Here I come to save the day... Help me find a replacement for a Mighty Mouse
February 5, 2010 10:58 AM   Subscribe

Where can I get a great, durable, bluetooth computer mouse?

Valentine's Day is coming and my significant other wants a new bluetooth mouse.

He really loved the Apple Mighty Mouse, but that only lasted about a year before the little roller ball kept getting gummed up and the buttons stopped clicking reliably, and this kept being a problem despite frequent cleaning. The replacement mouse he bought (a Logitech) has only lasted 6 months and now has problems with random disconnects and the buttons and scroll wheel not working.

He would love a mouse that is durable and reliable enough to last longer than a year, and I would love to buy one for him. Is there an ideal mouse out there? Has anyone tried the new Apple Magic Mouse and found it to be long-lasting?

The mouse must be Bluetooth and full-sized (not one of those tiny notebook mice). It would be nice if it were small enough to fit in his laptop briefcase, but it's more important that it not be tiny. As for price, if it'll last two years, it can cost $100 for all I care.

Thanks!
posted by audacity to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I got a new iMac back around Thanksgiving and it came with a MagicMouse. It's a pretty good little mouse. I especially like the use of touch-sensitive gestures to scroll and swipe. The only big downside to it is mine seems to eat batteries. I get about a month out of a fresh pair. Overall, though, I like it a lot.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:20 AM on February 5, 2010


2nding the MagicMouse. Get some batteries like these to go with it and you're set.
posted by spasm at 11:27 AM on February 5, 2010


No one has had a Magic Mouse long enough to know if they are long lasting as they are too new. They are alright. There is no middle click which is maddening for me so mine is gathering dust. Other than that, they are pretty nice. I don't think you get swipe gestures if you are using it on a PC though (you didn't say mac or pc).
posted by chairface at 11:40 AM on February 5, 2010


Best answer: I've used a Logitech V470 for over a year and have been very pleased with it. It's robust, easy to use and excellent on battery life.
posted by nightwood at 11:44 AM on February 5, 2010


Response by poster: Sorry for not mentioning it earlier: he regularly uses a mac.
posted by audacity at 11:57 AM on February 5, 2010


Best answer: I love the Magic Mouse. Make sure to (tell him to) download MagicPrefs with it-- adds in middle-click and some multi-touch, though it takes a while to customize it to your style of mousing. (FWIW, I have the middle-click enabled, plus three-finger Spaces.)
posted by supercres at 12:04 PM on February 5, 2010 [1 favorite]


And I'll speculate a bit-- with no moving parts, I imagine it lasts a while. (I liked the Mighty Mouse, but my main beef was when the scroll ball got sticky.)

It's fine on batteries for me.
posted by supercres at 12:05 PM on February 5, 2010


The Magic Mouse goes through batteries faster than I expected, but then this is my first wireless mouse. Size-wise, it's broad but flat, so bigger in some dimensions than those annoyingly tiny notebook mice I see everywhere, but if you're big-handed like me your palm will not rest on it much. Scrolling can be a little touchy when it's used for zoom (e.g., online maps). Having said that, multitouch + velocity is so much fun. I've also never had a connection problem, and it reconnects very quickly on wakeup.
posted by mcwetboy at 12:41 PM on February 5, 2010


The battery consumption of the Magic Mouse was having issues when paired with an Apple-brand Bluetooth Keyboard, but I believe this was addressed recently by a firmware update.

FWIW, I have a Magic Mouse as well, and I am very happy with it. The additional prefs are a must, as noted above, but the "no moving parts" part is a huge plus. If you have an iPhone / iPod Touch already, it becomes very intuitive to use the Magic Mouse.
posted by GJSchaller at 12:55 PM on February 5, 2010


The battery consumption of the Magic Mouse was having issues when paired with an Apple-brand Bluetooth Keyboard, but I believe this was addressed recently by a firmware update.

Sadly, no. The firmware update was for the keyboard itself and did nothing to address the battery issue with the mouse.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:15 PM on February 5, 2010


I've been using a Logitech VX Nano for a couple years now and it's been great. It is my workday mouse at my desk and I've hauled it around a lot in my laptop bag & it has held up fine.

It's not bluetooth, but its wireless USB bit is small enough that you can leave it in your computer, and it came with a little wired USB "dock" so you can use it on a desktop computer without having to access a USB port behind the tower.

Its middle button is set up to launch search by default, but with a couple clicks it becomes middle click.
posted by altcountryman at 6:27 PM on February 5, 2010


It's been said many times already, but I'll say it again:

Magic Mouse + MagicPrefs = Mousing Heaven
posted by joshrholloway at 6:46 PM on February 5, 2010


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