Like it or not, the Apple Magic Mouse is the mouse that all others have to square up to in the battle to find the best mouse for Mac users. Unchanged since 2015 and in reality little changed since 2009, the Magic Mouse is what Apple ships with every iMac (in seven accented colors) and Mac Pro (black) and is the only mouse you can buy as a separate on the Apple Store (in black or white).
Apple’s legendary design skills often seem to desert it when it comes to mice and keyboards. We’re old enough to remember the daft, circular ‘hockey-puck’ mouse from 1998 and, years later, the latest version of the Magic Mouse is still marred by one terrible design decision that really leaves you wondering “What were they thinking?”.
To be fair, the Magic Mouse is sleek and elegant, the way an Apple product should be. There are no old-fashioned buttons or scroll-wheels to spoil the mouse’s streamlined design, as the entire top multi-touch surface panel acts like a small, touch-sensitive trackpad. It works really well and cleverly combines the fluidity of a trackpad with the physicality of a mouse.
Some mice have scroll wheels that can be noisy, but the Apple Magic Mouse’s trackpad top is silent in that regard.
The low-profile design won’t suit people with larger hands, but the touch controls do work very well, allowing you to scroll both horizontally and vertically simply by flicking your finger in the required direction.
You can set up a secondary button, rather than settle for the all-over click, on either side within the Mouse tab in your Mac’s System Settings.
Where the Magic Mouse stands out of the nest of Mac mice, is gestures. You can control gestures, such as zooming and switching between applications and pages, by using the Mouse Preferences panel on the Mac. Double-tap with two fingers to launch the Mac’s Mission Control. In Settings you can also turn on Pointer Acceleration for faster or more precise mouse movements.
The button-free design also means that the Magic Mouse is suitable for both left- and right-handed users—unlike the Logitech MX Master 3S mouse reviewed below.
The rechargeable battery lasts for only about a month at a time—which would be fine if it weren’t for one thing…
Bizarrely, Apple left the charging port on the underside of the mouse–which means that you can’t use the mouse while it’s charging, as you have to flip it over on to its side in order to insert the cable. It’s a mind-bogglingly bad design and explains why rivals such as Logitech dominate the market for Mac mice and keyboards.
Also, the mouse still has a Lightning connector for charging the internal battery, which is fine if you’re an pre-iPhone 15 user used to Apple’s proprietary cable. Apple really should get round to switching all its products to the now standard USB-C connector.
Apple also sells a black version of the Magic Mouse for an extra $20/£20, which is a bit cheeky as no other mouse manufacturer charges more for color choices.
