Seenda’s IBT-C04 Music Mouse is an interesting concept: a wireless mouse that also operates as a speaker and allows you to accept handsfree calls over Bluetooth. Although it might fulfil a need you never knew you had, the Music Mouse is certainly unique. See all computer mice reviews. With Christmas coming, Seenda’s relatively inexpensive £19.99 IBT-C04 is a potential stocking filler for those difficult friends and relatives who already have everything. We bet they don’t have a Music Mouse. Why would anyone have a Music Mouse? Let’s not jump the gun. We could imagine the Music Mouse being useful to those who lack desk space and/or budget for dedicated PC speakers, or are using a laptop that has no built-in speakers. And while the Seenda IBT-C04 isn’t especially portable, it is reasonably light at 125g and it will fit better in your laptop bag when you leave the speakers at home. The 3W speaker might fall under and get muffled by your palm (as does the mic), but for some people the Music Mouse could be the saving grace in an audio emergency. The Bluetooth speaker and mic could also come in very handy for Skype conversations, but the speakerphone functionality leaves us a little stumped. It works intuitively – with the mouse paired to your smartphone a long-press lets you return the last call, while new calls can be accepted with a tap or declined with a long-press – but we struggle to imagine a situation in which you are working on the road or in the office and don’t have your mobile beside you. Extreme workaholics might appreciate the ability to answer a phonecall without taking their eyes from the screen, but we’d prefer to see who was calling before deciding whether they were worthy of that screen break. In other respects the Seenda IBT-C04 is a standard wireless mouse. It connects to your PC or Mac via a Bluetooth 3.0 USB dongle, allowing you to use the Music Mouse with older PCs that don’t support the connectivity standard. While some people might prefer to keep that precious USB port free for external hard drives and other peripherals, it does ensure a pretty much plug-and-play experience. A rubber grip sits under your right thumb (lefties should stay well clear of this mouse), above which are buttons to accept or reject calls, alter the volume and skip the track. Left- and right-click buttons sit either side of the scrollwheel and DPI selector – the IBT-C04 supports 1000- and 1600dpi modes. The scrollwheel is our only real gripe with this device. The action isn’t at all smooth, often feeling as though it gets stuck when scrolling down long web pages, and how hard you need to press is inconsistent. This mouse could really do with an oil. One feature we really like is the 900mAh rechargeable battery. The Seenda IBT-C04 Music Mouse recharges over Micro-USB in two- to three hours, during which time you can continue using it. The front-mounted connector turns it into a wired mouse like any other. Seenda says you should expect six hours life when playing music, or up to 70 hours standard use. Follow Marie Brewis on Twitter. Marie is Editor in Chief of Tech Advisor and Macworld. A Journalism graduate from the London College of Printing, she’s worked in tech media for more than 17 years, managing our English language, French and Spanish consumer editorial teams and leading on content strategy through Foundry’s transition from print, to digital, to online - and beyond.
