I was bearing too much concern when I stepped up to use the first Microsoft-made mouse in close to 10 years. Mostly, that was because the new $80 Surface Mouse is the kind of ambidextrous mouse that strays a little too close to the worst ideas of the maligned Apple Magic Mouse. It’s then that I learned the mouse is both innovative and backwards-looking, a relic for modern times with the smoothest mouse click around and powered by traditional AAA batteries.

Microsoft is trying to rethink traditional productivity PC controls with a device that’s essentially Microsoft’s “Precision Haptic” trackpad in computer mouse form. Instead of any of the switches of a traditional optical mouse, the $80 Surface Mouse has capacitive touch and pressure sensors to determine if you’re performing a click. Built-in motors then respond with force feedback. Fewer moving parts means the device is technically more durable. There are more benefits besides.

Microsoft has also used that motor to offer even more responsiveness. If you like the immersion of rumble in a game controller, then you already know what’s coming. The Surface Mouse motor is located at the top of the hump, and it can send the rumble through your palm when you’re lining up photos in apps like PowerPoint or Affinity. You can also set the haptics to feel more or less rumbly in your hand. In a demo app where you simulate raking sand or picking up stones, I could feel the rumble gradient. You can also set the force of the haptics in an app menu, though at the time of my demo Microsoft couldn’t say if you can change the haptic settings within Windows itself.

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