Product Reviews

Sony is a company that knows the value of design, and its distinctive Vaio laptops frequently turn heads. Now it's dreamt up two innovative mice. Both are wired USB devices, with clickable scroll wheels and 800dpi optical sensors for high-accuracy pointing, and both are available online in a variety of colours for around £16.

The SMU-C3 Wide Wheel Mouse comes in black, purple/pink, green/white or grey/white. It's certainly striking, and although it looks as if it only has one button; rest assured that right-clicking works fine.

The mouse takes its name from one of its minor features: the broad scroll wheel is comfortable enough to rest your finger on, but hardly a design breakthrough. More useful is the way the cable can be wound up and stored within the body

The relatively short body makes your palm hang off the foot of the mouse (unless you're very small), and the broad, rectangular design feels less natural than other options. It's nowhere near as comfortable to use as Microsoft or Logitech's comparable offerings.

The SMU-M10 Travel Mouse is a tiny, lightweight device, clearly designed for portability, which comes in tasteful black, white or blue designs. Once again, the cable is retractable, this time by winding it into a groove around the outside edge of the mouse. The same concerns apply to the cable's robustness, and it's also only about two feet long, which could cause difficulties if you wanted to use it with a desktop PC.

But it's not likely that you would. The Travel Mouse is so small that it's fiddly to use - a bit like sliding a box of matches around the table - and because it's so light, it can be tricky to move the pointer accurately. If you really want a mouse that'll fit in your pocket, this certainly does the job, but for most purposes you're probably better off with your laptop's built-in pointing device.