A cautionary tale if you're considering.
Years ago someone left my employer abruptly, and on their desk was left a fancy vertical mouse. It sat there for a few days, and I kept glancing over, at first ambivalent, but as time passed the temptation increased. I debated the dilemma of becoming a vertical mouse person, was that really for me? Eventually I succumbed and thought hey it's worth a try, see what it's like to be one of them... pure learning opportunity...
Then something happened... I got used to it in about a half hour and in the first day my precision improved. A sudden urge came over me to tell all my coworkers, was I really becoming one of those people so fast? Trying to resist was futile and within a couple days I became a vertical mouse person, always wanting to tell everyone how great they are, constantly resisting the urge. I forgot what life was like with a horizontal mouse, and I never looked back.
As an IT support person, the problem I have with these mice is that the left mouse button is also on the vertical. So when heavy-handed users click on a file in explorer, they also slightly drag down, so the file “disappears” into a folder, and now it’s a support ticket to get the file restored.
Sigh.
They are great, but I have two issues with my left handed one:
- Right handed people just cannot use it, I can't just give someone else my mouse for a minute.
- For some stupid reason, the left and right mouse button are switched, so now I have to switch it back in software, so now the buttons on my laptop touchpad are switched.
i find these WAY more painful to use than a normal mouse, it puts all my weight on that hemispherical bit in the wrist and the angle is just slightly off being the neutral position for my hand so it's instead constantly putting stress on the arm..
i want one that's just slightly more tilted than a normal mouse.
When a mouse and a joystick love each other very much, this is the end result.
If you suffer from wrist or elbow pain from using a regular mouse you’re best off doing strength exercises and proper stretching for those muscle groups. I find that to be more effective than using one of these vertical mice as your issue is likely from muscle overuse. Vertical mice can help but if you’re on your computer all day you’re bound to still have the same issue from overuse of your muscles.
Just my experience tho everyone is different.
Yes! The pictured one is a good one too. But currently using the Logitech MX Vertical.
As a CAD industrial drafter, I approve.
Mice rise up
touchpad gang (i cant be bothered spending money)
I use a split keyboard and trackball at work, and I thoroughly enjoy the bafflement of my coworkers when they try to use my computer.
trackball
I have a MX Vertical at work and Logi Ergos (both the 570 and a MX Ergo) at home, they are great. Love the battery life of the MX Ergo, I sometimes forget I even have to charge the damn thing. However I did have to change the main buttons in the MX Ergo, the switch were failing and it ended up double clicking
Yay! There are dozens of us! A cheap trackball is one of the best things I have ever bought. No pain, and it is really accurate.
I did have a regular mouse in my pc too so that other people could use my pc without complaining, but donated it to one of the new people at work. But happy, nice mouse makes the day better.
I had a thumb trackball for years, miss it tbh.
Edit I've got one in my Amazon basket now.
Edit 2 it's been binned from the basket after reading reviews and now I have a Logitech Ergo coming today
I tried a number of those and couldn't get used to it. I'd get soreness and cramps after the same amount of time but in different locations mostly around the thumb where the skin stretches when you do pistol hands.
In the most recent past I'd been using the elecom huge trackball but it's not without it's issues either. I don't actually recommend elecom they have quality control issues and the deft has the most infuriating mouse wheel. Thumb trackball gave me similar soreness to vertical mouse, and index finger trackball the back of my hand where the fingers attach.
Now I'm using just the steam deck and a Thinkpad laptop lately and those also introduce their own flavour of hand strain after a while.
Apart from the high cost of the hobby, we have reached an era of peak keyboard greatness, but we don't seem have many immediately apparent custom mouse options. Not that I would have any idea what wouldn't hurt me physically. Maybe one of the diy keyboards with a built in trackball.
Thumb ball master race chuckles with amusement as they look down upon this post from Olympus.
I tried it and I got wrist pain that I never had from the horizontal mouse
I guess my body is completely set? (been using a normal mouse for many, many hours since I was 10yo)
