Apple’s new USB-C-equipped Magic Mouse somehow still has the charging port on the bottom. While Apple could have used the launch as an opportunity t

In Defense, I Swear, of the Magic Mouse’s Charging Port Placement

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2024-10-29 10:00:04

Apple’s new USB-C-equipped Magic Mouse somehow still has the charging port on the bottom. While Apple could have used the launch as an opportunity to move the charging port from the underside of the device — where the port has remained for nearly a decade, despite other updates to the mouse and being mocked for the decision — the port is still there.

This new $99 Magic Mouse means that, for the foreseeable future, Apple still thinks that the best way to charge your Magic Mouse is by flipping it over to plug it in, making it so you can’t use it. Why?

We’ve all been waiting for Apple to update the “Magic” input peripherals — keyboards, trackpads, and mice — to USB-C, and they’re finally here. None of them seem significantly changed aside from the port, including, as Peters notes, that the refreshed Magic Mouse doesn’t move the charging port from the bottom. It’s just USB-C instead of Lightning now. This will antagonize the vocal contingent of people who think the port placement is not merely ill-considered, but downright absurd. But I’m not surprised in the least that Apple didn’t change it. The contingent of Magic Mouse port-on-the-belly haters is, as I said, vocal, but I also think it’s small.

Yes, with the charging port on the mouse’s belly, you cannot use it while it charges. There are obvious downsides to that. But those positing the Magic Mouse as absurd act as though Apple doesn’t know this. Of course Apple knows this. Apple obviously just sees this as a trade-off worth making. Apple wants the mouse to be visually symmetric, and they want the top surface to slope all the way down to the desk or table top it rests upon. You can’t achieve that with an exposed port.

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