Genius Traveler 6000 Review

The Genius Traveler 6000 is about as bare-bones a travel mouse as you can get. It’s lightweight, operates via 2.4GHz wireless technology and has a pico receiver. If you’re not looking for any frills, it’s a great choice with a great price.

The Good: Lightweight, pico receiver placeholder, low price

The Bad: No programmable buttons

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Sometimes you don't want any bells and whistles. Sometimes you just want a mouse that will get your from Point A to Point B on the desktop, and you don't want to pay a premium for it. And in the case of road warriors and other travelers, sometimes you want this in a travel size.

The Genius Traveler 6000 delivers these things on all counts. It's a standard three-button optical mouse, with left- and right-click buttons and a scroll wheel (which has tactile, click-to-click scrolling). The dpi is listed as 1200 by Genius. Operating proved to be exceptionally smooth with zero lagging found, even in the extra-smooth spot on my wood desk that has proved to be problematic for other mice. I did not need a mouse pad.

Setup was plug-and-play and immediate: Just insert the pico receiver into an empty USB port and wait a few minutes for the computer to recognize the device. No need to download any drivers.

Constructed of black plastic, the Traveler 6000 is extremely lightweight and has that oh-so-important built-in receiver placeholder. In fact, it actually has two available placeholders -- you can clip it to the bottom of the device or you can lift off the cover of the Traveler 6000 and store the receiver where the AAA battery is placed.

The mouse also has an on/off switch, an especially important detail for travelers, because who wants to hunt down batteries while you're on the go?

The Traveler 6000 is an ambidextrous mouse -- left-handed users rejoice! -- but this also means that there are few ergonomic curves to it. Despite this, it was found to be comfortable during long-term use over a period of a little more than a week.

I tested the Black Diamond version of the mouse; it also comes in Royal Blue and Ruby Rose.

At around $15, you’re getting a great deal for a travel mouse that could easily double as a full-time, everyday mouse.

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.