I have an earlier iteration of this and it has a pretty fundamental flaw. Know how you occasionally have to clean the ball on a (non optical) mouse because it gets gunked up? Imagine how much more often you have to do this with a trackball that's in constant contact with your hand.

I'm not a grubby person but the answer for me was too often. And it gave me an ache across the back of my hand too :(

I've been using one of these for a long time.

Best damn mouse I've ever tried, and I have gone through a LOT of chaff to find this wheat.

http://us.kensington.com/html/13880.html

Grrrr...

Mouses!

...who spends more than £5 on a mouse is retarded. Do you guys fall for the 5 blade "battery assisted" razors and "high tech" tooth brushes that cost 10 times more than normal, perfectly adequate ones too?

My current mouse (USB, optical with track-wheel) was about £3 from Tesco and the only time I had a problem with it was on a clear glass coffee table - which was solved by placing it on a magazine.

Suckers!

Easily the best mouse I have ever used or owned. Wired so no lag or inconvenient battery deaths, 7 buttons which can be assigned any function, key or macro, multiple profiles, up to 4000dpi and 1KHz, and it is easily the best looking mouse ever made.

I had the M2, and it was a nice mouse to use, especially with the adjustable weighting. Pity it broke almost immediately. Scroll wheel just died.

I have to raise a couple of points about your reviews.

1) With regards to the Logitech trackball, you don't raise the ergonomic concerns with any thumb-operated trackball: namely that it involves excessive and unnatural movement of the thumb, whereas mousing should be done with more whole-arm movement.

2) The Evoluent Verticalmouse isn't quite the ergonomic dream the manufacturers would have you believe. Because all fingertips (except the thumb) fall onto mouse buttons, you cannot grip the mouse naturally using finger pressure. As a result, you end up pinching it between the ridge of the palm and the base of the thumb, introducing a lot of tension into the hand. This tension resists the clicking motion and serves to increase the risk of problems developing.

The 3M mouse is far superior in that curling a fist around a stick is just far easier on the muscles.

One mouse and eleven gimmicks? Shame, I could do with a new mouse, and a nice roundup comparing offerings from Logitech, Microsoft, Razer et al would have been very welcome. It's so hard to find a mouse with decent ergonomics, a click wheel that works properly and a good selection of well-placed extra buttons.

I've had one of these for a couple of years. At the time I was suffering from some RSI-induced inflammation of my first-finger tendon where it runs across the back of the hand. Using this mouse has massively reduced this problem, and completely eliminated the excruciating flare-ups that I used to suffer.

The Title says "12 of the best mice" - But not only did you manage to completely ignore anything made by Razor - That's like compiling a list of the 12 best F1 drivers and ignoring anyone German who drove a red car.

You also managed to list things which were not mice......................... Have you taken all your pills this morning?

????

Bill - Because M$ do make exceedingly good mices............

Could I please lobby for a mandatory 10% (at least) score reduction on any mouse device that is only any good for right-handers?

Why 10%? It's the percentage of people for whom the thing is completely useless.

Excellent. Have had one of these for twelve years, still going strong. I even faffed about importing a second-hand ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) version from the States via a mate. It's hard to use anything else now.

Endurance mouse: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3592976.stm

Glowing mouse: http://www.bio-itworld.com/archive/091103/russell.html

I have an Evoluent vertical mouse and i can assure you that it does work fine in linux. I've setup a custom button mapping because i'd rather thave middle click as the middle button and right click as the lowest button.

xmodmap -e "pointer = 1 8 2 4 5 6 7 3 9"

Scroll wheel's click and the thumb button are used with compiz fusion

You can use all of the buttons on the Evoluent mouse in Linux. You can also remap them.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=993073

But for my money I'd buy the Logitech MX310 any day of the week for the rest of my life.

Cheap, good weight, not too many buttons, lefty and righty friendly.

Used to be able to find the OEM versions for about £12 a couple of years ago... Wish I still could.

Not that I need to buy any more... I've got two, and they'll probably last longer than I will (one even did 30mph on it's back out of the door of my car when it fell out with the lead trapped, got some great battle scars, but still works fine!). But I'm always bumping into people who still have ball mice full of fluff! Dell seem to keep shipping the damn things!

