Evoluent VerticalMouse C Series Review

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I have been using a traditional mouse for years – 8-10 hours a day, five days a week – without ever caring about ergonomics. I would often experience wrist pain. Being the thrifty guy that I am, I’d buy a more comfortable mouse pad rather than getting an ergonomic mouse. I got curious when we at ValueWalk received an Evoluent VerticalMouse C Series ergonomic mouse review, and wanted to try it out.

Evoluent VerticalMouse C Series designed for people with RSI

I had never used a vertical mouse with such an odd design. It looks different from every mouse I had used before. Evoluent claims the vertical orientation helps reduce the strain on your wrist and arm. Unlike the traditional mice, the VerticalMouse C series is designed for use in a “handshake” position. Evoluent claims it has designed the C Series for preventing or treating repetitive stress injuries (RSI).

Millions of professionals around the world suffer from RSI, which results from using your muscles and joints in the wrong way for prolonged periods. My wrist pain is the result of not using my wrist the right way for years. When we use the traditional mouse, we have to twist our forearms. A vertical mouse allows us to reposition the hands vertically, similar to the way you shake hands.

Evoluent
Image credit: Evoluent

Enough details on ergonomics. Let’s dive deep into the Evoluent VerticalMouse C Series review. VerticalMouse comes in different sizes, wired and wireless options. It’s available for both left-handed and right-handed people. If you are a lefty and got yourself the one with the right-handed operation, you are going to have a tough time. Just ask ValueWalk founder Jacob who used it for a few days.

Evoluent VerticalMouse C Series: Design

Weird. That was my first impression of VerticalMouse’s design. It’s bigger than the mice I had used in the past.

The unit we received is wireless and designed for right-handed operation. It comes with a USB receiver that you have to plug into the computer. It runs on a single non-chargeable AA battery. The battery is supposed to last 3-5 months with average usage.

You have the wheel and the button area on the right side, and the thumb area on the left. There is also a beautifully designed thumb rest. At the bottom, you’ll find an on-off power switch and a battery slot. The unit we tested is black color, though Evoluent also offers a gold color option. It works with Windows (including Windows 10), Mac and Linux.

The mouse is designed such that your thumb sits on the thumb rest while the other four fingers are on the right side. Besides the usual left and right buttons, it also has a middle button. When using it for the first time, you have to remind yourself that the ring finger goes on the right button, and the middle finger goes on the middle one. There is also a pointer speed button right behind the wheel to adjust the pointer’s speed without changing your grip on the mouse. It has four blue LED lights at the top to indicate the pointer speed from low to high.

On the left side, there is one button above and another below the thumb rest area. You can use them to take your browser page forward or backward.

Evoluent ensures that you are not stuck with the default button configuration. Using Evoluent’s Mouse Manager desktop software, you can reconfigure each of the five buttons to your liking. You want the left button to perform the functions of the middle button? You can do that from the Mouse Manager software, which has a simple and easy-to-understand interface.

You can also set the buttons to perform keyboard actions such as copy/paste, backspace, and enter. Yes, there are tons of options, but they don’t overwhelm you. The software also lets you add a break timer that will alert you when it’s time to take a break from work.

Our experience with Evoluent VerticalMouse C Series

The mouse has a weird shape, but it is comforting to grip. It takes some time to get used to the VerticalMouse. If you are like me who hasn’t used a mouse with three buttons in years, it’s going to take you more than “some time.” During the transition phase, you feel the mouse is slowing you down. But your speed will catch up fast. Once I got used to it, the mouse felt more relaxing than the one I had been using for months. It changes your hand’s position and the grip.

One area where it didn’t match up to my expectations is gaming. The vertical orientation makes it difficult to slide the mouse quickly. The refresh rate on C series is 125Hz, same as Evoluent’s other models. Of course, you can’t expect the best gaming experience considering it’s not a specialized gaming mouse.

Conclusion

Once you get used to it, the mouse feels far more comfortable and relaxing than the traditional mice. When I went back to my regular mouse, I could feel the difference in the comfort level. The VerticalMouse focuses on ergonomics and ease of use. The choice of three buttons on the right side feels a bit weird, but you can reconfigure them using the Mouse Manager software to your liking. It’s for people like me who have experienced the pain of a repetitive stress injury (RSI).  

The product’s large size means it can’t be your perfect traveling companion. It measures 3.15 x 3.54 x 4.69 inches and weighs 140g. My regular mouse measures 2.24 x 3.74 x 1.53 inches and weighs just 91g. If you are a frequent traveler, you’ll have a difficult time carrying it around. 

Another factor that may turn off many people is its price tag of $110. It is even more expensive than Logitech’s MX Master 2S wireless mouse, which costs $100 (although there are versions of it which are priced lower). However, it’s worth it if you suffer from RSI and want to relieve your wrist pain.  

FTC Disclosure: We would like to thank Evoluent’s external PR agency for sending us the mouse in return for a review.

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