Review of Ergonomic Evoluent VerticalMouse 3

JJJumper writes "CoolTechZone.com reviews Evoluent's VerticalMouse 3 mouse that's touted to be the world's most health conscious, ergonomics friendly mouse in the world. And it's vertical, too, instead of horizontal. The review states, "Unlike other mice, Evoluent's VerticalMouse 3 stands vertical to locate your hand in a handshake position, or where the arm is in 90-degrees form from the tabletop. It even has a small lip at the bottom to prevent your little finger from touching the desk. According to the company, this is the most natural position for the hand to be in and it reduces a magnitude of stress from your hand, wrist and arm. Apparently traditional mice with horizontal statures twist your lower arm and put unnecessary stress on its vital areas. We must admit that getting used to the mouse didn't take too long, even though it was slightly awkward to get used to in the beginning. After all, old habits die hard."

What about comfort?

[gravos]

The review seems only to be touting the health benefits of using the mouse, but if it really reduced stress on key parts of your wrist and arm I expect it would be a lot more comfortable, too. The only problem I can forsee is that it wouldn't fit on those roll-out trays that a lot of desks have for your keyboard and mouse, and that's a pretty serious drawback.

Useless

[nlitement]

I have never experienced any pain or stress, even if I sit at my computer for extended ("unhealthy") periods. Why would you pay an extra buck to get a sketchy guarantee for a healthier wrist? The health effect on your wrist from a regular mouse is probably very minute.

Re:Useless

[LullySing]

Wait till you get older. People tend to think they're invincible until they get injured ( a past self included) and then suddenly realise just how humanly frail we can be.

YANVM: Yet Another Vertical Mouse

[Drogo007]

Like these:

http://www.ergo-items.com/3m_ergonomic_mouse.htm [ergo-items.com]

http://www.ergo-items.com/quillMouse.htm [ergo-items.com]

http://www.ergo-items.com/zero_tension_mouse.htm [ergo-items.com]

Not to mention the mouse we used to call "Richard Mouse" back in the day (about 10 years ago) when I was just getting my start in the gaming industry and the place I worked bought an "ergonomic" mouse that operated on these principles so we could test it with our game.

I just tested it!

[rehtonAesoohC]

Well, ok, it was only in my mind, but that counts, right?

Actually, I just turned my normal mouse on its side and started moving it around seeing how it would feel if it actually worked that way... To be honest, it was a bit more comfortable on my wrist, but I realized that I would lose an important function of the traditional orientation.

How many people use their fingers to move the mouse around? I know I do on occasion... When I'm making fine adjustments to my pointer, I don't move my whole wrist, I move my fingers only, and that reason alone keeps me from buying the vertical mouse. With your hand in the handshake position, you won't be able to move the mouse with your fingers, and won't get the same fine-grained control as you would with fingers.

Also, their "expert opinions" note on the article seems a bit flaky:

Some doctors who specialize in ergonomics consider the vertical position preferable.

Some doctors? It just seems like some doctor with a degree held one and said, "Yeah that feels a bit better." They made no mention of a medical reason to use one over any other mouse, they simply said, "It might feel a little better."

Re:Seat Position

[Odin_Tiger]

I hear ya. Low chair, leaned back, and my mouse sits more like 10:00, tho, and my comfortable finger placement is "a-w-e-f j-i-o-;". I also keep my keyboard far out in front of me, because it lets me rest nearly my entire forearm on the desk, and the mousepad is a little to the right, partway in front of the keyboard (it comes about as far in as the left side of the numpad), so my elbow sits on my chair's armrest and my hand is at the natural height and position it would sit at anyways when I use the mouse. It actually works quite well.

At home I actually have much better posture than at work, because I have a big gamer pad with a wrist rest, and you're not getting everything out of it if you're slouched back; it's designed for big arm movements instead of little wrist flicks. The biggest difference is that my work posture is keyboard-centric. I'm a keystroke addict even in windows, so I don't mouse much while I'm working. At home, my posture is mouse-centric, since my fingers basically sit on "shift-a-w-d" and don't move out of that general area, while my mouse hand is doing a lot of work.

Re:Useless

[Odin_Tiger]

Fortunately, I'm young but I still know better. Any time I even think my wrist(s) might be getting vaguely kinda-sorta sore, I take it easy on the computer use for a few weeks, switch to mousing left-handed and / or using a trackball (actually easy except for games), change keyboard angle, etc. You don't need extreme solutions like a vertical mouse to keep healthy, you just need to pay attention to your body and take preventative measures as needed.