Evoluent VM4 Vertical Mouse Right Handed - The Patented Shape Supports Your Hand

by Evoluent

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 3.5 x 3.5 x 5.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00427TAIK
• Item model number: VM4R
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #52 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Computer Accessories > Keyboards, Mice & Input Devices > Mice
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 3, 2010

Product Description

The VerticalMouse 4 (Right handed mouse) by Evoluent helps avoids forearm twisting for comfort and good health. The shape is thoughtfully sculpted for uncompromised comfort and easy-to-reach programmable buttons. No finger contortions are needed to operate the buttons. The thumb rest has been reshaped to provide even more comfort over earlier versions. Now featuring two thumb buttons, a new bottom thumb button provides greatly extended functionality when used with the included driver. An extra wide lip along the bottom edge prevents the last finger from rubbing the desk. Pointer speed controls on the side allow convenient adjustment without even releasing your grip from the mouse. Top mounted LEDs show through the chrome thumb rest to indicate selected pointer speed including extra low (XL), low (LO), MD (medium), to high (HI).

Basic functionality in OS X or newer without a driver Linux - Basic functionality without a driver

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very worth it, November 17, 2010

By 

rockdave4 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evoluent VM4 Vertical Mouse Right Handed - The Patented Shape Supports Your Hand (Personal Computers)

The obvious selling point is the neutral vertical (or handshake) position your hand will stay in during use but version 4 ("VM4R") has some notable improvements over other versions (I also own version 2) that definitely justify the slight price difference:

1. Stickier material - makes it easier to grip the mouse with less effort.

2. Mouse wheel - has tiny rivets making it easier to grip and turn (mouse wheel was entirely too slick on past versions).

3. Pointer speed buttons included on the mouse (with an electronic display showing your current speed) - it can get very fast which equates to a lot of movement with little wrist work.

4. Bigger flanged web at the base on which the pinky fingers rests so it doesn't drag across the mouse pad

General notes:
1. You definitely need to use this mouse with a wrist-rest-mouse-pad to keep your arm and wrist in alignment.

2. There are 3 finger buttons, 2 thumb buttons and 1 mouse wheel button all of which are programmable. There's an additional 4 combination button clicks. Any of these can be programmed (software is easy & intuitive) for helpful functions to minimize keystrokes / mouse movement. To name a few: Cut, Copy, Paste, Backspace, Back, Forward, Delete, Double Click, Enter, F1-F10, Show/Hide Desktop, Spacebar, Start, Tab, and many more.

3. It works well for most hand sizes: it's used and loved by both a 6'-0" 180-lb male and a 5'-0" 100-lb female in my household.

4. The corded version is lighter than the wireless version due to the batteries' weight.

In Closing:
I have wrist tendonitis and as a mechanical engineer, computing is 95% of my day. Obviously this mouse is not a cure but it does make it possible for me to get through the workday in significantly less pain than I had using a standard mouse. I highly recommend it (Version 4!) for anyone using a mouse for many hours at a time. I have also found the Kenesis split keyboard with the VIP freestyle mount very beneficial.

Don't wait until you have tendonitis, carpal tunnel or some other repeitive stress injury and spend $1,000's on physical therapy and accupuncture as I have done. Start your preventative maintenance today. Best of luck,

Dave

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm glad I got it; thinking about a second one., October 12, 2010

By 

Crash and Burn "Resident Curmudgeon" (, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evoluent VM4 Vertical Mouse Right Handed - The Patented Shape Supports Your Hand (Personal Computers)

I bought this mouse from the manufacturer before it was available here. I have big hands, my wife says they are bear paws.

The mouse has a flange on the bottom to keep your little finger from dragging on the mouse pad; I was concerned my hand would be too big. As it is, there is no problem with my hand's size. The manufacturer's reviews have some women whose hands are too small for this mouse.

As far as use of the mouse, their is an ergonomist's posting on another version of this mouse that I think is worth reading. I try to take his advice on using this mouse.

In addition to giving you a more natural grip, like a handshake, the mouse gives you 6 buttons, and a wheel. Evoluent provides a driver so you can program the buttons to any one of quite a few functions, and they are easily reprogrammable.

The bottom thumb button (there are two) allows you to give the finger buttons alternate functions when they are pressed. I've programmed my alternates to top button = BACK. middle button = Open Explorer. and bottom button = page down.

I've programmed the top thumb button to change pointer speed. You get up to three speeds to select from. I have speed 1 the fastest, and at that setting I can move the cursor a long way with very little hand motion.

I'm an electronic engineer and mostly develop software that interacts with hardware. I'm always opening up explorer to goto another directory to find a file I need. With this mouse, I don'tr need to cursor to the START button; I just press the bottom thumb button and the middle finger button, and explorer starts up. How cool is that?

I spend about 3 hours working with my investments every weekend, and I'm currently taking it home with me on Friday, and bringing it back to work on Monday. I'm seriously considering getting another on just for home.

If I did a lot of continuous typinng, I'd get a Kinesis Keyboard, and a number key pad to complete the ergonomic setup.

One final note for gamers. I'm not a gamer, but there are big mousepads out there so you can move your mouse a lot without going off the pad. With this mouse set to the highest speed, I think a standard mouse pad will be more than sufficient.

Going through a hub, instead of directly plugging into a computer's USB port doesn't seem to affect the mouse's response time.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars They come out a smaller version for small hand, January 16, 2011

By 

.oOo. (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evoluent VM4 Vertical Mouse Right Handed - The Patented Shape Supports Your Hand (Personal Computers)

I like the mouse, but I have small hand; a little too big for me. I returned this one because I found out that they do have a small version for small hand. Just search "Evoluent VerticalMouse 4 Small" in Amazon. It is purple color. Model #: VM4S