The Best Ergonomic Mice

Mouse ergonomics is mostly about two things: whether the mouse fits your hand, and whether it forces your forearm to rotate. Almost everything else is preference.

Size is the variable people get wrong

Measure your hand from the heel of the palm to the tip of the middle finger. Under 17 cm is small, 17 to 19 cm medium, above 19 cm large.

A mouse too small for your hand forces a claw grip — fingers arched, palm unsupported, hand held in continuous low-level tension. That grip is a substantial source of fatigue and it is entirely a sizing problem.

Most mice are designed around a medium hand, which is why people with large hands so often find a full-size mouse such as the Logitech MX Master 3S (at Amazon, opens in a new tab) a revelation.

Grip style follows from size

• Palm grip — whole hand rests on the mouse, movement from the arm. The least tense grip, needs a mouse that fits.
• Claw grip — fingers arched, back of the palm touching. Faster for small movements, more tension.
• Fingertip grip — only fingertips touch. Most precise, most tension.

If you use a claw grip because your mouse is too small, a bigger mouse will change your grip and reduce the tension. If you use a claw grip by choice for precision, that is a different situation.

The rotation question

A conventional mouse requires your palm to face downward, which means your forearm bones cross — pronation. A vertical mouse holds your hand in a handshake position, which does not; the vertical mouse roundup goes into the sizing problem that category has.

The same rotation happens at the keyboard, where tenting on an ergonomic keyboard is the fix, and the split keyboard buying guide separates tenting from splitting. A trackball addresses a different problem, arm travel rather than rotation: the vertical mouse versus trackball comparison sorts out which one you have, and our MX Ergo review looks at a trackball with a tilting base.

Whether that matters depends on where your discomfort is. Forearm ache responds well to a vertical shape, and the Logitech Lift (at Amazon, opens in a new tab) is the one we recommend first. Fingertip and hand fatigue usually respond better to correct sizing. If you are unsure which describes you, the Anker Vertical Ergonomic Mouse (at Amazon, opens in a new tab) is the low-commitment way to find out.