How Apple could fix its awful Magic Mouse

Summary

Magic Mouse charging can be fixed by moving the port away from the bottom, or eliminating ports entirely via a wireless charging mat.
Apple also needs to improve the mouse’s ergonomics, which are awkward for sustained use.
The company either needs to prioritize mouse design or leave it to companies with more invested in the concept.

Apple likes to position itself as a bold and innovative company, and sometimes, that’s true. Even in the post-Jobs era, we’ve seen products like the Apple Watch and the Vision Pro wield an outsized influence. The Vision Pro may not be flying off the shelves due to its absurd $3,500 pricetag, but companies like Meta and Bigscreen are nevertheless adapting their own VR headsets to feel more like Apple’s.

At other times, the company stubbornly clings to products and ideas that everyone else recognizes as terrible. Consider Lightning, which it refused to jettison on iPhones until long after other phone makers had switched to USB-C. We’d probably be seeing Lightning on some products today if European regulations hadn’t forced Apple’s hand. When you’ve been regulated into using better standards, something’s wrong.

The Magic Mouse is another example of this attitude. It has its fans, but it’s arguably one of the worst accessories Apple keeps in circulation. It’s not even hard to imagine how Apple could fix the product.

Magic Mouse (USB-C)

Weight: 3.49oz
Wireless?: Yes
Dimensions: 4.47 inches
Battery: Rechargable
Connectivity: USB-C

An iPad Air mounted on a Magic Keyboard and showing Stage Manager.

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Fix charging by making it wireless

Undoing one of the strangest design decisions in history

Apple

If there’s one thing people know about the Magic Mouse, regardless of whether they own one, it’s that its charging port is on the bottom — something widely considered to be one of the weirdest and least logical design choices ever made. If its internal battery runs dry, there’s simply no way to use the mouse while it recharges. At best, it’s an unnecessary inconvenience, given that other wired mice put their USB ports on the back, where they belong. At worst, it could actually prevent you from doing your job unless you’ve got a trackpad or secondary mouse as a fallback. It’s no wonder a lot of Mac owners go straight for third-party mice.

It’s Exhibit A for why companies should listen to customer feedback.

Even more baffling is that Apple switched the product from Lightning to USB-C in 2024… and kept the charging port where it was, despite plenty of public criticism up to that point. It’s Exhibit A for why companies should listen to customer feedback.

The obvious design fix would be to switch to a back-facing port, but since Apple loves making everything wireless, an alternative would be to embrace that philosophy by supporting wireless charging. Companies like Razer and Logitech are already putting out mice with compatible charging mats — Apple’s just late to the party. Heck, I’d love to see a mat that doubles as a USB-C/Thunderbolt hub, though that would probably increase the cost to end users.

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Fix ergonomics while you’re at it

Touch gestures are meaningless without comfort

Before I even learned about its charging port, I discovered that the Magic Mouse is uncomfortable to hold. It’s too narrow for me, and because it’s so flat and thin, just about everyone has to hold their hand in an unsupported arch, especially if they want to take advantage of touch gestures. There’s a reason most mice keep a bulbous shape — it’s an acknowledgment of anatomy, not outdated aesthetics, or a need to pack in a ton of electronics. You could build a mouse with the dimensions of a quarter if you didn’t have to grip it with a human hand.

Now obviously, the main reason the mouse is (relatively) flat is to support those touch gestures, but there has to be a more human-friendly approach. Perhaps Apple could move touch gestures to the side of the device, or make the shell bulbous only where your palm rests.

Personally, I’d rather Apple replace touch gestures with scroll wheels, but the company seems to hate buttons and wheels almost as much as it does ports. There are exceptions — we’ve actually got new buttons and wheels on the iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Ultra — but as a rule, Apple prefers to eliminate mechanical controls wherever touch is a possibility.

Indeed, the company probably has some public support for this one, since the reason anyone likes the Magic Mouse is that touch makes it a breeze to swipe through apps, documents, and webpages. I prefer the precision of a clicky wheel, but I digress.

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Think different, think performance

What is a mouse for?

Part of the problem is that Apple treats the Magic Mouse as an afterthought. It’s bundled with iMacs, but nothing else, and you have to go hunting for it if you shop at the company’s online or brick-and-mortar stores. At $99, it’s also overpriced for its specs. For around the same cost, you can get Logitech’s MX Master 3S, which is considered a gold standard in the industry. It has multiple scroll wheels, a great feel, and even serves as an excellent gaming mouse, with sensitivity settings ranging from 200 to 8,000dpi. I find anything over 2,000 to be overkill — but the Magic Mouse is believed to be capped at 1,300, and doesn’t even show you what DPI you’re at when adjusting settings.

A mouse should never be treated as a minor accessory.

A mouse should never be treated as a minor accessory. It should feel that way when you’re using it, but only because it’s meant to be a seamless bridge between you and your computer. That actually translates into a lot of work on the manufacturer’s end, considering how people actually use their devices, and tailoring every last element to match. It’s why bargain-basement mice are so terrible. You can’t do everything you want, the way you want, and their flimsy shells are a constant physical reminder of that.

Will Apple learn its lesson and deliver us a new, fully redesigned mouse at some point? Perhaps. It’s at least likely to stay in the game, since it would be strange for Apple to sell Mac desktops without an essential way of controlling them. But there’s also the possibility it’ll admit defeat and leave mice to other parties that care more. That’s exactly what it did with Wi-Fi routers, after all — it’s been years since an AirPort product was on the market, and few people seem to mind these days.