxide, as they resell them with Xoxide branding, and this is pretty much the same mouse. However, after looking around at some other reviews, I have a very different take on this mouse. Yup, read on, see why...


Mouse Description: (taken from the Logisys website)

    Say goodbye to sweaty palms. This cool mouse is a wired optical mouse with a cooling fan embedded in the mouse to keep your hand cool and fresh. A three-position switch on the side of the 800 dpi optical mouse adjusts the fan to High, Low, and Off positions.


Mouse specs: (taken from the Logisys website)

 - USB port
 - Switch: 60 15 gf
 - Advanced optical design, exact orientation
 - System requirements: PC for IBM XT/AT and Pentium compatible
 - Supporting OS: Windows 95,98,2000,Me,NT, or XP
 - Safety/Quality Approvals: CE FCC


Disaster:

    I was doing product shots downstairs, and then I ran upstairs for a whole three minutes. I was busy getting fresh batteries and such for my camera, and I go back downstairs to find the mouse gone from where I left it on the floor. Where is that (insert explicative here) beagle? Yes, the dog ran off with my mouse. If anything, it does bring credibility to the "My dog ate my homework" excuse. I never tried the "dog ate my review product" excuse. Thankfully, no real damage was done, including any to the dog in the previous statement. In fact, he uncovered something I may not have caught. I'll get to that...


The mouse:

    There is no fancy packaging here; just a plastic bag with a part number on it. I personally don't care how anything is packaged. A nice retail pack always looks good, but then what do you do with it; throw it away? Pile it up with all your other stuff? Either way, my dog got this one, and snuck a few bites on the mouse too.

    This mouse is powered by the USB port. PS/2 seems to refuse to die, but I'll take a USB mouse any day over a PS/2 mouse. Ok then, you'll see some white spots on the right mouse button. That was caused by some doggie drool, and a bit of teeth scraping. I thought the dog had smeared some of the paper onto the buttons, but when I rubbed it, the white got bigger. This immediately made me realize what the velvety buttons were on the mouse. They were pretty much stickers. Yes, they do feel a little velvety, but probing around on them was the giveaway that this is just a sticker over the buttons. If a dog, three minutes, and some saliva can make short work of it, imagine what you could do in a couple months without trying. (I was able to touch up the buttons with a sharpie, but geez. I'll end up pulling the button stickers off, and using some adhesive, apply real velvet, or sumfin'.

(1) MMM, mouse, yummy!	(2) Top/rear of mouse	(3) The buttons

More on the mouse:

    The switch on the right side of the mouse controls the fan. Your choices are off, low power, and normal power. Off is most likely where you'd keep it. The fan does move a small amount of air on high, but it does get a bit noisy, and you do pick up some vibrations now and again. There was no real physical damage to the mouse by (insert dog's mouth on mouse) for me to think anything out of the ordinary of how this product would perform.  In fact, sometimes the fan makes very little noise, and a good tap on it, or pick it up and tilt it, and bam. Annoying vibration noise. Ok, so the gimmicky fan in the mouse does keep you from getting sweaty from long periods of constant mouse use, but I can't say I have really sweaty palms to begin with, so... Take a look at the mouse feet in picture 5. If you are confused as I am, good then. They work, but I have no clue as to how long they would last. They look very cheap like the rest of the mouse to me. Lastly, I'd like to point out in picture 6, I used the flash so you can get a look at the fan inside.

(4) The switch	(5) Bottom of mouse	(6) Flash on

    No software was included with the mouse. This will plug and play on Windows 9x and above, so no software is really needed, unless you wanted to change the buttons. I suppose the only button you may want to change is the mouse wheel click (technically, the third button on a mouse).


Light this baby up:

    Picture 7 is the bottom of the mouse. The blue LED in the optical sensor gets brighter in use, but goes dim after a second or so. Hence, the below shots are with it in lower power mode. I might add, it does look quite nice lit up. The optical LED has very little impact on the rest of the mouse. It almost stays the brightness that you can see in picture 8.

(7) Lit up bottom	(8) Lit up, top...

So now what?:

    Well, since Xenix makes an EL keyboard also, I guess it would compliment an EL keyboard. Below are shots of that. That isn't a Xenix keyboard by the way, but is a FlexiGlow keyboard which is similar but not exactly the same. I suppose either would be a good choice if you wanted to hop on the "small EL keyboard" bandwagon. The keyboard isn't the focus of this review, so just enjoy the pictures. :)

(9) By EL Keyboard	(10) Even closer...

Summary:

    This is a very light mouse. There isn't much to it. Is it the be-all end-all of pre-modded mice? Not by a long shot. It doesn't feel like an 800 DPI mouse. It outperforms a 300 DPI PS/2 mouse. I ran them simultaneously. But 800 DPI? A Logitech MX700 uses 800 DPI. This mouse isn't in the same league. It also feels cheap. The button coverings are stickers. The fan is noisy, (even when not vibrating something) and doesn't move much air. The saving grace to you maybe the 57 inch cord, or the way it looks from afar. Gaming mouse? Not if you are even slightly serious. Everyday use like, check email, browse the web, play solitaire, but want some flare to your mouse. Ok, I'll accept that for its home. Other than that, look away. Look far away.


Pros: