Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple Mighty Mouse Wireless Kit

New, out of the box, this is a great mouse. The design is simple yet elegant: it functions very well...for a few months that is, until the scroll ball gets dirty (and it will get dirty). Once that happens, the mouse is done. The scroll sensation begins to feel rough and gravelly under your finger, and scroll sensitivity becomes intermittent and unpredictable. Apple suggests various techniques for cleaning the ball, but none of them are effective. So, if you don't mind forking over $70 for a new mouse, say, every four to six months, by all means get a Mighty Mouse. You'll love it while it works.

When I first got this I was disappointed by the speed of the tracking. It was TOO slow, but I later discovered that day that I could easily fix this by installing SteerMouse from Apple's main site. Which give's you full customization for your Mighty Mouse. And SteerMouse is free by the way..

Just search SteerMouse on google and you should find what you need.

I quote from Apple's download site:

About SteerMouse
An advanced driver for USB and Bluetooth mice. It also supports Apple Mighty Mouse very well.

SteerMouse can assign various functions to buttons that Apple's software does not allow, including double-clicks, modifier clicks, application switching, assignment of shortcut keys, "snap to" cursor movement, which moves the cursor to target (such as an OK button), and more.

SteerMouse lets you control the cursor's Sensitivity on top of the Tracking Speed. (Apple's software only allows adjustment for the Tracking Speed.) By adjusting both configurations, you can customize the ideal setting for the cursor to fit the movements of your hand.

Overall, this is a pretty darned good mouse. It features excellent tracking, it is thankfully minimalistic (unlike many mice that have so many buttons it's nearly impossible to figure out how to use the bloody thing), and has that wonderful mini-trackball, which is the best possible way to navigate webpages or large displays (such as Photoshop). Bluetooth pairing with my iMac was a piece of cake, and mouse sensitivity and speed is excellent. Stylistically, it is a great looking mouse -- typical Jonathan Ives stuff.

On the downside, the biggest complaint I have about the mouse is that the right click function is slightly spotty for some reason (right-clicks register maybe 95% of the time), and the shape is not ergonomic (though not bad in the hand). I'd prefer an Apple ergonomic mouse with the same minimalist configuration.

03-14-2008 Update: Well, the mouse just expired... I was using the scroll ball and it basically froze and would not turn anymore. Despite an hour trying to fix the problem, including an attempt at disassembling the device, it finally went into the trash and I picked up a Logitech v470 replacement. This was a disappointment given the mouse wasn't that old, but outside of its warranty period. Check out my Logitech review.

This is an unfortunate little critter. While I understand the necessity for Apple to make products that look different and function different (I laud them for their creativity), unfortunately with this product it came at the expense of functionality.

The Good:

1.) The scroll wheel is quite refreshing to use, and works in any direction. Very nice.
2.) It pairs easily with any Apple system with Bluetooth. Very easy, and no software needed.

The Bad:

1.) There's a HUGE amount of input lag from this mouse. As is fairly typical with Bluetooth mouse, the milliseconds of delay from when you move the mouse to when the mouse responds is very noticeable. Older people or those less susceptible to this issue may not even notice it. For me, it's obvious. Really, really obvious. I couldn't bear it.

2.) The mouse scroll wheel can gunk up with oils/dirt/dust, and you can't clean it. Scroll wheel basically dies.

3.) Yes, the mouse does have a right click. But there are problems. Apple thought they'd be clever and add in a form of touch recognition. Basically, if you click the left side of the mouse, it registers a left click. If you click the right side, it registers a right click. However, you can't be resting your pointer finger on the left side if you want to click the right, because the mouse thinks you're clicking left since it can't recognize more than one finger. A real nuisance to have to keep lifting your pointer finger off the mouse to right click! Gah!

4.) The side buttons require far too much pressure to activate, and are very uncomfortable to reach.

Overall:

Just not worth it. Get a Logitech VX Nano or a different mouse of this ilk. This mouse should be eaten. Bring on a new one, Apple.

I'm a Windows user who happens to like Apple's design aesthetic.

The wireless Might Mouse works well with my Lenovo laptop running Windows Vista. I'm using the built in blue tooth card and drivers - which means no dongles to carry along! No special drivers are needed either.

I like the mouse! It's clean (no visible buttons), tracks well and has good heft.

Issues I have found are -

- 3 of the 4 possible buttons work under Windows - Left, Right and Middle click. On Mac's - squeezing the sides of the mouse triggers a fourth button; this doesn't happen with Vista's default mouse driver.

- The ball allows scrolling up and down, but not sideways on Vista.

- Pairing the mouse with Bluetooth is easy - as long as you know the default "code" on the mouse is 0000.
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Update after a few months of use: Apple has prioritized form over function. I liked this enough to buy my wife one too - and we both found our wrists hurting after a few months of use. The mighty mouse is not ergonomic.

I've since stopped using it and moved back to a Microsoft ergonomic mouse. It's not as pretty, but I value my wrists. I don't recommend this mouse if you intend using it for hours a day.