Several mice have attempted a design where the entire hand is supported by the mouse, therefore never touching the mousepad. The idea is that supporting the weight of your hand on your wrist and moving the mouse with your fingers can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome because your wrist is bent during use. The majority of designs on the market up til now felt like they were brewed in someone’s basement and manufactured with a little VC capital. The handshoe mouse on the other hand is the real deal, well made, and created by some researchers at a couple universities.

The first couple hours with the handshoe mouse are a little awkward, but afterward it starts to feel a bit more natural. It’s the first mouse we’ve heard of that comes in 3 different sizes for those with differently sized hands. When making a mouse that’s so highly contoured to your hand, I can see where providing different sizes of a mouse is important. I got the medium sized one.

One mouse I’ll compare it to is the Evoluent Vertical Mouse. The handshoe mouse is halfway between a normal mouse and a vertical mouse in that it tilts your hand about 30 degrees to the side. I found the angle to be just right. If fits my hand pretty much like a glove; more so than any other mouse I’ve ever tried. The upper part of your thumb kind of has 2 options for where it can go. The curve for your thumb is a little steep downwards, so you can place you thumb into the little nook or you can hold it straight. It’s the difference of having your thumb bent at a slight angle or straight, and both feel pretty good.

The takeaway is that the curvature of the mouse feels great. It holds my hand very close to the position my hands wrest naturally when sitting in a chair. They did their homework.

With the Evoluent vertical mouse, the bottom side of your pinky finger replaces your wrist’s job of providing an anchor for moving the mouse with the rest of your hand. The big jump for the handshoe mouse is that there is no anchor. Your hand is completely supported by the mouse. Your fingers have more dexterity than your arm in fine movements, so when using only your arm, your level of control is reduced. I wouldn’t recommend it to FPS gamers, but for day to day business people, I’d say it’s definitely livable. I had to reduce my mouse sensitivity a little bit in the computer.

The buttons are very solid and have a nice click to them. If you have severe ‘trigger finger’ then you might want something with a softer click. I will say the right button is softer than the left, so it might be a manufacturing inconsistency. The scroll wheel is the same story. While it’s has an excellent feel and is very high quality, it doesn’t exactly glide like butter like some mice. This is a mouse oriented towards relieving wrist pains & hand aches more so than trigger finger. For people with both trigger finger and wrist problems, you might consider this mouse in conjunction with perhaps a foot pedal for the mouse click.

The verdict? I like it a lot. The build quality is excellent and it has a nice weight to it. The downside is that it costs $130 which puts it in a whole different price bracket from other ergonomic mice. I think that for people who have wrist and hand pains in their mousing hand that this mouse should definitely be considered. Although expensive, it’s a lot cheaper than hand surgery, and the difference between it and a normal mouse is night and day.

Update: One week has passed and my hand feels great. My wrist pains have mostly subsided and my fingers aren’t cramping like they used to. I can’t help but feel like there’s really something to this design. I’m truly shocked at the results after just 1 week of full time usage. Occasionally because of the reduced level of control I get frustrated when I have to point on something very small, but most of the time I don’t think about it. Time will tell if this mouse is the magic bullet, but so far, we’re off to a great start.