At first we would like to thank Swiftpoint for offering us a sample of their latest GT Mouse for testing and reviewing.

 

 

About Swiftpoint:

 

“Swiftpoint is a technology development company with offices in New Zealand and the US, specialising in advanced Human Computer Interface (HCI) software and devices. The company's technologies integrate mouse pointer and touch gesture inputs to enable users of tablets, notebooks, smartphones and PCs to intuitively combine the high accuracy and efficiency benefits of a mouse with the gesture functions now standard in modern operating systems.

 

Swiftpoint has filed patents worldwide, related to HCI innovations, many of these in the field of touch and gesture technology.

 

The company's latest product Swiftpoint GT™ has won the 2015 CES Best of Innovation Award in the Computer Peripherals category and an Innovation Award in the Computer Accessories category.

 

Swiftpoint GT is the first mouse for Windows 7, 8 and 10, Android, Mac OS X and iOS that allows truly natural touch gestures without having to touch the screen or use a touch display. It is ultra-small, with a unique ergonomic design, internal rechargeable battery and offers a wireless connection via Bluetooth 4 or a USB receiver. It is an ideal device for people on the go who want to combine the benefits of touch-optimized operating systems and applications with productivity, convenience and precision of a mouse.

 

The Swiftpoint GT mouse is an evolution of the company's innovative portable mobile mouse that has won numerous international awards including the 2011 CES Innovation Award. The ergonomic pen-grip design caught the attention of Popular Science magazine, where it made the magazine's "Best of What's New" list. The Wall Street Journal rated the mouse above the best mobile mice from Logitech and Microsoft, and the mouse went on to become a top seller on Costco.com.

 

The Company is led by its Founder and CEO Grant Odgers, an inventor and entrepreneur with significant international experience. Grant built and tested his first "mouse and keyboard replacement" device 20 years ago and has since published many user interface research papers. His work received recognition by the Australian Computer Society and he has featured on CNN and BBC as an innovator of user interface devices.

 

Prior to founding Swiftpoint Grant worked at a wide range of companies including The Home Shoppers Network, U.S. Government Departments in Washington, D.C., and Air New Zealand. He also co-founded one of the first specialist video game stores in New Zealand and made it the largest store in the country.

 

In his role as the Swiftpoint CEO, Grant Odgers is supported by a professional Board of Directors including Mike Chisholm, a technology entrepreneur with a track record of building multi-million dollar businesses, and Dennis Row, whose background includes CEO roles in international technology companies and a top management positon in a prominent venture capital fund.

 

The Swiftpoint senior management team includes highly experienced professionals with decades of experience working in leading international companies including public companies listed on NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange.”

 

Product Features:

 

Achieve more in less time

 

The Swiftpoint GT is the world's first mouse that allows touch gestures with a natural finger and wrist action without having to touch the screen – in fact, you don’t need a touchscreen at all! This dramatically improves productivity in Microsoft Word and Excel, as well as other office and content creation applications.

 

Reduce fatigue

 

The GT features a unique patented ergonomic design. Other small mice often cause cramping because you have to hold them with a claw grip, but the GT’s pen-like grip feels natural to use in anyone’s hands – large or small.

 

The GT gives you effortless access to touch and helps you avoid the need to reach for the screen. Both reducing fatigue and improving ergonomics.

 

Travel in style

 

You will receive a custom-designed carry case to house the GT and accessories in one attractive and convenient package, including:

 

USB receiver / charger

Palm-rest mat to keep the GT secure on your laptop palm-rest while you type

Magnetic parking spot to attach the GT to the outside of your laptop and make it easy to carry from meeting to meeting

Folding mouse mat, user guide and spare stylus nibs

 

 

Product Specifications:

 

Number of buttons: 3 including a gesture stylus

Scroll-wheel: Yes

Supported OS: Windows 7 / 8 / 10; Mac OS X 10.4 or later; Android 4.4 or later; Linux

Sensor resolution: 1250 DPI

Dimensions / weight: 2.2 x 1.6 x 1.3 in (56 x 40 x 33 mm); 0.85 oz (24 g)

Battery type: built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery

Battery life: two weeks

Charging time: 30 sec for 1 hr of use; 2 hrs for 2 weeks of use

Wireless technologies: Bluetooth 4 LE, wireless USB. 30 ft (10 m) range

2 year limited hardware warranty

Optimized for right-hand use

 

 

It is time to take a look at the latest reincarnation of the Swiftpoint Mouse which is now baptized Swiftpoint GT and with the new launch the product incorporates new features. As its older brother, it was designed to be held it the most natural way possible, like a pen and while it is quite small, it is incorporating most of the features all other regular-size mice have. While the mouse is first aimed at mobile computers it can be surely used on desktops as well. The product is shipped in a small-sized cardboard enclosure which holds the necessary information on the outside for new customers:

 

 

 

The top opens up like a book in order to inform us further on the product but we will also get a list of box contents:

 

 

 

By looking on the back area of the box, we’ll get to see that the product was designed mainly for right hand use and we are also told what the extra accessories are for:

 

 

 

All contents inside the box are wrapped with a transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

Besides the main enclosure, we will get to see the magnetic parking spot along with a leaflet explaining the warranty terms:

 

 

 

The parking spot was designed to hold GT secure on any laptop surface:

 

 

 

The item will be attached to the laptop chassis via adhesive:

 

 

 

The main storage case looks like a mini toolbox for travelers and its build quality is top notch:

 

 

 

After unfolding it we will get to see the main components along with the rest of the bundle:

 

 

 

