Evoluent Wireless Mouse 4 review – A Firm Handshake

For as many design tweaks as we’ve seen the standard computer mouse take over the years – from the wheel to extra thumb buttons to bottom-mounted charging ports (c’mon, Apple!) — the basic design of the mainstream mouse isn’t all that different from what it was back when the kids in Stranger Things would’ve been running around Indiana back in 1983. Nearly 40 years later, we’re still using pucks with two big buttons.

But like the QWERTY keyboard layout, that form factor is still around mostly because it’s been around, despite a clear need to reimagine it. With the advent of the computer has come a rise in carpal tunnel stress as people strain their hands for longer periods. If I’m working and playing a PC game, it’s not unreasonable to say I’m spending 12-plus hours in front of a computer some days. So maybe it’s time to rethink the design of some of this hardware. Instead of evolving my body to fit my computer, I should be molding my computer to fit my body.

That’s where Evoluent’s vertical mouse comes in. The vertical mouse has been around for years, but it seems like it’s only recently that it’s been catching on. Evoluent contacted me to put one in my hands, and I’ve been playing with it for the last few weeks to see how it feels to use on a day to day basis.

A mouse for (almost) every hand

The standard mouse design is sort of a lump on your desk, requiring you to twist your wrist to use it. Evoluent’s mouse is a “handshake” grip mouse, so you can simply set your hand on your desk and be mousing without having to twist your wrist.

Digging into the Evoluent software, it started to become apparent to me how little I – a guy with two mostly-working hands with all my fingers intact – had considered how tough a regular mouse could be to use for someone with bigger hand problems than I have. I injured both of my thumbs boxing and, while they work fine, I tend to get fatigued faster than I’d like. Not only does this interfere with my Monster Hunter World addiction over on my PlayStation 4, it makes long sessions at the computer pretty tough with a regular mouse.

The team at Evoluent seems to take just about every possible hand-related condition into account in its software. If you can hold this mouse, you can make it work for you.

All six of the mouse buttons – three finger buttons, two thumb buttons, and the wheel – can be customized with a huge variety of functions, from regular clicking to copying and pasting, launching applications, double-clicking, and more. The configuration can even be customized on an application-by-application basis.

A click-lock function will let you simulate holding down a button even after you’ve released it if your muscles won’t let you hold the button down for long, and auto-click will let you automatically click your mouse just by holding it in place for a specified amount of time. There’s even a tab devoted to reminding you take breaks, you workaholic. In a distinctly 90s design moment, you can even set this optional reminder to play a .WAV file of your choice when it’s time to get up and walk away from your computer. It makes me miss custom-animated cursors for a split second.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/reviews/evoluent-wireless-mouse-4-review/