Apparently, that's more difficult than flying to the Moon. Why is this so bloody hard? Why, with all the variations out there, there's not one single plain old optical mouse with 3 goddamn buttons?

On the other hand, I do have to admit MS does cut'n'paste far better than X11.

I got a Reptor with a 2nd hand gaming PC.

Verdict: Near unusable, keeps switching modes, hard to reach buttons.

I'll accept the 90% rating, though, its just I belong to the other 10% - I'm left-handed.

the Space Navigator with the Kensington trackball. I've tried a few 3D input devices but as good as they are in theory, in practice their usabilty is limited by the fact that they're the 3D equivalent of a trackpoint. Now a 3D trackball - that would be seriously useful.

I'm using a Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse at the moment that has 3 buttons. The scroll wheel can be pressed in, acting as a 3rd button. I think most mice with scroll wheels do that, don't they?

If your objection is to the presence of the scroll wheel, I can't help you. I think that's standard equipment these days.

So we've learned something today from the review and from the comments.

There's no such thing as one perfect mouse, or even one set of perfect mouse requirements. The diversity of mouses we've seen does reflect the variability in what happens between the user and a graphical interface and for AC@13:02 the lowest common denominator might suffice. Add in 3D or a heavy task loading and it all changes and gets personal.

It's good to see proper diversity and choice where it matters, instead of being just "design" decisions about the shininess of the screen bezel.

I use a Whale Mouse from Human Scale. It is the only mouse that doesn't give me pain in my arm and wrist.

I have large hands and found nearly all mice out there just too small to sit comfortably in my hand. So I end up holding them with my fingertips and steering from the wrist, which causes problems.

The whale mouse is extendable, so you can adjust it to fit your hand. Such a simple feature and it makes all the difference for me.

Mine is a logitech blue media mouse, don't remember her name, but as meeces go, she's very good.

work anywhere-optical mouse, but no constant glow, so you don't have to put it in a drawer at night. has an off switch too!

takes standard cells, wireless with a small usb stick. a whole host of customisable media buttons for windows- including a volume rocker, play, stop etc, which work from a distance. that's only with their software though.

my favourite features though: the 5 way scroll wheel (4 direction's plus click), and best, the forward/ back buttons just where your thumb rests. and they worked without the software.

if they still make them, give it a go.

So few tech reviewers even know about the 3M ergo mouse, or Evoluent's device. Well done, well done indeed. I've toured MS's ergonomics and assistive devices lab (I work at MS's main campus) and gone through increasingly expensive gear (up to a $300 smartnav head tracker) to try to preserve both my wrists and my career. This is simply the best researched review of this incredibly important and potentially career-ending input device. Thank you.

For anyone with serious problems, I'd recommend _good posture first_ then foot pedals and whichever of the devices is most painless to point with.

For what it's worth, here are my ratings of speed/precision vs wrist-saving

Smartnav headtracker: slow but painless. Add speech recognition and you're gold.

3M ergo mouse: awkward and never easy, but -nearly- painless with good posture

Logitech trackman: speedy and nearly as good as the 3M device if you prop it up at a 45 degree angle.

nitpick: I have a logitech trackman wheel at home and have to regularly pop the ball out and clean the contact bearings of gunk. Since that takes all of 5 seconds I'm not too sad to do it.

Where's the EU when you need them......there should be a law against right hand only mice... I'm sure these manufactures are infringing my human rights as a left handed person.... Dexterous Conspiracy... help, help, I'm being oppressed....

Another reason Razer make mice that are at least 500% better than any other.

Myself, I'm ambidextrous, I use my right more but I use my left enough for a right handed mouse to be horribly uncomfortable.

.. the old skool MS Optical IntelliMouse. Does the job, and can be used by lefties, righties and ambimoustrous types (like myself) with ease.

Whether you love MS or not, it's a bloody good piece of kit - I almost like it as much as my old IBM Model M keyboards ...

