Wanna really good Bluetooth mouse for cheap?

Every now and then I come across a really good deal by complete happenstance. Last week my $70 Logitech VX mouse that I’ve used for two years completely lost its mind. The cursor began freezing occasionally and left button clicks were very erratic. Sometimes I would have to click on something two or three times before anything would happen. After trying all the usual remedies to no avail, new battery, repositioning the USB dongle, etc., I went mouse shopping. I decided to look for a Bluetooth mouse to eliminate the need for a dongle. My (late 2013) MacBook Pro only has two USB ports and besides, a dongle is just one more thing to get lost in the bottom of my laptop bag. There are tons of wireless mice requiring a dongle, but after looking far and wide on the web for Bluetooth mice, I was disappointed by how limited the selection is. I was about to give in and fork over 70 bucks to Apple for a MagicMouse when I decided to take a second look at the bargain basement offerings at Amazon. The TeckNet Bluetooth mouse is one of those. For $11.97 and free shipping from Amazon Prime, I figured “what the hell?” and bought it with One-Click. Two days later the UPS man dropped it off.

The mouse came in a plain brown wrapper (box) and the mouse within was unceremoniously wrapped in bubble wrap. There was also a multilingual instruction “manual” printed almost illegibly small on a single sheet of paper folded about 16 times. The english portion was obviously Google-translated from Mandarin or some other Chinese dialect, but clear enough for me to understand the basics. The packaging is what one would expect when paying less than twelve bucks for a Bluetooth mouse, but that’s where the cheapness ends. Much to my surprise, the mouse itself is a solid piece of tech. First, the form factor is almost identical to the Logitech VX with a rubberized thumb indention on the left side and just the right amount of heft. The scroll wheel is also rubberized and includes a middle-button function when depressed. Scrolling with it has a notchy feel, but works well. Both mouse buttons work perfectly for my taste requiring just the right amount of pressure and supplying just the right amount of tactile feedback. In short, it feels better than mice costing five or six times as much. After a couple days use, I’ve fallen in love with the thing.

It does come with a couple of nice features not usually found on cheaper mice. There’s a button on top for selecting between three DPI modes, 1000, 1500 or 2000 and the instructions claim 15 months of battery life due to the mouse turning itself off after 8 minutes of non-use. I find it hard to believe any energy-saving scheme can coax over a year of life from a single AA battery (not included), but if its only a quarter of that I’ll be satisfied. Of course, a twelve dollar mouse doesn’t come with any custom software, but I find it works with USB Overdrive just fine and the “forward” and “back” thumb buttons work correctly right out of the box.

So, if you’re looking for an inexpensive mouse (or any mouse for that matter) I can’t recommend the TeckNet highly enough. Does it have all the features of Apple’s $70 Magic Mouse or Logitech’s $60 MX? No, but it does compare favorably to almost any mouse costing three times as much. I like mine so much I went back to Amazon and bought two more. Like many other cheap imports Amazon sells, I fear they won’t be available if I need one a few months from now. Besides, I’m still out less than 40 bucks, all-in!

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