magic mouse is eating batteries !!

[priitv8]

That is the down side of bluetooth, stinking batteries. Sure I know there is no other way, maybe nuclear for the future, but at this time in space nix the bluetooth keyboards, & mieces not a fan at all.

But still the question remains: why does Apple BT keyboard last 2-3 times longer on a set of batteries, than the Magic Mouse?
Assuming they possess similar power management facilities and BT radios? Purely due to the red LED on the mouse? Touchpad electronics? Design flaw? Something else?

 

[MCAsan]

For both the wife and I, a charged set of Apple rechargeable batteries lasts us several months before we swap them out.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

But still the question remains: why does Apple BT keyboard last 2-3 times longer on a set of batteries, than the Magic Mouse?
Assuming they possess similar power management facilities and BT radios? Purely due to the red LED on the mouse? Touchpad electronics? Design flaw? Something else?

The keyboard can just sit idle, then when a key is pressed it wakes up and transmits the data packet to the computer then goes back to idle waiting for the next key press.

The mouse continuously samples (kind of like a little camera taking maybe a thousand frames per second) the surface it is on, with the laser or LED illuminating the contours of the surface, the mouse then compares successive samples to determine movement. The mouse also likely has to transmit more data than the keyboard. Due to this I would expect the mouse to use a lot more power.

Also unlike the keyboard the mouse needs to be able to tell when its being moved which means that it will be consuming a lot more power compared to the keyboard even when it is idle.