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.
The Linux of mice
Trackball gang represent
All hail trackballs ٩( ᐛ )و
I clean mine every 3-7 days. Some times it gathers cat hair (I assume) faster than others.
CST L-Trac enjoyer reporting in! Come to our party, we have custom 3D printed tents and custom additional programmable buttons!
What is a tent in this context?
A stand that helps keep your hand and arm in a neutral position while you’re using the device 😊 It might not be the perfect term in this context, but it’s widely used with split mechanical keyboards (which I also use a tent for)
Thank you very much.
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.
I was remembering just now I used to have one but I gave up on it almost immediately after using irl Thanks for reminding me why I quickly moved on from vertical mouse.
I feel sick to my stomach thinking back to my IT help desk days.
I need me a Logitech G502 hero equivalent but vertical, no way I’m giving up all these extra quick buttons
Really love the feel of my Logitech G pro tbh. Super clicky, light, and smooth. The texture of the material is great too.
It’s not at all ergonomic bc it is an ambidextrous design but it hasn’t bothered me yet and I use my PC way more than I should.
I’m with you, that or a g903 equivalent. But it has to have Lightning and Powerplay support.
I’m not sure I want completely vertical on a 502 variant, but angled maybe 30 degrees from where it is and the thumb buttons moved back a hair would be my ideal mouse.
Trackball gang.
I have a couple friends that play PC games on old-school Trackman trackballs. The amount of griping when we play a game with something bound by default to the mousewheel is INCREDIBLE.
That’s like using a Dvorak keyboard and complaining that games default to WASD bindings. This is the exact reason why key remapping is a standard feature on PC games but not on consoles
The old Trackmans have very limited inputs relative to modern gaming mice. There are some trackballs with scroll wheels, but they have different ergonomics (you rotate the ball with your thumb rather than your index, middle, and ring fingers) that my buddies aren’t fond of.
Given that theirs is a very niche use case, I don’t think anybody’s gonna make a trackball to suit them that also has a scroll wheel, but I guess if somebody was motivated enough, there’s an opportunity for some sort of ESP-based open source hardware.
Right, but ultimately their complaint is that a game has actions bound to a scroll wheel and they could simply rebind those actions to something else.
Though the complaint does become legitimate if they are playing one of the handful of poor PC ports out there that lacks key remapping (cough*transformerswarforcybertron*cough)
I’ve always been curious about this. Do they play FPS games by chance? If so, how’s their aim compared to a traditional mouse? I’ve always had this intuition that it would be easier to aim with a trackball, but I’ve never gotten one to see for myself.
Mx Ergo, best of both worlds
Came here to say that
Any suggestions for a good quality vertical? The one the office purchased for me feels cheap and the time-to-sleep is too short(mouse doesn’t wake on motion).
The two I’ve used are the one in the image (it’s from Anker, I forget the model) and Logitech’s MX Vertical (they have a second, smaller version if the original is too big). I’ve been maining the Vertical the past 4 years for work and personal use.
Both have pros and cons:
Anker is cheaper. ~$35 vs ~$80. Also has a built in slot to put the receiver in when not in use.
It curves with your hand more than the Vertical.
Anker uses easily replaceable AAA batteries. Usually lasted me about 3 months before I needed to swap them. I only used it for work though.The Vertical can connect to 3 different devices (1 dongle, 2 Bluetooth) whereas Anker is limited to whatever the dongle is connected to.
The Vertical is made of better feeling materials; like a rubber for extra grip vs hard plastic with the Anker.
There’s a USB C port to charge its (not easily replaceable) battery.
Edit: Vertical won’t go to “sleep” like the Anker will. If the Anker isn’t touched for X minutes, it will go to sleep and you’ll have to click one of the switches to wake it. Otherwise moving it won’t move the cursor. Not that huge of an issue, but definitely annoying if you don’t know what’s going on.However, there is a design flaw with the Vertical. Logitech run their wireless mice at very low voltage and current to save on battery. That’s how they get a 240 mAh battery to last for around a month of heavy use.
The problem with this is you need to use particular switches, otherwise corrosion starts to build up on the connectors. This corrosion leads to incomplete or missed clicks, phantom double clicks, or it’s impossible to hold a click.
