People who have spent time cleaning and drying their much-loved input devices will tell you how much of a pain it really is to free them of dirt accumulated over years. Belkin has recently launched the Washable Mouse which should come as a relief to all you clean freaks out there. It has a 1200dpi sensor and is designed such that it can be used on a variety of surfaces.

To begin with, the mouse is completely sealed. Even the optical sensor at the bottom is enclosed to prevent water from entering the device. Instead of having a scroll wheel it has a touch sensitive scroll pad that allows you to scroll vertically as well as horizontally. Just remember that horizontal scrolling only works in Windows Vista. The vertical scroll was responsive and worked well; but the most we could scroll horizontally was one word at a time. Practically speaking, the mouse could have done without the horizontal scroll feature. The short USB cable makes it suited for use with laptops.

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We decided to test Belkin's claim that the mouse is washable. We held it under a running tap and washed it thoroughly. It worked flawlessly after wiping it dry, though we could smell the liquid soap we used to clean it with for quite some time afterwards! Make sure you wash only the mouse and not the USB plug.

Belkin also offers an innovative mouse pad-cum-carry pouch which they call the Mouse Trap. You can carry your mouse and other essential items such as USB flash drives, memory cards, pens, wallet, and so on. When unzipped, the pouch transforms into a circular mouse pad. The Mouse Trap has a circular rubber lining on the exterior to prevent it from slipping while in use.