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Macally Turtle Portable Retractable USB Mouse review: Macally Turtle Portable Retractable USB Mouse

Macally Turtle Portable Retractable USB Mouse

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman

While the black-and-white design may hint at Apple's laptops, the $19.99 Macally Turtle is (like the rest of Macally's recent mice) a standard USB peripheral that will work fine on your Windows PC.

6.0

Macally Turtle Portable Retractable USB Mouse

The Good

Retractable USB cable housed in a hidden compartment.

The Bad

A bit bulky for a travel mouse.

The Bottom Line

Macally's otherwise unremarkable Turtle laptop mouse at least has the good sense to keep its USB cable out of sight, thanks to a retractable cord.

Unlike the superslim (and flat) Macally Accuglide, the Turtle has a traditional arched shape, measuring 0.75 inch high at the tapered ends and 1.2 inches high in the middle (it's 3.5 inches long and 2.5 inches wide). Ergonomically, it's an improvement over the uncurved Accuglide and Pebble mice from Macally. It has a standard two-mouse-button-plus-scroll-wheel setup, although the mouse buttons are a bit on the loud side when clicked.

The Turtle's most notable feature is its USB cable. If you're going to use a wired mouse (which would be an unusual choice, even if you're shopping in the $20 range), it might as well be one like this, with a retractable cable. The 29-inch cable is stored in a compartment under the mouse, covered by a small flip-open door. Both the cable and the USB plug fit into the compartment, so when it's housed there, this could easily be mistaken for a standard wireless mouse.

6.0

Macally Turtle Portable Retractable USB Mouse

Score Breakdown

Design 6Features 6Performance 0