Traditional Wireless Mouse or Bluetooth?

[Greg]

I was looking at getting a wireless mouse for my notebook. Is there any
difference in performance between one that relies on a radio signal compared
to Bluetooth? Bluetooth, obviously, has the ability to communicate with
other Bluetooth enabled objects. And the range seems to be much further than
the typical wireless mouse. I guess I want to know if the extra cost is
worth it? My notebook already has wireless b/g. And I don't really see
Bluetooth being used for anything else other than the mouse.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

I do suppose if I upgrade to another mouse and have the Bluetooth dongle
then all I have to do is just get the mouse. Unlike a regular wireless mouse
that seems to require you to purchase the receiver as well as the mouse.

 

[Wayne Stallwood]

I was looking at getting a wireless mouse for my notebook. Is there any
difference in performance between one that relies on a radio signal
compared to Bluetooth? Bluetooth, obviously, has the ability to
communicate with other Bluetooth enabled objects. And the range seems to
be much further than the typical wireless mouse. I guess I want to know if
the extra cost is worth it? My notebook already has wireless b/g. And I
don't really see Bluetooth being used for anything else other than the
mouse.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

I do suppose if I upgrade to another mouse and have the Bluetooth dongle
then all I have to do is just get the mouse. Unlike a regular wireless
mouse that seems to require you to purchase the receiver as well as the
mouse.

The other advantage is that you can get PCMCIA bluetooth cards, thus not
having to plug in a wireless dongle when you pull the laptop out of the
bag. Not sure why extra range is useful though, it's not like you can use a
mouse too far away from the laptop screen anyway.

To my mind if you get a wireless usb/ps2 mouse then on a laptop this is no
better than having a wired one. You still have to plug something in so it
may as well be a wired mouse.

 

[Greg]

I agree. My notebook has one PCMCIA slot. The laptop (dell 8600) does have
the option for a Bluetooth mini card. I can install it in the laptop
instead. Its a few buck more though and I am still wondering if it would be
worth the effort.

 

[Paul]

I was looking at getting a wireless mouse for my notebook. Is there any
difference in performance between one that relies on a radio signal
compared
to Bluetooth?

I find bluetooth signal better than with my RF keyboard and mouse.

Bluetooth, obviously, has the ability to communicate with
other Bluetooth enabled objects. And the range seems to be much further
than
the typical wireless mouse. I guess I want to know if the extra cost is
worth it? My notebook already has wireless b/g.

Not sure what that is but if it is a wireless network card then it won't be
able to communicate with a mouse.

And I don't really see
Bluetooth being used for anything else other than the mouse.

It can be used to connect mobile phones, PDA, connect to other computers and
much more.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

I do suppose if I upgrade to another mouse and have the Bluetooth dongle
then all I have to do is just get the mouse. Unlike a regular wireless
mouse
that seems to require you to purchase the receiver as well as the mouse.

You don't need to purchase the receiver, I have never seen one where you
need to buy a separate receiver.

If money is no object then go for bluetooth, but RF or infra-red will be a
lot cheaper. As the poster above says, if you use bluetooth you won't have
to plug in the receiver every time you move your laptop. The longer range of
bluetooth would unlikely be useful, only uses I can think of is if you were
doing a powerpoint presentation and needed to move on the slides while
standing away from your laptop?

Paul

 

[Peter Wilkins]

I was looking at getting a wireless mouse for my notebook. Is there any
difference in performance between one that relies on a radio signal compared
to Bluetooth? Bluetooth, obviously, has the ability to communicate with
other Bluetooth enabled objects. And the range seems to be much further than
the typical wireless mouse. I guess I want to know if the extra cost is
worth it? My notebook already has wireless b/g. And I don't really see
Bluetooth being used for anything else other than the mouse.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

I do suppose if I upgrade to another mouse and have the Bluetooth dongle
then all I have to do is just get the mouse. Unlike a regular wireless mouse
that seems to require you to purchase the receiver as well as the mouse.

My laptop already has bluetooth built-in, and I have tried everywhere
to find a bluetooth mouse which comes WITHOUT a bluetooth dongle,
without success. If you know of one, I would appreciate details!

I'm currently using a standard mini wireless optical mouse with USB
dongle and it works OK but is hell on batteries, so if I could find a
bluetooth one, I would go for it - but don't want to pay the extra for
the unwanted dongle.

Only one word of warning - bluetooth and your b/g wireless card work
in the same 2.4G frequency band and if they are used simultaneously
there is the possibility of interference depending on the channels
used. You may need to switch channels if you get any interference.
My laptop actually comes up with a window warning to check for
interference if I have them both turned on.

 

[Keith]

I was looking at getting a wireless mouse for my notebook. Is there any
difference in performance between one that relies on a radio signal compared
to Bluetooth? Bluetooth, obviously, has the ability to communicate with
other Bluetooth enabled objects. And the range seems to be much further than
the typical wireless mouse. I guess I want to know if the extra cost is
worth it? My notebook already has wireless b/g. And I don't really see
Bluetooth being used for anything else other than the mouse.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

I do suppose if I upgrade to another mouse and have the Bluetooth dongle
then all I have to do is just get the mouse. Unlike a regular wireless mouse
that seems to require you to purchase the receiver as well as the mouse.

I purchased the Logitech MX900 Bluetooth mouse about 12 months ago (maybe
less) as my Dell notebook has internal bluetooth.

I hate it!

It's the most annoying mouse I have ever owned.

It disconnects itself whenever it feels like it, often requiring a reboot to
rectify the problem, and it get's through AA batteries at a rate of about a
pair every 2 days. There is no 'off' button, so it is always using
batteries and flashing a red light out of teh bottom. As it's kept in my
notebook bag, when I carry it aroound, the light on the mouse is on full
searching for a surface unless I take the batteries out.

Do yourself a favour and get a corded mouse - I am going to when this one
dies and I have got my investment out of it.

 

[Greg]

Thanks. I didn't think about the possible conflict with the 2.4ghz
frequency.

Regarding the stand alone mouse. I've found several on ebay. If you don't
like to use that then you can try newegg.com or tigerdirect.com

I was looking at getting a wireless mouse for my notebook. Is there any
difference in performance between one that relies on a radio signal compared
to Bluetooth? Bluetooth, obviously, has the ability to communicate with
other Bluetooth enabled objects. And the range seems to be much further than
the typical wireless mouse. I guess I want to know if the extra cost is
worth it? My notebook already has wireless b/g. And I don't really see
Bluetooth being used for anything else other than the mouse.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

I do suppose if I upgrade to another mouse and have the Bluetooth dongle
then all I have to do is just get the mouse. Unlike a regular wireless mouse
that seems to require you to purchase the receiver as well as the mouse.

My laptop already has bluetooth built-in, and I have tried everywhere
to find a bluetooth mouse which comes WITHOUT a bluetooth dongle,
without success. If you know of one, I would appreciate details!

I'm currently using a standard mini wireless optical mouse with USB
dongle and it works OK but is hell on batteries, so if I could find a
bluetooth one, I would go for it - but don't want to pay the extra for
the unwanted dongle.

Only one word of warning - bluetooth and your b/g wireless card work
in the same 2.4G frequency band and if they are used simultaneously
there is the possibility of interference depending on the channels
used. You may need to switch channels if you get any interference.
My laptop actually comes up with a window warning to check for
interference if I have them both turned on.

 

[Greg]

Yeah. A part of me doesn't want to rely on batteries. I play guitar. And I
don't ever think I would want to rely on a wireless transmitter. I prefer
the old fashion cord. The obsessive side of me thinks the performance might
suffer due to low battery power.