Computing > General Computing

Does every mouse have a dongle?

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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.

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

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.


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).

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.


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