The Mouse I Swore I Would Never Buy
For years I have been the person at the desk with the sensible mouse. The kind with a proper scroll wheel and a shape like a bar of soap, bought for very little money and replaced without ceremony when it dies. I have made fun of the Apple Magic Mouse specifically. Out loud. To people who owned one.
Then my sensible mouse died mid-deadline, the spare had vanished into whatever dimension spare cables go to, and the only mouse in the house that worked was the black Magic Mouse that came bundled into a work purchase and sat in a drawer looking smug. Two months later it is still on my desk, and I owe several people an apology.
Who Actually Needs This
Not everyone, and genuinely not anyone on Windows. This is a Mac accessory in the fullest sense.
- 💻 Mac people who live in gestures already, swiping between desktops and flicking through long documents
- 🧳 Anyone who wants one flat, light mouse that slides into a laptop sleeve without a bulge
- 🔋 People tired of feeding disposable batteries into a wireless mouse every few weeks
- 🖥 Desk minimalists who will admit, quietly, that the look matters to them
If you use Windows, or you want proper ergonomic support for an eight-hour day, buy something shaped like a hand. This is shaped like an idea.
What It Gets You
The surface is the scroll wheel
There is no wheel. The whole top is touch-sensitive, so you scroll by dragging a finger, swipe sideways to move between pages, and it feels odd for about a day. Then it stops feeling odd and normal mice start feeling like they have a small rock glued to them.
A battery you forget about
It charges over USB-C and runs for about a month on a charge. In practice I plug it in when I remember, which is roughly never, and it has not died on me yet. It also pairs with a Mac instantly, no drivers, no small ritual of holding buttons down.
The famous port
The charging port is on the underside. You cannot use it while it charges. This design decision has been mocked continuously since before I moved to the UK, and the mockery is deserved. In real life you plug it in overnight once a month and it never interrupts your day. Both things are true.
💡 Yen's Note
Check your macOS version before buying. A few people on older systems found gestures and battery notifications did not work properly until they updated. Two minutes of checking saves a very annoying unboxing.
The Honest Version
It holds 4.5 stars across nearly three thousand ratings, which for a product this argued-about is telling. The praise is consistent: instant pairing, tracking that feels precise, gestures that become muscle memory, weeks of battery.
The complaints are also consistent. It is expensive for a mouse, because it is Apple and that is the deal. It is flat, so if you have wrist trouble or big hands, an ergonomic mouse will serve you better. Windows users get a limited version of the experience and should not bother. And the port is still on the bottom, where it will remain, apparently as a monument.
I did not want to like this thing. It is the most self-satisfied object on my desk, and my desk includes a cat. But I reach for it every morning without thinking, which is the only review that counts.
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