I was getting pretty bad pain in my wrist few years back ... Logitech MX Laser solved my problem, but dam it was a pricy mouse, of couse out of like 25 buttons it has I use 2+wheel lol

we should start a discussion "what was your first mouse", mine was Genius http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n5/genius_mouse.jpg

I have to wonder if people shopping for this stuff have unlimited incomes. £60 for a mouse? £75???!!! Might as well be 75,000 as far as I'm concerned. I can't afford to pay for a fancy mouse and to tell the truth, if I won £10million on the Lottery, I still wouldn't pay more than a tenner for a mouse or keyboard - not for ordinary home use, anyway. It might pay the industry to realise how many of us there are in that position. We're not all nerds who queue all night at PC World every time a bit of new bling appears.

Technically - some great ideas. Practically? Get back to me when your prices come down... You never know - you might make the profits up in actual sales...

Is that specifically for left-handed surfing?

I don't get why Razer is ignored either, as they produce the best gaming mouse available and have done so for a few years now. Also their gaming mice tend to be left and right hand compatible, wired so you don't lose your mouse in the middle of an online game (the latest offers dual wired / wireless functionality) and they're ergonomically correct.

"We're not all nerds who queue all night at PC World every time a bit of new bling appears."

You're right. Now please never speak the name of The Shop That Shall Not Be Mentioned, ever again. We all buy our stuff over the internet, getting much better stuff than they sell for a significantly lower price and without all the high pressure sales by people who have no idea what they are selling.

But a list of the 12 best drivers wouldn't have anyone German who drove a red car...

That's the one you want. Works well even in the left hand and is surperbly responsive.

Optical mouse from local shop 5 years ago for £3.99. I might have been a bit concerned but like hey... five years later it's still working.

I particularly like the 'lift up' function where you take it off the desk and it switches into total high power mode and lets you laser explode heads of those who are being particularly irritating at the time.

Brill

I find that my MS Laser 6000 (Or a similarly buzzworded name) is a decent replacement for my MS Intellimouse. It's ambidextrous, has the forward and back buttons in the same place, and is more or less the same shape. It lacks that terrible smooth scroll wheel MS tried, doesn't scroll sideways, doesn't weigh much, and didn't cost too much. It's also got a laser, so it creates no visable light and tracks quite well.

Another great MS mouse was the Explorer 3.0, which was right hand only, and which I managed to break a couple years ago. So sad. I also broke my MS Trackball explorer, which cost me a serious amount to replace after they went out of production. Apparently nobody thinks it's necessary to make another optical 5 button / scroll wheel finger-driven trackball. I might have to look at something like that Kensington if my current Trackball Explorer ever dies, since it's mighty nice to have during those marathon CAD sessions, which would leave my whole right arm tingly and unresponsive on a normal mouse.

Also, I kinda like the X11 copy/paste better than MS. When I have to use my work computer I almost constantly forget to hit ctrl+c after selecting text...

I long coveted and eventually located (on the cheap) a Logi Trackman FX, which properly calls for the index+/-middle fingers for navigation, and has four logically placed buttons. Yes, I have to give it a cleaning now and again but it's hardly the icky disaster claimed by some. Alas it was never fully supported under XP and will probably make Vista/7 explode when the time comes. As much as I'd like to trade it in for an XP/Vista/7 compliant critter, my thumb is reserved for buttons, sucking, and occasional backside insertion when some degree of spin is required. Come on Logitech! Driver me or bring back the FX!

Must be the sicko in me, but I thought the same thing... Also thought the following comment should've been in the description for the washable mouse instead of the joystick thing...

"This feels a little strange at first because you have to you use your arm rather than wrist"

I tried the Evoluent VerticalMouse recently and liked it a lot, except that my wristbone dragged on the tabletop and hurt after a while.

The Logitech Trackman also comes in a version with the wheel on the right, so you operate the wheel with your fingers and most buttons with your thumb. BTW the ball does not accumulate dirt, I never had to clean mine.

That is truly amazing, I want one!

RT

www.Privacy-Center.net

I have to say something about the various Microsoft mice (on other people's computers) I've had the displeasure of using over the past few years, notably their horrible scrollwheels. It's the fact that they don't have any tactile feedback when turning it, there's no 'notches' which doesn't help you feel like the computer knows you've actually scrolled - couple this with IE's absolutely horrible scrolling (especially the smooth scroll option) and it's a nightmare.

