Evoluent Ergonomic Vertical Mouse 3 - Right Handed

by Evoluent

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• ASIN: B000ZZQE8M
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 1, 2008

Product Description

Evoluent Vertical Ergonomic Mouse 3 Relax your wrist!
Experience the 3rd Generation Evoluent Ergonomic mouse and leave all your wrist pain behind!
Many people experience multiple aches and pains when they use their computer. While ergonomic keyboards can be found everywhere, the same cannot be said for a mouse that keeps your hand in a more natural position.
The Evoluent mouse 3 is a newer, even more comfortable design that allows for an easy transition from your normal mouse.The Evoluent Vertical Ergonomic Mouse 3 should look familiar; it is basically a normal mouse just turned sideways! This innovative, patented design ensures little to no need for retraining of your hand.
The Evoluent Vertical Ergonomic Mouse 3 is an ergonomically designed mouse that supports your hand in a fully upright, handshake position. This design eliminates the forearm discomfort caused by twisting that is required when using a standard mouse.
Other features include five programmable buttons and an adjustable, high quality infrared sensor.
Change the DPI settings in four intervals from 800 - 2200 DPI. This enables a much more sensitive and accurate mouse; therefore lowering hand movement.
This is a great gift for PC and Mac users of all ages and disciplines.
Evoluent Vertical Ergonomic Mouse 3 Features:
Reshaped to better fit a greater range of hand sizes. Optical scroll wheel with detents (clicks) instead of a smooth rolling wheel.
Reduces hand movements and Eliminates Arm Twisting - Supports your hand in the handshake position that eliminates forearm twisting.
Programmable Buttons - 5 fully customizable buttons Adjustable optical resolution - Choose between 2600, 1800, 1300, and 800 dpi Evoluent Vertical Ergonomic Mouse 3
Specifications: USB, PS/2 compatible - 5 button use with USB, only 2 buttons work with PS/2

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love the VerticalMouse, December 14, 2008

By 

Sonar (Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evoluent Ergonomic Vertical Mouse 3 - Right Handed (Electronics)

This is my third VerticalMouse. I ordered the older VerticalMouse 2 after it became too painful for me to work with a standard mouse. I'm a graphic designer who works heavily in Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and everything in between.

The VerticalMouse has allowed me to keep working, and that alone gives it a five star ranking. The VerticalMouse 3 improved on the VerticalMouse 2 with better innards, a slight reduction in size/grip, and a small lip at the bottom of the mouse that helps keep sweaty hands from sticking to the desk. The VerticalMouse 3 was a nice improvement to VerticalMouse 2. The VerticalMouse 3 revision 2 (different than version 3) adds resolution control via a button on the bottom of the mouse: 2600, 1800, 1300, and 800 DPI. The laser changes color for each resolution.

So lets get down to what you really want to know--how it works, and how my first two VerticalMouses died:

1. General stuff: Yes, it does work, and well. The resolution is high enough for art. It is a bit on the big side, but must be for the grip to work. It also scares people away from using your computer (they don't know what it is) so that's an added plus. The wheel on VerticalMouse 3 has small incremental stops when turning (different from v2's smooth action). It's optical (no ball), programmable, 3 buttons plus a thumb-button and click-wheel, and has a cord.

2. Drivers/Control. I use both Mac and PC. The drivers for PC come on CD with the unit, are very nice, and offers plenty of control over button functions. Evoluent has updated their Mouse software (get it at their web site) and added some new functionality to the mouse that is helpful. Better control for the extra buttons and pop-up reminders (if desired) about when to get up and stretch. They also made the system tray icon a green "E" instead of the old poop/cockroach icon (really, it looked like poop).

PLEASE NOTE FOR MAC USERS: You do NOT get drivers and are stuck with OSX native support which doesn't let you do much with the mouse other than standard 1-button Mac mousing. In order to use the mouse to its fullest on a Mac you need to download "USB Overdrive". Just search for it on Google. Its a shareware program that costs $20. If you do not pay for it, you get a nag screen once each time on startup but full functionality remains. USB Overdrive will allow you to program all the buttons how you want.

3. If other reviews make you think it's a monster mouse with really thick plastic, it isn't. I expected a heavy mouse with a lot of plastic. It's bulkier than a standard mouse, but it is still fairly light. The VerticalMouse 3 improves on version 2 with what feel like sturdier buttons (v2 felt a little flimsy on the buttons) and a slightly smaller grip.

