If you’re looking for a new mouse for a Mac or MacBook, you’ve got plenty of options beyond Apple’s Magic Mouse (though we do have a soft spot for Apple’s peripheral despite its silly charging port on its base).
These days most mice will work on either Mac or PC, so you’ve got access to just about the entire PC mouse market, from wired to wireless, trackpads to trackballs, and even the over-the-top dedicated gaming mice.
A lot of people prefer using a mouse to their laptop’s trackpad, and so – especially when working all day on a MacBook – a mouse makes things much easier.
Beware of the cheapest wireless mice out there. Many require a nano receiver to plug into a USB port on the computer, and newer MacBooks have just one or two USB-C ports, rather than the required old-school USB-A. Ideally, you’ll want a Bluetooth-compatible mouse to connect to a MacBook.
But what if you’re looking for something special to enhance your Mac browsing experience? We’ve rounded up a few of our favourite mice below – from Apple and beyond – so take a look.
If you are wondering how to right-click on a Mac read this.
1. Logitech MX Master 3 – Best Overall
The successor to the best-selling MX Master 2S, the Logitech MX Master 3 is gorgeous. It’s comfortable and the curves fit perfectly against your hand.
The included Darkfield laser sensor offers fantastic tracking capabilities, which will work on almost any surface – including high-gloss and glass surfaces, without the need for a mousemat.
The key improvement over the 2S is the machined steel scroll wheel, which now features an electromagnetic mechanism that all but removes resistance from the scroll while not making a peep. It’s actually fast enough to scroll through 1,000 lines of code in a second.
The MX Master 3 can be used both through a wireless 2.4GHz (via included USB dongle), Bluetooth or wired connection via USB-C.
It features Logitech Flow, letting you move your mouse between displays – even between computers running different operating systems. Copying and pasting files and working across a multi-computer setup is a breeze.
Battery life is an important feature to consider when buying a wireless mouse, but the 3 has that covered. A single minute of charge will get you three hours of use, and when fully charged, it lasts an incredible 70 days.
2. Magic Mouse 2 – Best Apple Mouse
Buy one of Apple’s new iMacs and you’ll be given the option of the updated Magic Mouse 2, the latest take on Apple’s wireless mouse design.
It’s a design that’s divided opinion: many find that flat, sleek, symmetrical body shape too insubstantial to be comfortable in the hand, and this can, in turn, make activating its gestures tricky. But plenty of others enjoy the Magic Mouse, and peripherals are after all a thoroughly personal matter. Try it before you buy it, we’d say.
It has one glaring design error, unfortunately – to charge it you need to turn it upside down to connect the Lightning cable, thus rendering it useless while it powers up!
The mouse is also available to buy in sexy Space Grey – previously exclusive to the iMac Pro – but that brings with it a markup. You can buy something similar a lot cheaper, if you consider Satechi’s M1 Wireless Mouse.
Read our full Apple Magic Mouse 2 review
3. Satechi M1 Bluetooth Wireless Mouse – Best Cheap Wireless Mouse
Satechi’s USB-C Aluminum M1 Bluetooth Wireless Mouse comes with an old-fashioned scroll wheel, which the company claims offers faster and more accurate scrolling and tracking.
The cursor fairly flies around the screen as I move the M1 – much faster than my Apple mouse, and almost disconcertingly at first. It feels like it floats across my desk. Although I am equally happy with Apple’s touch-sensitive mouse top, the M1’s scroll wheel does allow for stepped, more-accurate scrolling than Apple’s.
As it can also be a Windows mouse, it has a right button for the extra controls you need to add a control-click with Apple’s one-button device.
The M1 mouse has a pleasingly curved ergonomic design, making it fine for both left- and right-handed users. Its aluminium body is available in silver, space gray, gold and rose gold colours so can attractively match your Mac or MacBook.
There’s no removable batteries, so you recharge via USB-C (cable included), which is better placed than that on the Apple Magic Mouse 2, which is frustratingly unusable while recharging. Satechi’s use of USB-C rather than Lightning cable is also a more modern move.
It uses Bluetooth 4.0 so has a range of 32 feet.
4. Logitech MX Anywhere 2S – Best Portable Wireless Mouse
Logitech’s updated take on its portable mouse features a few hardware and software tweaks that make it one of the best wireless mouses on the market.
It features a Darkfield sensor with up to 4,000 DPI that works on just about any surface you try, and Logitech boasts that the batteries will last about 70 days.
The slim design boasts five buttons, including a scroll wheel that can swap between smooth and clicky scrolling, and it’s available in three different colours.
All of that would be impressive enough, but we haven’t even mentioned Flow, the new software innovation that allows the MX Anywhere 2S to connect to up to three devices at once and seamlessly move the cursor from one device to another, just as if they were multiple monitors for one computer.
It even works across both macOS and Windows, and it lets you copy and paste from one device to another.
5. Magic Trackpad 2 – Best Trackpad
The second in Apple’s raft of ‘Magic’ branded peripherals, the Magic Trackpad 2 brings Force Touch to desktop Macs for the first time. It comes at a cost, mind you.
The design is beautiful, with the whisper-smooth white matt top surface a particular highlight, and the ability to use harder Force Clicks to activate application-specific special commands, while a little confusing at first, is lots of fun and occasionally genuinely useful. This will only get more useful as more software companies develop for it.
Like the Magic Mouse 2, the Bluetooth trackpad has a rechargeable battery that’s charged via a (bundled) Lightning cable, and pairs with a Mac automatically the instant you plug it in. Assuming the Mac is running El Capitan or later, that is.
Read our full Apple Magic Trackpad 2 review
6. Penclic R3 – Best for avoiding RSI
Here’s one for anyone fed up with mice that look like, well, mice – or, more importantly, anyone worried about repetitive strain injury (RSI).
Penclic claims the R3 helps stave off RSI by allowing your wrist to rest at a more natural, comfortable position on the desk, rather than hunched up into a claw. The base operates essentially like a normal mouse, which you move across the desk, but you hold the stem much like you would a pen.
We haven’t developed RSI yet, but that probably doesn’t tell you much. What we can say is that after a tricky adjustment period of a couple days we learnt to use the R3 just as quickly as any other mouse and found it impressively comfortable to use.
It’s powered by a single AAA battery, and comes with a rechargeable one included, topped up via Micro-USB.
The R3 comes with three buttons and a scroll wheel, but if you want something with more functionality the R2 is essentially the same but comes packed with five buttons.
This connects to your Mac wirelessly through an included USB dongle, but if you prefer there are also versions that connect by Bluetooth or wired. MacBook users will need Bluetooth, remember.
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Via MACWORLD