Give me a mouse that when you spin the scrollwheel it 'bumps' to let you know it just told the computer you moved the wheel a notch and I'm happy.

/still using the Woolworths scrollwheel optical USB mouse he got in the sales for £3 :)

My first trackball was for an Amiga 500, some Italian brand with a heavy ball bigger than a billiard ball and it rested on four brass truck axles, well perhaps the brass bits were only 15mm thick. It had a huge area to rest your palm and wrist.

A beautiful piece of over engineering and I have never seen its like since.

The Trackman wheel is fantastic, I use them both at work and at home but they do need cleaning about once per week.

Since you covered most concepts of how to use a mouse, thought I'd plug the Perific Mouse, best mouse I ever used: although for the price, it'd want to be. You can use it normally, or it can sit on your hand as you type - I don't have to do the keyboard->mouse jump everytime damn time.

http://www.perific.com/Live_5_0/pages_english/mouse.asp

... the Microsoft Trackball Explorer.

OK, so you had to be right-handed but the ball was finger operated which is/was unique.

You can tell when you've moved your scroll-wheel by whether the window has scrolled. Give me a scroll-wheel without notches any day, but only if it has the same granularity of movement as the mouse's movement sensor itself.

I've never understood why we can have ultra-sensitive 3000 DPI sensors for moving the cursor around, but when it comes to scrolling we're only allowed about 10 DPI (i.e. 10 notches per inch of revolution, if you're lucky).

a Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Notebook Mouse. Ambidextrous design, good weight, good scroll wheel with an optional free-wheel (notch-less, if you will) function, excellent resolution and sensitivity, not too many buttons, very tiny USB receiver, works in all OS's and takes standard AAA cells.

I actually bought an Energizer USB attached AA/AAA battery charger (packaged with 2 AAA's) to go with this mouse, but haven't had to replace the batteries yet, despite the many hours of abuse it sees every day for the past few months that i've had it now.

Sure, it's not the cheapest mouse.. but it's one of the best I have owned so far.

there isn't such a beast.

each person, feels, holds and uses pointing devices so differently.

My tool of choice is the Logitech Optical Trackman with finger operated ball. I tried the trackman you reviewed and found as I like to rest my hand that I often caught the right click button. With the optical Trackman I don't.

It amazes me the number of people who use a mouse because that was what they always used. quite a number who try my trackball end up loving it and get one themselves as its 'easier' on their wrist

Got a Cherry Ergo Shark M-200L lefty moose a year or so ago. Works wirelessly or plugged in, scrolly wheel acts as a third button if so desired and has been super comfy for those of us with the larger than average digits. So good that my wife ( yet another lefty subversive ) demanded one as well. Both have performed faultlessly and havent had any wrist pain ( well not from using the mouse ) since.

See here: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Cherry-M-200L-Ergo-Shark-Left-Handed-Cordless-Laser-Mouse-1000dpi-USB-117-ButtonsSilver-Black

Flames - cos it's got frikkin laser beams shooting out of it, obviously!

12 of the best? Yet the Regs own ratings put the Logitech VX Revolution above 7 of them at 90%: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/31/review_logitech_vx_revolution/

Not to mention it was reviewed at £60 and can often be had for less than £30

Looks like a collection of silly gimmicks to me bar the odd couple (including the stupid £75 one..)

What about the G15 series ??

personally for money and performance the MX Series Is the best i can think of !

cant stand wireless mice tbh

even just using one in the office is driving me nuts

Why oh why have Microsoft stop making trackballs?

I need to replace mine, but closest thing I can get is the Logitech one which just doesn't feel right.

MS Intellimouse Explorer 3.0.

Others must think so as well considering MS brought it back from the dead.

I'd be the last person to sing the praises of Microsoft, but their Arc mouse is pretty much the ideal laptop/notebook wireless mouse (if you typically use your laptop at a desk/table and do mouse heavy work on it) , imho.

The integrated, magnetic USB dongle hold incorporated in the folding "tail" is inspired. As is the folding "tail" itself. When folded, the mouse s about 60% of it's "full" size and is switched OFF, preserving the life of the regular AAA batteries that it takes.

