Apple's Mighty Mouse: The Move to Multi-Button

High Resolution LCD and Gaming Performance

One of the reasons why I originally switched to the Logitech MX1000 was because of my use of higher and higher resolution displays.  I found that the larger the LCD I moved to, the more of a pain using low DPI optical mice became.  When I first decided to leave my old Microsoft mouse behind, I bought two mice and did a little mini roundup for myself to determine which one I'd use for my main machine.  The running was between the Logitech MX1000 and the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0.  In a nutshell, my conclusions were that although I liked the ergonomics of the IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0 better than the MX1000, the scroll wheel (I accidentally middle-clicked a lot with the IntelliMouse's wheel) and, most importantly, the tracking accuracy of the MX1000 was far better for my needs, especially on using very high resolution displays.  So, the MX1000 became my work mouse and the IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0 became my testbed mouse. 

Earlier Apple optical mice had always disappointed me with their tracking accuracy, but as you can expect, the larger Apple's Cinema Displays got, the better suited for them their optical mice became.  The Mighty Mouse worked particularly well on the three displays that I tried it on (Dell 2001FP, Apple 23" Cinema Display and Apple 30" Cinema Display), even quick flicks of the wrist did not result in any confused cursors.  I was pleasantly surprised with that aspect of the Mighty Mouse's performance.  Although the MX1000 was better, the difference in the vast majority of tasks was basically undetectable. 

One of the areas where Logitech's mice are supposed to excel is in gaming. So, I fired up a few games and tried out Apple's latest just to see how mighty it was.  However, it was in its gaming performance that I was actually the most disappointed.  The tracking speed and accuracy were good enough for me; granted, my first-person shooter skills have atrophied over the past few years, so I'm not as dependent on the perfect mouse as I would have been before, but I would say for the majority of casual/recreational gamers, the tracking and accuracy won't be a problem.  The major problem instead was an issue that I mentioned earlier in this review: the problem of right clicking when your left click finger (in my case, the index finger) is resting on the left side of the mouse. 

When using the mouse for anything but gaming, I'm not usually alternating left and right clicks all that much, especially given how much of a keyboard-shortcut nut I am.  But even when I am clicking a lot, the pace of my clicking isn't so great that I have problems remembering to lift my index finger before I go to right click.  It's a pain, sure, but it's something that I can deal with.  In games though, it's a very different story. 

I fired up a game of Command & Conquerer: Generals, a real-time strategy game where left clicking will select your characters and right clicking deselects them.  The reason why I picked this game in particular is because it involves a lot of alternating between left and right clicking, which was where the single-button design of the Mighty Mouse truly failed.  Quickly switching between left and right clicks using the mouse had my hand doing a finger dance that it wasn't used to doing at such a fast pace; it went something like: index finger up, right click, index finger down, left click, combined with a lot of dragging and selecting.  Although the Mac is far from a gaming platform, those of you who do happen to game on your Mac (or want to use the Mighty Mouse on your PC) should know of the mouse's shortcomings.