Wireless Magic Mouse vs Rechargeable Batteries?

Here are a few notes I've put together.

Whether you use regular or rechargeable batteries you should buy the best. Discounted or unbranded batteries are more likely to give a depleted performance and may be of irregular size, often leading to connection problems. Apple’s own brand, Eneloop and Energiser appear to be the best.

Rechargeable batteries for the standard Magic mouse are unlikely to exceed eighteen days before needing a recharge although the mouse itself can be a limiting factor. I have seen reports that some Logitech mice vastly exceed this. Apple may suggest more in their sales blurb but this is a realistic expectation. The benefit (if you are organised) is that you can always have charged batteries available. Regular batteries will give you between 25 and 35 days before they need to be replaced.

Note. Never mix old and new batteries or rechargeable and regular.

Both the above are based on my personal experience, not shutting down my machine and using it for around four hours per day. Note. Monitors do not always faithfully report battery strength, particularly with rechargeable ones.

When checking your mouse or keyboard batteries ...

Turn off the device.

Remove the batteries,

Clean the terminals both inside the battery compartment and on the batteries themselves.

Replace or renew both batteries.

Turn on the device. You should get a blinking green light if the device is paired.

Click the mouse to activate it. The green light becomes steady.

If there is no green light check the strength of the connections (are the batteries loose) and even if you put them in the wrong way round (We've all done it.)

In my Apple Magic (bluetooth) Mouse (2 batteries) Eneloop Generation One (2006, 07 and 08) batteries were lasting about 3 weeks before I would receive the on screen warning of low batteries (at 9% charge left).

In my Apple bluetooth keyboard (3 battery version) Eneloop Generation One (2006, 07 and 08) batteries were lasting about 6 weeks before I would receive the on screen warning of low batteries (at 9% charge left).

I have replaced the mouse batteries with new Eneloop Pro (2016/black). These are lasting about 6 weeks – twice as long as the Gen Ones. How much of this extra longevity is due to the Pros being newer and how much is due to their extra capacity, I don’t know. The older batteries might have been recharged 100 times – only 10% of their 1,000 recharge cycle rating.

Similarly, I replaced the keyboard batteries with new Eneloop Pro (2016/black). These last about 3 months – again about twice as long as the Gen Ones.

If the Pros really can be recharged 500 times, they will last about 57 years for use in the mouse and 125 years for use in the keyboard. I suspect that neither the mouse, the keyboard, nor I will be around by the time they wear out.