MMORPG.com Hardware Reviewer Jeremy Star has reviewed a lot of mice since starting here at the site. The mouse is, after all, the conduit that allows us to play our games and a bad mouse is going to equal a bad gaming experience. Today, in his review of the Evoluent VerticalMouse 3, Jeremy tells us how not to build a mouse.

Every once in a while somebody gets the urge to buck convention and invent a new way of doing something old. Or an old way of doing something new. Or they get really nuts and start banging a toaster with a wooden spoon and chanting prayers to the gods of technology.

But I digress. Here, for your reading enjoyment, is another mouse review. But wait! This isn't just any old mouse, no sir. This is the Evoluent VerticalMouse 3.

The Hardware – It's called a VerticalMouse...

The Evoluent VerticalMouse 3 (hereafter referred to as VM3 because typing that repeatedly will give me repetitive motion disorder) is a USB mouse. That's vertical. See, don't you love it when the name makes some sort of sense? By vertical I mean this: Imagine your mouse. Now take it and flip it on its side at a 90° angle. Now it is no longer an ordinary, horizontal mouse, it is a vertical mouse. Except that this mouse is built to be used like that, and your mouse is now useless sitting on its side like that.

Read the whole review here.

I can only see this as a viable option for people with wrist injuries but I wouldn’t expect it to be a hit with the mainstream. But I’m sure someone would get use from it.

just looking at it you can tell it's just not a natural position.

jeremy .. have you ever tried using a tablet to game with ? just kinda wondering. i use a wacom intuos 3 daily for general work/life related stuff, and was just thinking with a little practice it might make a VERY intuitive controller

i don't like microsoft

however i tried the new MS Natural mouse today and it was the most confortable mouse i ever testedIt looks like a big ball, so forget about it being portable though.

The ms sidewinder mouse - yuck. that thing is so long. it was hard to reach the  buttons.  And this was intended for hardcore gamers?

I use the vertical mouse at work  for cad drawing. Even though It isn't nearly as accurate as a normal mouse because of the vertical hand position It does ease the stress to your wrist. I wouldn't recommend it for gaming though, it would be very annoying for that purpose, but for 8 hours/day of AutoCad & SolidWorks work it seems to suit just fine.

Eh, I've been using the VM2 for nearly two years now. It's a great mouse. I don't experience the problems you have with the VM3. It does take time to adapt. Easier to adapt for some people than others.

The mouse just wasn't for you.

I use it at work right now. I've used it with games also. I get more out of it at work due to hours of use, but if you game many hours per day, then using it for gaming wouldn't be a terrible idea. I don't like how the button customization functions with some games however;  At least when using Vista.

It has nothing to do what one personally thinks about what their "natural" wrist position is or not.

It's based on medical facts (and basically physics) which position puts more/less strain on the wrist in which situation. Having the hand/wrist laying flat down while using it (this is important to consider in contrast to laying still while sitting on couch watching tv) there is more strain on it.  If you don't want to believe it, fine. Ask a m.d. or physical therapist next time you meet one. For those who have the possibility to talk to "ergonomic experts" at their work place, ask them.

I've used both the right- and left-handed Vertical mouse when my right wrist was getting tweaked because of constant computer use at work and at home.   I'm still using it and it seems to have helped.

There was less wrist pain using the Vertical mouse with my right hand but as the OP mentioned your arm can get tired.  I think this is because the Vertical mouse makes you use different muscles.   You can't rest your arm as easily as you would with a normal mouse, which might be part of the point since ergo-experts seem to say that too must pressure from resting one's forearms can cause damage. 

It did take a little adapting but after a while it becomes as easy to use as any other mouse.  I'm no hardcore gamer so I don't notice anything about differences in accuracy.    I'm more concerned with not wrecking my nerves than being able to hit a single pixel. 

I'd say if you are having wrist problems it might be worth a try.  But you should keep your receipt just in case.

i have this at home and it works as advertised.  my wrist pain has basically disappeared. i'm quite happy with it. 

With the caveat that I'm not using the most recent generation of the Evoluent mouse, I'd have to nearly completely disagree with the reviewer.

I've used the VM2 for several years now and it has been a great help to me. I was experiencing a descent amount of wrist pain when I started looking for an ergonomic and wrist friendly option to my standard mouse and after looking at reviews and weighting the prices of my options (there are some insanely expensive mice out there) I went with the VM2.  Yeah, it does take some getting used to, but no more than a few days of general usage and you should be fine assuming you have basic motor skills and mouse use down.  As for clicking the mouse buttons causing the mouse to shift, I've not had this affect me at all.  I suppose it might occur when you're first getting used to the mouse, but I've used it for so long I don't recall my initial experiences with that specific supposed drawback.  I have used it quite a bit for gaming in mutliple genres, FPS excluded.  The mouse is plenty accurate and nimble for everything but fragging in my experience.

While I've not used the VM3 - the basic design of the Evoluent line is unchanged and I would wholeheartedly suggest this mouse to anyone experiencing wrist problems due to heavy computer usage.

Maybe it has to do how an individual moves the mouse for small areas. I almost only use my fingers to move the mouse then.

When I look at the VM3, it seems to me that almost all the movement has to be done with the arm. I don't feel that i'd be used to that, but a person that uses mostly the arm with a normal mouse would have less problems than me.

