#30

I’ve used a Kensington Expert Mouse or its predecessors for about 20 years. It’s big, so not really a great option for travel, but it’s solidly built, has four programmable buttons, programmable chording (actions assigned to the two bottom and two top buttons together), is programmable system-wide with application specific configs, and has a scroll ring that I find more comfortable than scroll wheels.

For me I find a lot of my “mousing” can be done by giving the trackball a throw, which minimizes my arm and shoulder movement. It’s not as big as an old arcade machine trackball but it free rolls like that when thrown, and so over time you learn to throw and catch it and can navigate around your screen very quickly.

https://www.kensington.com/p/products/control/trackballs/expert-mouse-wired-trackball/

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#31

This was one that was high on my list in terms of price and form. Unfortunately the new versions offered (pro and classic) do not support Mac OS at all. The other thing reviewers say is that the rubber peels on the classic version. :frowning:

#32

So I’ve noticed a lot of the gaming mice have pretty poor or no mac support, although some of them have adjustable DPI on the mouse itself. It can be an issue with the LED mice or ones with tons of extra buttons (which would be rendered useless in some cases).

#33

I’ve used a number of mice/trackballs over the years. I do suffer from carpal tunnel in my right wrist so I’ve changed a lot.

For a long time the Logitech Trackman was my savior , the move from standard “wrist resting/pointer middle finger clicking” mice helped alleviate a lot of the pain, and I got really fast with it by throwing the trackball as other people have stated. Eventually the pain returned with this one, was probably my fault but I went looking and found the Anker Vertical that @zoundsabar had mentioned. It was immediately effective at getting my wrist off the table and mostly free from pain. I will say for really long sessions the Anker can start to hurt between the thumb and pointer finger, it’s a bit sharp in there.

I think they’re both good starts if you’re looking to try out vertical or trackball mice. I’ve also done the gamer mice thing and I can say the cloud based Razer software is very customizable but goddammit I AM NOT creating an account to use a mouse, ended up selling it.

Based on this thread I’ve decided to give another track ball a try with the Kensigton Expert Mouse, will report back.

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#34

After doing a lot of research and reading the recommendations here, I’ve ordered a Logitech Trackman to give the trackball thing a shot. Very weird at first but I’m getting used to it. You definitely need to download and use the software to speed up the tracking speed and adjust the scrolling up and down via the 2 small buttons. Pretty good for 22 bucks!

I may also try out the Logitech G MX518, which is an acclaimed gaming mouse.

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#35

If you are having carpal tunnel or other pain from extensive mouse usage, I’d recommend that you mix up the shape of mouse or trackball that you use. Have two completely different shapes of mouse and alternate between them. I use the Anker vertical mouse at work and a Logitech gamer mouse at my home studio. The variation is helpful.

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#36

I picked up the Logitech MX518 to use at the office and it’s pretty comfortable. I wasn’t too crazy about the look but it looks better than in the pictures (besides the big ‘G’ that Logitech uses). The adjustable DPI is nice to have on the mouse even if you’re not gaming.

At home I’ve been using the Logitech Trackman for about a solid week. Scrolling is a little odd at times since it’s in increments, but you kind of get used to that. The ergonomics are great.

What I’ve learned from this whole search is that if you use a Mac, Logitech is pretty much the winner in terms of choices and drivers.

#37

Got one of those as well. It looks weird, with that bumpy pattern effect, but I agree that it’s quite comfortable.
My only gripe with this mouse, and many others, is the rubbery surface coating on some of its parts.
While it might feel nice and comfy the first couple of weeks, this will start to disintegrate quite quickly over time, making the mouse look pretty ugly and messing up your workspace with all that black fluff flying around. Also, dust will stick to it like it’s glue.

It’s become surprisingly hard to find a mouse that doesn’t have this crap on its surface though.

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#38

The one that I got is a newer version, the ‘legendary’. They’ve replaced the rubbery coating with a matte plastic and the design does not have the bumps/bullet holes or whatever those were. It’s rather tame looking now, compared to the old design.