From what I remember, standard switches are designed for 5V, since that’s what wired mice normally run at. But modern wireless mice operate around a tenth of that. Logitech never made the switch (heh) to switches rated for that low voltage. At least not when I bought mine.My Vertical had that issue. And rather than buy an entirely new mouse, I went in, desoldered the old switches and replaced them with new ones (I think I went with Kale’s light blue switches). I did that in summer '22 and haven’t had any issues since.
The rubber material is also showing wear and tear where my fingers sit, but that’s just cosmetic.I got the Anker one for my mom holiday '22 and she’s been happy with it. It helped the discomfort in her hand.
Both mice improved the stiffness in my right hand, so either one will get the job done. I will also say that there is a bit of an adjustment period. Surprisingly, changing the angle of your hand kind of throws you off and takes some getting used to. Before my office went remote, my coworkers would avoid using it because it wasn’t easy for them to switch to for just a short period of time.Hopefully this info is helpful. I can try answering any questions you have on them, but those are the only two I have experience in.
Edit 2: Phrasing
I use the Logitech MX Vertical. https://a.co/d/9eDjEZ8
Took a little getting used to, but the wrist pain is gone and the mouse is reliable.
I have a couple of these and like them: https://www.amazon.com/J-Tech-Digital-V628-Adjustable-Sensitivity/dp/B0759V6FZC
I thought you reached into my brain and posted this for me. 😂 I have exactly the same problem.
https://sandberg.world/en-us/product/wireless-vertical-mouse-pro
I use this one, mostly because it was pretty cheap, is wireless and has a rechargeable battery.
I would splurge a little more now that I like using a vertical one, but I was afraid of spending a lot just to shelve it for eternity like I did with some other devices…
Okay, now what?
Vertical keyboard
I hate how mechanical keyboards set ergonomics back 30 years.
Instead of starting with the great ergonomic layouts of MS Natural etc and adding superior switches, mechanical keyboard manufacturers went back to the 1970’s with super flat designs.
trackball gang trackball gang trackball gang
Touchpad keyboard gang.
If there were a modern version of this with a multi-touch trackpad I might actually consider this.
I just bought a trackball but it has intolerable sticktion.
Trackball gang is a lie!
Brand new trackballs can sometimes have some stick-slip. But they “wear in before they wear out” with use. Popping the ball out and cleaning it with warm soapy water and a rinse helps a lot. And whenever the ball feels sticky a wash is in order.
My current Logi tech ball mouse had a tiny defect in the ball that a minute’s worth of 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper fixed. It’s now rolls like it’s running on air bearings.
Have you tried cleaning it? If that doesn’t fix it then that sucks, I have a gameball and it’s smooth as ice.
Yeah sure. Elecom Deft, I got mislead by a review. After getting it I searched some more, and apparently the ball is too soft and the point bearing can be replaced to be zirconium instead of ruby. But I suspect I’m just more sensitive to sticktion. From what I’ve read there are “ball transfer unit” that completely eliminate sticktion. They are a bit louder and not quite as smooth, but afaik there is no trackball using it.
So my guess is that people that use trackballs simply don’t really experience discomfort, and probably don’t really feel pain either :D So back to the mouse pit with me!
I think Elecoms are prone to sticktion. I have an Elecom Huge and I had to replace the bearings to make it smoother. None of my other trackballs have that much sticktion, my Kensington Slimblade in particular is buttery smooth.
You just have a bad trackball. My Kensington Expert glides smooth.
I use joystick
so i love my mx master and i use the freewheeling scroll wheel all the time. the mx vertical mouse has a standard scroll wheel :p
Logi lift hás freewheeling too
I personally dislike the freewheel scroll overall.
Then again, the only time I’m really thinking about what features a mouse has, it’s for gaming so I like a little more precision and tactile feedback.
For everything else I do, a mouse is a mouse.
Unless it’s one of those BS apple ones with no right click. Those make me unreasonably upset.
