ranzware
I think my office smells good. We light candles in my household, and despite a number of pets, the primary scent profile is “cozy prewar building wood grain” with undertones of sweet vanilla. But let’s say you’re a stinky boy, or at the very least need a little something more from your desktop, olfactory-wise. How about a mouse that works kind of okay as a mouse, while pulling double duty as an okay oil diffuser?
Enter the Asus Fragrance Mouse, which looks like one of those dinky single-battery Logitech deals but clad in a design language that—and I say this with respect as a neutral observer of trends and culture—screams “POV: You’re a TikTok aesthetic girlie and this is your desk setup ASMR.” Honestly, though, I’m into the look. The look is not the Fragrance Mouse’s problem. If mice aren’t allowed to look as good as the Logitech MX510 anymore, I wouldn’t mind a performance, dare I say gaming-oriented clicker with a clean, unadorned, matte plastic look like this.
But the Fragrance Mouse is not a mouse for gaming—like those clamshell-packaged double-A-powered Logitechs I mentioned, it’s a little tiny guy fit for a college student on the move or a remote worker who likes to fire off some emails at the coffee shop. It also, apparently, smells good. Or at least it will smell like whatever aromatic oil you choose to fill its built-in compartment with.
I simply believe we have a flawed premise here. I don’t understand why these two functions have to be fulfilled by the same product. A reed diffuser does not take up that much desk space, if you really need it up in your grill, and theoretically a dedicated diffuser could last you even longer than the Fragrance Mouse’s purported 10 million click lifespan. For on-the-go sweet smells, wouldn’t this carry a risk of offending office-mates who don’t share your scent preferences, let alone spillage?
In some ways, though, I kind of appreciate how bizarre and anachronistic the Fragrance Mouse is. It feels like a gimmick product out of the late ’90s and early 2000s, before PC peripherals were “solved” to the extent they are today, an LGR oddity out of time. It’s the first development in mouse I’ve seen in some time that wasn’t just “more button.” Even if this is an evolutionary dead end—and it is—I may have just devil’s advocated myself into liking the Fragrance Mouse. This could be the sort of maverick, lateral thinking to jar us from our clicking stupor and commence the next revolution in mouse. You should probably just stick with one of PCG hardware honcho Dave James’ recommendations for the best gaming mouse around, though.
I have no idea what this thing will cost, when it will be available for purchase, or if it will even come to market in the US—a separate Fragrance Mouse page on Asus‘ website prompted me to switch to the US website, where there was no Fragrance Mouse in sight. Sic transit gloria mundi.
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Kurt Indovina
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