The curvaceous top of the mouse is a multi-touch surface.Apple’s new Magic Mouse is a very nice mousie indeed. No obvious buttons, no scroll wheel, just a sleek multi-touch surface and some groovy new software that lets you scroll with momentum — similar to the way scrolling works on an iPhone.

I own a Wireless Mighty Mouse — the previous generation of Apple Bluetooth mouse — and was never happy with the tracking feel. It had a kind of sloppy quality and tended to lag behind hand movements. Some people don’t even notice it, but it was very annoying to me; so much that I always use a wired Mighty Mouse on my desktop machine.

But the connectivity and response of the Magic Mouse is a vast improvement. It feels exactly like a wired mouse, no perceptible lag at all. And the fact that there’s no scroll wheel that needs cleaning when it gets clogged up with gross finger oil makes this a really maintenance-free mechanism.

You can also use two-finger “swiping” gestures to move forward and back through web pages, photos, or other programs with a paged display. It’s a bit clumsy to hold the sides of the mouse while swiping with the second and third fingers, but maybe I’ll get used to it.

I also notice an improvement in the way the Magic Mouse handles its “one big button” to allow both right and left clicks. The Mighty Mouse would sometimes treat a right click like a left click, often enough to be annoying, but with the Magic Mouse right-clicking works flawlessly.

The Magic Mouse requires two AA batteries, for which I use two Eneloop rechargeables.

This probably won’t be the ultimate mouse for everyone — it has no side buttons or middle button. But the multi-touch surface and momentum scrolling are great features, and I highly recommend this rodent.

(Note: If you’re not buying a new Mac system that includes a Magic Mouse, you’ll also need to download and install Apple’s Wireless Mouse Software Update 1.0, available for both Leopard and Snow Leopard.)