Anker 2.4G Wireless Vertical Ergonomic Optical Mouse for Work, Multi-Device Connectivity, 800/1200 /1600 DPI, 5 Buttons for Laptop, Desktop, PC - Black

ScarabeiUnited States

Anker vs Evoluent. Anker wins hands down!

What a fantastic product! I started looking into the world of vertical mice after experiencing some wrist discomfort from the use of a traditional mouse. Of course, the first search hit was Evoluent Vertical Mouse. They were the first to market with a product like this, plus they have the whole University of California academic cachet behind them. For YEARS Evoluent was the ONLY player on the vertical mouse market without competition. As a result, the technology and finish of their product is still stuck in the past. Think those ugly white Microsoft optical mice we all used in the late 90s when optical mice were a novelty. The Evoluent mice have the exact same feel, and even worse tracking capability! In Evoluent's defense, their product does relieve wrist strain, but so does Anker vertical mouse...... for only $20! So let's compare the two products side by side, Evoluent vs Anker. Note that I am just over 7 inches from my wrist crease to the tip of my middle finger. This puts me right on the border for Evoluent between normal and small versions. If you are in the same boat, go the smaller size with Evoluent, provided you don't opt for the Anker. 1. Size Evoluent (standard size) felt a bit too big for my hands. The cheap plastic is also very slippery, making it difficult to pick up the mouse and move it if you are at the edge of the mouse pad (and you do need a mouse pad with Evoluent). Anker fits my hand perfectly. I simply LOVE holding the mouse. It has a really nice rubbery matte finish that prevents your hand from slipping. 2. Hand Position Both Anker and Evoluent offer the handshake position. I would say that Evoluent hand position is about 80 degrees between table top and your wrist. For comparison, regular mouse would have your wrist at 0 degrees. Anker holds your wrist at about 65 degrees. It is debatable whether 80 or 65 degrees is better. With both mice I felt immediate relief of wrist tension. Going back to 0 degree traditional mouse position feels immediately awkward. It is a toss up between the Anker and Evoluent with a slight edge given to Evoluent, just because they have a bit of science in their product marketing. 3. Usability This is personal, but for me Anker wins hands down in this category. Anker feels intuitive right out the box. You click with left finger and right click with the right. The back/forward thumb buttons were also very intuitive for me. This is similar to most Logitech mice. Mouse buttons on Anker have nice rigidity to them. Evoluent, on the other hand, takes some getting used to. It is a big clunky thing that slips out of your hand. Left finger does the left click. But it is, by default, you pinkie and ring-finger that do the right clicking. You can also reassign right click to the middle mouse button, but somehow it feels awkward and you keep pressing the default right click button anyway. Also, it is EXTREMELY easy to accidentally click on Evoluent. Buttons are cheap and plastic, and the scroll wheel is a complete joke. Granted, Anker's mouse wheel is not stellar, but it works well. I must have the newer batch, as I cannot relate to any of the scroll wheel problems mentioned in review. Don't forget Evoluent's back/forward mouse buttons. They are awkward to use at first, but you get accustomed to the arrangement. Matter of preference here. 4. Tracking Evoluent tracking is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE. I have a black Ikea Galant desk. It's not shiny, just wood with black matte veneer. Everything tracks on it....... except the Evoluent mouse. So you HAVE to get a mouse pad. And be careful, you won't get tracking on every mouse pad, even if it is matte black. This is on a $100+ mouse!!! On the other end of the spectrum, Anker tracks on everything except glass. This is a $20 mouse. In summary, there is not much to chose from in the vertical mouse arena. So get the Anker vertical mouse, get rid of wrist strain... and save Evoluent for the fanboys.

lobarrUnited States

Give yourself time to adjust to it and I think you'll like this vertical mouse! (Update)

At first, I wasn't sure I was going to like this Wireless Vertical Ergonomic mouse by Anker. I'd never heard about vertical mice before, but my other (regular) wireless mouse quit working properly, so I went looking for a new mouse. My plan was to buy something similar to what I already had and then I saw this optical vertical mouse that intrigued me. I have carpal tunnel problems and arthritis in my hands. This mouse was just under 20 bucks and PRIME and after reading some reviews, I decided to give it a try. Right out of the box, I liked the smooth feel of the mouse, but have to admit it was different in looks and it felt different because of the way one has to hold it to use it. I plugged the USB receiver into a USB port, opened the battery slot and put in two "AAA" batteries (which were not included) and it was ready to go. From the onset it had an unusual feel to it as far as making it work. It wasn't a bad thing, just different. It did move very nicely on the new Anker mouse pad I'd purchased to use with it. I noticed on the side of the box the way one's hand, arm, wrist normally move with a regular mouse versus the difference (shown on the diagram) there would be with the vertical mouse. Since I also have problems with my thumbs, I still wasn't sure it was going to work for me. As I used it that first day, it didn't take too many hours before I realized it was probably going to help the normal pain that comes from grabbing a regular mouse when you have hand and wrist difficulties, but it was going to take time to get used to. The hand and the brain have to learn how to use the new equipment properly. However, I wasn't real satisfied in regards to my thumb having problems. On the second day, I began to observe I was actually trying to grip the mouse too far up with my entire hand. For me, I learned if I could touch the wheel with my middle finger and scroll, that was far enough up with my grip. As my grip lessened and I allowed the middle finger to use the scroll things became easier. The left and right mouse buttons were easy to work once I got used to the different position of my hand. I then began using the buttons up from the thumb to make the pages go left and right which is a nice feature, but one of the features I seem to easily forget is available to me. It took me until about the third day of working with it to realize my thumb just had some new muscles it was working that it had to get used to and then the pain there began to ease. Now, things are working quite well. I'm days down the road with the new vertical mouse and I'm pretty much used to it. There is much less pain in my hand than with the old mouse and the ache in the thumb seems to have dissipated by learning to use the new muscles it has to use. There has been a learning curve for me with it due to the pain I have in my hands, but I'm glad I stuck with it because I think overall it's going to be much better for me ergonomically. If you try it and you hurt, give it some time before you give up. Like I mentioned earlier, I think it's a matter of both the hand and the brain getting used to a totally different feel and movement to the mouse. UPDATE: This vertical mouse has been such a great device for me with wrist and hand problems. The ache is less, numbness is also much less. A year after using it, it is second nature to use, comfortable and is in great condition. I really like it and the relief it has brought to my hand, fingers and arm as it has been used for over a year now and works like it is new. I really really like it.

