Kensington SlimBlade Bluetooth Presenter Mouse Review

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As a fan of Netbooks, I am always on the lookout for something that will lighten my load.  If it can also free up the limited USB ports on my Asus Eee PC 1000HE, then that’s even better.

slimblade

This little mouse is actually my first Bluetooth mouse.  I have used other wireless mice before, and using this one was no different with the exception of having to pair it up with my netbook or laptop.  The process was flawless, and I had it working with my netbook with no issues.  To put the mouse into Discovery mode, you slide up the blue trim piece and press the discover button on the right hand.

Depending upon your bluetooth stack, you’ll follow the prompts to add a new device and when prompted for a passkey, don’t enter anything.  Then it should be paired up and working.

slimblade4_bt

The one feature that this mouse had that sets it apart from other Bluetooth mice is the presenter feature.  When you’re ready to start a presentation, put Powerpoint into full screen mode and press the mode button twice.  This causes the two arrows on the mouse buttons to flash like shown in this YouTube video.

After the flashing stops, pick the mouse up and you can now go from one slide to the next by pressing the right mouse button to go forward and the left to go backward.  The scroll wheel still works in this mode as well.  After you are done presenting, hit the mode button twice again to go to normal mode.  If you are asked to do presentations occasionally, this is a nifty mouse to have.

The mouse runs on 2 AAA batteries which it includes.

As soon as I can, I am getting a set of NiMH batteries for this.  It doesn’t go through batteries extremely fast but I prefer to use rechargeable batteries whenever possible.

Linux Test

I am happy to report that this mouse works 100 percent with Linux.  The scroll wheel works for both regular scrolling and tilt scrolling.  Even the presenter mode works great on Linux using Impress from OpenOffice.org.  If you are a Linux presenter, and want a good mouse for going on the road, this is it!  The only issue I ran into was not a problem with the mouse, but with hibernate mode on my Eee PC.  For some reason, I have to restart Bluetooth (using: sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart) to get the mouse to pick back up.  If I can figure out which ACPI script I need to edit, I would have the Eee PC do it on resume.  This issue doesn’t happen on suspend, so it should be fine if you just suspend when going between meetings.

The Kensington SlimBlade Bluetooth Presenter Mouse is available from Kensington direct for $49.99 or from Amazon.com for  $39.73.

What I liked: Small and wireless.  Works flawlessly with Linux.  Takes up no room in the bag.

What needs improvement: Add a laser to it.  Other than that, it’s perfect.

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About the Author

Joel McLaughlin
Joel is a consultant in the IT field and is located in Columbus, OH. While he loves Linux and tends to use it more than anything else, he will stoop to running closed source if it is the best tool for the job. His techno passions are Linux, Android, netbooks, GPS, podcasting and Amateur Radio.