Maybe but it depends on what you want from a mouse and how long you spend at your machine each day, if you spend more than an hour clicking away then an investment in a professional mouse from a company who isn't making them as a sideline seems a wise choice. Logitech are at the forefront of new input device technology and their cordless plus optical mouse shoes just what can be done with a device which many of us think of as mundane and possibly unimportant.

Before we move onto he Logitech's wire free credentials its worth looking at what you get over a standard 2 button wheel mouse, for a start the plus optical mouse has a tilt wheel whereby you can scrolling up and down do the usual web page scroll but a left / right tilt on the wheel causes a pan left / right on the screen ideal for browsing and game play. The sculpted unit has the standard left and right click buttons but also a forwards and back button and a application switch which allows you to toggle though open windows / applications quickly without needing to minimise items or use the keyboard alt - tab.

Optically the Logitech cordless plus mouse has a resolution of 800dpi making is highly accurate and very responsive to your movements, it also removes the fluff and ball combination of the cheaper freebie mice.

So onto the wire free feature, nothing new in an RF cordless mouse but you are expecting some large box with a trailing USB lead to your PC to act as the receiver, well that's the good news, the Logitech system uses a USB RF dingle no bigger than a USB storage key to drive the mouse. Better still with windows 2000 and XP you don't even need to install drivers to make it work.

When you add in the stylish silver and blue exterior and the well crafted feel of the unit it all seems amazing value for £25 and an ideal gift for anyone who spends hours in front of a PC or perhaps is always travelling with a laptop and hates getting the mouse cabled up for presentations.