Increase magic mouse battery life - tips

The iMacs ship with what Apple calls a Magic Mouse. Now the only issue with the Magic Mouse is that it's got no magical battery life. I've been performing various experiments to improve the battery life of the mouse and found out that there are indeed a few ways you can do that. But before I get into that, let me tell you that with the two regular chargeable AA type batteries that ship with the mouse, I can only get about 100-120 hours of overall battery life. Considering I use the mouse for about almost 8-10 hours a day, I have to keep changing the batteries quite often.



Make Magic Mouse Battery Last Longer

Captain Obvious: Use the mouse less and the keyboard more. The pro users tend to use the keyboard shortcuts more than the mouse to navigate around the screens and menus. You can do so, if the battery life really matters to you.

The battery eater: The sensors on your mouse are the biggest battery eaters of all and being easier on them is a sure-shot way of improving the battery life. Logitech suggests that the mouse sensors have to work less (and thereby they eat lesser battery) when you use them on light colored surfaces. You may also avoid rough and dull surfaces so that the sensors can perform motion and position related calculations easier. I've tried this method and my magic mouse is already in its 15th day. So this trick works for sure.

Get good batteries: For unknown reasons, I've been using the default set of batteries from Apple. I'm considering a switch to Duracell or Energizer. If anyone's has used them in your magic mouse, I'd be more than willing to listen to your experience. I've read on a few blogs and boards that a good set of batteries can make a huge difference to the performance.

Will share more tips as I discover them.