Here at RSI Stuff we’ve tried several vertical mice from the Joysticks to the Plastics, but neither of them treated us as well as the Evoluent Vertical Mouse. The concept is simple, take a normal mouse, and turn it on it’s side so that you hold your hand in the handshake position. For some people, tilting their wrist to use a normal mouse makes it ache over time, and that’s exactly what this mouse aims to solve.

With a normal mouse your wrist sits on the table with your hand bent up, using your fingers to move the mouse around. With the Evoluent Vertical Mouse, your wrist no longer sits on the table because you hand sits on the mouse with you thumb as a brace. You actually move the mouse by moving your arm, thereby no longer stressing you wrist. Simply put, if your wrist on your mousing hand hurts, this is a good alternative mouse to try out and at < $70 on amazon, it's pretty affordable.

Here at RSI Stuff, the question is always: Is this the cure to my repetitive stress discomfort. As always it's neither black or white, although in this case we're pretty impressed. Let's talk about it:

For this review I'll mention two common types of pain from using a mouse. One is called trigger-finger where the mere act of clicking has made your index finger sore. The vertical mouse won't help you there because you still click just like any other mouse. The other common pain is from sitting your wrist on the hard table all day while you move the mouse. A common solution is to elevate your wrist to the same height as the top of the mouse (so your wrist isn't bent) with a mouse pad hand rest. Some people find those comfortable, and some don’t. If thats You, you should most definately consider giving the Evoluent a shot.

Yours truely has been on the Evoluent Vertical Mouse for 8 months and counting, and I’m pretty happy with it. It’s reasonably well made, lightweight, and comfortable to use for 8hrs a day. The scroll wheel leaves a little to be desired, but if your hand hurts, then the pros outweigh the cons. It does take a little getting used to, but it’s no where near as foreign as say an alphagrip and it feels fairly natural after just a couple days’ use.