Picture this – you’ve just opened your laptop after a long and grueling day, and connect your keyboard and mouse, only for you to wonder, would it be better if you just used the onboard mouse and keyboard rather than connecting Bluetooth peripherals?
Yes, connecting a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse will impact your laptop’s battery life. However, since they have their own batteries, the amount of impact they’ll have on your laptop will be rather insignificant.
In this article, we’re going to be exploring exactly how much battery a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse takes – alongside which particular peripheral takes up more battery life?
How Much Battery Life Does A Bluetooth Keyboard And Mouse Take?
A Bluetooth mouse and keyboard consume about 1-2% of your battery life. This is quite an insignificant amount. The reason why the consumption is so low is due to two particular reasons. They are:
- Bluetooth Low Energy: With the advent of Bluetooth LE, devices do not retain their connection strengths for extended periods of time, especially if they don’t need to. Since you use your keyboard and mouse at a relatively short range, a weaker signal is used, which increases your battery life.
- In-built Battery: Both Bluetooth keyboards and mouse have their own in-built battery inside them. So, your laptop doesn’t really have to do much other than just maintain a stable connection. Therefore, most of the heavy lifting, such as maintaining lighting and a mouse’s optical sensor is still done by your device’s battery.
With that said, though, we wanted to put this theory to the test. Therefore, we took out our trusty M1 Macbook Air and ran an experiment. In it, we used an Apple Magic Mouse and Keyboard and just used the in-built touchpad and keyboard for the other.
Here are our results:
No Keyboard And Mouse | With Bluetooth Keyboard And Mouse | With Wired Keyboard And Mouse | |
Battery Timing (HH:MM) | 14:18 | 14:04 | 13:49 |
Note: Your timing may vary depending on your device, and what Bluetooth mouse, keyboard, and other peripherals you end up using.
From these results, it is quite apparent that using no secondary keyboard and mouse will consume the least amount of battery. On the other hand, a wired keyboard and mouse will consume the highest amount of battery life. This is because they do not have their own battery and therefore, your battery will have to supply all the juice needed to power them up.
Does A Bluetooth Mouse Consume More Battery Life Than Keyboard?
Yes, a Bluetooth mouse consumes more battery life than a Bluetooth keyboard. This is because your mouse sends a lot more information to your laptop compared to your keyboard. In essence, your mouse constantly feeds data per second that includes tracking coordinates.
On the other hand, a keyboard can only send so many keystrokes a second. With a polling rate of about 1000 Hz, a Bluetooth keyboard will take up a lot less battery simply because there is less information to send to your laptop.
In the same manner, in terms of their own battery life, a Bluetooth mouse is expected to last much lesser as compared to a Bluetooth keyboard. This too is because of the discrepancy in the amount of information sent.
Does A Bluetooth Keyboard And Mouse Consume Battery When Idle?
No, a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse do not consume your laptop’s battery life when they are idle. This is because they do not send information and your laptop does not need to receive any when they are idle.
As soon as you press a key on your keyboard or move your mouse – your laptop will start receiving information and that’s where the real battery drain begins.
Wired Or Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse? What Is Better?
Bluetooth mice and keyboards are better for casual use as they consume less battery life from your laptop and require no wires. On the other hand, wired peripherals are better if you use them for gaming (due to lower latency) and the fact that you don’t need to charge or replace their batteries.
Should I Turn My Bluetooth Keyboard And Mouse In The Night?
Yes, you should turn off your Bluetooth keyboard and mouse in the night to conserve their battery. While most of them turn off on their own when they are connected to your laptop, we’ve often observed battery drain still occurring as the devices try and look for a signal.
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Few years back I started to work from home, I needed a keyboard, I researched mechanical keyboard from A to Z. After that I needed a monitor, after that I needed a mouse, after that I needed desk, chair and other accessories. I did so much research and I figured this can't all go to waste and I started writing about what I know. Keyboards, Monitors, Mouses and other accessories. You can also at WolfofTablet where I cover a lot of stuff about iPads and Android Tablets. In the free time I like to play PS5 and iOS games.