Apple Mighty Mouse not so mighty
It’s rare for me to slam products outright; especially when it comes to Apple. However, one issue that I have had no success with is the Apple Wireless Mighty mouse.
We have used this wireless mouse for about one year and it has never had any reliable tracking, movement control or useful switching arrangements. As we did not buy the mouse directly from an Apple Store, where we might have had some chance of repair, comment or appraisal, we bought from an Apple reseller in Singapore.
Anyone who knows Singapore, knows that it is the city of Caveat Emptor; let the buyer beware! This is a country founded on being a trading post and, to this day, the ability to “trade” and “sell” is the only thing that counts. After sales service or returns are, at best, difficult to impossible and, at worst, non-existent and met with a shrug and utterances of “can not lah”.
So we searched high and low for a new mouse to assist and be compatible with the MacBook Pro. After much deliberation we settled on Razer PRO Click 1.6 mouse from Razer Pro|Solutions. Whilst our functional requirements were not for high caliber gaming – which Razer Pro are renowned for – we needed a mouse that would provide smooth, stable input when working in Final Cut Pro, Flash, Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop.
Mice have come a long way since the earliest mouse of the 1960s were a wooden block and one button were it! The mice of PS/2 used what was called a roller ball. Ancient history now as the ball would regularly collect lint and stuff from the tabletop making precise movement impossible without regular cleaning.
Today, ANY mouse you buy should have an optical or laser encoder/decoder. This is the red colour light on the bottom of the mouse. These mice are called “Optical Mice”. The measurement of the encoder/decoder DPI/CPI (dots/counts per inch) is the most important factor in determining the smoothness and speed of a mouse. This is described by how many discrete signals are sent to the controller chip when the mouse moves along a one inch plane. As the number of signals sent to the chip increases, mouse resolution becomes finer and the resulting motion smoother.
In a rough, rule of thumb guide, the higher the number of signals, the smoother the mouse will be.
Most mechanical mice offer 400-800 DPI, the Apple might mouse has a resolution of 400DPI and the Razer line of mice offers resolutions from 1140 to 1600 DPI.
Using the Razor was bliss. Excellent for all our applications and looked good. Only potential issue may be the grey rubber attached to the click buttons which will get dirty over time.
On the other hand, Apple Wireless might mouse looks great in the brilliant gloss white. But that is where it ends for me. The 5 “hidden” buttons were not easy to use. So much so, I disabled them in the control panel. Double click for action was fine and accurate but the be prepared to keep filling this device with batteries – it goes through quite a lot!
Ratings: Apple Wireless Might Mouse
Overall rating: 1 / 5
Pros: Wireless; easy to configure
Cons: Poor movement sensor; heavy; over priced for what it does - expensive
Overall: This wireless mouse is a nice peripheral but not a big improvement on the original Mighty Mouse
Ratings: Razer PRO Click 1.6
Overall rating: 4 / 5
Pros: Excellent accuracy, feels good to use, easy to configure
Cons: USB cable powered, no wireless model - expensive for USB
Overall: This mouse is excellent for the desktop professional who wants and accurate and reliable mouse without breaking the bank.
Tags: Apple, Mice, Might mouse, mouse, Razor Pro