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I'm now a true convert after using a Vertical Mouse

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After using traditional PC mouse for most of my computing life, I decided to finally see what all the fuss was about with a Vertical Mouse and I'm sold.

I've been through a lot of mice over the years from cheap stuff with no branding, to the "gamer" stuff full of RGB lighting and more. Not only that, I've used Trackball mice before and found them interesting to try but thoroughly weird and just too bizarre to keep going with. After growing up with the likes of the Amiga, I've pretty much seen it all when it comes to inputs like this.

Why the change? Well, a little known fact is that I have a permanent injury in my main hand (skateboarding hurts, kids). Often it causes issues and longer periods of using a traditional mouse really quite badly brings out the pain. After researching for some time and gathering some opinions, I went for a Vertical Mouse to see if it would make a difference — and I'm a little bit blown away.

The model I went for to test the waters was the CSL TM137U from CSL-Computer (Amazon), which only cost £13.99 so it felt like a reasonably entry point to try one out.

As it turns out, there's a lot of variants of this design and model, with Anker being one of the most well-known and both the Anker version and the CSL were highly rated, so I thought I couldn't really go wrong with it. As it turns out, it seems CSL simply have an unbranded version (sold out) of what Anker sell so they're pretty much the same. CSL was just the cheaper option at the time.

The benefits of using a Vertical Mouse are surprising. Instead of flattening your arm which twists your muscles around (causing some strain), it gives you a nice handshake-style grip that just feels so much more natural and ends up reducing the strain often felt using a traditional mouse. You don't feel the need to clinch your fingers up on the main buttons because there's no need with how your hand rests on it too. I don't want to jinx anything but honestly, it's completely stopped any hand and wrist pain I was having - it's absolutely marvellous for that.

So it sorted out my main issue but is the mouse overall any good? After using it now for a few weeks I have a few thoughts on it. Overall, it is a genuinely good mouse. However, there's a few points for me that go against it:

  • The size - it's a bit bigger than what I am used to (small hand problems) and so if it was a bit shorter and thinner, it would have been perfect.
  • Retraining my brain for clicking in the middle button is still a work in progress. I keep going to click it directly down like you would a normal mouse, but flicking against it to the side is the sweet spot for this model. It also feels at times a bit too sensitive and feels like it can double-click sometimes.
  • It's a bit slippery. A nice texture due to how you grip it would have been much nicer

Minor gripes aside, overall it's a good choice to start with if you're looking into picking one up. With a single-click button to switch it between 1000-1600 dpi it works well there for different uses. Two extra buttons by your thumb are ideally placed too, makes switching back and forth in your browser easy and using them in games is great too. On top of all that, it looks pretty nice too.

I've enjoyed using it so much that my Razer DeathAdder Chroma is going off to the retirement home. I shall continue using this, at least until a find a slightly smaller version.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Hardware, Misc, Review
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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36 comments
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Termy Aug 5, 2021
I've pretty big hands, so finding a mouse always was a bit of a challenge...and then i decided it would be better to go vertical to not let the wrist get worse....man did i have to try out a lot of mice ^^
Currently rocking a zelotes c18, pretty great budget mouse for big hands!
Though i'm still thinking about getting a logitech mx vertical...
AnachronyX Aug 6, 2021
Nothing beats trackballs for me
KrejsyLainen Aug 6, 2021
Vertical mice are fantastic, I've had a Logitech MX vertical since october last year and I'm never going back.
I also have a Kinesis advantage keyboard, so my desktop is the ultimate repellent for people wanting to use my PC.


Last edited by KrejsyLainen on 6 August 2021 at 8:19 am UTC
fabertawe Aug 6, 2021
This has been an enlightening thread for me, thanks to everyone for chipping in.

I'm seriously looking at that Logitech MX. I don't want to be switching to another mouse for games but considering I'm average at best at FPS and the like, I don't see that being a problem.
ugly Aug 7, 2021
Quoting: morphlesI'm team thumb trackball, and unlikely to ever switch to anything :) No need to move hand is super good, also now with mx ergo even hand positions is similar to vertical mouse. And I have no problems with precision, play PoE or WarFork with it without issues. Thumb ball ftw!
Yeah, I use a trackball too. We bought one for our family computer in the early days, and I've stuck with it ever since.

I use the Elecom thumb trackball.

I have no issues with gaming on a trackball. It's nice to be able to lean back and rest the mouse on my thigh while gaming.

I'm not amazing or anything, but it holds up just fine with aiming for online FPS games.

I'm left-handed, but I use a right-handed trackball. Honestly, using my left hand with the mouse would feel weird to me.
TherinS Aug 8, 2021
If you are in need of reprogramming various buttons on your mouse and especially for any random controller, gameboard, or other peripheral, I ran across an effective program called key-mapper

https://github.com/sezanzeb/key-mapper/

I've been using it for my Delux T9 (similar to the Logitech G13), my Razer Orbweaver and other previous Razer/Belkin gameboards. It works really well! I've not tried it with a mouse but the "Issues" pages refer to using it for mouse keybindings alot, with alot of closed issues. I'm using it instead of Keyboarding Master because its not written in Java, and works really well for my uses.

Hope you like it as much as I do!
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