Contour Mouse vs Handshoe Mouse?

[NKRO]

I was wondering if anyone here had owned/tried one or both of these mice, and what your opinion was on them?

The Handshoe Mouse seems like it will offer a more relaxed grip, but uses standard mouse buttons and positions the scroll wheel under your middle finger, which is something that has always seemed like a poor choice ergonomically to me. It also seems like it would be very difficult to have precise control when holding the mouse this way.

The Contour Mouse seems like a good balance between a regular mouse design and the handshoe mouse. It's similarly huge relative to other mice, but it moves the scroll wheel above your thumb, giving you a flat surface for all your fingers to rest on. The buttons are also actuated with your second knuckle, rather than your fingertips which sounds like an improvement ergonomically. The design seems like it would offer a lot finer control than the Handshoe mouse, though it seems like you hand probably isn't at rest quite as much. My concern is that 17° doesn't sound like a lot of tilt, so your hand is still relatively flat to the table.


Both seem to have relatively modern internals, with the Contour Mouse offering a 1200 DPI sensor, and the Handshoe Mouse offering up to a 1500 DPI BlueTrack sensor depending on the model.


I already have a Slimblade Trackball ordered for my left hand, and am thinking of either keeping around a secondary mouse exclusively for gaming, or switching over to a controller for that, even if it is less precise. This way I can alter my input devices throughout the day, which should hopefully help reduce repetitive strain.

[treigle]

I have a Contour Mouse (and a Slimblade, L-Trac, and Marble Mouse).

The 17 degree tilt on the Contour is more noticeable than it sounds, and is close to the 20 degree tilt of my Kinesis Advantage keyboard. I had worried that the thumb scroll wheel would be awkward, given the thumb only has two segments and may not be the best digit for scrolling. I think they spaced the notches in the thumb scroll wheel sufficiently close that it doesn't really matter though, and I like it, to the (limited) extent that I like scroll wheels.

I very much like the proper middle button (I'm a Linux geek, and use all 3 buttons extensively), and think it's a rather comfortable mouse overall. I would not get the contour for gaming though, as it's a bit awkward to pick up with just the thumb and pinky, and holding it with the ring finger on the outside it not only awkward, but reduces the utility of the 3rd button.... I think they recommend just tilting the mouse rather than fully lifting it up, but it drags badly when doing this...

For all the things I like about the Contour, the Slimblade is my daily driver.

[tiarnachutch]

Have you looked at the Microsoft Natural laser mouse? (http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Natural-Wireless-Laser-Mouse/dp/B000KA7PD0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1349649796&sr=8-2&keywords=microsoft+ergonomic+mouse) I have one of those and I find it improves my thumb comfort considerably.