Get The Best Bluetooth Mouse

You just bought yourself a brand new laptop, but you don't get along that well with the touch-pad right? I'm just like you, they lack in precision, and in some laptops they just feel plain wrong, the solution is getting a mouse,  if you did buy your laptop in the last few years, it most likely has built in Bluetooth, and that enables you to go for the cleanest solution, a Bluetooth Mouse.

It's easy to get lost in technicalities, keeping that in mind, i will provide a little insight on what are the key features of most Bluetooth mice.

We can have three types of sensor, mechanical, optical and laser. The first one is pretty much outdated nowadays, and it is only used on trackballs, still you might remember back in the day where your mouse had a plastic ball underneath, that ball would then move two or three rollers inside the mouse, and that would trigger the movement.  Technology improves for a reason, and the mechanical sensor had some limitations regarding precision on uneven or slippery surfaces, and would eventually lose even more accuracy because of the dust that got stuck on the rollers if you didn't clean it often enough.

Most commercial surfaces will only have available mice with the optical or laser sensor. The optical's sensor superiority regarding the mechanical is notorious, since it is more precise because of the light based sensor, does not collect grime/dust, since the sensor itself has no contact with the surface. Safety-wise this light sensor poses no threat to the human eye, because it is nothing more than light of a given colour, that usually is red (takes less power to produce). It will have no issues with regular materials, but if you try to use it on rough surfaces or even glass, the precision will be affected (in glass it just wont be usable). Precision in mice is measured in DPI, and for the optical sensor it can go to a maximum for around 1000DPI, enough for all everyday routines on your pc.

The "creme de la creme" is really the laser, it works in a similar way as the optical, instead of using light, it uses a laser than can be up to 4x more precise in comparison. No issues with textured surfaces, and some even brag about working on glass, all that and it even uses up less power than the optical, but (there is always one), you need to be careful to not point the laser to sensitive organs, like the eye, because of the radiation.  The decision breaker here a few years ago was the price, since laser was significantly more expense, it was a more cost effective choice to go for the optical, but these days, the price difference is so thin, that you just cannot justify going for optical, when you can have laser, specially if you like to play first person shooters, or do graphic design and 3D modelling, you just need that extra precision.

Since we are talking about a cordless solution mouse, we will use some sort of batteries, despite some models claim they can last half a year, eventually you will run out of battery life, and will need to recharge or get a new set; that can happen while you are just browsing at home in your relax time, or during a very important work related presentation when you are already a bit stressed out. This situation can be avoided if your Bluetooth mouse has a battery life indicator, that is nothing more than one or more lights that let you know how much battery juice there is left, you might find this irrelevant, but when the time comes you will wish you had one of these.

Most mice, including bluetooth versions, have scroll wheels, and they come in various variations, that need to be addressed. The basic wheel only moves back and forth, enabling you to perform a vertical only strong. We also have the more advanced wheel that also acts as a button, so you can scroll again vertically and still click it as you would in a button, this usually triggers a special mode where you can scroll vertically (or horizontally in some cases) with the mouse movement, as opposed to the wheel.  One new design that seems to be emerging, is the trackball scroll; like the name suggests, it uses a small trackball in the place of the usual wheel, and this enables you to perform vertical and horizontal scroll in the same place. Some models even go as far as using the trackball to act as the mouse itself (practical when you cannot move your mouse physically).

As far as laptop mice go, the key element is really size, we can sum things up in two sections, the downscaled versions of desktop mice, that keep the same features, but lose the cord, and the micro-mice. The micro-mice are really appealing, given their small size, and in fact are a good choice for someone who wants the smallest possible, no matter what, but other more quality oriented buyers will be disappointed with these. In general quality is bad on these micro-mice, and they lack some of the good features regular sized mice have, like Bluetooth, scroll buttons, customizable features, good DPI and so on. Don't let these mice drop often,otherwise you will have to puzzle them back together! Less is more, but in this case less money just means more trouble, it's better to spend a little more on decent brands, and regular laptop mice, than going for these micro-mice, on the long run it will pay off.

You have all the data you need to go and find out what is the right for you, but if you want to save some more time and hassle, you can have a look at a showdown I did between what in my opinion are the main contenders for the best Bluetooth mouse title:

* Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000
* V470 Cordless Laser Mouse for Bluetooth
* Kensington SlimBlade Trackball Mouse
* Magic Mouse

Regarding this list, you can check out this other article that does a head to head comparison between these models, including pictures, youtube videos, and specifications for all; find it at Best Bluetooth Mouse.

Cheers.