Review of The Evoluent Vertical Mouse
I have been battling arm/wrist/hand injuries for a while. Last summer, when I really got into weightlifting, I had some tendonitis. After that healed, I had some real wrist issues in November, aggravated by heavy lifting. I know that the computer is at the root of these problems, and the weights just bring them to the surface. At the recommendation of a friend, I ordered one of the Evoluent vertical mice. I have been using it all day, and so far, I love it! If you are looking to reduce pain or fatigue in your mousing arm, definitely give this a try.
The basic idea, is that your arm’s natural position is flat at your sides. Put into a mousing position, your hand would be in a “handshake” position. Rotating your arm 90 degrees to lie flat on the desk puts stress on the joints, tendons, and ligaments. A “vertical mouse” is designed to allow your arm to remain in the “handshake” position.
My biggest fear with the Evoluent, is that I would lose the high quality and sensitivity of the Logitech MX 518 that I had been using. I was plesantly surprised on this score. The Evoluent has a button on the bottom allowing me to adjust it from 800 DPI to 2600 DPI, which is a broader range than the MX 518. As a bonus, it retains its setting even after losing power, which means that I do not need to reset it after switching between PCs on my KVM. This was a major anoyance on the MX 518; I trained myself to automatically bump up the DPI after switching PCs. Unfortunately, unlike the MX 518, adjusting DPI involves turning the mouse over (and using trial-and-error to find the DPI setting best suited for the task at hand), which is less convenient that pushing buttons near the scroll wheel like on the MX 518.
Another fear I had, was dragging my little finger all over the mouse pad. The mouse is well designed, and my finger does not rub at all. Also, with the high DPI setting, I barely need to move my hand, which helps. The Evoluent has a nice, solid feel to it, but it is not heavy, either. The material feels great in my hand, and retains heat well, so it doesn’t feel like grabbing a cold stone like some mice do.
Now, for the things that I don’t like. I do not like the sensitivity of the buttons. Well, I should say, I love how senstive they are, but because of the design, when I grab the mouse, I tend to accidentally click a button. Also, I tend to do a click when I started a movement to the left. I know that this will take some time to get used to, and I am not too worried about it. Also, if it is important to you (and it is not to me), the mouse is aesthetically unpleasing. Finally, I am not a big fan of the third mouse button in general, especially when it is used as a “back” button, as it the case here… that causes me pain when it is accidentally clicked!
Overall, I know that the things I do not like about the Evoluent are mostly “learning curve” items that won’t bother me in a week. Again, if you have problems with yours hands, wrists, carpal tunnel, etc., give this one a try. For me, taking care of my arm is critical, so I am glad that I got this mouse. I snagged it for roughly $35 after shipping, as a Newegg open box, but they retail for around $50.
J.Ja
Good info J. Ja. I could use one of these….have you tried it with BSD? do you have to tweak to make it work with X.org?
Thanks
correction: that’s /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Dietrich -It showed up as a standard mouse in Windows. They provide some drivers which add some extra functionality, but it is not needed. As a result, I would be inclined to think that no special drivers are needed for BSD. My BSD machine is X Window free, but when I switch over to it, the USB system seems to 100% recognize it, and I can wave the cursor over the bash screen, so that is a good sign.Hope that helps!
J.Ja
ok good deal, thanks J.Ja!
Thanks for the info on the Evoluent mouse. I hadn’t found anyone who had used it in my area. If you have been diagnosed with carpal tunnel and have medical coverage, pursue the treatment options up to and including surgery. I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV, but I have had the surgery on both hands and it was very successful. That was over 11 years ago. The surgery techniques have improved since then and I am sure there are very qualified hand surgeons in your area. If your problem is cubital tunnel (the elbow funny bone nerve) or other areas, that is much more complex and surgery is closer to a last resort. If your problems are mainly inflammation issues, then the improved ergonomics should keep the problems at bay. But if you have already caused or are causing nerve damage, you should really look at more aggressive treatment/surgery.
Good information, thanks! i talked to my doctor about my wrists at my yearly checkup a few months ago ("yearly checkups"… I had my first "yearly checkup" in 2007, who am I kidding?), he told me that given the symptoms and the changes in my symptoms, that I am definitely *not* at the stage where I need surgery. In fact, my wrists feel better this year than they did last, and last year they were a lot better than 5 years before. Ditto for my eyes. I thought that I had causes irreverseably damage to my eyes, courtesy of cheap CRTs, and with the proper equipment, my eyes are nearly 100% again (I have 20/13 in one eye and 20/15 or 20/17 in the other… I read the bottom row… but I have/had light sensitivity). Likewise, the "Kinesis Advantage" keyboard, plus having a chair/desk at the right hight has sorted or my wrists to a large degree. I am hoping that the Evoluent mouse makes my progress even better.
Right now, the only pain in my wrists is when I use a "true" grip when doing a few types of presses (military press, bench press, incline bench press). I think that the downward force on the thumb is leveraging something inside the wrist. Using wraps helps, as does a "false" ("thumbless") grip. The problem is, that grip is *not* safe to use, it is a good way to drop a barbell onto your throat or head when doing those kinds of lifts. I laid off for a while, and it seemed to be OK early in the week (first time I am seriously lifting in a few months, due to the wedding, honeymoon, and a few bad colds), but it is acting up again. I may very well head into the doctor in a week or so, and have him look at it. Better safe than sorry!
J.Ja
If you decide to go back to a regular mouse, you might want to look into imak ergo beads wrist supports.
They’re available on line, but if you live near a fry’s, it’s probably cheaper to get one there. They’re not expensive, and I find that they make using a mouse a painless affair.
Until I tried this product, my choice was live with it or use a wrist support that made the problem worse.
They’re under 10 bucks, possibly under 7. It might even be useful whith the new mosue. I also like sticking under my left elbow when typing.
Yeah, I’ve seen stuff filled with those before, pretty comfy stuff. Right now, my desk setup actually provides me with a ton of wrist support; the arm on my chair is perfectly level with the desk surface. But if I feel like some extra support is needed (and it may be!), I will definitely give this a try, thanks!
J.Ja
@jmjames How do I get hold of you. I have found a simple way to make this unit work even better and it only costs less than a couple of bucks to do. Please contact me.
Mike
I can’t post a pic to show you.
@Mike Perry
Mike -
Send me an email at j_james [at] mindspring [dot] com
J.Ja