I'm actually not surprised that a normal mouse feels more natural to you.  The poor posture associated with computer use probably feels more natural to you, too, and a truly correct posture is probably downright painful.  This is because your muscles have become accustomed to poor posture and abuse, so they have tried to adapt as best they can to it.  Undoing this damage takes pushing through quite a bit of pain or discomfort until the muscles are able to return to their normal position.

And this is the advantage of having a neuro-muscular therapist for a wife.

Originally posted by thain1982

I'm actually not surprised that a normal mouse feels more natural to you.  The poor posture associated with computer use probably feels more natural to you, too, and a truly correct posture is probably downright painful.  This is because your muscles have become accustomed to poor posture and abuse, so they have tried to adapt as best they can to it.  Undoing this damage takes pushing through quite a bit of pain or discomfort until the muscles are able to return to their normal position.

And this is the advantage of having a neuro-muscular therapist for a wife.

People, I do actually research things. I know some people are incapable of using the internet for anything but goofing off, but some of us are capable of getting answers from it.

Yes, the correct resting position of your forearm/wrist should be between 30 and 60 degrees. Perhaps this is why I don't like the VM3, due to the fact that I think it is too vertical. Other mice companies also do research. I am testing a gaming mouse now that is tilted almost exactly 30 degrees to the left, and it works and feels great. My first optical mouse was a Logitech Mouseman, tiled about 40 degrees to the left. I still use that mouse at my day job. Feels great.

They way you control your mouse may also influence the way you feel about mice. I tend to use my fingers and leave my wrist pretty much immobile. That's the whole reasoning behind high dpi, you can move the mouse a miniscule amount, and the cursor can cross the entire screen without straining your wrist. Resting your wrist at a 90 degree angle and moving the mouse with your fingers is nigh impossible.

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Originally posted by Agent_X7

My first optical mouse was a Logitech Mouseman, tiled about 40 degrees to the left. I still use that mouse at my day job. Feels great.

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in my opinion, this might actually be a good idea if it was more of 45 degreee angle instead of 90.  that would fix the movement problem when clicking buttons (hopefully) , and still keep to the "ergonomical" idea.  the idea is somewhat sound, i think, but not at a full 90 degrees.

EDIT:  i just read Agent_X7's post where he said the ideal wrist position would be about 30-60 degrees.  that was my first assumption, and i suppose there is plenty of research concluding this as well.  so why then did Evoluent go with 90?  did they do their own research and come up with 90?  did they even do any research beyond figureing that a standard mouse is not ergonomical enough?  are they just idiots?

EDIT:  just saw their website.  they make this mouse to be more ergonomical, yet their keyboard is just a standard one . . . .

EDIT: anyone who thinks they want an verical mouse should check these out instead
http://www.ergo-items.com/3m_ergonomic_mouse.htm
http://www.ergo-items.com/zero_tension_mouse.htm
i find them both more appealing, even if they are quite bulky and odd looking.  youll notice though that the problem with the mouse moving when clicking shouldnt be a problem with either.

also, does the name verticalmouse 3 mean that there were 2 other designs before this?

For those who say the palm down is a natural position, I say that you are simply ignorant. Yes, palm down is more comfortable for most since that is what they have grown accustomed to. However, when you stand up straight, the "anatomical" position of the hands is palms in (just like if your arms hung at your side while sitting).  There is a difference between anatomical (which the author calls "natural") and comfortable.

Originally posted by hunterco

For those who say the palm down is a natural position, I say that you are simply ignorant. Yes, palm down is more comfortable for most since that is what they have grown accustomed to. However, when you stand up straight, the "anatomical" position of the hands is palms in (just like if your arms hung at your side while sitting).  There is a difference between anatomical (which the author calls "natural") and comfortable.

First of all, have you actually tried this? Stand there and look at your hands and tell me if they are exactly parallel to your spine. Most peoples' hands are twisted in a bit, palms facing slightly behind you. When you sit, that's the exact way they rest on your leg. 30 to 60 degrees. You can split hairs all you like, but your argument doesn't hold water. The natural, anatomical, God-given, whatever-you-want-to-say way is 30 - 60 degrees angle, palm facing the desk.

You think Microsoft didn't do research in to their ergonomic mouse? You think that of all the other mice companies out there, Evloluent stumbled upon the one, true "correct" mouse position while everyone else remained ignorant? Or do you think that it may be marketing BS to try to take a share of a mutli-million dollar hardware business?

 If it works for you: Great. However, claiming others are ignorant because you think this this is a great product is quite a stretch. Also, it's interesting how many people responding to this negative review have a total of 1 post. Marketing at work again?

At what point did I ever say this was a great product?

And my knowledge of the anatomical body positions has nothing to do with marketing. It's called Anatomy & Physiology, a class that many non-programming-nerds take when following other non-computer-nerd careers... because NEWSFLASH! Not everyone who posts on these forums are geeks in their parents' basements.

The fact that I have a total of one posts is because this is the first time I've even taken the time to see people's comments on this site re: a product. Usually I steer clear of comment forums because they are filled with mindless banter made by ignorant basement-dwellers who understand nothing of the outside world or personal hygeine.