Nowadays Cherry is known primarily for its mechanical switches for keyboards, but the company also manufactures its own range of peripherals and accessories as well, some of which are unique. This week Cherry introduced its MC 4900 mouse that features an integrated fingerprint reader compatible with Microsoft’s Windows Hello aiming individuals and organizations concerned about security that want to take advantage of easy biometric authentication.

The Cherry MC 4900 (JM-A4900) is an ambidextrous mouse for office and other business environments. The pointing device does not feature the extravagant design or tailored ergonomics found on premium and gaming mice, but it still features rubberized side panels and a wide scroll wheel for added comfort. The Cherry MC 4900 uses an optical sensor with a sampling rate of 1375 DPI, which is nearly in line with the performance offered premium office/professional mice by other manufacturers (e.g., Logitech's MX Master has a 1600-DPI sensor). But while performance is important, is not the key feature of the product.

The main advantage of the Cherry MC 4900 over competing mice is the integrated Crossmatch TouchChip TCS2 fingerprint sensor that uses capacitive sensing technology. The sensor has a 508 DPI resolution and can capture fingerprints ta a rate of 12 FPS. The TouchChip TCS2 supports AES128 to encrypt fingerprint data when it is transferred over the USB bus, but it is unknown whether Crossmatch's software uses secure environments such as those enabled by the Intel SGX and Microsoft Windows 10 VBS to process fingerprint data.

Cherry’s MC 4900 mouse is compatible with Windows Hello and Windows Biometric Framework, but there is an SDK that can enable the biometric authentication on other platforms, including Apple’s MacOS or Linux.

Cherry said that the MC4900 mouse is available now with silver or black finish from select retailers at a recommended retail price of €110/$130/£100.

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Source: Cherry

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  • Hurr Durr - Saturday, December 2, 2017 - link

    That hump looks downright painful to use.
  • qlum - Saturday, December 2, 2017 - link

    Looking at this mouse I'd much rather have a € 50 fingerprint scanner and a € 50 mouse then spend € 110 on this thing.
  • etamin - Saturday, December 2, 2017 - link

    no back button
  • DanNeely - Saturday, December 2, 2017 - link

    3 button mouse, intrinsically trash grade, needs to be $20 or less.
  • ddrіver - Saturday, December 2, 2017 - link

    Do the price and the quality increase with button count for you? And could you tell the "intrinsic trash level" just by looking at 3 pictures? I mean do I want to know why you're an expert in trash-grade stuff? No, don't tell me.
    Maybe everybody should like what a prepubescent kid likes: a 55 button "gaming" mouse. What other objections could you have? Maybe "no RGB lighting", or "doesn't look like a spaceship"?

    Every $20 (or less) mouse out there has a premium fingerprint sensor and professional level optical sensor right?
    Some of the crappiest USB fingerprint readers retail for over $30 but by all means, someone should put a vastly better one in a mouse and sell you the package for "$20 or less". Better yet, they should also GIVE you $20... to buy some comments that look like they came from a brain, not a hoof.
  • peterfares - Saturday, December 2, 2017 - link

    Haha the mouse may not be trash quality but missing those buttons is way more inconvenient than just having an external USB fingerprint reader. I'd never buy a mouse with less than 5 buttons.
  • ddrіver - Sunday, December 3, 2017 - link

    I'd never name my kid Peter but it doesn't really mean people should change their names.
  • BvO - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link

    It's always painful to see you talk out of your ass, but justifying this price tag on a mouse that lack forward/back buttons it crazy even for you, despite the price of a finger print sensor. Can't really blame you though, since you think the crappy lenovo mouse you linked is used for some other reason than price tag.
  • ddrіver - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link

    You argumentation is overwhelming. So what if a comparable fingerprint reader is about $130-150...

    Would you buy it if it had 2-3 more buttons? Guess not. If only people could make a career from complaining about things that aren't for them and they don't understand.
  • Diji1 - Monday, December 4, 2017 - link

    > If only people could make a career from complaining about things

    Yeah you'd be set for life if that happened.

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