I have been spending a lot of time working remotely with my laptop in random locations. And usually just plug my mouse in via the USB dongle. But just curious if there is a noticeable battery difference doing this? Seems like Bluetooth would be better because it’s already powering other things anyway.
Edit: seems like it’s Bluetooth. Going to have to change my habits. Thanks all.
Assuming you mean for the battery life of the mouse: In my experience, USB dongle.
The communication protocol is simpler, and it’s often unidirectional rather than BT which has bidirectional handshaking, etc.
I’ve always assumed the dongle uses bluetooth as well. Why invent a new protocol when there’s one that does exactly what you want?
Dongles are usually 2.4ghz radios, supposed to be lower latency and more stable than Bluetooth.
That’s the same frequency as one of the main Wi-Fi bands, I would imagine they’re probably just reusing that technology for this communication
It’s also the frequency of Bluetooth and your microwave because it’s unregulated. Dongles aren’t Wi-Fi or anything like it.
KB/mouse dongles use their own, often proprietary, protocols but on the same 2.4 GHz band. It’s like how WiFi and Bluetooth both operate on 2.4 GHz but use different framing and protocols.
Interesting, I did not know how widely used the 2.4GHz band is, thanks for correcting me!
It’s basically negligible tho.
Like I recently busted out Logitech mouse/keyboard combo with a dongle. They say for maybe five years and I’ve been using them for months now and the batteries are still what was in them.