Apple Magic Mouse Review

My new iMac came with Apple’s latest mouse, the ‘Magic Mouse’. Not a great name, but then the previous incarnation of the Apple mouse, the ‘Mighty Mouse’, didn’t have a great name either. IN fact Apple haven’t really had a good history as far as mice goes.

Not so Mighty

The Mighty Mouse was OK, I actually quite liked its relatively small size and to start with the tiny little scroll ball was really nice. The mouse before that was the same size and shape but with no scroll wheel. I still have one of these on my desk, but having a scroll ball was an advantage. However, after a short while it would stop working. I cleaned it and it would work again, but after a while the scroll ball would stop working completely so I stopped using it. The Mighty Mouse had effectively become a standard Mouse without scroll ball.

It’s Magic

The new Magic Mouse is a different shape, but about the same size. It has a nice weight to it and feels OK in my hand. The ‘magic’ is the removal of the scroll ball altogether. Instead the entire top surface of the mouse is a multi-touch surface. To scroll just stroke your finger across its surface. You can scroll in all directions in this manner and it works really well, feels nice and the implementation is great, just the right amount of control.

It also supports multi-touch to a certain extent. Two-finger swipes allow you to navigate backwards and forwards through websites and documents. It doesn’t support the pinch and rotate gestures, but maybe that will come in a software update?

The mouse is wireless, connecting via bluetooth and so far that has worked brilliantly. It’s great having just a little mouse and a tiny bluetooth keyboard on my desk. The laser tracking is smooth and precise and as a mouse it works just as I would expect it to. There is of course a Preference Pane in OS X that allows you to customise its speed of tracking, scrolling and clicking.

Best of all, with no moving parts such as the little scroll ball, there shouldn’t be an issue with it getting dirty. The entire mouse is actually really clean and basic looking with the usual Apple styling. I’ve only had it a couple of weeks but it didn’t take long to get used to its unusual shape and its touch surface and so far I love it. Only time will tell as to its reliability but with very few moving parts I’m hopeful that it will  last a while.

2 Responses

  1. Avatar forComment Author Alan says:

    Just a quick update relating to the battery life on the Apple Magic Mouse. the first set of batteries have just been replaced. That means they lasted exactly one month… Not a great deal of time really but at least they are easy to replace.

    By contrast the Apple bluetooth keyboard still has a battery life of 97% showing.

    Al.

  2. Avatar forComment Author Alan says:

    Hmmmmm… Now onto 4th set of batteries… It seems that if the computer is on 24 hours a day then the mouse is draining the batteries all of that time as well…. 3 sets of batteries drained in less than 2 months.

    Al.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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