Which Has A Longer Battery Life: Magic Mouse Or The Trackpad

[beeinformed]

Hi,

I would like to find out from the members here, which has a longer battery life, the magic mouse or the trackpad?

Thanks in advance for your input on my question!

 

[swarleystinson]

Hi,

I would like to find out from the members here, which has a longer battery life, the magic mouse or the trackpad?

Thanks in advance for your input on my question!

I would guess the trackpad, but this is just a guess. To be honest, both have pretty decent life. You can always pay for the apple rechargeable batteries if you want ones that look cool. Disposables are cheap though, especially if you get them online.

I personally dislike them both and went with a Razer Deathadder mouse that plugs in and is continuously powered via USB and I absolutely love it. They specific mac-compatible version as well, though I bought the 3.5 g and it works fine. .

 

[T5BRICK]

You can always pay for the apple rechargeable batteries if you want ones that look cool. Disposables are cheap though, especially if you get them online.

I'm pretty sure the rechargeable ones Apple sells are just Sanyo Eneloops. You can buy them at Amazon for a decent price. I picked up 10AAs at costco for $20. They are supposed to last 1500 charge cycles, so if they get anywhere near that they're worth it.

 

[COrocket]

My trackpad sucks down power. I use my computer a lot so I have to replace the batteries fairly often, at least compared to my keyboard. That said, I'm using Energizer rechargeable, so I kind of expected that

 

[beeinformed]

Will the Apple Battery Charger $29.99 (shown with the link below) hold a charge so that the trackpad and/ magic mouse will last for three or four weeks?

Also, on average how long will an Energizer battery, for example, last before
I have to replace them on the trackpad and the magic mouse? Thanks!

http://store.storeimages.cdn-apple....icub&op_usm=0.5,0.5,0,0&iccEmbed=0&layer=comp

 

[mrsir2009]

I'd think that the trackpad would use less battery power - It's only my assumptions, but: The magic mouse has a multi-touch pad on the top AND a movement sensor on the bottom, whereas the magic trackpad ONLY has a multi-touch pad. Although the trackpad's surface area is larger, so that might balance it out... But I guess it all hinges on how much the sensor uses versus how much the multi-touch pad uses...

 

[trustever]

Personally I suggest you the Sanyo Eneloops all the way

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sanyo-Enelo...C0LG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1359291152&sr=8-5

I have several of them in my camera, remotes, bike lights and they never failed, I have bought once the uniross and they sucks.

With the Sanyo Eneloops you do not have to worry about if the mouse uses more than the trackpad!

 

[Ledgem]

My trackpad sucks down power. I use my computer a lot so I have to replace the batteries fairly often, at least compared to my keyboard. That said, I'm using Energizer rechargeable, so I kind of expected that

My Magic Trackpad also needs to have its batteries recharged more frequently than the Bluetooth keyboard - perhaps anywhere from 2-4x more (although it partly depends on my activities - usually, the trackpad is getting more use than the keyboard).

However, I've heard people remark that something seems to be wrong with the way that the trackpad detects how much battery life is remaining. If you watch the percentages, it goes down from 100% rather quickly and will begin to warn you of low battery, but then the percentage begins to drop very slowly. I haven't kept track of the exact dates, but I know that I've gone for at least two weeks while the "low battery" warning was going and didn't have the trackpad fizzle out on me. I did a test to see how long it would take for the trackpad to stop operating, and it was long enough that I had forgotten when the indicator came on.

To summarize, people who claim that the trackpad only lasts 3-4 weeks between charges are usually going based off of when the "low battery" indicator starts up. Based on my experience, you can go for another 2-4 weeks beyond that.

 

[COrocket]

My Magic Trackpad also needs to have its batteries recharged more frequently than the Bluetooth keyboard - perhaps anywhere from 2-4x more (although it partly depends on my activities - usually, the trackpad is getting more use than the keyboard).

However, I've heard people remark that something seems to be wrong with the way that the trackpad detects how much battery life is remaining. If you watch the percentages, it goes down from 100% rather quickly and will begin to warn you of low battery, but then the percentage begins to drop very slowly. I haven't kept track of the exact dates, but I know that I've gone for at least two weeks while the "low battery" warning was going and didn't have the trackpad fizzle out on me. I did a test to see how long it would take for the trackpad to stop operating, and it was long enough that I had forgotten when the indicator came on.

To summarize, people who claim that the trackpad only lasts 3-4 weeks between charges are usually going based off of when the "low battery" indicator starts up. Based on my experience, you can go for another 2-4 weeks beyond that.

I've noticed something similar, where you get a lot of use after the low battery warning comes on. I think it is because the Energizer rechargeables that I use level off at a lower voltage as they are discharged compared to the single use batteries. I'm not sure if this happens with the Apple brand rechargables

 

[Ledgem]

I've noticed something similar, where you get a lot of use after the low battery warning comes on. I think it is because the Energizer rechargeables that I use level off at a lower voltage as they are discharged compared to the single use batteries. I'm not sure if this happens with the Apple brand rechargables

I'm not really sure. I use Sanyo Eneloops, which are supposedly what Apple's batteries are. Back when I read about this issue a year or so ago, people were claiming that the problem had something to do with Apple calibrating their system for alkaline batteries instead of the mixed chemistry that rechargeable batteries use. It sounded pretty convincing at the time, but doesn't really make much sense in hindsight. The trackpad wasn't Apple's first device to use batteries, and I haven't heard similar complaints made over the keyboard or Magic Mouse (unless they're also badly underestimating how much battery life is left).

It would be nice to have a more accurate battery readout from the trackpad, but oh well. I basically ignore the first battery warning (the overlay), and I ignore the second (the pop-up window that warns about the trackpad possibly shutting off) up until I reach a time when I figure I'd be badly inconvenienced if the trackpad were unusable, and then charge it when it's convenient for me to do so.

 

[colodane]

The behavior of the % remaining battery reading will vary depending on the battery chemistry used. The display is calculated from the voltage measured at the battery. Different battery chemistries have different discharge curves (voltage vs. time). I don't know which chemistry Apple assumed when they wrote the % remaining software, but probably either alkaline or NiMH (ala the Apple rechargeable batteries).

If you use primary Lithium cells as I do, you will get yet another behavior. Lithium batteries have a somewhat higher voltage when new and maintain that voltage until just before they are depleted (sharper knee on the discharge curve). Thus, they will read 100% for a lot longer than other types of batteries, but once the voltage starts to go down, they will get to 0% faster than other battery types. They have a higher total energy capacity, however, so battery life is actually longer.

Bottom line is to just replace whatever batteries you are using when the % remaining gets to less than 10% or so.