Customer Reviews

3M Ergonomic Mouse, Optical, USB/PS2 Compatible, Large Size, Black (EM500GPL)

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I purchased this 3M Ergonomic mouse and the Evoluent Vertical Mouse2 at the same time to compare.
I really enjoyed the feel of the 3M mouse, but it is limited in what it can do. I need to scroll often with my kind of work. The 3M mouse does not have a scroll wheel it has a scroll button. When you push the scroll button, you then have to physically move the mouse up and down to scroll.
The Evoluent Vertical Mouse2 is pretty comfortable. It seems a bit light at times, so it takes a while to get used to it. I really enjoy the scroll wheel and the 5 programmable buttons; Left, Right, Middle, Wheel button (for your fingers) and a Back button (by the thumb) and the scroll wheel. Of course you can program each one to do what you want. You might want to visit Evoluent's web site to get the most up to date driver.
Although the 3M is slightly more comfortable then the Vertical Mouse2, with my type of work I need the functionality of the Evoluent Vertical Mouse2. If 3M had a scroll wheel I probably would have kept it, but I'm going to stick with the Evoluent Vertical Mouse2.

This 3M Ergonomic Renaissance Mouse is great for those with wrist injuries or discomfort because it keeps your thumb pointed in the upward direction, eliminating pressure within the carpel tunnel area. I was pleased to find this new version that uses an optical sensor, a USB connector, and a new graphite color.

Mouse model number EM500GPS is supposed to be for those with palms 3.5 inches wide and less and EM500GPL is for those with palms 3.5 inches and larger. My palm is exactly 3.5 inches wide, I tried both, and the large size was much more comfortable. My fingers were much too cramped with the smaller mouse. I think the recommended cut-off between the two sizes should be about 3.0 inches.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of drawbacks. First, it's for right-handers only. Secondly, it is not quite as precise as a regular mouse because you can't use your fingers to fine tune the position of the pointer, so I occasionally miss target areas and have to reposition the mouse and click again. However, I still highly recommend this product because it helped eliminate my wrist pain, and that is the first priority! You can find info and drivers at the official 3M website: 3m.com/ergonomics/ergonomicmouse.jhtml

It's true, if you use this mouse for many hours a day then they have about 3 or 4 months of life - they start to double click like crazy, so you have to throw it out. I'm on my 3rd one, but it has allowed me to get my work done without pain. This seems like a small price to pay to reduce pain and allow me to keep working. I just purchased 3 of them so that I have about a 1 year supply. Maybe 3M will read these reviews and actually make a durable product, but why would they want to sell fewer mice?

I had pretty bad hand pain from my microsoft wireless mouse. I bought three of these based on the reviews I read here. The day I started using it the pain disapeared, however I gave my teenage son one too and that is when the bad news arrived. Within a week he had snapped the mouse in two. I figured he was just being a teenager until a month later when i broke mine in half. I took the third one and guess what, same exact way the third one broke. The base and the handle are connected with a plastic snap like joint. The joint occurs in the very place torque is likely to occur and there are three little tabs of plastic that are less than 1/8th of an inch thick keeping it together. Its amazing an engineer at 3M could think this was a good design. Oh well. I just threw them away, not sure if i could have returned them to 3M. They work so well ergonomically, once you get used to them, that I will probably buy more.

My birthday mouse from last August (which really is as nice on your hands as others suggest) developed the dreaded double-click problem (where all single clicks start to register double) a week or so back. One phone call to 800-332-7483 later, and I have a replacement and an assurance that the problem is fixed as of January (and hey, my two-year warranty should run a while yet).

It really does click differently now. Clickier.

The 3m Ergo mouse is the best mouse for ergonomics on the market. The picture is misleading though. I thought that perhaps it was some sort of joystick type of mouse (which would still require moving the wrist, which wouldn't help really). It is one solid piece that does NOT move at all. The picture also hides the fact that it has 3 buttons, a left click (on top for the thumb), a right click (also on top), and one on the side (not shown) for the other fingers.

What you'll immediately notice about this is that when you start to use it, your wrist will not move at all and you will be using your arm to move the mouse.

