Admit It: The Magic Mouse is a Problem
Joe Rossignol, reporting for MacRumors:
Alongside the new iMac, Apple announced updated versions of the Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad. The accessories are now equipped with USB-C charging ports, whereas the previous models used Lightning. Apple includes the Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard in the box with the iMac, and the Magic Trackpad is an optional upgrade…
There does not appear to be any other changes to the Magic accessories beyond the switch to USB-C. Yes, that means the Magic Mouse’s charging port remains located on the bottom of the mouse, as confirmed in Apple’s video for the new iMac.
I said it earlier, and I’ll mention it again: The Magic Mouse is one of the worst products Apple still manufactures. It’s un-ergonomic, loud to click, unintuitive, prone to cracking, and above all, a pain to charge. The USB Type C port addresses just about a tenth of my hatred for it, but the bottom charging port is significantly worse. The biggest argument from Magic Mouse and Apple proponents is that nobody charges it that often, and when it’s in need of a power-up, a quick five-minute break isn’t all that bad. They’re wrong. The Magic Mouse’s design is the last vestigial remnant of Jony Ive’s design at Apple: form over function. I don’t care if it’s harder to glide on while plugged in — it’s already hard to glide on a mousepad for me, anyway, so much so that I’ve resorted to adding Scotch Tape to the bottom pads for when I use it on occasion — because the inconvenience of being without a mouse is way worse. Nobody should have to settle for a useless $100 mouse for even one minute of its life.
Apple products are meant to feel premium and well-designed, and the Magic Mouse is the complete opposite of these ideals. It is genuinely the laziest, most painful, repulsive Apple product I own, and whenever I’m forced to use it, I resent it. As someone who doesn’t use mine often, I always have to charge it, and that requires the whole flip-it-upside-down-like-a-flailing-obese-turtle-on-its-back song and dance. By the time it’s done its slumber, I’m already bored and doing something else. And, perhaps even worse, it doesn’t even have a light or other indicator to check whether it’s charged or not; rather, it must always be connected to a Mac. (This latter gripe goes for all modern Apple Magic products, not just the Magic Mouse.) None of this is even considering how painful it is to use with its sharp edges and infuriatingly flat profile. I understand the need for it to be ambidextrous, omitting the thumb rest on other mice like my beloved MX Master 3(S) from Logitech, but it isn’t even angled or arched to accommodate the human hand’s natural shape. This is not a device meant for human beings.
I cannot state how many times I’ve accidentally swiped using the infuriatingly sensitive touch gestures atop the mouse. The click is shallow and noisy, the glide pads aren’t smooth enough, and it charges way too slowly. It’s just objectively a bad product. Apple has been running the same product virtually since 2009, and even before that, it’s not like its mice were good. The USB Mouse — also known as the hockey puck mouse — that shipped with the first iMac was so bad third parties had to sell a little plastic clip extender so people could actually grip it. The modern mouse was created by a group of Apple engineers — though not Apple — and yet the company with the clearest direct lineage to the creation of arguably one of the most consequential computing innovations is unable to produce a decent one. The Mighty Mouse was a disaster, the Pro Mouse was laughable, and the Apple Mouse and Apple Wireless Mouse were both forgettable. Apple should either get out of the mouse business entirely or put some research and development money into making a good one.
Don’t be mistaken: the Magic Mouse is meant to be cheap, yet that’s perhaps the last thing it is. It’s $100. A $20 Acer mouse from the library performs better. As a matter of fact, none of Apple’s “Magic” accessories are perfect, let alone magic. The Magic Keyboard is material-wise cheap with bad membrane switches, just like the MacBook Pro, except in a discreet chassis. For a laptop, the Magic Keyboard is great, and for a tablet, the butterfly switches are near perfect — but for a standalone $100 keyboard, it’s completely unacceptable. It doesn’t even have a mechanism to adjust the height and angle, which makes it even more uncomfortable and flat. I own one just for the sake of taping it to the underside of my desk so I have access to Touch ID when I’m using one of my mechanical keyboards since Apple still stubbornly refuses to sell a standalone Touch ID sensor. (If it had announced one today, I’d buy many.) The Magic Trackpad is my favorite of the trio, but I still think it’s too lie-flat and uncomfortable, especially since I can’t grip it from the bottom like a thin laptop. Still, it needs an update — and adding a black color for $20 extra or adding USB-C isn’t considered an update. (I do have to admit I bought the black one when it came out, though I didn’t waste more money on a USB-C version on Monday.)
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to demand good, high-quality, desirable peripherals from Apple. Its offerings are so bad it put an MX Master 3 in its Mac Studio presentation from 2022, as I hilariously pointed out back then. Apple makes the best computers, and the new M4 iMac is no exception, yet this amazing machine ships with arguably some of the worst — yet expensive — peripherals on the market.