Bakker Elkhuzien SRM vertical mouse review
Bakker Elkhuzien SRM vertical mouse
£52Pros
- Protects against RSI
- Good accuracy
- Decent build quality
- Purposeful button response
- Good cable length
Cons
- Does take time to adjust to grip
Bakker Elkhuzien has asked GadgetyNews to take their SRM vertical mouse for a test spin. Is it more comfortable to use than a regular one? Will it help prevent RSI? Who knows? Well, hopefully, we all will by the end of this.
Most of you who visit this little corner of the interweblogosphere will spend hours at your computer. We are all, or at least should be, aware of the risks of repetitive strain injury, RSI. Wrist rests, ergonomic keyboards, good, adjustable seating, and adjustable monitors are all obvious areas for focus. However, what about the humble mouse?
When you add up the amount of time you spend dragging your mouse around, the side-to-side action of your wrist has the potential to cause you discomfort, or worse.
The way that this mouse eliviates such a scenario is by putting your grip in a more natural ‘handshake’ position.
I spend a full working day sat at a computer, I go home and then, after some food, go up to my home office and spend around another 4 hours at my desk. Both PCs are hooked up to a ‘regular’ mouse, albeit my home one is a gaming spec device.
It sounds convincing, but does it work?
So, for a week, I have swapped the mouse at my day job for the SRM vertical jobby.
SRM mouse design
The SRM Mouse is a cabled mouse with a vertical grip. It does look quite ungainly but, once used for a while, it starts to make sense.
Ignoring its orientation for a moment, everything else is pretty standard.
Firstly, you get three buttons and a scroll wheel. The SRM Mouse is designed for small and medium-sized hands (hand widths up to 7.5 cm, excluding the thumb). Although I have quite long digits (bass player) I still found the SRM confortable to use.
If you have spade-like hands, the Evoluent mouse is probably better for you.
Secondly, the SRM Mouse has a powerful laser sensor and the option to choose between 400/1600/3200 DPI.
Styling is the familiar workwear black and silver colourway. The mouse itself measures 68 x 70 x 120 mm (WxHxD) and weighs 147 g.
Finally, the cable is 165cm long.
SRM mouse performance
The Bakker Elkhuzien SRM vertical mouse is an odd-looking critter.
Once I had plugged it in to my work machine and waited the few seconds for Win 10 to sort its drivers out, I just stared at it.
I had read the reasoning for the design I was gawping at, but that didn’t make me any more enthusiastic about using it.
The first few moment of using the mouse was unusal. Naturally, whenever I stuck my hand out to grab the mouse it was already in my normal ‘claw grip’. Some adjustment had to be made here.
I also found me using my index finger to flick the scroll wheel for quite a while. This eventually passed and I was back to using my middle finger for this task.
After a day-or-so, using the SRM mouse had become second-nature. Obviously, change-over periods will vary down to how quickly you adopt new things and how much you use a mouse.
Thanks to the “handshake” position when using a vertical mouse the wrist doesn’t bend sideways too much and the lower arm needs less inward rotation (Schmid et al., 2015). Furthermore, there is less muscle activity in the lower arm than when using a standard mouse (Quemelo & Vieira, 2013).
I’ve not really felt any wrist fatigue at work. However, it occassionally occurs on an evening. Which makes sense after a day’s work at a PC and then a further 4-or-so hours at home.
Since using the SRM mouse at my day job, changing position to the more usual grip on an evening will no doubt help.
SRM mouse review conclusion
I have been using the Bakker Elkhuzien SRM vertical mouse for a week now.
I does take a little time to get used to its orientation but it really is comfortable to use. Having the vertical mouse in use at work and my SteelSeries Rival 700 at home should take the strain off my wrist.
Anything that lessens the chance of getting RSI has to be worth trying. If you do spend long hours at your computer, especially with mouse-heavy duties such as design or gaming, I would recommend you check out the Bakker Elkhuzien SRM vertical mouse.
SRM mouse price and availability
You can buy the Bakker Elkhuzien SRM vertical mouse right now for around £52.