The rubbery coating issue definitely affects a lot of mice including the microsoft classic intellimouse, which I ultimately didn’t get because of that and the lack of Mac support.

#39

Good to know, thanks for the info! At one point I got a cheap Dell mouse (which turned out to be rather bad) because I couldn’t find any other non-rubberized one.

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#40

I’ve been looking at some of those QI wireless charging mousepads that are around and they seem pretty useful, so I looked around for some mice that could work with it, I found the logitech G703 and the 903 which seem ok but way too overpriced, most likely geared for gaming.

I was wondering if any of you know of any mice that can make use of QI charging but are a bit cheaper and more work oriented (side buttons, ergonomic tilt wheel etc)?

#41

It’s awesome. I use it with this wrist rest. Scroll wheel works well and is customizable on Win and Mac with TrackballWorks software. All four buttons are programmable. TrackballWorks also has software to store canned text and then use a hotkey to either enter it or bring up a menu of items, saves a lot of time if you have canned text you need to use often. I’m still using the Anker vertical periodicaly to mix it up but Expert Mouse is really great.

#42

i use a magic trackpad 2. it really is nice! it’s my only pointing device for everything i do–web, desktop, audio, video, graphics.

doesn’t hurt my hand or wrist even after multiple long sessions. it’s so low-profile that i don’t have to keep my wrist elevated the way i would with a traditional mouse. also: it can easily be set anywhere, and doesn’t need special surfaces, pads, or large spaces. which is super-handy when i’m moving around the studio, and still need to toggle ableton live’s record when i’m over at the piano or modular.

downside: the multitouch gestures are limited to what apple provides within macOS. there’s no assignable middle click/tap option (such as a 3-finger tap for tabbed browsing). for that, you have to run popular third-party utilities that rely on undocumented/private APIs, so they may break with a future OS update. e.g. bettertouchtool, magicprefs.

#43

I got an Anker vertical mouse as a present (this one) about a week ago.
It’s got the dreaded rubber finish, I hope it will last longer than on the Logitechs, but I doubt it.
Apart from that I’m positively surprised by how much I like it. The basic act of left clicking stuff needs some adjustment, since one does not have the table surface opposing force to it anymore. So at the beginning I was moving the mouse a bit when double-clicking, but it’s just a matter of getting used to it.
For the rest it’s of course a bit early to tell, but I might report back in a month or so.

2 Likes
#44

I’ve consistently enjoyed the Logitech Performance MX. I’ve had one at home for a long time, then got a new staff job that had me set up with a standard Magic Mouse. After getting some pretty awful (and scary) arthritis pain in my mouse hand, I got them to get me one of the Logitechs for my machine and the pain went away.

Granted, I don’t use any of the fancy functionality :upside_down_face:. It’s just very nice from an ergonomic standpoint.

#45

Well, more than a month has passed, actually, it’s now about a year since I got that mouse and I can say that I’m quite happy with it and am still using it daily. It’s not a magic cure (or prevention) for problems deriving from too much computer use, but for me it does feel better. When I sometimes have to go back to a normal mouse, I can totally feel the difference. My hand quickly gets into a more tense state, which doesn’t happen with the vertical mouse.

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#46

I can also attest that a vertical mouse has alleviated much of my wrist problems, going on 5 years. Not cured, but made it much more managable.

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#47

I’m using that same Anker vertical mouse now for a few years and it really helps with the hand pain. Sometimes I switch it up with a different (Horizontal?) mouse or a trackpad, the regular old flat mouse is the worst for me.

#48

I’m using an Evoluent vertical mouse and it’s worth every penny of the $90. It’s basically eliminated the wrist pain of a decade of CAD work. The Anker seems like a good way to demo the concept first.

My only complaint is that the weight of my hand sometimes hangs on my thumb. Tired thumb beats searing wrist pain, though.

#49

during quar I switching from a thumb-operated Logitech trackball to the Kensington Expert trackball, which supports a wider variety of hand movements. it’s been a lot easier on my wrist. It has the abilitiy to set up a macro to slow down the speed - I use it to really finesse draw the Pro Tools automation.

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