Best Ergonomic Mouse in 2023
A mouse designed with ergonomics in mind can significantly help mitigate repetitive strain injuries, reduce pain, and ward off other ailments if you spend full days on a PC.
For the uninitiated, the designs are pretty wild and diverge from the average mouse’s accepted shape and size – vertical and curiously sculpted shapes being the most common. By offering a more natural hand position, these unusual designs deliver more comfort and, by extension, productivity, optimizing any workspace setup in the process, whether at home or in the office.
When replacing a traditional mouse with an ergonomic one, there are some hurdles to overcome, not least manufacturers promising the world in showy ads and wordy marketing blurbs. The growing number of options complicates sorting the duds from the right ergonomic mouse for your needs.
In this product guide, we’ll be highlighting a selection of the best ergonomic mice currently available that provide true comfort and adequately support the hand and wrist.
Products at a Glance
How We Picked
As you can imagine, there are myriad options when it comes to mice claiming to offer ergonomic benefits, but not all deliver. We assessed mice based on features such a size, weight, shape, support, performance, button placement, and customization options – all crucial in the hands-on feel and comfort of a mouse after sustained use.
Mice designed first and foremost for ergonomics should offer all the features of a typical mouse, so while comfort trumps all other considerations, we’ve concentrated on mice that don’t sacrifice functionality.
Our search led us to settle on five ergonomic mice that, in our estimation, deliver on all fronts. Our rundown of the five best ergonomic mice covers different designs, budgets, and ideal uses. We hope this suits those who already know what they are looking for and also caters to those exploring ergonomic mice for the first time. You’ll find a brief review for each below. Let’s get into it.
Things To Consider
Types of Ergonomic Mice
Ergonomic mice come in three main designs – modified standard mice, vertical mice, or trackball mice.
Standard mice retooled for ergonomics often feature a familiar profile but tend to be larger, weigh more, and offer more support for fingers and the thumb with dedicated grooves. These suit those who don’t suffer from existing conditions and want more well-rounded comfort.
Vertical mice, as the name implies, flip the mouse 90-degrees. The idea is to mimic the hand’s natural shape with the palm facing sideways rather than down and a more comfortable arm angle. This requires buttons to be rotated accordingly, although the layout is roughly the same as normal mice. These do take some getting used to but are, on the whole, far more comfortable because they remove unnatural movements during long hours of use, which helps with pain and strain. They suit those already suffering from pain when mousing for long hours.
Trackball mice incorporate a ball on the side that removes arm movement from the equation to minimize repeated movements – the leading cause of strain issues.
Each type has its merits, and it’s worth trying each out to figure which suits you best.
Customization
Long gone are the days of simple two-button and scroll-wheel arrangements, and mice are more customizable than ever. This has carried over to ergonomic mice in the form of extra, programmable buttons, DPI modes, on-board memory, accompanying software, and so on.
While the physical layout of a mouse has a significant influence on comfort, the ability to tailor it to your needs and workflow can also help minimize the repetition of pain-inducing movements, streamline functions, and improve productivity.
If repeated tasks form part of your daily duties or activities, we suggest looking out for ergonomic mice with a generous spread of customization options. These often come at a premium, but you’ll quickly recoup a return on the extra investment involved when buying a more customizable ergonomic mouse. Some might be overkill with extraneous buttons that encroach on hand positioning, negating the ergonomic benefits they are trying to promote, so look out for a balanced option with smart button placement if possible.
Workspace Ergonomics
Alongside a quality ergonomic mouse, no workspace reaches optimum optimization without other ergonomic-focused accessories. In particular, a suitable office or gaming chair with proper support features is crucial.
Without a proper sitting position that promotes good posture, any ergonomic mouse’s benefits will quickly be cancelled out by lousy forearm posture, which can contribute to pain and exacerbate long-term injuries.
Product Reviews
- Precision
- Battery life
- Customization options
- Comfort
- Only for right-handed users
- Price
Retaining the traditional mouse form, the Logitech MX Master 3 oozes comfort and features. It’s sculpted ergonomic shape is conducive to a relaxed hand position with a soft ribbed rubber thumb wing and inclined finger positions for extra support. We can’t understate just how comfortable it is to use thanks to a shape that melds seamlessly to the form of the hand.
