What Is It?

Have you ever even heard of a “silent” computer mouse? I didn’t even know it was a thing until several years ago when I moved desks at work and found myself in a much quieter location than before. Felt like every click of my mouse echoed through the halls! So I started researching and sure enough, I apparently wasn’t the first one to have that problem!

A number of companies make a similar product, and although I haven’t tried any of the others, I can’t imagine that the “click” itself is drastically different. I’m sure they’re all relatively quiet compared to what you’d expect from a standard mouse.

But where Bornd sets itself apart for me is in their simplified design that still manages to incorporate all the needed functionality I would expect. Although I know there are absolutely use cases for those mice that have 71 buttons and are customizable down to the tiniest custom action. I can totally understand there are specific situations where that functionality is needed. But for me, I’m not gaming, or streaming, or doing any of those highly custom applications. So I want something simple, streamlined, and reliable. Bornd delivers on that in all the right ways for me.

5 Fav Features

• Quiet Clicks
  • Although the click isn’t technically 100% silent, it’s darn close. You have to raise the mouse up to your ear, and the room needs to be pretty quiet for you to actually hear it.
• Scroll Wheel Resistance
  • I find that the scroll wheel has the perfect amount of resistance. I’ve used mice before with scroll wheels that have no resistance, or very little. I hate that. I want to know that I’m scrolling. This has the perfect balance that allows me to move quickly up and down the page, but with the feedback and tension that I prefer.
• Clickable Scroll Wheel
  • A key feature of any mouse that I use is a scroll wheel that is clickable. That doesn’t at all mean that it’d be important to you. It’s totally personal preference on how I use my computer. But I prefer to open new tabs when clicking links and a clickable scroll wheel allows me to do it directly from the mouse in one step instead of having to use the keyboard shortcut. I also am a bit of a tab control freak and like to close out of anything I’m not using. Again, the clickable scroll wheel gives me that ability in one simple action.
• Sensitive Tracking
  
  • I like a suuper sensitive tracking speed. I use multiple monitors and I need to cover a large area quickly as I’m working. Not a single other mouse that I’ve used has allowed me to turn up the sensitivity as highly as this one. Obviously the setting is on the computer itself, but even if I max out the sensitivity setting it’s still not enough for me on every other mouse I’ve used. I’m only at about 80% on the Bornd and it’s plenty.
• Battery Life
  • Bornd did implement an auto-sleep function after a set amount of minutes (can’t recall the amount of minutes built in). But regardless I always turn mine off at the end of the night. I can’t imagine the battery life would be too much less if you never turned it off since it would automatically go to sleep. But my battery usually lasts 4-5 months before needing a change. Not sure how that stacks up against others, but it feels pretty awesome to me.

Summary

• Pros
  • Silent clicks allow for nearly undetectable use even in quiet areas.
  • Scroll wheel has the perfect amount of tension built in, and is also clickable allowing for additional functionality in a single action.
• Cons
  • Although I wouldn’t use it, it would be a neat feature to allow the scroll wheel click to be customizable so you could assign whatever action you want that immediate access to.
  • I’ve found that the pads on the bottom can gather junk every few weeks. This build up causes the movement of the mouse to get a little less fluid. All it takes is a simple scrapping off of that stuff and it’s back to normal. But I wish it didn’t happen as often as it did. Every few weeks feels more often than it should be.