BlueTang—December 12, 2015
Wow! Honestly, I said that out loud the first time I used the RollerMouse Red. This mouse is beyond imaginable expectations. It is butter-smooth, precise, customizable, and solidly built with unrivaled professional quality. I purchased the RollerMouse Red via Amazon from Contour Design, and it was promptly mailed and arrived on the fifth day. I chose the Red over the Red Plus because I didn’t like the idea of reaching that extra two inches or so to my keyboard, especially given that my Kinesis keyboard already increases the reach to the keys by about three inches beyond that of a regular keyboard. I have large hands, and despite recommendations that people with larger hands should get the Red Plus, the RollerMouse Red is a perfect fit for me. Some people have asked if the RollerMouse Red works with the Kinesis Advantage Keyboard, and I read that at least one person could not use it with the Kinesis. I bought the Kinesis Advantage MPC/USB keyboard at the same time I bought the RollerMouse Red. I use both devices with a Windows 7, 64 bit system. I find the two devices to be a perfect match, but I acknowledge I don’t position the RollerMouse Red as specified in the user manual. I assume that the advice to position the RollerMouse so the rollerbar is slightly below the keyboard spacebar may be intended to satisfy some ergonomic rule, but I use the RollerMouse Red without keyboard risers so it sits flat on the desktop, pushed right up against the front of the Kinesis keyboard. The rollerbar is so sensitive and responsive that I can use it to block text or move the cursor from one side of my two 27-inch monitors to the other side with minimal finger movement and without caring if the front edge of the keyboard abuts the RollerMouse aluminum housing. (The aluminum housing touches the Kinesis keyboard body, but the rollerbar itself is about 1/8 of an inch away from it at the edges and 3/16 of an inch away from it at the center because the keyboard has a concave front edge.) By having the roller bar sitting below the top edge of the Kinesis keyboard, I also don’t have the problem of accidentally clicking the roller bar. In this position, I also have no interference when using the middle, rubber-ridged scroll wheel for scrolling through documents or web pages. The scroll wheel is, itself, a pleasure to use—precise, fast, and perfectly sized–much more comfortable to use than that on a regular mouse. It’s actually my favorite feature because I spend a lot of time scrolling within documents. I use both right and left hands with the scroll wheel, but the rollerbar and all the buttons easily can accommodate ambidextrous use for those who may have injured a dominant upper extremity. I use the RollerMouse Red with mostly factory default settings. I adjusted the cursor acceleration to the first stop to accommodate my caffeine-induced hand shaking! I also customized the middle, rubber-ridged scroll wheel “click” so that instead of being a “scroll lock,” it mutes my system sound. You may need to download and install the drivers to make these customizations. I was puzzled that the drivers don’t appear to be advertised, but they are at the ergo.contour-design website: http://ergo.contour-design.com/support-and-downloads/drivers You can also find video reviews and other links at their website. Many months ago, I had to switch from the DasKeyboard to a Filco TenKeyless keyboard to be able to use my mouse without pain. At that time, I also bought a 2014 Razer Naga mouse. Using both of these devices cured my right arm/hand pain, but recently, my left wrist became painful, so I began searching for a new keyboard and stumbled across the Kinesis Advantage. The learning curve for that is another story, but between it and the RollerMouse Red, I am now pain free for my 8- to 12-hour typing days. I know from learning to type on the Kinesis keyboard and learning to use the RollerMouse Red during the same time span that learning curves vary between devices. I anticipate a full month before I master the Kinesis keyboard, but the RollerMouse Red took just a few minutes before I could use it efficiently, and by the end of the first day, I was proficient. Most of the “learning” is learning not to reach for the regular mouse! Quite a few reviewers have remarked that the RollerMouse Red is expensive. It isn’t. Pain and lack of productivity are expensive. Doctor visits are expensive. Physical therapy and surgery are expensive. If you’re at the point of considering those, try this first. I was not asked to write this review, and I have no financial interest in the company. It’s just that I rarely have found such a high quality product. The company that builds something like this, infusing it with the quality found here, must be encouraged to continue doing so. Read more
Justin—February 19, 2016
