Gyration Air Mouse Voice Review
Peter Donnell / 8 years ago
Final Thoughts
Price
This isn’t your typical consumer mouse, and it’s unlikely you’ll just see one sitting on the shelf in a retail store. It’s a specialist product for a niche market, and that means it comes with a bit of a price premium. The Gyration Air Mouse Voice is $99.00 directly from the Gyration website. It’s not cheap, but you do get an awful lot of features and functionality that you’re unlikely to find anywhere else.
Overview
For me personally, there’s not much need for a mouse like the Gyration Air Mouse Voice. I need a multi-button gaming mouse for desktop use for work and gaming, which is fine. However, I do see that there’s a big market for a mouse like the Air Mouse Voice, and it’s clear that Gyration has the experience and knowledge in this market to deliver the kind of features needed for the business market.
Being able to use this as a regular mouse is great, although it does take some adjustment to use it for general web browsing, as it lacks the usual side thumb buttons for forwards/backwards page navigation. Of course, being able to use it with your notebook while on the train to do some day-to-day work is a welcome bonus. Get to your meeting, fire up your presentation and you can stand away from your desk, in front of the screen and really take charge of what you’re trying to discuss. If you’re in an auditorium showing off a presentation to a large group, the wireless range is excellent, and you can stand back from the screen and use the mouse to point like a laser pointer at the display, zoom in on important information, launch programs, macros and more with a flick or your wrist, or a simple voice command.
It doesn’t sound like a big innovation, but there’s a big difference from talking behind a laptop screen and staring at your keyboard and breaking away, being able to walk free while still being in control of the computer. If may not come cheap, but that versatility is a big advantage for a lot of scenarios.
Pros
- Desktop and air controls
- Gesture support
- Accurate laser sensor
- Lightweight design
- Programmable buttons
- Easy to use software
- Voice controls that actually work
- Excellent Bluetooth range
Cons
- Build materials could be improved
- Trigger isn’t particularly easy to hold down
- No USB dongle included for using on non-Bluetooth ready systems
“The Air Mouse Voice offers a huge range of features that give you a lot of flexibility in controlling your system, making it ideal for presentations and meetings. It’s not perfect, but it still delivers decent performance and a unique feature set that make it worthy of your attention.”