First, we will take a look at the palm-rest mat, which is meant to be used when we would work with our GT on the top surface of our laptop, near the keyboard, on the right side of the touchpad. While it can be used as a small mousepad, it does also feature a small magnetic parking spot so it won’t fall off:

 

 

 

As the previous circular parking spot, the palm-rest mat can be attached to the surface of our laptop via adhesive:

 

 

 

A sticky, reusable mousepad is also provided in the box which was specifically built for the Swiftpoint GT sensor:

 

 

 

 

A secondary leaflet will explain the usage of the accessories we have just presented to you guys:

 

 

 

Moving on, we will get to see the Swiftpoint GT carry bag, the USB dongle but also the main product:

 

 

 

The carry bag is quite handy when we are on the move a lot and we would not like to carry the whole storage case:

 

 

 

The USB dongle has practically two functions: one would be the ability to communicate directly with the mouse and the second is the fact that it can be used as a charging dock for the mouse (see those small golden contacts?):

 

 

 

The model number and some IDs are printed on the back area:

 

 

 

Now let’s get a closer look at the Swiftpoint GT itself; owners of the previous model will notice that the top shape has not changed a lot and they will be right at home in terms of usage; new users will need to take some time in order to accommodate with its shape:

 

 

 

The left side of the mouse features a rubber surface where our thumb will sit and also offers quite a bit of grip:

 

 

 

This side also holds the Switpoint GT logo along with the charge port:

 

 

 

On the top we’ve got the frontal left click button, upper right click button, the scroll wheel but also the top activity/charge LED; the top area is also practically where our index finger will sit:

 

 

 

The right side is the area where our middle finger will rest and is also covered by a rubber surface:

 

 

 

Time to look on the bottom area of the mouse now; on the sides we will get to see some small PTFE feet, we’ve also got the charging contacts with a middle magnet, a switch with three positions and the sensor lens with a resolution of 1250 DPI:

 

 

 

An interesting new feature is present near the sensor and it is in the form of a plastic nib; this plastic nib helps us scroll smoothly on the current page, by carefully tilting the mouse on the right:

 

 

 

If we do perform nib-scrolling gestures quite often, depending on the surface we will use the mouse on they may wear out; Swiftpoint comes in to help by providing two additional replaceable nibs:

 

 

 

The mouse will charge quite quickly and when the green LED indicator stops blinking, we will know it is done:

 

 

 

For this specific model, Swiftpoint has also built a set of drivers which do work on Windows OSes and we can also start and use the Cloud configuration utility by setting the mouse in “Config” mode via the bottom switch:

 

 

 

The Cloud configuration utility is practically a web page which will help customize the mouse even further; we would have preferred an application though instead. During this type of configuration, the mouse movement will become locked so we can only use the left, right and scroll wheel interfaces for navigating (a bit peculiar if you ask us):

 

 

 

The Configuration menu is populated with the following items:

 

-Customize Settings

-Set Operating System

-Set Keyboard Language

-Restore to defaults

 

Customize Settings menu also comes with the following sub-sections:

 

-Assign Actions to Stylus

-Assign Actions to Buttons

-Assign actions for Rear button+Stylus

-Set Scroll-Wheel Direction

-Edge Gestures (enable/disable)

-Set Stylus Pan/Scroll Speed

-Auto Launch Website Configure

 

For Assign Actions to Stylus we have:

 

-Single Tap

-Double Tap

 

Assign Actions to Buttons comes with:

 

-Front Click + Rear Click

-Rear Click + Front Click

 

Assign action for Rear button + Stylus does have:

 

-Rear button+Stylus Up

-Rear button+Stylus Down

-Rear button+Stylus Left

-Rear button+Stylus Right

 

Set Scroll-Wheel Direction:

 

-Normal

-Reverse

 

Edge Gestures (enable/disable):

 

-On

-Off

 

Set Stylus Pan / Scroll Speed:

 

-Horizontal Scroll Speed

-Vertical Scroll Speed

 

Auto Launch Website Configure:

 

-On

-Off

 

From the Set Operating System menu we can choose from:

 

-Windows

-Mac OSx

-Android

-iOS

 

The tiny Swiftpoint GT Mouse does only have 42.5mm across, 56mm long and 33.5mm high, is built on the already successful Swiftpoint Mouse which we have previously tested and adds new features like button customization, nibs for easy scrolling and now can also work directly on the Bluetooth 4.0 interface instead of only using the included dongle. We also do get plenty of bundle like the storage case, a palm-rest mat for our laptop, a folding mouse mat, one parking spot for laptop computers, spare stylus nibs, one travel pouch and also one user guide leaflet. Hence the Bluetooth 4.0 compatibility, it can be also paired with iOS and Android operating systems.

 

The mouse can be further configured via the Cloud website and buttons can be remapped along with many other features we can modify or set.

 

While at first the mouse might look a bit uncomfortable, it is only an initial impression since after some days of usage it will become our preferred peripheral. The reason we have quit using the initial Swiftpoint mouse after two years was the fact that the left rubber layer did become sticky after a while (got used, damaged) and a portion of it started peeling off, making the mouse quite hard to use that way but besides that the battery has lasted without any issues and we haven’t encountered any technical issues. This is also the mouse to be used while in bed, when we do have our laptop nearby for light browsing, watching TV, shows, movies and so on because we have found that the sensor tracks well on many surfaces.

 

There are two negative points though: high sale price (109 Euros in stores) while the lower DPI setting does not recommend it to be used on desktops with high resolution displays or multi-monitor setups.

 

Swiftpoint GT Mouse is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Swiftpoint for making this review possible!