Developed as a natural evolution of the MX series, the Logitech MX Master 3 boasts a 4000 dpi sensor and Logitech’s Darkfield Tracking technology for five times more precision than a standard mouse. Dpi is adjustable in 50 dpi increments between 200 and 4000 dpi.
On the charging front, the mouse stores enough power from a full charge to last 70 days thanks to a rechargeable 500 mAh battery. A laser sensor allows for tracking on virtually any surface. It’s also wireless up to a distance of 10 m from the USB receiver. The construction is solid, with a weighty feel, thanks to metal wheels, machined steel, and well-positioned rubber rests.
Alongside, the Logitech MX Master 3 boasts an enviable array of customization options. All buttons beyond the right and left click panels are customizable – back, forward, app-switch, wheel, gesture button, and middle click. There’s also a horizontally placed thumb wheel for easy navigation.
The Logitech MX Master 3 is genuinely a pleasure to use but will cost around $100 for the pleasure. It’s worth noting that it is only available in a right-handle model.
- Comfortable shape
- Trackball precision
- Sturdy build
- Only right-handed
- A bit pricey
A close second to the Logitech MX Master 3, the Logitech MX Ergo is a viable alternative, offering a different ergonomic approach with its trackball form factor. It delivers a trackball mouse in a more modern package centered on a large, sturdy build with a metal plate on the underside for added weightiness, precise tracking, and top-tier in-hand ergonomics.
Adopting a supremely comfortable hand-crafted shape, the Logitech MX Ergo offers excellent support for the hand, fingers, and thumb padded out with soft ribbed rubber. Dpi ranges from 512-2048 paired with advanced optical tracking. One full charge will last up to 120 days, while a minute of charging delivers 24 hours of use.
Alongside the traditional left and right-click buttons, there’s a clickable wheel with right/left tilt, two smaller forward/back navigation buttons, an easy-access switch button, and a precision thumb button to adjust the dpi sensitivity on the fly. These are also customizable.
However, the biggest draw of the Logitech MX Ergo’s customization options is the tilt feature, which allows you to angle the mouse by an extra 20-degrees for a hand position that feels more natural and improves forearm posture inching close to what you’d expect from a vertical mouse. It’s a happy middle ground that’s comfortable to use.
We’d be hard-pressed to suggest any improvements to the Logitech MX Ergo to make it a better trackball mouse. Logitech has outdone themselves, and the Logitech MX Ergo comes well-recommended, albeit at an elevated price compared to other ergonomic mice.
- 10,000 dpi
- Low price
- 11 programmable buttons
- Comfortable
- Not suitable for small hands
- Wired
The ZLOT Vertical Gaming Mouse takes all the functionality of a gaming mouse and throws in a good dose of ergonomics for all-around comfort throughout even the most intense sessions.
The ZLOT Vertical Gaming Mouse adopts a vertical tower design for a more natural hand position, reducing strain and hard-to-shake pain. Initial use can feel odd, but adapting is quick, and the benefits are immediately felt. The form follows a gentle curvature for comfortable use and surprisingly decent precision.
It features a slightly-angled, integrated thumb-controlled joystick positioned on top of the mouse, ideal for flight simulator titles, alongside eleven programmable buttons (left and right-click, wheel, middle button, forward and back, dpi switch, four-direction joystick) with settings all stored in ZLOT Vertical Gaming Mouse’s on-board memory. Despite a very reasonable price, the mouse boasts a responsive Pixart PMW3325 IR sensor and five dpi settings – 1500, 2500, 4000, 7000, up to 10,000 dpi – granting lots of flexibility when playing a variety of games.
Like many other ergonomic mice, the ZLOT Vertical Gaming Mouse is only suited to right-handed users. It is also a wired device, so no wireless functionality, and it doesn’t have the same build quality as pricier alternatives. The mouse’s size also means users with smaller hands will struggle to reach all the buttons without unnatural stretching and movement that would cancel out the ergonomic benefits.
That said, for the price, there’s a lot of great features found in the ZLOT Vertical Gaming Mouse for gamers seeking a comfortable, ergonomic option.
