Apple wireless Mighty Mouse review

4 August 2006 13:35 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Apple has launched a wireless version of its top of the range mouse, the Mighty Mouse. But is the wirefree version any better? We take a close look and get clicking.

The new wireless Bluetooth 2.0 Mighty Mouse has ditched the wires over its previous incarnation.

The design is virtually identical to the original Mighty Mouse, bar the inclusion of an on/off switch underneath an the comfortable to use pebble has the same clear lines you normally associate with Apple.

Its shiny white shell offers two grey buttons at the side, a bobble on the top, and a faint logo that tries to help you justify the £49 outlay (its an extra £14 for not including the cable). Underneath is an optical laser and that's about it.

The mouse connects to your apple computer via Bluetooth and this means its good for about a 10m range. Any more than that the signal drops out, but then we would say any more than that and you're unlikely to be able to see the screen.

Apple is promising a new laser tracking engine that is 20 times more sensitive than standard optical mice for better tracking on even more surfaces and while we can't vouch for the 20 times bit, we can say that it worked on everything we tried it on, the dog included.

As before, Apple’s wireless Mighty Mouse includes up to four independently programmable buttons and a Scroll Ball that lets users scroll in any direction.

In practice and the mouse is very easy to use. Installation to both a Mac and wait for it, PC, was easy even though it's now via Bluetooth and the configuration even easier.

As with the wired Mighty Mouse the first new button to confuse regular Apple Mac mouse users is that the single button has gone (well unless you want to program it back) click on the left side of the bobble and you get your primary response. Click on the right and you get your secondary (equivalent of pressing Ctrl) response.

Those two grey buttons are actually one, that when squeezed, action whatever command you've set to it. Apple suggests either Expose or Dashboard to begin with and we can certainly see the benefits. The squeezing action does take some time to get use to, but heavy mouse users should get used to it after a couple of hugs.

The final addition is the bobble, or as Apple like to call it, the scroll wheel. Here you can either press it to activate the fourth command or you can whizz it around in circles to achieve vertical and horizontal scrolling in your open windows. The scroll wheel is so simple that it's a wonder it hasn't been used before.

As for battery, it's hard to tell as we've not been using it long enough to ascertain. However we can say that the unit uses two standard AA batteries, of which according to the manual you only need to use one of at any time.

Verdict

So has losing the wires helped? Most definitely, its always nice to declutter your desktop. It's also helps when it comes to using it with a laptop if you travel a lot as no wires means no getting tangled at the bottom of the bag. Installation is easy and reported difficulties with the first Mighty Mouse being difficult to use are unfounded once again.

In our original review of the wired Mighty Mouse we mused at how for £35 we would have expected it to be wireless:

"Nothing is ever perfect and for this money we would have expected it to be wireless. We can’t see any reason why it can’t be apart from Apple trying to keep the costs down."

The price has gone up, but at least they heard us about the request for the wireless functionality.

Either way it will make your navigation around the screen a whole lot easier and if you’re a heavy mouse user who must have the Apple badge on everything you own, this is certainly one cordless mouse to consider.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Apple
Price as reviewed: £49
Latest price: Compare prices
The good: No wires, easy setup
The bad: Expensive, you'll have to buy batteries every now and then
Quick verdict: If you’re a heavy mouse user who must have the Apple badge on everything you own, this is certainly one cordless mouse to consider
Score
Winner