I have no problems with the mouse treating a single click as a double click either. Perhaps the other people simply had a defective unit (or more likely, 3M was producing it poorly has revised their design to have it fixed).

In my own experiment with this mouse, I intentionally did NO other therapy for my wrist to see how much the mouse actually helped. My hand went from nearly totally unusable to not having hardly any pain (unless I use a regular mouse again, and/or type for extended experiods again) in less than 20 days. Clearly, healing has already started, and it's also happened in less than 1 month with this mouse.

For people that play first person shooters, I also use this mouse for games with no problem at all. And it took me about 1-2 days to get used to it. It's very "natural". Highly recommended.

True, it does not have a scroll wheel. There are utilities you can download that will make the third button work as a scroll wheel.

But it is best of breed for a few reasons.

One, it allows your hand to assume the most vertical position of all the ergonomic mice (mouses?). The natural position for your hand is the so-called "handshake" position, with the palm facing toward the other hand, and the knuckles positioned vertically. The Renaissance Mouse allows the most vertical position of all the ergonomic mice.

Two, it has a base to take the weight of your hand and arm. With the other ergonomic mice, your hand rests directly on the mouse pad, meaning you have to use your bicep muscles to lift your hand off the pad. With the Renaissance Mouse, the base takes the weight, and you can use your arm muscles just to move the mouse.

True, there is a learning curve, and it takes a while, perhaps a week or two to accustom yourself to it. Also, it is a little less fast and accurate, at least for me, than the regular mice, since you are using the the larger and less accurate arm muscles instead of the small wrist muscles.

But for me, it works great. No more wrist pain or numbness, even after a 14-hour day at the computer.

I did have a problem intially with the cursor jumping and stuttering, but that turned out to be a problem with the mouse pad. The optical sensor was apparently confused by the hexagonal pattern etched into the pad (that came included with Dell computers a few years ago.) It caused me to intially write a not-so-positive review of the optical model, since my older rolling-ball model had no such problem. But switching the pad resolved the issue.

Some people have complained about durability, but I have dropped both of mine, optical and roller ball, many times without any problems.

I love mine.

My hand was too big even for the LARGE version, which made my thumb rest in a very awkward position. While my forearm felt more relaxed using the mouse, my hand itself actually started hurting.

Plus the drivers are old NT4.0 version drivers. They work with XP, but just barely. No support from the manufacturer.

I used this mouse for several days before deciding it wasn't for me.

While it does alleviate wrist pain, it didn't perform up to my expectations.

The software (which you need to download from 3M) is five years old and is not a driver update. The mouse uses the standard drivers included in Windows. I was unable to use the 3M software because it conflicted with the Logitech software I already have installed. I use two mice simultaneously -- one for my left hand and one for my right (sounds crazy, but it works really well for balancing the work load). Consequently, I needed to keep the Logitech software.

Since I was unable to use any software to modify the control of the mouse, I found I had to move my arm excessively to move the cursor. Left to right was annoying enough (I have a 20" Dell WS LCD monitor with lots of real estate to cover), but trying to go up and down was a real bear. I expect to be able to move the cursor with just the movement of my wrist and fingers-not my arm.

Another issue was price. The quality and lack of features on this mouse is something I would expect from a mouse costing $10-$15, but I realize this is a "specialty" item.

All things considered, I give this mouse a 4 because it does what it says. I felt no pain in my wrist while using this mouse. However, I normally don't have a lot of wrist pain -- I just get fatigued after a day of use -- so it wasn't worth it to me. I think it probably is a good product for someone having a lot of pain and using only one mouse ;-)

I developed tendinitis on my right wrist due to computer mouse problems, and decided to buy this product.

This mouse helped a bit with my wrist tendinitis, but GAVE ME PROBLEMS WITH MY THUMB!! That part of my right hand where the thumb meets the wrist ached so much that I had to quit using this mouse. The pain disappeared soon thereafter.

I now use the "Ergonomic Quill Mouse", and it works like magic! Although a bit more expensive than this one, it is well worth the money.