Battery life on bluetooth keyboard & mouse

How long to people find the batteries last on the Apple wireless keyboard & mouse?
Roy Smith wrote on :

I'm thinking of getting an iMac with the bluetooth keyboard and mouse (and WiFi, of course, I've declared war against wires). What I'm afraid of is battery life. I've got a Kensington wireless mouse which needs new batteries every few weeks. It's a real pain in the butt.

How long to people find the batteries last on the Apple wireless keyboard & mouse?

Keeper of the Purple Twilight replied on :

On 2005-03-13 10:12:14 -0600, Roy Smith roy@redacted.invalid said:

I'm thinking of getting an iMac with the bluetooth keyboard and mouse (and WiFi, of course, I've declared war against wires). What I'm afraid of is battery life. I've got a Kensington wireless mouse which needs new batteries every few weeks. It's a real pain in the butt.

How long to people find the batteries last on the Apple wireless keyboard & mouse?

Longer than the Kensington, definitely. It's a few months before I have to replace the batteries on my Apple wireless stuff.

Niels Jørgen Kruse replied on :

Roy Smith roy@redacted.invalid wrote:

I'm thinking of getting an iMac with the bluetooth keyboard and mouse (and WiFi, of course, I've declared war against wires). What I'm afraid of is battery life. I've got a Kensington wireless mouse which needs new batteries every few weeks. It's a real pain in the butt.

How long to people find the batteries last on the Apple wireless keyboard & mouse?

The original Lithium batteries lasted approximately 2 months. A less dark mousemat might have stretched that. The keyboard still had some life left at that time on its Alkaline batteries. I would say that the mouse is powerhungry enough to justify rechargeable batteries.

o-chan replied on :

Roy Smith wrote:

I'm thinking of getting an iMac with the bluetooth keyboard and mouse (and WiFi, of course, I've declared war against wires). What I'm afraid of is battery life. I've got a Kensington wireless mouse which needs new batteries every few weeks. It's a real pain in the butt.

How long to people find the batteries last on the Apple wireless keyboard & mouse?

The keyboard batteries last a long time. The mouse ones last less because the mouse is always tracking even when you're not moving it.

There are a fwe wireless mice out there now with charging bases. My Logitech mouse lasted 2 years before I needed to replace the internal batteries because they weren't holding a charge long enough.

Logitech and Macally have rechargable bluetooth mice. Maybe some others too.

AES replied on :

In article d129fr$4kot$1@redacted.invalid, o-chan poda@redacted.invalid wrote:

The keyboard batteries last a long time. The mouse ones last less because the mouse is always tracking even when you're not moving it.

The red-light-emitting laser diode in the mouse (I'm guessing it's a laser diode, not just an LED) will consume a substantial amount of power when it's running, leading to the perhaps counterintuitive result that keyboard batteries last longer than mouse batteries. A couple of quick tests indicate that the mouse goes into a slow and low-brightness intermittent flashing mode when not being moved, most likely for battery conservation; and shuts off during hard sleep mode. Haven't tested what happens in screen display shutoff mode, but using aggressive energy saving settings might prolong mouse battery life.