- Vertical design
- Comfort
- Price
- Designed for larger hands
- Wired
- Right-handed only
For those interested in an alternative form to the trackball and standard mouse, the J-Tech Digital Wired Ergonomic Vertical USB Mouse is an excellent low cost (more or less four times cheaper than the Logitech picks) vertical ergonomic mouse.
With ergonomics at the center of its design, the J-Tech Digital Wired Ergonomic Vertical USB Mouse utilizes a vertical gripped ‘handshake’ position for strain-free and comfortable mousing. A snaking blue LED trim compliments the J-Tech Digital Wired Ergonomic Vertical USB Mouse’s modern, sleek all-black look, making it an option for those looking to spice things up with a bit more visual flair in their ergonomic mouse.
Notable features include an adjustable dpi switch with 800, 1200, and 1600 dpi settings, perfect for a variety of tasks that need different levels of precision, Optical Tracking Technology, a removable palm rest that adds extra comfort, anti-slip pads, and five buttons including two forward/back thumb buttons mounted on the side of the mouse.
As for the negatives, the main drawbacks of the J-Tech Digital Wired Ergonomic Vertical USB Mouse are the absence of customizable buttons, a wired connection, and a footprint more suited to medium and large hands. Similarly, J-Tech only offers the mouse as a right-handed model, excluding left-handed users.
Overall, the mouse feels natural in-hand, movement is smooth and precise, and sustained operation eases pain or numbness. A learning curve is involved, but after a few hours, the mouse feels as intuitive as your traditional mouse or track pad.
- Value
- Vertical ergonomic design
- Limited dpi settings
- Runs on batteries
- No customizable buttons
The Anker 2.4G Wireless Vertical Ergonomic Optical Mouse is an unabashedly low-cost mouse that, while lacking features of more expensive models, provides excellent ergonomic support thanks to its vertical grip design that follows the natural resting position of the hand and wrist.
We found it particularly capable of easing pain for those suffering from RSI or carpal tunnel-related pain by alleviating tension and limiting movement. For this reason, it stood out as the best budget ergonomic mouse out there.
The Anker 2.4G Wireless Vertical Ergonomic Optical Mouse has three dpi settings (800, 1200, 1600) adjustable thanks to a switch located on the ridge that runs along the top of the mouse. Not the most generous spread of dpi settings, it must be said, but enough to satisfy most. We are looking at left and right-click, scroll wheel, dpi switch, back, and forward on the button front. Unfortunately, these aren’t customizable.
While the Anker 2.4G Wireless Vertical Ergonomic Optical Mouse is a wireless device, it’s powered by a pair of AAA batteries – not the most modern solution, but one that offers a few months of regular use thanks to a power-saving mode that kicks in after 8 minutes of inactivity. Like other vertical mice, smaller hands will struggle to reach all the buttons, so we recommend it only for larger hands.
Our Verdict
Logitech has imbued the Logitech MX Master 3 with all its mousing expertise to offer a device that’s ergonomic, comfortable, and packed with customization features. If the price isn’t an issue, it’s hard to go wrong here, and it comes highly recommended.
Scoring slightly lower than the MX Master 3, the Logitech MX Ergo is another impressive ergonomic mouse from Logitech, ideal for those wanting a trackball option alongside a sturdy design and top-tier comfort.
Striking a balance between ergonomic and gaming performance, the ZLOT Vertical Gaming Mouse should suit gamers seeking long-term comfort in a vertical design. The thumb stick is a great extra touch for flight sim fans, and it won’t hit the wallet quite as hard as the Logitech options.
Another more affordable vertical ergonomic mouse, the J-Tech Digital Wired Ergonomic Vertical USB Mouse marries aesthetic flair and functionality with a more palatable price tag. Finally, for those on a budget, the Anker 2.4G Wireless Vertical Ergonomic Optical Mouse offers impressive ergonomics at a fraction of the cost.
With that, our product guide to the best ergonomic mice comes to an end. We hope the above proves useful in your search for the best ergonomic mouse that matches your budget and needs. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to head to the comments section below and drop us a message. We’d be happy to help.