Best Bluetooth Mouse

Are you the type of person that just cannot work with the laptop touch-pad? It happens to a lot of us, what you need is a mouse, if your laptop has Bluetooth you can go for the Bluetooth version of the mouse and still keep all your usb slots (no usb dongle needle, that is just for the regular wireless mice).

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.

Movement Sensor

If you have been paying attention to mouse evolution, you know that there are different sensors, that came in different times, the older was is the mechanical, followed by the optical, and finally the laser. Looking at things in a time-line perspective, the mechanical is clearly pre-historic, since it records mouse movement using a ball (plastic or ceramic) that move other inner plastic rollers, and nowadays it is only used in trackball mice. This old technology had problems, would only function correctly in a very smooth surface (mouse pad) and collected grime and dirt from the surface, eventually you would have to clean the ball and the rollers, and you would notice an immediate improvement on precision.

Most commercial surfaces will only have available mice with the optical or laser sensor. Regarding the optical sensor, like the name dictates, all motion is detected with the use of light, with no mechanical components, so it has better precision, and will work in a broader array of surfaces, with the added value of no maintenance, since the sensor will not get dirty. 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). If you want decent precision, this sensor will not let you down, as it goes as far as 1000DPI in some cases, and you really don't need more than that for most computer applications.

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.

Battery Life Indicator

All wireless solutions suffer from one common problem, the battery, in the case of bluetooth mice, some manufacturers claim it can last up to half a year, but even then, it will run out of power, and tha can happen when you most need it. There is a solution for this problem, the battery life indicator, it will work just like the gas fuel gauge on your car, and let you know in advance when you will run out of power, so you can act according, and recharge it or buy new batteries, you will definitely need this one.

Scroll Wheel Design

There are some mouse models that don't really have a scroll wheel, but since i find it an absolute necessary feature, i will only address those who have got then. First off we have the classic wheel, just moves back and forth so you can do the vertical scroll at any given time. 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).

Volume

If you have a laptop chances are you want to keep things as small as possible, because of the limited carrying space on most laptop cases; we can divide mice in two sub-categories, the ones based on desktop mice, but were sized down, and the micro-mice. This second really really small mice, are good when you really don't care about features and just want the smallest mouse possible, because in regards to quality they do break a lot more often than the laptop ones, usually don't have Bluetooth, just regular wireless that takes up one usb slot, or cordless (most cases really), also they lack precision (small dpi) since all is really shrinked up; personally i would not go for these as you will eventually drop them or the buttons will start to stick, until a really decent one comes along, don't even bother with these, because the big companies that develop mice don't even have these models in their range (guess why).

Where can i find more info on the Best Bluetooth Mouse?

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