Is Apple Magic Mouse Harder to Move Than Mighty Mouse?

Nov 20, 2009 18:11 Nikkei Electronics Teardown Squad

Nikkei Electronics Teardown Squad examined the "Magic Mouse," which Apple Inc developed with a new concept and released at the end of October 2009.

The surface of the Magic Mouse is covered with a touch sensor to detect the movement of fingers and does not have any button or scroll wheel.

To make it easy to control the mouse by finger gestures, the Magic Mouse is flatter than other mice. It measures 115 x 58 x 22mm while Apple's Mighty Mouse is 113 x 62 x 32mm in size. Though their lengths and widths are almost the same, the height of the Magic Mouse is about 2/3 that of the Mighty Mouse.

What we realized while using the Magic Mouse is that its movement is slower than that of the Mighty Mouse. However, the weight of the Magic Mouse is 105g including two AA batteries and lighter than the 132g of the Mighty Mouse.

Therefore, we decided to conduct an experiment to check the "slipperinesses" of the two mice. Specifically, we placed the mice on a large resin board and tilted it little by little. As we expected, the Mighty Mouse began to slide down the slope before the Magic Mouse started to move.

Then, we took out a battery from the Mighty Mouse to reduce its weight to 106g so that the weights of the two mice become almost the same and did the same experiment. But the result was the same.

The difference is slight, but the Magic Mouse seems to be harder to slide. That's why we felt the Magic Mouse is heavier than the Mighty Mouse when moving it.

"Users can use the Magic Mouse just by touching it with fingers, like an external trackpad, without holding it," an engineer said. "Apple probably made it harder to slide for such usage."

24 Hours | 7 Days