Does every mouse have a dongle?

[PerranOak]

I have a Bluetooth mouse that came with a dongle - very useful as my old laptop didn't have Bluetooth!

However, when I buy a new laptop, I guess, it will have few USB ports (2 or 3 seem to common) so I wondered: are there Bluetooth mouses that use the in-built Bluetooth on laptops (Windows)?

Thing is, they all seem to come with a dongle.

[Caliaxy]

Mine (Logitech M535) doesn’t have a dongle, which is why I got it in the first place.

[Spuddevans]

I have a Logitech M590, it came with a dongle, but I just connect direct to my laptop's built-in bluetooth.

Handily this mouse supports connecting to 2 devices, so I have the dongle plugged into my old laptop, the mouse has a little button on it to switch between devices, so I can have both laptops running at once, but choose which one the mouse is operating.

Tim

[janoc]

Bluetooth mice rarely need any dongles even when they come with one (most don't these days). It used to be common to get a BT dongle with a mouse because many computers lacked Bluetooth radios (or they were incompatible/crappy - yay especially in Windows!) but these days there is no point. It "just works" with the normal Bluetooth (getting it connected/paired could be a different matter, though!).

If the mouse comes with a dongle today it most likely isn't using Bluetooth but something proprietary (e.g. the Logitech's "unifying receiver" concept).

[GlennSprigg]

I don't know about 'BlueTooth' as such, but most Mouse' systems these days, if not using a 'Wired' connection, rely on Wireless
Technology. It's simply a USB 'Dongle', (but not in the sense of a 'dongle' as such), that talks wirelessly with the Mouse.  I hate it
when people, (my 'missus'!), has tangled cords and have hanging cords pulling on the Mouse etc... MOST peoples 'complaints' are
to do with wireless mouse 'batteries' etc. However, that should NOT be a problem!   Even though such 'mice' have a switch under them
to actually turn them off, they also power-off after so many seconds of non-use. I've got systems where the 'mouse' has been powered
on permanently, and even weeks later after turning the Laptop etc on, it immediately becomes active and all works fine!!!   

The only issue is the number of available USB ports, but I have NEVER found that to be a problem, especially with multi-USB port devices.

[Rick Law]

Mine (Logitech M535) doesn’t have a dongle, which is why I got it in the first place.

Great minds think alike - when I ran across a sales, I got two (air-mouse with mini-keyboard) just for the dongles...

The dongle works great on non-BT equipped desktops/laptops.

[Halcyon]

Nope. I have a Lenovo mouse which doesn't have a dongle. It's intended for use with their laptops so there isn't need for one as their machines have Bluetooth already built-in.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Nope. I have a Lenovo mouse which doesn't have a dongle. It's intended for use with their laptops so there isn't need for one as their machines have Bluetooth already built-in.

What's the ergonomics like on a Lenovo mouse? Are the switches any good?

[mikerj]

I bought a cheap Teknet BM308 bluetooth mouse to use with my company laptop at home at the start of lockdown, comfortable and works reliably with my Dell Precision.  It was about £12 when I bought it, the only downside is that battery (2xAA) life is poor compared to the non-bluetooth wireless mice.  Alkaline cells only last about 3 months if I don't turn the mouse off every evening, so now using Enerloop cells.

[james_s]

They often come with a dongle because dongles are cheap, and there are still a lot of computers out there that lack built in bluetooth. If yours has it built in you don't have to use the dongle.

[PerranOak]

Brill, thanks all.

[Halcyon]

Nope. I have a Lenovo mouse which doesn't have a dongle. It's intended for use with their laptops so there isn't need for one as their machines have Bluetooth already built-in.

What's the ergonomics like on a Lenovo mouse? Are the switches any good?

Fine, but I don't use it a lot. It's only for travelling. At home I use my laptop docked with a wireless dongle-based keyboard and mouse (also Lenovo).

