The Magic Mouse
Posted on: 23 March 2010
However I dress this up, I am still essentially reviewing a mouse. Which does officially count me as a nerd. But - people - this is a nice mouse. I am of course talking about the Apple Magic Mouse, the successor to the popular (although flawed) Mighty Mouse (which, as it happens, has dropped the 'Mighty' from its name and is now simply the 'Apple Mouse'. Most likely for copyright issues with this fella)
I have only had limited experience with the old Apple Mighty Mouse, however I'm well aware of the issue with the scrolling mechanism. With continual use, dust has been known to collect in it, rendering it basically useless, unless you crack the thing open and clean it out.
With this in mind, I was keen to see what was so great about the new mouse offering from Apple. In all honesty, I haven't much experience with mice, and have been content using a laptop with the dinky little touchpad. But even when compared to the generously sized touchpads on Apple's new laptops, a decent mouse really will always beat a touchpad for usability. With this in mind, I decided I wanted a mouse. A good mouse.
I researched for a short while, but, to be honest, got a bit bored. I mean - it's a mouse. So after swallowing the rather steep £56 price tag, I impulse-bought a new Apple Magic Mouse. I wasn't really too bothered about the wireless capabilities but having used this mouse for several months, I really like the freedom that wireless offers. It also packs a pretty good range on it, although I've yet to reap the benefits of this. Might be quite nifty for use as a slide show clicker.
The appearance of this mouse is flawless, you really can't fault it. It screams Apple simplicity. I love a good moan as much as the next person, but there really isn't a whole lot to fault about this mouse at all. The buttons are invisible (or, at least, implemented seamlessly into the rest of the mouse), but they still function as you would expect a button to. Right and left can be assigned to handle primary and secondary click (if you're on a Mac, and let's face it, if you've got a Magic Mouse you probably are). It does, however, drop the side function buttons that the old mouse had, although I haven't felt the need for them at any point whilst using it.
What really sets this mouse apart though is the gestures it features. The whole top of the mouse is a touchpad, essentially. Move your finger up and down and it scrolls, move it left to right and it scrolls. In fact, move it in any direction, and if you can scroll in that direction - it will scroll! Another nifty feature is the two finger swipe, which I use mainly for moving forward and back when browsing the web. But it can be utilised in most applications. For example, skipping songs in iTunes, navigating through pictures in iPhoto, etc. It really does make web browsing a breeze and is definitely a sign of things to come with the abundance of multi-touch devices, in terms of web usability amongst other things.
The battery life is pretty impressive. I'm not a particularly heavy user, but I use my laptop a fair few hours of the day, and I managed to get at least a month out of the provided batteries, possibly longer (but you're asking me to think back several months now). I'm now using high-powered rechargeables - the same I use in my flashes. It's lasted about 3 weeks and is currently at 47%, so there's definitely a few more weeks use out of them.
This is a great mouse. But it's pricey. And obviously you're paying for the name. But if you're on a Macbook or a MBP and find yourself a little restricted by the touch pad at times, this mouse really can increase your efficiency. Sure, there are cheaper alternatives, but do they scream out to you quite as loudly as this sleek little beast? I think not... :)
Despite my kind words, I'm currently subjecting my Magic Mouse to the embarrassment of being used on an old Dell freebie mouse mat. Oh the horror.