When fully opened it's not much smaller than a typical desktop mouse, but due to the "arc" form factor, it is much lighter.

Not a great desktop mouse, but as a laptop mouse it doesn't suffer from the "too small to be comfortable for extended periods" problem that most such devices do, whilst still being small enough to be tossed in a bag or even in a pocket when you are moving from one location to another with your laptop.

The only way it could be improved for me would be if it were to be a BlueTooth device rather than requiring a USB dongle. But my biggest gripe with dongles is keeping them together with the mouse itself, and the neat magnetic caddy in this one mitigates that to a large extent.

>Bring Back ...

> ... the Microsoft Trackball Explorer.

>OK, so you had to be right-handed but the ball was finger operated which is/was unique.

The Logitech Marble Mouse is also finger operated and its symmetrical design makes it usable by southpaws. Only drawback is no scroll wheel, otherwise it would be perfect.

That being said I've had mine for many years and don't miss the lack of scroll wheel all that much.

What do IT folk actually USE? Myself, plain ol' cordless Logitech mouse with scroll wheel and an extra button that I set to minimize windows. Similar mouse at work. How fancy do you need to be?

I still swear by my Logitech MX Revolution because of the SmartShift feature it has on the scroll wheel.

Scroll the wheel quickly and it automatically unlocks itself to free-wheel mode allowing you to scroll through large screens of code very quickly. Then when you stop the spinning it re-locks itself to give you the normal clicking movement on a wheel for precision scrolling.

Apparently Logitech aren't putting this on any of their new mice, requiring a manual pressing in of the wheel to switch it to free movement or back again, which is not what I'd want (as middle click is used to close tabs for me). Hopefully eBay will keep me supplied with MX Revolutions when my current one's built-in battery dies!

My first trackball was a logitech marble mouse and it's fantastic. They still make them now (but with an extra two buttons). My only gripe was a lack of a scroll wheel. The ball's finger controlled, the ms trackball explorer definitely ISN'T unique. I used one again recently and I was surprised how comfy and effortless it was to use (given that I'm used to using a trackball, I suppose). Certainly tempted me to scrap my current mouse.

I actually picked up a MS trackball explorer a few years back and it was awful. The buttons felt flimsy and didn't line up with my fingers correctly so it spent most of it's life unused in a box. Maybe it's just what I was used to, but the quality of the buttons/smoothness of the ball was far superior on the logitech marble.

Idealy I'd want the Logitech Cordless Optical TrackMan (finger controlled ball + scroll wheel) but I refuse to pay for a cordless trackball, surely that's the daftest use of wireless technology yet?

Light, plenty of features and high quality laser.

Agreed, would have to say Razer make the best mice I have ever used. And the Lachesis is top pick for me. Left & right handed, and available in your choice of glow! (as long as you like red, green or blue)

How about (any) mouse with a switch to change the buttons from LH to RH? Some operating systems are VERY BAD at easy, rapid and CONSISTENT changeover when you change the handedness of the mouse. Mentioning no names, Microsoft, who also seem to think that when I remote desktop to a server that for some reason my personal kb layout needs to be installed on the target.

“Mine is a logitech blue media mouse…”

I have one like that (MIkomi/Argos), though it's wired. Works nicely.

That VerticalMouse, though, seems to me to be made for people with more than the usual number of fingers… safe to say that I don't intend to buy one of them. (I started out with Acorn-supplied three-button mice, so three fingers on top of your common or mat-top mouse seems Right and Proper, and two is Plain Wrong.)

I like the MS 6000 laser mouses with cable.. best mouse I've used in the last 5 years.. but difficult to find..

I also use a conexion space-explorer, nifty tool but not really a mouse, the problem is the better versions with buttons are too expensive for the hobby user, so it doesn't work as you are always reaching for the keyboard! don't bother with it. 30%

I've had one of the 3M "joystick" mice for about 3 years, and it is utterly fantastic. I used to whinge and whine about pain and discomfort in my forearms, and it went away after a few weeks of discomfort in my shoulders (which this mouse creates as you change mouse methodology, but goes away as they learn how to move).