4. The weird handshake-style way you use it takes a few days to get used to. When you hold the VerticalMouse the first time and then hold your old standard mouse, you will immediately notice how much better the VerticalMouse feels on your wrist. I found myself switching back and forth between my old mouse the first week, but finally gave up on the old mouse because of the pain and I'm glad I did. After about two weeks of a normal workload I did much better with controlling it. Take my advice and put your old mouse in a drawer and forget about it. Dive in and force yourself to use the new mouse and you'll be better off.

5. You should program the middle button (It's a 3-button mouse, plus a thumb button and the click-wheel) as a "double-click" button - the software lets you do it easily. Doing that means one click of the middle button does double-clicking for you. The fatigue of double clicking goes away quickly that way.

6. With the VerticalMouse 2 (old version) when the side of your hand would sweat it would stick to the desk and prevent movement. The VerticalMouse 3 added a small lip to the bottom of the mouse that seems to keep a lot of that from happening. Problem solved and kudos to the engineers to reading about the troubles and finding a solution. Evoluent seems to actually listen to customers and continually improve the product. I'm typically very jaded, but I have to admit I'm genuinely impressed with them. Better drivers, better design on each revision of the product.

7. When switching to the VerticalMouse from a standard mouse you may find strain in some different places than you had before. It took a while for me to relax the muscles I used with a standard mouse, and not grip so tight or push so hard on the desk. It just takes some getting used to. Much of your wrist pain you encounter during mousing with a standard mouse you won't feel at all. So the pain of a day's work will decrease immediately, and after 9 months of using my first Evoluent mouse 2 and I no longer had any pain in my wrists while working a normal day. They're still weak mind you (even years later) but they don't hurt during mousing with the VerticalMouse. I'm very happy with that. To reiterate - this isn't curing carpal tunnel, tendonitis or anything, it's just not aggravating it like a normal mouse.

8. Death of a VerticalMouse: Yes, my beloved mouses have died on occasion. My experience is you'll get about 18 months out of them. It might not seem like a lot of time for an expensive mouse (prices have gone down a lot since V2) but a steal given the cost of not being able to work or surgery. Keep in mind I'm also rough on a mouse. It's survived some attacks by a curious toddler, clubbing by an infant, and the occasional baby vomit or soda spill -- so the thing is fairly sturdy. My VerticalMouse2 began having erratic control problems on WinXP after about 18-months. It just would decide to stop, then start working a bit later. My First VerticalMouse 3 lasted about the same 18 months (taking some ungodly abuse from an angry 6 month old) before the right mouse button became jammed on. I'm now on another VerticalMouse 3 and I will continue to buy them. The quality/usability/ergonomics have greatly improved in each version and revision. They are very much worth the price. And again, it keeps me working. I'll be buying one again if this one breaks down.

To summarize, I need this mouse to continue working. It is indispensable to me, and a whole lot cheaper than surgery to keep me productive. Like I wrote before, it doesn't cure carpal tunnel or tendonitis, but it does allow you to keep working with much less pain and strain. It's a solid mouse with several programmable features, and is made by a company constantly improving it's ergonomics and software. Mac users will need additional software like USB Overdrive to use the mouse to its fullest. I hope that helps.

---------- UPDATE 1/30/10 ------------

My latest Evoluent Mouse (this model 3r2) has been running great now for over a year. Using the USB Overdrive software still for control of the extra buttons, and it's working fine in Max OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. LOL, I won't describe my unhappiness with the Snow Leopard transition, but the mouse works fine on it. :)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best thing ever., March 22, 2009

By 

Ed Schultz (Naperville, IL 60540) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Evoluent Ergonomic Vertical Mouse 3 - Right Handed (Electronics)

This is my first review and I need to counterbalance the earlier negative review. About a year ago I had major wrist problems and even went to physical therapy because the pain was so bad. Although the therapy helped a little, the pain was still there and would not go away.

That's when I discovered Evoluent and their vertical mouse. I have now had a vertical mouse for over a year and absolutely swear by it. This is an absolute must!

The mouse takes a couple of days to get used to it, but once you do you will never go back.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars horrible support, March 20, 2009

By 

Frustrated - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evoluent Ergonomic Vertical Mouse 3 - Right Handed (Electronics)

I can't tell you anything good or bad about the product, but I CAN tell you that the tech support is terrible. I can't even get a response from Evoluent. You might be buying a bunch of driver conflicts along with this product, and no help in finding a solution.