Choosing Your Ideal Bluetooth Mouse

Choosing which mouse to buy can feel a little overwhelming, as they all seem to do what you want yet there are so many to choose from!

Is it a case of just buying the cheapest one you like the look of or is there more to it?

As you’ve probably guessed, they’re not really all the same in terms of what they do, but they all fulfil the same basic function – point and click!

So, what can you do to avoid making a poor buying choice?

Firstly, you’ve started in a good place. Pat’s been using computers for over 30 years, and with the exception of the first couple, that includes the use of a mouse with Windows.

Computer user with mouse
Microsoft Windows introduced the computer mouse to the mainstream

We’d recommend reading this site in conjunction with other review sites too. Our experience is here for you to benefit from, but it never hurts to get a second opinion with some online reviews.

A bit part of what we like about some review sites is they talk a lot about customers alongside the products themselves. It’s all very well knowing a wireless mouse takes a couple of AA batteries, but what’s more helpful is knowing roughly how long you can expect them to last.

With some cheap mice, you can find yourself changing batteries every month, whereas the more expensive ones intelligently power down when they’re not in use, meaning those same batteries could last a year or more. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that will mean the more expensive purchase will be more cost effective in the long term!

While review sites will give you a lot of the information you need about the mouse you want to buy, you can take things further by reading the comments left on big sites like Amazon. While not every product will carry this information, it’s useful to back up 3rd party opinions when it is available.

The long and the short is that there are probably a large number of wireless mice that will be great for your needs, so rather than focusing on finding the perfect one, just rule out what you don’t want. That will leave you with a selection of candidates that will be wise buys, and you can then choose the final winner based on whatever you like – the one you like the look of, the cheapest, or whatever matters to you most.

Why The Days Of Wires Are Numbered

You’ve only got to watch the news at the moment to see the signs of the wireless revolution striding forward. The launch of 5G services in the mobile spectrum is here, and it’s predicted to support almost everything that you can think of in the future. It will allow traffic lights to be controlled more effectively to manage the flow of vehicles. It will give us huge data download (and upload) speeds across the country, even in places that have traditionally suffered with no signal.

Wires have always had the habit of tangling themselves up behin the TV or computer, and are a pain to sort out, unknotting them and trying to arrange them out of view.

Recycling wires
Few people would be sad to see ugly tangled wires connecting devices confined to the history books

Wireless Multiroom TV

That progress towards a wireless future is unlikely to slow, and that’s as true inside our homes as it is elsewhere. While your TV package from a company like sky used to need wires to access a multiroom service, you can now use their Q package to wirelessly beam the channels from the main box in the house to those in different rooms.

Wireless Internet Connections

Similarly we used to need to run network cables to each computer from the internet router supplying our internet connection. Today that seems somewhat archaic, and we’re all used to connecting over wireless and hunting for the security password to do so. In fact, it’s even starting to get more common to use our mobile phones as wireless hotspots, even in some cases allowing us to ditch a landline altogether.

Home Computing

Taking that a step further, your computer may benefit from a wireless internet connection, but what about it’s parts communicating wirelessly too? We’ve already considered why you’d want to consider a wireless mouse, but the same applies to keyboards, printers, scanners and more. Your phone is likely able to wirelessly share photos with your computer, so why not replace with wireless each time you upgrade?

We truly are finding new ways to remove the wires from lots of electrical devices. Of course, you still need a power cable – for now at least. Who knows where this will end. You can already charge some mobile phones without plugging in a cable, so it may well become less common to physically plug other appliances in over time.

Corded Vs Cordless Mice

When the time comes to replace your computer’s mouse, the big decision is going to be whether you opt for a corded or cordless solution. That’s a tough decision unless you’ve opted for a wireless mouse before, in which case there will be no contest.

A wired USB mouse feels incredibly cumbersome once you’ve got used to using a cable free alternative – and while some people shy away from ditching the cables for fear of incurring ongoing costs for batteries, those that do convert tend to stay converted.

Computer user battling with mouse wire
You can feel like you’re fighting against your wired computer mouse, a problem neatly solved by going cordless

In terms of what the two types of mice do, there’s really very little difference. They both move a mouse pointer on your screen to control Windows or your chosen operating system, and they both allow you to left and right click (unless you’re one of those odd Mac users).

It’s probably coming across that we’re fans of wireless mice, but does that mean they’re right for everyone? Probably not.

If you’re on a tight budget, then there’s no doubt that wireless options tend to be much more pricey than their more traditional corded counterparts. Similarly if you don’t sit at your computer much (by computer we are referring to desktop or laptop computers – it doesn’t really matter much which), then you’re less likely to notice the benefit of spending those extra pounds for the convenience of losing the cables.

On the other hand, if you can afford the price tag, you’ll almost certainly fall in love with the wire free point and click nature of the evolution of your computer mouse. In all honesty you can make the change for less then £10, but you often do get what you pay for, so how cheap is too cheap?

As a point of reference, I’m sat at my desk working all day every day, and when things are busy that includes at least one day at the weekend too, so I give my PC a lot of hammer. While I could spend over £100 on the top end mice, I don’t. Personally I like Microsoft mice, but that’s nothing more than a personal preference. If you’re like me, you’ll likely be drawn to the branded products, not necessarily out of loyalty in itself, but the fact that it gives you the confidence that things will get sorted if anything goes wrong.

That means that you can get a really good product for £50, but spending £20 to £30 will be fine for most people that aren’t at their computers for forty hours a week.

Conversely, spending £50 on a wired mouse would be crazy – you can get a really good quality one to plug into your USB port for a fraction of the cost of the equivalent cordless model.

Does that mean the saving is a good idea? For me, no. I much prefer to avoid the cable dragging across the desk and the way things are going will mean we’ll all go wireless in time anyway. For that reason, if your interest peaks at ordering wireless today, we don’t think you’ll regret it.