[BeBuLamar]

I always use wired mouse except for the PC that connected to my TV thus both the keyboard and mouse are far away from the PC. I don't seem to find wireless mouse and keyboard that are responsive like a wired one.

[tooki]

I have a Bluetooth mouse that came with a dongle - very useful as my old laptop didn't have Bluetooth!

However, when I buy a new laptop, I guess, it will have few USB ports (2 or 3 seem to common) so I wondered: are there Bluetooth mouses that use the in-built Bluetooth on laptops (Windows)?

Thing is, they all seem to come with a dongle.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Bluetooth mouse that came with a Bluetooth dongle. If a wireless mouse comes with a receiver, it’s almost guaranteed to be a proprietary non-Bluetooth wireless.

Logitech now has a few mice that are multi-protocol, like the MX Vertical I use. It supports Bluetooth, USB-C, or Logitech’s proprietary “Unifying” protocol, for which a receiver is included.

[SiliconWizard]

I have a Bluetooth mouse that came with a dongle - very useful as my old laptop didn't have Bluetooth!

However, when I buy a new laptop, I guess, it will have few USB ports (2 or 3 seem to common) so I wondered: are there Bluetooth mouses that use the in-built Bluetooth on laptops (Windows)?

If it's a true Bluetooth mouse, of course.

Thing is, they all seem to come with a dongle.

Of course. Guess what, the dongles don't cost much to the vendor, and they don't want customers very angry because they bought a mouse and find out they can't use it. (Of course, not all computers support Bluetooth, especially desktop computers.) Occasionally though, a specific internal Bluetooth adapter on some computer may have compatibility issues with some Bluetooth peripherals (yes, shit happens), so that also guarantees you can still use the mouse in this case.

Now, wireless mice are not all bluetooth either. When it's not, a specific dongle is needed because it's just a proprietary wireless link.

[RaymondMack]

They only time you really need a BT dongle from the manufacturer is for a wireless keyboard. Aside from Apple's special implementation, BT keyboards are not usable inside the BIOS. But... if your manufacturer provided a special "Bluetooth" dongle, it will work inside the bios. (At least my old Logitech MX5500 worked this way.)

Most Wi-Fi cards have built-in Bluetooth, so really, outside of a wireless keyboard, one doesn't need to use the manufacturer's dongle. Of course, old laptops or desktops may still need to use it if they don't have a wireless card with BT.

[tooki]

I think many people don't really understand what Bluetooth is, and often think their mice and keyboards are Bluetooth when in fact they're proprietary wireless.

(Bundled Bluetooth dongles are fairly rare, IMHO in part because before Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth keyboards and mice had significantly less battery life than proprietary, so the manufacturers simply preferred to do that instead.)

[Raj]

Are bluetooth mouse any good though.
Whenever I look at review section of them, they are usually filled with complaints about how the connection drops so often and has lag.
That's why I've never even given 'em a try.

I've personally used 2 dongle mouse with unknown frequency (a chinese no name and rapoo 5g 7800p), they were good enough to game with despite being very heavy. I suspect that they used ism band frequency other than 2.4ghz like 433mhz, cause their range was better than wifi yet battery life was amazing.

[tooki]

Are bluetooth mouse any good though.
Whenever I look at review section of them, they are usually filled with complaints about how the connection drops so often and has lag.
That's why I've never even given 'em a try.

That’s because historically, Windows has sucked at Bluetooth, with various vendors’ Bluetooth drivers varying wildly in quality. On the Mac, Bluetooth has always just worked, and all of Apple’s wireless mice and keyboards have always been Bluetooth. (I have no idea what the situation is like on Linux.)

Historically, Bluetooth mice have been significantly more power hungry than proprietary wireless. Bluetooth LE (“low energy”) was created specifically to address this, with battery life similar to proprietary wireless. So if possible, make sure both the computer and mouse support Bluetooth LE.

[PerranOak]

Yeah, I see a lot of lag on wake-up but otherwise ok.