Best Bluetooth mouse under $50

Alright, so I want to get a wireless mouse to go with my (soon to arrive) laptop, which has built in bluetooth. I'd prefer bluetooth over RF so I don't have to use up a USB port.

I really like the Razer Orochi. It's bluetooth, high precision, comes with a carry case, and best of all also works as a wired mouse! There are just a couple of problems:
1. Its power-save feature will cause it to lag for a second if you don't move it for 2-3 seconds. Having power saving features is nice, but apparently this can't be turned off. I suppose I would just have to plug it in while gaming. . .
2. It costs about twice as much as I want to spend.

So basically, I'm looking for a nice bluetooth mouse that's fast, responsive, comfortable, and doesn't cost a whole lot. I don't really need gaming-grade precision (I do game, but not at any level where this is necessary ), but I don't want any lag or noticeable delay. I also really like the orochi's double purpose as a wired and wireless mouse, but I don't expect to find many others with this feature.

Any suggestions? Or should I just bite the bullet and buy the Orochi?

 

I use a Microsoft Laser bluetooth mouse when traveling, and it's pretty responsive. It's just a bit small for my hand and gaming in general.

The power-saving lag isn't too bad on it, and it tracks really well. It takes at least 5-10 seconds or more to really time out. It's also nice that it takes AAA's. A bit of a double-edged sword... easy to keep working when they die, but I have to keep some AAA's with me all the time

 

The Dell 5-button Bluetooth Travel Mouse is an excellent choice, at around $30. Aside from the Razer Orochi (which is out of your budget), it's the closest thing to a full desktop mouse in terms of functionality.

 

@mastershroom
Very nice suggestion, and after looking at dell's website it looks like they have a pretty good selection of bluetooth mice in general (I can't believe how few there are compared to RF mice. . . ). I'm not sure about the shape: it reminds me of my wife's logitech desktop mouse which has a very shallow curve down near where your fingers rest and a bump closer to the back. I'm sure some people prefer it, but I usually keep my index and middle finger at a slight bend, so having the larger bump closer to the buttons (as in the orochi or the Microsoft 5000) is more comfortable.

@pitabred
Is the Microsoft Bluetooth 5000 the one you have? That looks pretty good, and newegg has it for $32 OEM. When you say it's pretty responsive, do you mean pretty responsive for a wireless mouse (still a noticeable lag between when the mouse moves and the cursor moves, even if it's short), or do you mean there might be a bit of a delay, but you can't really tell? Also, any comment on battery life?

Thanks again!

 

Yes, that's the one I have. I mean it's responsive in general. I don't notice that it doesn't have a cable. And battery life, I'll go a few months between changing batteries. But I don't use it every single day, only when I'm traveling. As an all-day, every-day mouse I'd guess it'll do a month or so on a pair of AAA's

 

I would agree with him. I've the MS blue tooth 5000 and my AAA last about month. I use it everyday.

 

You can get the MS BT 5000 at amazon for a few $ cheap also.
LINKY $31.78



Cin...

 

Hmm. . a month's not bad, but not great either. I have a friend with a Logitech RF mouse and I want to say it lasted him almost a year on the first set of batteries, and this was with using it every day. Maybe it was only 6 months, but still. . . is bluetooth inherently less power efficient than RF?

Well, regardless, the MS 5000 is still looking pretty good. It's definitely between that and the Orochi right now, just a question of whether my wife will let me splurge a bit on a mouse. I'm holding off on making a final decision for now since my laptop wont arrive for a few more weeks anyway. I'll see how I feel about it then.

If anyone else has suggestions, I'm all ears. Otherwise, the MS Bluetooth 5000 is looking to be the winner. Special thanks to pitabred for his expertise on that.

EDIT - Thank for the link cin'. Hard to beat that price. . . I might have to order it sooner rather than later.

 

NP!

I also have the Logitech M555B...it's a superb Mouse..but it's about $8 more than your $50 max limit. It's awesome. Has Hyper Fast Scrolling.

Here is the link if you want to check it: LINK


Cin...

 

I was almost buyin the MS 5000 ... because.. .. don't laugh.. i really LOVE the design.. it looks just uber cool

but then I heard some people talkin about that the mouse drops conneciton every now and then.. and that kept me out of buyin it..

 

I've never had mine drop, and I've used it with multiple different computers.

 

You know, the reviews on all of these bluetooth mice seem so inconsistent. With the MS one, some users say it never drops out, others it drops out all the time. With the orochi, some say it's really laggy in wireless mode, others say it never lags.

Maybe it comes down to the finickiness (I originally wrote "pickiness" and this is what spell check suggested, so I went with it) of the bluetooth module in your laptop? I don't know, sure makes it hard to figure out which ones are good and which aren't though.

 

It could be with the bluetooth module, or just the computer skill level. I've seen lots of bad reviews by people who don't know what the actual problem is.

 

When it comes to lag, a big part of that is also differing opinions on how much is tolerable or ideal.

The Razer Orochi, for instance, has 8ms response time in Bluetooth mode. Compared to other Bluetooth mice, which are around 15ms, that's pretty good. But it's also not nearly as good as the 1ms of most wired gaming mice, including the Orochi when plugged in.

 

@shroom
I was referring to the issue a lot of users claim to have where the mouse goes to sleep after 2 or 3 seconds of inactivity, causing a noticeable delay when it wakes up.

Still, point taken.

@pita
Ah, the ol' id-ten-t error. Reminds me of when I was looking at all the customer ratings for Alienware. The vast majority of complaints I saw were things like "It only has 3GB of RAM in Windows XP!" and "Tech support told me to reformat my hard drive, and now all my files are gone!!!".

That said, I've never actually had bluetooth on my computer before, so I could have a retard moment or two myself.

 

Ah, that. That's just a universal trait of Bluetooth mice. Even the Orochi does it in Bluetooth mode.

 

I was actually talking about the Orochi, and the fact that some users claim they *don't* have that issue with sleep.

Here, if you go to this thread, you'll see that some users are adamant that their orochi's don't sleep after 2-3 seconds, while others are just as adamant that they do. That's what I was referring to.

 

My Orochi does sleep when in Bluetooth mode, but it takes more than 2 or 3 seconds of idleness to make it happen. I haven't exactly timed it with a watch, but I'd say it's more like 10 or 15.

It's definitely an excellent mouse overall.

 

I wouldn't really care if it fell asleep after few seconds.. I don't mind the little lag, but I hope it works nice and smooth when it is active.

I also heard that it eats batteries a lot. Few months on one pair of batteries would be nice..

Talkin about MS 5000 here..

 

I'm using MS BT 5000. A really bad batteries lasted for about a month. Now I bought rechargable with a charger and they last longer now, we'll se how long...

One other that cought my eye is Radtech

 

i might get that microsoft for my macbook

 

And can you say us whether the mouse lags when another bluetooth device is transferring data ?
After how much of idle time it falls asleep ?

Thanks in advance for the answers