I've noticed recently that I've been getting a pain in the middle of the base of my right palm, at the base of the thumb muscle.

For a couple of years I'd been using a small travel mouse at work - just out of laziness in not looking for a propoer one. When that died I pulled a cheap chinese pile of cr4p out of the cupboard and been using that. But it's still a little on the small side I think and I'm sure it's the narrow nature of it that's giving me the pain.

So can anyone recommend a good ergonomic mouse?

Not sure about a mouse but I was having similar problems and has some success by using a powerball

PC World had the Microsoft Wireless Touch mouse for £20 (down from £70) last month, which is a good buy. Probably because they were in Windows 7 branded packaging!

Updated January 21, 2013 at 4:53 PM

Buy one that is wireless, not too small, and designer by Microsoft. Job done.

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Logitech M705. I went a bit OTT ordering a mouse for my laptop mainly because I rarely use it, but it's lovely and ergonomic, the right size, wireless, lots of buttons, feels really well made etc. The only marmite bit would be the scroll wheel; it has a mechanical button below it to turn it from a clicky scroll wheel to free-spinning; the action of this feels a bit archaic compared to the rest of it.

I looked at loads and loads of mice beforehand, I don't use any buttons other than left/right/scroll, but this one was by far the best for me.

ETA: it has a small USB dongle rather than being bluetooth, if that matters to you.

Clicky

Updated January 17, 2013 at 2:58 PM

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USB dongle is what I'd need tbh as my old works Dell doesn't have bluetooth. it's only got 3 USB sockets, 2 of which are occupied by the mouse and keyboard.

Good price as well that Simon.

The MS Wireless ones are all USB dongle, with a little slot under the mouse to stow it in.

There's a slot under the Logitech to stow the dongle too. Real convergence of products; seems pretty ubiquitous and presumably nobody patented the idea.

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Jobbo is correct on this. Consider a wrist rest too, even if it's just until the pain goes.

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Jobbo said...

Logitech M705. I went a bit OTT ordering a mouse for my laptop mainly because I rarely use it, but it's lovely and ergonomic, the right size, wireless, lots of buttons, feels really well made etc. The only marmite bit would be the scroll wheel; it has a mechanical button below it to turn it from a clicky scroll wheel to free-spinning; the action of this feels a bit archaic compared to the rest of it.

I looked at loads and loads of mice beforehand, I don't use any buttons other than left/right/scroll, but this one was by far the best for me.

ETA: it has a small USB dongle rather than being bluetooth, if that matters to you.

Clicky

This one is correct. Bit big for travelling, but perfect for a desktop. 3yrs battery life quoted too

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Where's the best place that might have a decent range in to try out? Some of the reviews for the Logitech suggest the scroll wheel's a bit of a nuisance when panning in CAD. I tend to use the wheel/middle button function an awful lot so would prefer to see what I think.

NotoriousREV said...

Jobbo is correct on this. Consider a wrist rest too, even if it's just until the pain goes.

We were warned off wrist rests, as you need to keep your arm moving rather than just twisting your wrist.

As for small mice Mike, I get the same with my travel mouse, I use a boggo MS mouse and its much less stressful.

PC World was my first place to try them out. If you're in the Midlands at any point you're welcome to try mine out.

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Swervin_Mervin said...

Where's the best place that might have a decent range in to try out?

That's the best idea - everyone has different sized hands and requirements, so always good to try first!

The Logitech mice are pretty good TBH, and that seems like a fair price that Jobbo found. I used to have a cheapo A4-Tech mouse, with dual scroll wheels and 5 buttons. The drivers were pretty good, allowing you to assign keyboard functions to the buttons. So you could have <SHIFT>, <CTRL> or <ALT> on a button, which was good in photoshop type programs to allow quick zoom or alternate brush modes and the like.

I presume it's for Windows something?

EDIT- You could also download any specific drivers for the mice and see if you can assign buttons to stuff that you might find useful - I'm sure the MS Intellipoint software was free to download.

Updated January 17, 2013 at 11:12 PM

2 primary purposes: Working through big Word docs and whazzing round CAD drawings.

Not too bothered about having many buttons tbh. I'll just be happy with a nice mouse that fits the hand.

Updated January 18, 2013 at 12:17 AM

Buy Microsoft.

Their Keyboards ans Mice are, inexplicably, good.

Updated January 18, 2013 at 12:11 PM

I have one of these :-

It's excellent. One of my client's CAD team uses them too and they really rate them too.

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RichardMajor86 said...

Buy Microsoft.

Their Keyboards ans Mice are, inexplicably, good.

Inexplicably? They've been doing them for a while and have the clout to get it right.

However, despite having this mantra in my mind when choosing a mouse, I still went for Logitech after trying a load out. The Microsoft ones are overpriced and even then feel very hair shirt.

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Maybe I should have put "unexpectedly"

Until the recent Windows Tablet, i dont think many people would have thought of MS as a hardware company, therefore why would their hardware be good.

If I was using a Desktop a lot, i'd probably buy one of these though - Click Click