Penclic Mouse R3 Review

A mouse that you hold like a pen, the description for the Penclic Mouse R3 couldn’t be more apt. The main body is shaped like a pen, with the two mouse buttons and scroll wheel on it, and with the base holding the infra red sensor and rechargeable battery.

The case that the R3 comes in is pretty awesome, with an orange base and clear top. I was a little curious why the nano USB receiver was loose in it, however. Inside the base is a carry bag, which contains the battery and extendable USB cable. I had a bit of trouble opening the battery compartment to be honest, but the battery fit in perfectly.

It took about an hour to get used to it, but that was mainly because the left button does the right click, and visa versa. It sounds unintuitive, but as the right button is on your index finger, and the other one is on the thumb, it’s actually a really good idea. The fiddly bit is the scroll wheel, as I’m used to having three fingers on a mouse’s three buttons and yet here you have to move your index finger across to it.

One of the R3’s selling points is the fact that your arm remains relatively motionless, and you move it with just your wrist. I’ve found that is indeed what I’m doing -- and can actually stop using the mouse matt and just rest it on my leg. It’s resulted in much less stretching, and more leaning back relaxing.

Of course, that’s well and good for minor, slow movements with word processing and web surfing. The real test was taking it into a game! I’ve been using Speedlink’s Kudos Z-9 for about three months now, and as a gaming mouse it’s obviously better suited to gaming. Except, not necessarily…

See, I’ve never played a Call of Duty and I’ll likely never play DOOM. I don’t go for twitch-paced gaming, and the variety of first-person shooters I play isn’t huge. Most of my third-person gaming is done with a controller, omitting a mouse completely. Therefore the type of game I was going to try with the R3 was never going to require quick movements -- so your mileage may vary!

I played an absolute ton of Marvel Heroes, the Marvel-based free-to-play MMO, with no control issues. That was mainly mouse-based control, so gave me plenty of time to find problems. I also played half an hour of LA Cops, which is mouse and keyboard controlled. The mouse is used for aiming and shooting, and the keyboard for moving, and once again I had no issues with controlling it.

The battery life in the R3 is really quite amazing, to be perfectly honest. It goes into standby mode if left untouched for about 10 minutes, which helps it last longer, and the power switch on the underside can of course be used. But from a full charge to needing a charge is a long time. I used it for three days and it still didn’t need charging -- and that’s pretty much from 10am to 10pm each day with breaks.

Being styled like a pen, it makes writing your signature digitally much easier, as well as making other tasks more accurate. When I swapped back to the Kudos for a bit, I noticed myself clicking on things slightly to the side of things a lot more than when using the R3. If you’re looking for an alternative to a regular mouse, this is actually fantastic. It really does lessen the strain on your arm, though make sure you use it with a mouse mat.