Craig HinesUnited States

(UPDATED) Disappointed after several months of use due to battery drain and scroll wheel issues

*** UPDATED REVIEW *** ANKER customer support reached out directly to me after my negative review to rectify the situation and to get a better understanding of the problem. I explained and their support staff was very helpful and apologized for the issues that I was experiencing. They informed me that it was not normal behavior for this product and since it was still within its original manufacturer warranty period (18 months from date of purchase for mice at the time of this review) that ANKER would gladly send me a replacement. I received it after just a few days (May 6, 2023) and tested it out. It works like a charm and exactly as expected. The scroll wheel is functioning very smoothly when I scroll through long documents. (I cannot stress how annoying it was when trying to scroll through website code and the previous malfunctioning mouse was jumping around so erratically when scrolling!) Something else that I noticed when comparing my previous mouse to this one is that the scroll wheel is completely SILENT when I scroll. The other one, however, makes a noticeable "clicking" noise as the wheel rotates. I don't recall if it made that noise whenever I first received it (or if it progressed over time), but there's a definite difference between the two devices. If the previous mouse made that sound originally, I probably just assumed that it was designed that way to provide some sort of audible feedback to the person using it. But the new mouse is completely silent when scrolling. So, I'm mentioning this in case it is an indication of a fault or failing with similar devices. After the fantastic support from ANKER, I have updated this review and I am once again a happy customer! Thank you! **** ORIGINAL REVIEW *** I've always found Anker products to be great quality and a good value. I felt this way when I initially purchased this mouse less than a year ago and everything seemed good when I first started using it. It's a very similar design and feel to a previous model that I had by another manufacturer, and so I was quite happy with it and expected it to last just as long — if not longer — than its predecessor. However, I noticed that after a few months it seems that it has been draining batteries excessively. Even more annoyingly, the middle button mouse wheel has become increasingly erratic. It worked as expected at first, but now the scroll wheel is virtually unusable because it keeps jumping and glitching any document or web page that I'm viewing when trying to scroll. I keep a clean desktop and all of my peripherals, and it does not appear to be due to any dirt causing the malfunction, at least from what I could tell on a quick surface inspection. I'm hesitant to attempt opening the whole thing up and trying to clean it that way (even though that doesn't appear to be the problem), as it seems more like it's a problem with the device itself (the glitchiness and excessive battery drain).

JUnited States

Excellent mouse. So worth it....

This mouse has been a tremendous help for me. I didn't know such "ergonomic mice" existed, but recently my tennis elbow got so bad that I couldn't work and I had to find some alternative to a traditional mouse. I quickly found the Evoluent mouse, but since it costs to $100 and I had never tried an ergo mouse, I was unwilling to spend that much on an experiment. Then I found the Anker Vertical Mouse. It's not quite as vertical as the Evoluent, which I thought might an issue for me, but it was cheap enough that I thought I'd give it a try. i figured if it helped at all, I'd then give the Evoluent a shot. Based on a few weeks of use, I don't think I'll bother with the Evoluent and instead buy more of these. The relief was almost instant. I hadn't realized how uncomfortable I was with the regular mouse. The angle of the palm on the Anker mouse is enough to provide relief from the pain, and yet still "flat" enough that you don't have to learn to use the mouse. To make the cursor move left, you just move your hand to the left - just like a traditional mouse. I think the more-vertical Evoluent mouse might be better for my wrist, but then "left" becomes completely "toward your palm" which won't feel as natural. I have been using high-end Logitech mice for years. The Anker mouse feels very similar. The foward/back buttons under the thumb are right where they should be and work just like the Logitech. The scroll wheel feels just about like the Logitech as well. The button clicks feel "appropriate". I suppose the mouse feels a little cheaper than the high-end Logitech mice, but who cares? If I have any complaints, they are trivial. The mouse is maybe 3.5 inches tall. I keep knocking it off the desk as I shuffle papers or reach for the phone. Not really any fault of the mouse, but I do it often enough that I thought I should mention it. Also, the mouse itself goes to sleep after some time without use. I am used to waking up my PC by moving the mouse - this doesn't work. I now have to click a mouse button to wake up the mouse itself, then it will wake up Windows. A silly change in habits, but one I have yet to learn. I have big hands, and I wouldn't mind if it was a little bit bigger, but it's perfectly fine with me as is.