Fingers-On with Kensington Wireless Mouse for Netbooks

Notebooks may have gotten smaller with netbooks, but my hands sure as heck didn’t. And that has been my reigning thought when using Kensington’s (and don’t forget, Targus‘) Wireless Mouse for Netbooks. The $24.99 ($22.24 at Buy.com) wireless mouse, which is part of the company’s Netbook Essentials accessories line, is no bigger than a child’s juice pack and includes a USB adapter the size of a piece of gum. I have used the little mouse when testing various netbooks over the past few weeks. Just a few days ago when I wrote the MSI Wind U123 review I much preferred using Kensington’s mouse to the Wind’s stiff mouse buttons, but why does the mouse have to be so small? I like the dedicated scroll wheel, but just because the mouse is meant for small sized netbooks doesn’t mean it should be half the size of a regular travel mouse like Microsoft’s Arc or Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000. Our hands are still the same size and require the same ergonomics of a mouse to navigate a desktop, even if it is smaller than most other notebooks.  While its nice to have a smaller sized mouse to fit into a bag or pouch,  the cramping feeling in my fingers is not. Maybe I am alone. Do you want your netbook mouse to be smaller than your typical travel mouse? Is there any reason for it?