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Mouse Hunting

July 20th, 2008 by Francis Zabala
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Ever since my girlfriend showed me her brother’s wireless mouse, I wanted to buy one for my self! I was drooling over the “Wow! No wires!” factor of the little thing. Quite frankly, it was also my first time to see one in action! I’ve been meaning to replace the mouse I am currently using which is, a.) not an optical mouse, b.) not a wireless mouse either and c.) It’s not even mine! (it’s rb’s!)

I also wanted to use my… er… rb’s old mouse at work ever since the company I am currently employed gave me a laptop for office use. I have been using the stupid touchpad which is as fun as eating soup with a fork. So I requested for a mouse, even a sucky one at that and fortunately, they gave me one. I am not quite happy with it though because it’s small and uncomfortable to use and rb’s mouse is really comfortable and I want to use it at work to reduce stress and all.

Thus the mouse hunt began! I started my hunt in SM Baguio and only on SM Baguio because they have shops that accept credit cards for payment. There are shops outside SM Baguio of course, unfortunately they don’t accept credit cards. I only found 2 shops that sells what I am hunting for, Octagon and Gigahertz. The first one offers a modest variety (overstatement) of wireless mouse than the latter one (Octagon with 4 models and Gigahertz at only 2).

I saw two models with a price tag of PHP750 and PHP850. I could buy that since it’s cheap and it’s the exact type of mouse my girlfriend’s brother have and… well… it’s cheap! But the plastic also looks cheap and I fear I may break it just by sneezing on it.

I decided not to get the cheap one so I checked the other one’s and they are shiny, cool looking and the size ain’t so bad and brand is Logitech.

Unforunately, they only have 2 models, one is Logitech models V320 and V470.

Here’s what they looked like:

Logitech v320
Logitech V320
Logitech v470
Logitech V470

V470 is out of the question because it doesn’t have a bluetooth receptor so probably you need to have a bluetooth transreceiver built in into your notebook (or desktop) in order to use it. It eliminates the possibly of it being useful in any notebooks or desktops the doesn’t have a bluetooth connection so I have no choice but to get the V320 model.

Before buying the sweet little thing, I wanted to check the prices on the internet, mostly in Villman’s website for comparison and was surprised by the difference of the price.

At Villman, the price for a V320 is only 1795 pesos and for the V470, 2095 pesos while in Octagon Baguio, it costs 2395 pesos for the V320 and 3250 pesos for the V470 model. The difference in price is really huge! I checked on Amazon.com for the prices of the mice. V320 which cost around 1780 pesos ($30.50 + $9.00 shippng). The list price is 2205 pesos ($39.99 + $9.00 international shipping). For the V470, it costs 2350 pesos ($42.24 + $9.00 shipping) with a list price of 3000 pesos ($57.40 list price + $9.00 international shipping).

I don’t know why they won’t lower their prices despite their price tag on the items looks really old and dusty and looks like it’s on their shelf for more than a year. I wished they’d lower their prices to match the current prices. This is exactly what would happen if there are no shops that could challenge their prices. The other shops only carry 1 brand of wireless mouse and it’s A4Tech. A4Tech is great and all but the designs are not that sleek and not as sexy as compared to Logitech’s designs. I just love monopoly!

Cd-r king should open a shop here in Baguio and wreak havok among the other shops. I am actually interested in opening up a franchise and even went as far as contacting them. I did get in touch with them but they don’t seem to be open for franchising. Too bad, the market here in Baguio would be great even my boss buys our accessories in Cd-r king and there are plenty of internet cafes, IT firms and call centers could benefit from their low price.





2 Responses to “Mouse Hunting”

  1. Brian Says:

    I brought from the U.S. a nice, big, grey and black Logitech laser-tracking mouse with a bluetooth USB dongle to use with my portable computer. It’s great for $19.99 + 7% tax. So many optical mice are available in the big chain stores in the U.S., for $19.99 - $79.99, from Logitech, Microsoft, Kensington and the obscure brands.
    When, after moving to the Philippines, I found that my beloved Wacom XC-100 cordless mouse no longer works on its Intuos 2 digitizer pad, I was upset. Confused and perturbed. the Intuos 2 pen works, yet the mouse doesn’t. I tried and tried to figure out why, with Wacom.com technical support, downloading and reading the user manual, downloading and installing driver,… opening the tightly-sealed mouse that had worked beautifully for years to try and see what could could have been affected by transoceanic travel in my luggage…
    I began using the Logitech Bluetooth mouse with my desktop Mac, yet I tire of switching-out the AA rechargeable batteries. So I went to UniCom on Session Road (which accepts credit cards) and bought a A4 Tech NB-30D battery-free lightweight mouse on a digitizer pad USB-cabled to the computer for P950 (I think).
    Unlike my beloved Wacom, this silver plastic trackpad is in ‘portrait’ orientation, rather than ‘landscape’ orientation. Oh, well. It works for P950, and I don’t have to switch-out batteries. But the mouse is confined to the pad, unlike a Logitech mouse which you can slide anywhere on your desktop.
    Try UniCom in SM City or Session Road. It has decent prices on alot of peripherals. I got a portable (USB-powered) Western Digital 250gb drive at a fair price- within a few dollars of US retailers’ prices. And UniCom accepts credit cards - if you need to make big-ticket purchases or don’t want to wait in line at an ATM on a weekend.
    Peace.

    Brians last blog post… Food for Thought

  2. rb Says:

    aha! nasa iyo pala yung mouse ko! aling mouse yan? [sidenote... guess what, my company's moving to taguig, karma sucks]

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