Due to the effects of a couple of old cycling injuries and the slow but, relentless onset of arthritis, in my right hand, I am considering buying a Evoluent VerticalMouse 4. Does anyone own one of these and have any opinions about whether they work well and if the quality justifies the price? Evoluent Website.
I used one at work for a few years after a new desk bough on a bout of RSI in my right wrist, I really really liked it. You'll find that for the first week or so your shoulder will ache a little as you're using slightly different muscles to control the mouse, but after that bed in period it's really super comfortable and surprisingly natural; it didn't take me more than an hour or so to get used to it after never having used anything even remotely like it before. Not sure about gaming performance, but I think I did notice a bit of acceleration and angle snapping but for my useage it wasn't even remotely an issue. I'd say they're worth the price (although I didn't actually pay for mine ), they're a really nice bit of kit that (alongside some other workstation related changes) helped me get over some pretty horrible wrist pain. I'd try and look into a proper "workstation assessment" alongside this though, as just buying a new mouse isn't going to be a magic bullet; stuff like getting your desk/chair/monitors set up properly makes a massive difference to how your body reacts to being sat in the same place for hours on end.
Thank-you for your feedback, I think I will be buying one soon. I've already thought about that a lot and have done as much as I can to make sure my setup is about right and don't go for more than hour without getting up and moving around. My main problem, with mouse usage, is down to damage to the wrist caused by cycling accidents (two separate bone breakages close-by) and not RSI, which I am fortunate not to suffer from.
Fair enough, a general overhaul is always worth looking at in these situations (RSI or not). Have you thought about trackballs or a rollermouse or something else that would take the painful wrist right out of the equation? I've got and tried both, and had great results with both. I actually moved from the vertical mouse to a CST Ltrac trackball now and don't think I'd go back to a normal mouse for work. I've tried thumb trackballs but (for me) it just moved the pain to my thumb, with the fingertip balls you can use one or more fingers and you can also use it with either hand. The Rollermouse was good and I used it for about 6 months straight, but I couldn't get the hang of fine control and ended up frustrated whenever I used it so I went back to the Vertical mouse (and then on to the trackball), I know people that swear by them though. Keyboard co (linked above) do a 30 day free trial on the Rollermouse IIRC and trackballs can be had for reasonable from ebay; Kensington and CST are brands worth considering, Logitech do some decent thumb ball mice as well IIRC, it's been a while since I read up on them .
If the Logitech Cordless Optical Trackman was still in production it would be my preferred device but, it went out of production several years ago and my last one wore out a long time ago. Unfortunately the Logitech thumb controlled trackball is not for me as it is difficult to control with my defective thumb, I have one I bought some years ago, before my thumb was so bad. I too prefer a mouse, both for easy fine control and gaming and that is the way I am going to go. BTW, the Rollermouse reminds me of late 90s Dell laptops which had a small, heavy metal trackball, which worked quite well. The Rollermouse is also very expensive, three times the price of an Evoluent Vertical Mouse on Amazon.
Few people at my work use these, all very popular despite the cheap price. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Vertical-Ergonomic-Optical-1600DPI/dp/B00BIFNTMC
Finally got my Evoluent Vertical Mouse today and am very pleased with it. Seems to be well made and solid, big pads on the underside and plenty of button customisation offered by the software. My right hand and wrist already feel more comfortable when using it.