I have had chronic hand pain since 2012 (when I was 21 years old) that doctors have been unable to diagnose. Using a conventional mouse at my job as a software developer became so difficult and painful, I was desperate for a solution. I tried a sideways mouse, but that type of mouse still required the device to be shuffled around on a mousepad, which is hard on the wrist. I found Rollermouse Red and decided to purchase it despite the steep price tag. After 2 years of use, I can say the price is definitely worth it. This mouse has made it possible for me to continue working with less hand pain than if I continued using a normal mouse. Pros: -The roller allows cursor movement with just your finger tips, rather than requiring gripping and excessive wrist movement. -Because the mouse sits in the center, it allows switching between both hands, which can prevent strain on your dominant hand. -Again, since the mouse sits in the center, I no longer have to reach for a mouse on one side or the other. This has reduced strain on my right shoulder that I was experiencing along with my hand pain. This also greatly increases efficiency with my work, considering my keyboard is right there up against the mouse. -I love the physical buttons and the scroll wheel. I use all of them regularly. The copy/paste/double-click buttons are extremely helpful in my work. The buttons have great tactile feedback, and their placement works well. -The mouse is decently heavy, so it won't slide around. -The wrist rest is comfortable. Cons: -Moving the cusor accurately with this mouse does take some getting used to, which can be frustrating at first. -When the roller reaches the end of its bar, the cursor will slingshot to the side of the screen. This can get annoying if you're not watching where the roller is. Don't know if there's any real way to fix this in future designs. -I sometimes wonder if a roller with less width would be better. My hands are fairly small, so it can feel like a chore to move around such a large roller if my hand pain is flaring up. -The roller itself doesn't have very tactile feedback for clicking. This isn't a big deal since there's a left click button as an alternative. -Transporting it can be kind of annoying because the mouse is rather large. Its box protects it well, but it's too big to fit in an average purse. -It's difficult to keep the little crevices of the mouse clean. Overall, this is an extremely well-designed mouse that helps prevent repetitive stress pain in ways a typical mouse cannot. I would also like to mention the excellent customer service I received from Contour. 2 years and 2 months after purchase, my Rollermouse Red started having irregular cursor movement at times. It forced me to put a conventional mouse back on my desk as back-up, which was bringing me more pain in my hands and shoulder. I tried cleaning the mouse with compressed air and installing the official software, with no success. I found on Contour's website that the product has a 2-year warranty, which meant mine was barely outside of it. I decided to try contacting Contour anyway through their online form, asking for any possible solution to the behavior. I received a response in a few days. The representative suggested removing the roller and cleaning underneath it. They gave me detailed instructions on how to do this, along with pictures of each step. As far as I could find, these instructions were not on their website; it might help other customers if they did post it, now that I think about it. Anyway, my point is that their response was incredibly detailed, even though my mouse was outside of the warranty period. Cleaning under the roller seems to have solved the cursor movement problem, allowing me to continue working with less pain. I am very grateful for Contour's professional customer service. Read more
Kay M—April 9, 2017
First one I ordered from Amazon was a dud, could not control the mouse and it jumped all over the screen. Finally after trying on a few different computers and user, sent it back and then immediately ordered a replacement which works flawlessly. It's pricey, but worth it if you are having wrist/hand pain or poor ergonomics as I have. Before purchasing, I experimented with putting the wireless mouse trackpad on the middle of my wrist rest up against the keyboard to mimic this design, and it immediately relieved some of my strain. The RollerMouse works even better than my makeshift set up because the rollerbar is much easier to control with a very light touch, and the double click button is invaluable. I just got the replacement out of the box and am typing this review. Feels like my typing speed is faster and using the wheel to control vertical page scrolling is very nice and much easier than clicking the arrow, I realized this when I got arm pain just from reading webpages without typing anything -- the clicking and scrolling and using the back and forward arrow was strenuous. Read more