I was also single, and I'm now married to a 20-something blonde Swedish pilates teacher, just because of the mouse.

OK, the last bit is made up. But it's still a life-changing device IMO.

I was very impressed with the Logitech Value optical mouse. Standard sort of thing - two buttons plus clickable scroll wheel. USB with PS/2 adapter. The scroll wheel doesn't stick and get accidentally clicked when you scroll, unlike my more expensive one at work. 5.99 from PC World (collect at store).

I am a south paw, and the G5, despite being right-handed-assimetric, suits me fine, thank you. Not to mention being 2000 dpi on-the-fly switchable. Too bad I won´t ever use those weight sets, it is too heavy as it is.

Jon,

Left handed people are mutants, society is out to kill you (the heart is on the left for a reason), take the hint, hide your defect by using your right hand instead.

Beat children that try to be left handed, it's for their own good.

It seems to me that Targus have missed a trick with they're mouse -

If the cradle had a mini-usb A plug on the cradle, the mouse could mate

with this for ease of charging.

Also, why did they only put the USB A sockets on one side?

@Andrew. I agree with you about the Microsoft Trackball Explorer. I've got a spare should the one on my desk ever die (currently using it with a Mac), because I'd be completely lost without it.

The trackball 'ball' controlled by the index/middle fingers is way more controllable than the types where the thumb is used. I experienced RSI, and my first Logitech trackball 'thumb ball' mouse made matters worse with my thumb hovering and wobbling around under strain. 'Twas horrible.

Latest batch have no detent on them, the wheel spins freely, utter shite for any sort of game where the wheel is configured, for example, to switch or scroll through your weapons or inventory. Took mine back and i had paid 80 quid for a KB mouse combo.. Logitech here i come..

The MOGO is an excellent mouse, but mine has started acting up. The left mouse button has semi died and is almost unusable. The cause? Gaming. I have taken the mouse around-the-world with me, through jungles, across deserts and the only thing that damaged it was playing Mount & Blade in the evenings!

Regards,

Basho

www.outsideconext.com

The G5 is fantastic, especially when combined with a good pad. The biggest advantage for me over the MX mice is the non-teflon feet which are still gliding perfectly after two years of use. There are 3 possible dpi switch levels controlled by a button above the scroll wheel, but they're programmable with SetPoint, as is the sensitivity on each axis. The scroll wheel has nice subtle notching, not stupidly heavy clicks on it, but nice gentle scrolling that lets you know when you hit the next notch. This makes it difficult for me to use the middle button but I've always found that difficult since they started putting scroll wheels on them. Other than that, the rock function of the scroll wheel (you can move it left and right to move pages left and right) is a welcome addition, and if you're into gaming and can be arsed spending a little time on it, the weighting system can actually make a difference. Mine's a little tuned, but to be honest, I just set it up to be the same weight as my MX500 was and went from there. Buttons still click perfectly after a couple years use, and it's also incredibly comfy.

My favourite, it turned out that gamer mice solved my RSI problems... :)

I've got a five-button Microsoft mouse connected to my Mac and all five buttons work without hassle. I've assigned the extra three buttons to activate Exposé - it's the future!

Also, "Window's users"?

I got one of the 3M joystick-like mice today. I hurt my wrist ages ago and it still gets sore on the odd occassion, so a RSI-reducing mouse like this is a Godsend.

First impressions? I thought "WTF!" on first using it, I couldn't select anything, errant clicks, there's no mousewheel button, and it tended to move itself now and again (my hasty wiring) but after an hour or 2 let me tell you I think it's going to be the best mouse I ever had. FOR WORK.

Don't buy it for games or pixel art, there's no way in hell this is accurate enough for pixel-perfect shooting or Paint.NET/GIMP etc (then again, maybe in a month I'll be a ninja with the mouse and I'll regret saying it, but tbh I can't see how you can get perfect lateral movement with this guy due to the way you hold it)

But if you spend 8 hours a day in an office typing and working with the mouse most of the time, like me (lots of Visual Studio windows to swap through) then I would recommend this bad boy.

PS: it also looks extremely cool. My wife likes it! (the mouse I mean.)