Apple Magic Mouse
Unplggd Test Lab

Product: Apple Magic Mouse
Price: $69
Rating: Strong Recommend

When Apple released the Magic Mouse a few months ago I instantly wanted one. Bruce, my life and housemate's only response was, "Do we really need another mouse?" When our review unit came in the mail, who was the one ripping the packaging open? Exactly. Bruce's series of responses once he got the Magic Mouse synched goes as follows:
"How did they do this?"
"This is the best thing ever!"
"This is the best mouse ever, because it has nothing noisy or clunky on it."

Unboxing: Like with all Apple products, the packaging for Apple's new Magic Mouse is inspiring. No oversized boxes here, rather a petite plastic coffin that perfectly fits the mouse, a small manual, and a warranty booklet. Two double A batteries are already installed in the mouse; all you have to do next is synch the mouse with your computer and you're ready to go. The bottom of the case has simple illustrative instructions on how to take advantage of the Magic Mouse's multi-touch capabilities.

Performance: When you first look at the Magic Mouse and see just how basic it's design aesthetic is, it's hard to believe that it can compete with more complicated mice with their track balls, right and left buttons, and crazy ergonomic shapes, but it can and it does. The first thing we noted when using the Magic Mouse is how hardy it feels. Without a flimsy trackball or wheel to scroll through pages, there are literally no moving parts that can break, get gunked up, or lose their abilities. The laser tracking engine Apple has built into the mouse allows you to scroll, click, and move onscreen from almost any surface. We moved our Magic Mouse from our home office to our Mac Mini run media center in the living room and were impressed with how much better this mouse works when using our couch as mouse pad than our previous mouse.

What We Liked: While there are many great advances within the Magic Mouse, our fave has to be the lack of track ball. There's something so much more intuitive having the entire surface of the mouse act as your track ball than having a rotating ball be your point of contact. Plus multi-touch functionality can be super helpful when you're like me and are constantly moving web pages back and then forward in your browser. The 360-degree scroll is great when working on zoomed in image files in Photoshop.

What Needs Improvement: Having the entire surface active can also be frustrating for those of us with lazy fingers. I noticed that while reading web pages my fingers tend to rest on the mouse and, through unconscious finger ticks, I often accidentally swiped to previous pages in my browser. You can switch off swiping if you tend to have very fidgety fingers.

Left on, I'd like the dual finger swipe to work not just left and right in iPhoto but up and down. Bruce, my partner in testing crime, misses the exposé buttons he had gotten used to in Apple's previous mouse incarnation -- alternately, you can program a screen corner to activate Exposé.

Technical Specs:
Bluetooth
Laser Tracking
Requires Mac computer with Bluetooth wireless technology and running Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later with Wireless Mouse Software Update 1.0
Existing keyboard and mouse for setup
Two AA batteries (included)

*Our Ratings:
Strong Recommend
Recommend
Weak Recommend
Don't Recommend

(Bottom 2 Images: flickr user chrisdejabet via Creative Commons license)

Comments (10)

I've tried using this mouse and I found it terribly frustrating. The swiping motions almost always moved the mouse itself, requiring me to hold the mouse with my thumb and pinky before using my index and middle fingers to swipe. Now, maybe this is because I have large hands, but this awkward "hold-and-swipe" combo forced my wrist in an uncomfortable position. Since I spend approx. 8 hours using my mouse, I could see joint problems being a result of prolonged use.

I've had this mouse for a while now, and absolutely love it. I used to like the Mighty Mouse, but the ball was always getting dirty and not scrolling. This thing though has no moving parts (apart from click).

I did at first miss the middle button click, but I seem to have got used to not using it. I hope Apple allows more configuration - the device can detect 3 or 4 finger gestures, not just 2, so 3 finger click for middle button would be nice - even 2 or 3 finger up-down swipes would be good too.

Overall, I love it.

I have this mouse as well and also love it. I hated the constant cleaning required for the Mighty Mouse. So much better.

I tried this mouse at the apple store and could not even get it to scroll. I am a tech junkie / geek, and yet I can't get it to scroll... no sale. I even went in and checked the settings. no dice.

Missing the expose buttons is a huge hit too. seems like they could have left those in.

I am a "claw" user but i even felt the mouse a bit small and too flat to hold comfortably. i even have small hands, it was no help.

For those stuck with the mighty mouse, to clean it. flip it upside down on a standard sheet of printer paper, push it down and roll the hell out of it. I had a mouse that hadn't scrolled down in weeks and did this and it works great now. I'll take rubbing my mouse on a sheet of paper once a week over the magic mouse.

jmorey: any chance the demo model was used to a state of non-function? I've seen that a few times at Apple Stores where crowds can be pretty brutal on demo products.

I can't imagine that I ever used another mouse. Astonishingly good.

The mouse is nice, but it's not my cup of tea. I like having extra buttons on a mouse because they provide short cuts so you don't have to press the back button on browsers or changing the volume.

odd if a touch mouse could be used to the point of un-usability. it's not like a button that broke, it has none...

plus i am brutal enough on my mouse, 10 hours of use a day, so if it can't stand up to that, another check on the list of Cons

I tried this at the store, and found that to get it to scroll as quickly as I would like, i had to take my hand off the mouse, and move my finger down the entire thing. It wasn't comfortable and felt awkward.

Possibly, this is something that would just need to be tweaked in the settings, but there is no way for me to find out until the holiday shopping rush dies off. Anyone else have this experience?

I was wondering what mouse pad you had there? And would I be able to purchase one?