As a long time MX Master user I decided to give the Magic Mouse a try with the thought that, it can’t really be that bad…right?!

We’ve all heard the complaints about the poor ergonomics and famously bad charging port location, yet the magic mouse has remained basically unchanged since its initial release 16 years ago.

So this isn’t a specs review — I wanted to find out whether the Magic Mouse actually makes macOS better in ways third-party mice never will.

The Experiment: I’ve been using the magic mouse for the past 2 weeks and tossed my MX Master 3s in the drawer during that time, giving it a real shot even though I was sure I’d hate it.

This all started when I realized I was missing out on the gesture functionality of macOS.

Despite occasionally using a MacBook pro, I forget about all the gestures, switching between fullscreen windows, desktop spaces and probably a whole lot more.

I think whether you’ll like the Magic Mouse comes down to how you think about your Mac.

This mouse is for:

Skip it if you:

For me the cool stuff that the magic mouse does mainly surrounds gestures.

Scrolling without a scroll wheel feels awkward to a lifetime traditional mouse user, but at the same time somehow feels more natural to navigate around on the mac.

Gesture benefits:

The limitations:

The part that everyone has been waiting for.

Objectively they are not great, but I didn’t find it uncomfortable to use and my hand did not get cramped after long sessions. Of course I’d much prefer any ergo mouse over this, especially since I’ve dealt with carpal tunnel in the past as an overuse injury.

Ergonomically I don’t hate it, but I also don’t love it. I know that is not the controversial take most were expecting.

Then comes the much complained about design choice.

The mouse came with 95% battery life and I only used 2% in the first day.

I expected this to be annoying, but it turns out I forgot about charging entirely. Just like every other accessory on my desk…i have to charge it in order to use it.

Obviously having multiple accessories on my desk means I’m still going to be able to control my Mac Studio even if one thing was dead.

It seems like an easy thing to criticize and I suppose it would really suck if that was your only input method, but that has never been an issue for me.

I picked up the magic mouse on Amazon for $78.99.

The MX Master 4 is on sale for $120 and has features the magic mouse does not — more ergonomic, customizable buttons, silent clicks, haptics, and you can connect it with 3 devices.

When I think about features and value it really isn’t a competition. The MX master is hands down the better bang for your buck.

Generally though I’ve been pleasantly surprised and I don’t think it really is as bad as most people in the tech sphere say it is.

Here’s my take:

I still wouldn’t recommend this mouse to most people, but i finally understand a bit better why the people who love it are still using it.

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As always, thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one.

Later!