The MX Master is a great mouse, but it’s definitely not a gaming mouse. It’s way too heavy. I don’t game on my PC much, but I’d definitely get a second mouse if I did. As for non-gaming stuff, the freewheel scroll is great for quickly moving through large documents. It’s hard to go without it now that I’m used to it, though I had to fine-tune the speed threshold before I could appreciate it
I had constant wrist pain and switched to evoluent vertical mouse in like 2015 and haven’t had pain since. And it’s an added layer of security
I had the exact same scenario! Just a few years before your issue, I fell and landed on my right hand, straining my wrist. It wasn’t broken, but it was really sore and months later it still hurt just as badly, so I went to a doctor. He said the tendons and the sheath they go through were likely inflamed, and all my mousing (both work and home) was probably keeping it inflamed. I switched to the evoluent at work and a Logitech thumb ball at home, and two weeks later I was fine.
Even better, join the trackball gang
Tried so hard, couldn’t do it, used them exclusively for weeks and it just always felt awkward.
2 weeks trackball. never looking back.
looking for a work trackball now.
I requested a track ball at work, turns out, they had like 20 of them in some storage room that no one wanted to use. Shortly after I began using a track ball, others also wanted to try it out. Basically my entire department now uses trackballs at work lol
This is the way.
Trackballs are the most cultured choice, although I wish I could buy one that’s huge like the one on that golf game that used to be in arcades.
That looks like a regular trackball in a large base. I looked it up and the Elecom huge is a smaller ball than a regular Kensington. (54 vs 55mm).
Trackball gang, how do you like trackballs for 3D CAD? Are there ones that can interpret three distinct axes of rotation or is everything just using two?
I have never done anything related to CAD, so I have no idea.
Been uing them for a long time. But it is really hard to find a good one under 40/50€. Normal mouses have a lot of the goodones in 30€.
I really wish, they would release a gaming oriented vertical mouse. High DPI sensor, good clicker switches, etc. Right now stuck with my Logitech lift that tops out at 4000 dpi and has mushy switches.
Vertical gaming mice are good in theory, but they’re bad for aim. Since you’re clicking vertically, you actually very slightly move your mouse with each click. It throws off your aim :/
That and I claw grip too hard to ever get comfortable with them. But to each their own.
I saw one an am curious, does it work well with fps games?
Depends what you expect. On a pro tournament level, nobody will use a vertical mouse. Usually they are a little bit heavier than regular mouses, plus they have a slightly higher center of gravity. This makes them a little bit more “wobbly” during ultra fast movements.
However, for regular playing, they work just fine. I don’t play on pro level, but okay competitive shooters almost daily, and I haven’t noticed any real disadvantage. And it helped my wrists enormously, because I’m a full time office worker as well. I decided a couple years ago that the small theoretical disadvantage is not worth the risk of RSI and have been using the cheap CSL/Anker/whatever vertical mouses since. Only very recently I boughta second, regular mouse with more thumb buttons, useful for some sim games I play. I now tend to switch fairly randomly between the two, which probably is even better for hand and wrist.
Additional info: getting used to a vertical mouse takes much less time than most people expect. Yes, it’s weird at first, but start working or gaming and you’ll stop noticing the different posture very quickly.
Recently there is actually a mild push for gaming vertical mice so that gap might shorten over time. A friend of mine does Valorant semi-pro and he uses a vertical mouse as well.
I wouldn’t be opposed to a gaming mouse with extra buttons. Back in college a gf gave me a Razer mouse with a full numpad where the thumb sits. Was absolutely amazing for games with commands tied to those. Having something like that as a vertical mouse would be perfect. The only problem I see is when I click, I instinctively press my thumb into the mouse for stability. I trained that out of myself for the most part, but that could cause me to accidentally press a button when I didn’t want to. So they’ll have to be mindful of that when designing one.
I can’t tell any difference with my aim using a vertical mouse, so I wouldn’t stress it.
If anything, it adds a bit of realism cause you hold the mouse at a more similar angle as holding a gun. IMO it’s worth it for the strain relief alone.
Yeah, I’m thinking of trying a not so expensive ones first just to get a feel if I’ll like it.
Not in my experience. It’s novel for work but once I had it for awhile I went back to another mouse. I don’t think they are as useful as others say. Seems more like a preference.
I haven’t tried a lot of those, but it would take a lot of practice to achieve similar accuracy.
Move the wheel under the thumb. Until then it’s anything but ergonomic.
