Cherry Gentix

Cherry was keen for us to review this entry-level Gentix laser mouse, but apart from its contemporary black curves, highlighted with blue Tron-style backlighting, does this mouse have what it takes to stand out from the crowd of low-cost computer mice?

The Cherry Gentix is above all a cheap and cheerful mouse that's pretty easy on the eye. Its scroll wheel clicks round in soft steps and the mouse can be used equally well by left- and right-handed users. It also has a fairly short body, measuring just 11 cm long. The Gentix is therefore easy to slip into a bag and carry around, although wireless mice are generally a better option for use on the move. For us though, 11 cm isn't the ideal length: it's not as comfortable as a 12 cm or 13 cm mouse but isn't as compact as mice designed for laptops, which are usually 9 cm long. The Cherry Gentix is neither here nor there, and as a result it isn't as practical as it could be.

Tech Specs: could do better

Unfortunately, the Gentix is of no interest whatsoever from a technical point of view. The LED sensor can't keep up with movements faster than 2 metres per second (you'll need at least 3 metres per second for gaming), there are no buttons on the sides of the mouse (!) and the scroll wheel can't be moved horizontally. What's more, the Gentix communicates with the computer at a frequency of just 125 Hz and you can forget about adjusting its resolution on the fly as this mouse is set to 1000 dpi and 1000 dpi only!

The advantage of these low-end tech specs is that the Gentix doesn't take much CPU power to run. It showed up as using 16% of our test machine's dual-core CPU, while a 500 Hz mouse can use twice that. Not that we're clutching at straws or anything ...